The arrival of a new friend…

This is the story of how Boomer and I met.

We all do things we are not proud of. For me, it was dating a guy who I will refer to going forward on this blog as Drama Papa. The name is fitting, he is a dad and he is overly dramatic. We dated for years and deep down I always knew it would never work out. I will not go into the details as to why because I am to blame just as much as he is. I could have walked away but I stayed for years longer than necessary.

As the years went by we drifted more and more apart. I was feeling neglected and under appreciated which is always a fantastic feeling. When you are in a situation where you know things are not going to turn out, sometimes people do crazy things. A common reaction to fixing relationship problems is to have a child to help save the relationship.  Or trap the other person, depending on how you want to look at it. It turns out that I am not a fan of having kids so that was not going to be an option. There was something that I knew could help me however. Something that would give me unquestionable love, faithful companionship and would always be there for me. I got on the internet, looked up our local animal shelter and searched for a new friend.

In late 2009 I found just what I was looking for. A recent litter of puppies had been dropped off at the shelter. I rushed over to the shelter after work and asked to see the puppies. I was led back to a puppy room where I saw them all piled on top of each other, sleeping and adorable. My heart melted as I looked at them and wanted to take them all. The pile began to disperse and I got a better look at them.

As I stood there trying to figure out which one I wanted I noticed one of them was not like the other three.  Of course I gravitated to the odd man out. Instead of being all over black, this dog was black with tan and white markings. I asked the volunteer about the multi colored dog and she said “oh he’s the only boy of the litter. His markings are cute aren’t they?”

I was instantly reminded of my last dog form my childhood, Bosco, a male black and tan dog. I always found him to be the favorite of my dogs growing up (let’s not tell the other dogs).

I hoped this black and tan puppy would not only fill the void I had but also help me create new memories. After a few weeks of struggling to land on a name I settled on Boomer.

Over the next few months like any proud mother I took hundreds of pictures of my adorable baby. I shared the photos with everyone, even the people who had no interest.  But I was finally vindicated with the satisfaction of returning the favor back to the parents of human babies.  After having been subjected to all their photos over the years I felt it was only fair to share photos of my fur baby.  And they could return the favor back to me with the awkward face I give when I see human babies as they look at photos of my dog. I seriously can not fake a smile when viewing photos of kids, I just have no interest.

PS if you are a friend of mine and have shared your child’s photos with me, rest assured I am not talking about you.  It is clearly my other friends I am talking about 🙂

I may not have an accordion of wallet size photos that folded out to the ground when I opened up my wallet but Boomer does have his own album on facebook, updated often. He had dogbook for awhile, but he struggled with keeping his status updates going.  I think it had something to do with his lack of typing skills.  Even with his inability to type the next Pulitzer Prize winning novel he was and is a great addition to my life and I am grateful every day for him. And how could you not be with a face like that?

Please consider the above a virtual accordion.  Although not falling out of my wallet to the floor, it is falling out of my blog post.