As fancy dogs go, Ernie wasn't much. In fact, he was once asked to leave a hoity-toity dog show, even though he was well- behaved, be-cause he was so obviously a mutt. He was black, more labrador re-triever than anything else, with white hair on his chest and one paw, and a tail that curved jaunti-ly over his back like a banner. When I rescued him as a pup from a Santa Fe pound, I thought he would grow up to be big, but he never made it past middle size.

    What he did turn out to be was an escape artist. Since I didn't have a suitable place to leave him unattend-ed all day, I tried renting someone's back yard. But Ernie could get over its 180-centimetre concrete-block wall any time he wanted to. ......