This week I innerviewed a pooch with an unusual, sad an happy tail.
Boo-Boo Seguin is definitely a mix, but of what it’s hard to say. He looks like he was put together by a committee that didn’t discuss it first, but don’t get me wrong, he’s super cool lookin.’ (In fact, I’m thinkin’ of getting’ some hair gel and tryin’ a mohawk myself.)
Boo-Boo greeted me an my Assistant very puh-lightly, innerduced us to his Mom an Dad, Kim an Jim, an got us situated.
His coat was mostly brown an black brindle, very on-trend. His feet an face had longer kinda curly grayish, white-ish fur, sticking up in all directions. An then there was the beard, an the eyebrows.
I guess I was staring, cuz Boo-Boo said, smiling, “Yeah, I know. I have Andy Rooney eyebrows. I don’t have a clue who he is, but Mom an Dad’s frens think it’s hilarious. The mohawk’s natch-rull. At the dog park, they say I look like a mix between a tiger and a VERY brave Schnauzer.”
We laughed.
“Dog,” I thought to myself, “I’m glad he has a sense of humor.”
“Boo-Boo”, I said, “you are one Super Cool Poocheroo.”
“About that name,” he said. “Boo-Boo’s my given name, but Mom an Dad call me Boo-Man, Boo-Cephus, Boo-Man-Chu, and Mom calls me her Boo-Buddy. But you know what, Bonz, between us, how ’bout just call me Boo.”
“Works for me, Boo.”
“I think I’m about 10,” he began. “But there’s a lot I don’t remember, so that’s just a guess. Anyway, I grew up in Georgia, an my first human (no way I’d call her Mom) wasn’t that fond of dogs. She kept me in a liddle cat carrier on the porch, an let me out once a day to Do My Duty.
“One day a neighbor lady came by when I was out on my daily potty break. She saw how weak an wobbly I was, an asked my human if she could have me. Thank Lassie, she said OK, so my second human was my ackshull Mom. She loved me to pieces, an was so nice an kind.”
“Awww,” I said, writing like mad.
“We were so happy for a coupla years, but then Mom got sick. Really bad sick. She hadda go to the hos-piddle a lot, an she hadda nurse, but she wasn’t getting better. When Mom’s human daughter hadda liddle baby human, Mom wanted to go see them before it was Too Late. Mom’s nurse said she’d take care of me the weekend Mom was away.
“Well, Bonz, I hafta admit, after my bad start, then getting’ rescued by my wonderful Mom, who I’d stuck to like glue, when she left, I thought I’d never see her again. So, when I got to the nurse’s house, I was scared to bits. I didn’t know these humans. Or their two dogs. I just sat by the door an cried like a puppy.”
“Oh, Boo.” I wiped my nose with my paw. Boo continued.
“NOW I know they were helpin’ me, but back THEN, I just wanted my Mom. So, when they let me out to potty, I made a break for it. I shimmied up the 5-foot fence and took off. I HAD to find her. The nurse chased me, but I was too fast. Just not fast enough to catch Mom. I searched for hours but finally, I had to give up. I was hungry and tired, so I found my way back to the nurse’s house. (Mom always said I have “street smarts.”)
“The rest of the weekend was awful. I kept tryin’ to run away, even though the nurse an her huzz-bun were only bein’ nice to me. Finally, when my Mom got back, I couldn’t stop givin’ her kisses.”
Boo paused an sniffed. “Then Mom got worse. She was real worried about me, an asked the same nurse if she’d please take me if anything happened to her. Well, Bonz, here’s the part that’s amazin’ to me, even now: The nurse never told Mom how much trouble I’d been. She told Mom not to worry, that she’d do it.
“My Mom went to Heaven pretty soon after that.
“I’m ashamed to say, I kept hidin’ from everybody, and just being a poop for a long time. The nurse tried real hard to find a good home for me but who’d want a dog that was scared of everything an hid under stuff an didn’t eat an was gloomy all the time? The nurse’s huzz-bun even set a 30-day deadline before I hadda go to a shelter.”
“So, how’d you finally find this wonderful forever family, Boo?” I asked.
“This is my favorite part, Bonz. My Forever Family had been there all along.”
He’d been sittin’ on the couch leanin’ against his Mom. “See, my Mom’s a nurse.” She patted his furry head. An, Woof! it hit me. His MOM was THE nurse. I put my notebook down.
“Even though I was a big mess, they didn’t abandon me.” He gave his Mom a liddle slurp. “The 30 days passed, an turned into weeks, then months, an, one day, it’s like the sun came back out. Now I try to be the Best, Most Lovin’ Pooch Ever. When Mom an Dad retired, we all moved down here, to Sebastian, an we’re havin’ the Best Time Ever! I love hangin’ out in the yard with ‘the Boys,’ Bowser an Nemo. I go kayaking, an for walks with Dad, an we TRA-vel all over the country in our MODERhome. Turns out, this is the best thing that could have happened to me, Bonz.”
Heading home, I was thinkin’ about the last thing Boo said to me, an how wise an true it is: “Change is always scary, but you have to give new people (an pooches) a chance.”
Till next time,
The Bonz
