And now, a fur-real message from Bruce Wayne (It’s not Kapow!)
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Bruce Wayne stands in the yard at his home in Houston.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter
Bridgett Gerba gives her dog, Bruce Wayne, a treat at their home in Houston earlier this month.
Dogs use a variety of ways to greet people: They bark. Wag their tails. Leap up, even when they’re not supposed to.
In Washington County, there’s a unique canine who carries a welcoming message wherever he goes.
It’s part of who he is. It’s in his fur.
Meet Bruce Wayne, a 6-year-old bulldog who has markings that spell out the message “HI” in distinct, capital letters.
Bridgett Gerba, Bruce’s owner, said her family was looking for a pet, and her daughter found a puppy in Houston, Texas, pictured on Facebook.
The Gerbas didn’t notice the pup’s white-on-black letters until the breeder pointed them out.
A retired flight attendant accompanied the puppy on a plane flight to Pittsburgh, and the Gerbas presumably said, “Hi,” back to Bruce when he arrived, welcoming the bulldog into their home in the Washington area.
Perhaps they could’ve chosen a first name for him that began with an H and a last name starting with I, but Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, for example, didn’t make the cut.
They ended up calling him Bruce Wayne, the alter ego of the cartoon and movie character also known as the Dark Knight and the Caped Crusader.
“My son was going through a Batman phase,” Gerba said of the moniker.
Google “famous Batman quotes,” and the first one that seems to pop up is, “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.”
And for Bruce Wayne, bulldog, it’s being man’s best friend. With a friendly greeting, not underneath, but on his side for all to see.