Boomer, as a retriever, loved to play fetch. His retrieving ability was truly legendary. His sense of smell was truly incredible.
We first got a sense of this when our neighbor, April Cohen, came over and watched Boomer for an hour or so when Katy had to go out. April had her own Golden Retriever (Boomer’s Uncle Noah).
April would hold a tennis ball in the living room and Boomer would play with her. She would tell him to “Stay” and then she would go hide the ball somewhere else in the house. She would take the ball and put it in the kitchen sink, and then come back to the living room, where Boomer was waiting.
Then she would say “Go Get It!”. He would take off, tail wagging, doing what God created him to do. Eventually he would locate the smell and stick his nose up toward the sink, until April would take it out for him.
Another game that we would like to play would be to stand in the front yard and throw the ball over the house. Boomer would freeze in place and watch the flight of the ball, and listen for the landing, before he would take off galloping around to the back of the house. Even though he hadn’t seen it land, he would eventually find it and bring it back.
The most amazing retrieval feats would happen at night. One night all of us were down at the Holt’s for a night party, and Tommy had built a fire near the woods. Over a dozen people were sitting around the fire enjoying the evening. Boomer of course was still playing non stop, and brought a baseball over to me. I stood up and threw it into the woods as far as I could, and Boomer took off, jumping over the stone wall. Everyone at the party would say “no way will he find it”, but he found it every single time!
At the same party, earlier in the day, Tommy watched Boomer play fetch non-stop, and decided to hide a plastic squeak toy on the top of a pile of tires. Boomer looked for a long, long time, and couldn’t find it. Just when Tommy said “I think I’ve fooled him”, Boomer drifted over to the pile of tires and started sniffing the air. He had found it.
His retrieving skills were incredible. My one regret is that we didn’t get the chance to take him on a duck hunt and see how he did.
