Boo’s litter was abandoned in a pet store.
It was the fifth, the smallest, who drew me in immediately. A smaller baby boy with a black velvet coat and bewildered brown eyes, he was clearly much slower than his littermates. He wandered through his siblings’ roughhousing, a toddler in a roller derby. They kept knocking him over as they zoomed by. As soon as he got up, they’d body-slam him to the ground again. When he did manage to get out of their way, he drifted aimlessly around the pen.
He was like the eight ball in a game of puppy pool set into motion by an invisible cue ball, bouncing uncontrollably off the sides of the box, bumping into one side and veering off, before hitting the other and bouncing off again.
Before I knew I had reached out to pick him up, he was in my hands. Something told me this puppy needed to come home with me.
… I believe that fate leads us to the animals we need in our lives—and the animals who need us in theirs.
No name for him yet. So, we called him “White Chest” for the rest of his first day with us.
Before long, the puppy found the dog who would become his best friend, Dante lying on his side—a pose that must have reminded the baby of his mother, given the way he started rooting around Dante’s belly. Dante picked up his head, eyeing the baby suspiciously. Then, Dante’s huge snout whisked the confused tyke away, sending him across the floor, skidding to a halt. Undaunted, the little guy padded back toward Dante, his approach more cautious and respectful this time; little White Chest had no intention of making the same mistake twice. He bounced and bowed in Dante’s direction signaling that he just wanted to play…
Dante took the baby Boo under his wing and all ninety-five pounds of Dante was gentle and patient as he taught Boo through play.
Read more in A Dog Named Boo: How One Dog and One Woman Rescued Each Other and the Lives They Transformed Along the Way.