After practice at the New Orleans Saints training facility on Christmas Eve, rising star quarterback Tyler Shough held a small cream-colored mutt in his muscular arms. The alert pooch was the celebrated stray Scrim, who won our hearts as he scampered the streets for a year, outwitting his pursuers like the Road Runner foiled Wile E. Coyote.
The purpose of the athlete/dog summit at the Ochsner Sports Performance Center was to promote loving homes for pups stuck in shelters and adoption agencies during the holiday season. Shough is a devoted dog lover, with good reason. He credits the constant companionship of his golden retriever Murphy with helping him recover from a series of injuries during his fitful college football career.
“It just so happened that when we got her, I broke a couple of my bones that year and the year after that,” Shough said. “She kind of knew that I was hurt. I remember that, like for two-days-straight, she just wouldn’t leave my lap.”
New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough (6) warms up before the start of the game against the Carolina Panthers at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Staff photo by David Grunfeld, The Times-Picayune | NOLA.com)
STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID GRUNFELD
Murph — as she’s known — was among the first to congratulate Shough when he was drafted by the Saints, leaping to her hind legs to join in a group hug with the quarterback, his wife Jordan and other well-wishers.
In early December, Shough visited the Louisiana SPCA shelter to drop off chew toys and cavort with the canines available for adoption. “It was just heartbreaking how many dogs they have right now,” Shough said. He said that he and his wife may add another dog to the family. “We could get a friend for Murph,” he said. After the arrival of their expected baby, that is.
Scrim knows what it’s like to be shelter bound. On Halloween 2023, the scruffy stray was rounded up in Houma and taken to the Terrebonne Parish Animal Shelter, where he was in jeopardy of euthanasia. Happily, Scrim was retrieved and brought to New Orleans by Michelle Cheramie, the founder of Zeus’s Rescues pet adoption agency, where 66 animals await owners.
Michelle Cheramie wants people to know that she and her volunteer search party don’t really chase Scrim. They follow him, at a discreet distance, especially after he’s been darted. The goal is to allow him to settle or to trap himself in an area where he can’t get away, then grab him as gently as possible.
(Photo by Doug MacCash, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
When he first arrived in New Orleans, Shough said, “I heard this infamous legend of Scrim and I saw some news clippings and stuff like that.” But, Shough said, he thought it was something that might have happened years back, not just months ago.
At one time, Scrim and Shough were both in the business of avoiding capture. Shough won over fans with a pair of rushing touchdowns in the rain against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, while Scrim is a scrambler who could juke past Cameron Jordan and Demario Davis combined and out sprint Chris Olave to boot. He survived many a harrowing chase, traps, darts, a blizzard and a daring plunge from a second story window.
Scrim was eventually captured and is now in the loving care of Cheramie, who says that these days he behaves pretty much like a normal dog. Nonetheless, Scrim’s meeting with Shough took place in a secure room in the center of the Saints training facility, with many closed doors between him and possible escape. He spent some of his time anchored by a leash to a buckle on Cheramie’s belt.
Shough was clearly charmed by the former outlaw mutt. He said that someday, he and Murphy “might have to have a little meet up with Scrim too.”
Kenner resident Vicki Geldhof received a tattoo of Scrim, the stray dog that has become a symbol of free spiritedness, at SwampWater Studio tattoos.
(Photo by Doug MacCash NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)