Boomer the Jack

I realized I have never posted about Boomer, the Jack Russell Terrorist who entered our lives in the summer of 2003. As many of you know, I currently have a love/hate relationship with this dog, mostly because there are a lot of days he's more difficult than either of my offspring. For those of you who are familiar with the breed, they're not exactly 'easy' dogs to have around, and that's pretty much due to the fact that their IQs are higher than the average Union graduate. Ohhh!!! I had to throw that one in there for the hubby's sake. Anyway, when I think back to 'the way things were' in the beginning, we treated this dog like the majority of newly married couples do... truly like a baby. I think Boomer was held more than he walked his first year of life. I never thought I would be 'that dog owner' that most people make fun of, but I totally was! You see, I was raised with outside dogs. We played with them when we were outside, but the rest of the time, they did their own thing, roaming around on our 13 acres in the country. Oh, Tippy & Jingo. What sweet dogs they were... a border collie & Australian shepherd. So anyway, the house dog thing was new to me when we got Boomer. He quickly took over and pretty much had every ounce of our attention before Emerson arrived. Now that there are two kids vying for his owners' affection, he's realizing he's not top dog anymore. We've also spent the last two years or so making some changes we needed to make in his behavior, and they've helped quite a bit. He still has his moments of insanity, but I'm afraid that might be the result of actions on our part. Perhaps the following photos from days gone by will provide a glimpse of understanding into why he is like he is... poor boy, he never had a fighting chance. :)