Boomer

Boo (Boomer)- Rescued from Newkirk, Oklahoma raid

My Story: When MABBR volunteer Brandi called and asked “We have a young male that would fit in your household…but he’s timid.” I said “We can do timid.”

Boy, little did I know…the little guy was beyond timid – completely shutdown. We had to carry him everywhere and after the first two weeks I began to wonder if his needs were greater than what we had the skills to rehabilitate.

To be fair, we had done nothing more than keep him warm and fed, wanting him to have as little stress as possible until his little skinny body healed and he gained a few pounds. And he still needed a name. His personality was so buried we were at a loss. So we had a contest on Brent’s Blog. We now had a Boomer (Boo for short) – read about that here.

Right on que Boo gave me reason to hope. One day he decided to jump on the couch all by himself. Pretty brave!

The next day, I was even able to get him to walk up the stairs – very big deal! So we thought, he was ready for his first bath. That and the fact he had an accident in his kennel and was super smelly.

Boomer still suffers from effects of spending his entire life on a chain. He circles the back yard in a methodical repetitive way – seemingly from only being able to travel in a circle his whole life. But he is getting better every day – doing something that is taken for granted with well raised dogs like walking through the middle of the yard. He is responding to his name and wants to sit next to me on the couch.

Boo has discovered the joys of stuffed toys, nyla-bones and pig ears. Yesterday, we even went for a walk all over the neighborhood! Somehow, I’m guessing from the work we’ve done inside the house leading him on a leash – he’s actually kind of leash trained! I’m not talking about dragging him down the street – he’s an old pro! His confidence is amazing and he responds so well.

We have no doubt Boo will be an official BOOMER in no time. He does need some work on his confidence in the house but he seems to realize “that other place is weird but its warm and I get food in there”. He doesn’t like the hard wood floors so always runs up to the third floor where we have carpet.

He seems to love other dogs and even welcomed the unexpected greeting from an off leash, and obnoxious, Labrador on his first walk.

The bald spots on his front paws are almost filled in with hair and other spots are also making improvements. Unfortunately, the underside of his neck may always have a bald spot from the collar that was never loosened while he grew (luckily not imbedded) and rubbed the area raw. We often have set backs but things are definitely progressing. Boo could go into a home now as long as they were willing and able to work through his remaining fears.