Boomer
I know that in past blogs I have mentioned our dog Boomer but this is will be the first time that I will divulge a little more information about our lovable family pet. Of course this will not be the last time I will mention our dog since he’s such a huge part of the Crandell family.
Four years ago this past August George and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary of living in our house and Boomer’s 4th birthday. Once George and I moved into our house and saw the wonderfully huge fenced in backyard, we decided that a puppy was a must have. Once the decision was made I couldn’t wait to hop on the internet and start the search for our first addition to our family. We absolutely knew that we wanted to rescue a puppy, so upon searching county shelters I found a wonderful website called www.forgotten4paws.com.
Once I saw Boomer, or Rocky which was his name at the time, I knew he was the one. He was black with tan legs, white paws and had tan markings on his face and down his neck. He had these great floppy ears and the cutest face God could ever put on a dog. The breed description on the internet said he was part beagle part german shepherd but when we got him home we noticed a tail that curled like a husky and eyebrows like a rottweiler, either way he’s 100% mutt. I almost passed him up when I saw that I would have to drive 2 hours one way just to get him. I didn’t care, he was too cute and was staying in a foster home and needed rescued so I loaded myself up in the car one day after work, sick and not feeling well, and headed out to Cambridge Oh.
The foster parents met me at a Bob Evens so I could see him and his twin sister to decide which one we wanted. I had never heard of twin dogs before but sure enough they had the same exact markings and were the exact same size. I was torn, I wanted them both but only had money for one. I made a quick call to George to see if he wanted a boy or a girl and he said he didn’t care, it was up to me. I chose the boy because he was the first one I saw on the website and just stuck with my first instinct. I cradled our new little pup in a crate with blankets and chew toys for the ride home and after a few miles of whimpering he fell asleep.
Over the next 2 years of his puppy life we potty trained, played hard and had to clean up lots of accidents and not just potty accidents but chewed up cords, broken objects and scratched up drywall. We even had to rush me to the hospital to get 28 stitches in my forehead when Boomer escaped from the car in the vet’s parking lot and I went running after him, in heels and fell flat on my face. I now have a scar for life that will forever remind me of Boomer. We even had to take him to the vet’s office to have one of his nails removed so it wouldn’t grow anymore. Somehow the nail got mangled even before we picked him up and when it grew it curled under his paw and was really bothering how he walked. The vet and the groomer refused to trim that nail for fear they would clip the nerve and damage the nail even more. He of course had to wear a cone around his neck like a satellite dish to keep away from the paw while it healed. We knew he was humiliated.
When George and I found out I was pregnant we were overjoyed as you can imagine and little curious as to how Boomer would handle a little creature crying and fussing and pulling his ears. Once we brought Sam home Boomer was very interested in what was in the carrier all squirmy and smelling like something he’d never smelled before. Boomer’s mood really didn’t change much except when Sam would cry. Sam would cry often in his first 3 months with gas and reflux just terrorizing our little one, Boomer would just leave the room and go upstairs; he didn’t want any part of this crying business.
We quickly started to realize that Boomer was this wonderfully loving patient dog. Boomer would lie on the floor next to Sam when he played and once Sam started walking Boomer would follow him around as if he were a little mother hen. We could tell that he was protective of our new son and we thanked God he was so good with him.
Now 4 years later Boomer is still that wonderfully loving dog with patients that we didn’t even expect him to have. Boomer takes a lot of abuse from Sam including hitting, climbing, getting his head sat on and even gets rode like a horse. Even with all this abuse, Boomer loves Sam to pieces, we think it’s because Sam constantly feeds Boomer scraps and Boomer licks up any food that falls from Sam’s tray and hits the floor, what dog wouldn’t love Sam for that! But maybe he just loves Sam for being the playful tot he is. Let’s not forget to mention that Sam loves Boomer right back, because he too has a playmate now.
Sam for the longest time just called Boomer, “goggie”. Now Sam calls him, Boom Boom and gives him kisses on his head, but doesn’t like the licks he gets in return so he wipes his face with his sleeve but never complains about doggie kisses. Sam goes into gales of laugher every time Boomer licks his toes. They truly are best friends and we really do thank God daily that Boomer is such a good dog and takes all the abuse that he does. Now we just have to wait and see if Boomer can take another round of abuse from the new baby on her way. We love our dog Boomer and he truly is part of the Crandell family and the day he has to leave us and go to doggie heaven will not only be sad for mommy and daddy but for Sam too. But that’s not going to be for a few years so we don’t have to think about that anytime soon.
Thanks for reading
~Andrea
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