The Panera Bread Addict: 2020

We lost Boomer on November 2, 2019.

He was just 10 ½ years old. His illness came sudden and seemingly out of nowhere.

The night I found out he had cancer and odds were not in his favor, I wrote down a few thoughts – after several glasses of wine – which were as follows:

I just learned that Boomer has an aggressive cancer on his liver. Or is it "of" his liver. I don't know. Little details concern me right now - which goes against my nature. I question everything. Today, of all days, I had few questions. I took Boomer in because his urine looked darker than normal. When I called the vet they assumed a UTI. That's what I thought I was going to the vet for today. A UTI. Granted, Boomer has never had a UTI. Didn't really know animals could get those. But really, never really thought much about it. So I thought good ol' Boom Diesel. Another random vet visit.
During Boomer’s life he was known for random vets visits. His illnesses started from the moment I adopted him as a puppy – when he was 8 weeks old ish. He soon developed a pretty serious case of pneumonia. I didn't realize how bad the pneumonia was until my vet at the time finally found the medicine that started helping him and she confided in me that she didn't think he was going to make it - that this round of antibiotics was the "Hail Mary". During his illness as a pup he spent some time at the Emergency Vet. I had adopted him perhaps a week prior to having to take him to the ER. I remember the technician taking me into a private room and having me sign papers about DNR.

I had 2 dogs growing up. One got hit by a car, tragically. The other lived a pretty damn good unprecedented 19 years. I however, never thought after being an official "dog owner" after 1 week that I would have to sign something so official as a DNR. So mortal.

Boomer bounced back from that pneumonia. Whatever the medicine that was prescribed, it did the trick. I have no idea what it was. That was nearly 10.5 years ago, and really feels like a lifetime ago. All I cared about at the time was that Boomer was healthy and happy. And I knew that I loved that little shit more than a lot of fucking things in life. Dogs are fucking amazing.

So, life went on. Boomer grew up. I grew up. Sort of. Lots of things happened in the 10.5 years of living with the best fucking dog.

What do I love best about Boomer? Hard to describe. Anyone that knows Boomer would understand. Is he cuddly? Nope. I think Boomer’s version of cuddly is constantly having his eyes on me. He always wants to know where I am. One of my favorite quirks about him is when I am upstairs with him and then I go downstairs, but he stays upstairs – after about 5 minutes or so he realizes that I am not upstairs with him and he kind of mumbles a bark looking for me – similar to how a child yells out “MOM”. I then say “Boomer I am down here” and then you hear him trot down the stairs – look at me, and then proceed to lay down on the couch near me. Is he an active let's play fetch kind of dog? Hell, no. What kind of dog is he then?

Boomer is the best traveling dog. He loved car rides. Sometimes you would forget he was in the car because he was so silent on the rides. He was so content just laying there. As he is coming to an end of life, I will be taking him for more rides. My car will feel very void without him in the backseat.

Deb. My mom. Boomer loves that woman. Hard to tell who loves who more. Because Deb loves the Boom Bot a lot. During the early years, Boomer would spend his Monday's with Deb due to my work schedule. Unfortunately I couldn't thread this into a "Tuesdays with Deb" short story, but let's just call it "Monday's with Deb". Boomer loved his Mondays. I don’t know what Deb and Boomer did every Monday, but when I brought him back home he would fall asleep quickly with his old man snores.

Very shortly after Boomer was diagnosed with the cancer, he rapidly declined and we had to make the decision to say goodbye to him. Obviously you never think that doing that will be easy…but I never really fathomed how extremely difficult it would be. It fucking sucks and there is just no other way to say it.

As I write this now it is January 25, 2020 – roughly 3 months have passed. While I know this blog is dedicated to Panera – I wanted to acknowledge Boomer in a post. He was there for many Panera visits after all. I am including some fun pictures of Boomer. Some include my Panera Bread posts in which Boomer was my dining companion.

I will end with a quote found on the internet, and since it was found on the internet, it must be legit and probably from someone famous…

“Every time a dog I love dies, they take a piece of my heart with them. And every time a new dog comes into my life, they give me a piece of their heart. If I live long enough, all the pieces of my heart will be dog, and I will become as generous and loving as they are.”

Boomer you were the best pup. I will forever miss you but I am so glad I got to spend 10.5 years with you. Love you Booms.