46 LAKE OCONEE LIVING | SUMMER 2021
Rambo
Lucky Ethridge may own the
Mattress Center of Lake
Oconee, but it’s Rambo who
“owns the show.”
The peppy black Shih Tzu accompanies
Ethridge to the store
off Lake Oconee Parkway six days
a week. In fact, he accompanies
Ethridge everywhere he goes.
“He doesn’t get out of my sight,
ever,” says Ethridge. “He gets upset
when I have to leave him to go in
Walmart or Publix. He just goes
everywhere with me. He’s always
been like that.”
Ethridge got Rambo six years ago
and remembers driving to Elberton
to pick him up. On the way,
he heard someone talking about
a Stallone movie and thought
Rambo would be a good name for
his new companion. When he arrived,
he says there were four tiny
little pups, about six inches long,
sleeping in a row together.
“They were all asleep,” remembers
Ethridge. “But he rolled over
and got on his feet and looked
at me and wagged his tail. So,
of course, I picked him, and he’s
been the boss ever since.”
After a long day of greeting
customers at the mattress store
with friendly excitement, Rambo
gets to go home and settle in for
the night. And, yes, he is allowed
on the bed, Ethridge says. “It’s the
only place he sleeps.”