Boomer Boy

Matt left this morning for Scottsdale, Arizona for his yearly National Sales Meeting. While I have a TON of stuff to do, I am going to enjoy a little time "off". As you know, he is the cleaner in the family. So, that means, I can demolish the house until he comes home on Friday. Okay, that may be a little harsh but it is so true. I am still making last minute preparations for little man. Not that he really needs anything, just that I am OCD about different things.

4 years ago in December, Sadie had a litter of puppies. This was her first litter of puppies and Matt and I had planned on keeping one of them. We couldn't decide if we wanted to keep one from this first litter or whether we wanted to wait until the second litter. Regardless, we named all of them and played and played with them and taught them many tricks. At the puppies 6 weeks check-up, Dr. Fuller informed me that one of the male puppies "Boomer" had a heart condition. Of course, I freaked out and quickly made a followup appointment with a Cardiac specialist (on 280) for us to get him "fixed". The doctor there informed me that it was not something that could be fixed and rather would be fatal. So, in my crying state, I went back to Dr. Fuller's to make the decision on what we needed to do with this precious little puppy. He convinced me to keep Boomer and that he could live a very successful life. I will say...this was some of the best advice that I would ever receive.

When Boomer turned about 12 weeks old, we took him back to get a follow up appointment. This time, they did an echocardiogram and determined that he indeed had medium grade aortic stenosis which is where one of the valves in his heart was too little. Therefore, the blood came shooting out really fast and would eventually cause scar tissue on the opposite side of the heart. Again, I left in tears. I spoke to the doctor about sending Boomer to Auburn and other places in the country but she said that the surgery is really too risky and I would be better off just keeping him confined.

So, off I go again to Dr. Fuller's. He gave me another pep talk on how we should just love Boomer and play with him like he was a healthy dog. He said that there was a good chance that Boomer could live to be about 3 to 5 years old. He said that Boomer would eventually either die suddenly with a heart attack or he would live a slow painful death. Regardless, when the time came, it would be his time and playing with him wouldn't really make that much difference.

So, we played....and played and played and rubbed and rubbed that sweet little face every night and every day. He LOVED playing fetch with Matt. I often would get on to Matt that he was playing too hard with Boomer. Boomer, however, would jump as high as he could to catch any ball. He enjoyed it so much, even the neighbors started commenting and throwing the ball for him. I would find myself at night praying that he wouldn't ever die while playing fetch because the person throwing the ball would never forgive themselves.

He also loved being rubbed. He would get so jealous when we pet Sadie so he would come butt his head in and be sure that we pet him instead. He wouldn't let you sit on the couch or on the bed without having a furry head in your lap. When it was time to go to bed, he would come jump in bed and then fall directly on top of you so you could be sure to pet every part of him! He also loved wrestling with Sadie. They would always be wrestling in the back yard or chasing each other.

Tonight after work, I ran by Target and picked up some ground beef before heading home. I had been craving Vegetable soup all day. When I got home, Bobo had LeLe asleep so I began making soup. I realized that the dogs weren't crying at the door as normal so I decided since it was about 15 degrees outside that I would let them in. Sadie came waddling into the house but Boomer never showed up. After much searching, I found him in the backyard. I quickly got the neighbor and I took him to the vet. There was nothing that they could do.

While I am very very upset about my little Boomer, I am SO very thankful for Dr. Fuller talking me into keeping him. He WAS the best dog ever and will be missed by many!