Hello, my name is Aja and I have a sweet old dog named Boomer.

On the morning of November 20th, 2022 my neighbor shot him leaving him badly injured.

Boomer has bad hips and some old man tumors. He spends most of his days sleeping and in his old age has been enjoying the priveledge of sleeping on the couch. Boomer has been with our family since he was a puppy. He has lived in regular houses, tent houses, and tiny houses. Boomer is a good boy. He consistently keeps me on my toes with his irregular breathing while he sleeps these days and I have been known to nudge him "just to be sure" a time or two. Sometimes Boomer gets to go on car rides but not before an all muscle systems engaged lift on my part to get him into the car. Boomer currently has painted toe nails because he is tolerant and incredibly loved. My dog is partially blind and partially deaf. I have to announce myself loudly when coming into a room so I don't startle him. Sometimes Boomer gets a burst of energy and leaps into the air with a full body wiggle. This exhausts him and he will sleep for most of the day.

I carried my 65lb dog down the steps that morning to do his business and within the span of 10 min my neighbor shot him. My pup wandered over his invisible property line so he is "wrong" but the claims of being "terrified" and "protecting his wife" were the claims of someone who knows that when it comes to dogs all you have to say is you were scared or protecting your loved one in order to get away with being a trigger happy gun owner.

So the reality is my neighbor shot Boomer in the leg breaking the bone(possibly shattering, at this point x-rays have not been done), Injuring him enough to make his life pretty miserable. For the past few days we have been making makeshift slings to help him down the stairs, and once again engaging all muscle systems in order to awkwardly and as gently as possible carry him and set him in the snow where I have to brace his back end while he gets his bearings. This takes a lot physically and emotionally and we are both exhausted. We are working with one strong leg now and I am so hopeful for a recovery of some sort if not a full one. Boomer deserves to live out the rest of his days in comfort and peace. We have 6-8 hard weeks ahead of us and I'm not sure what the road ahead looks like for Boomer. He's still wagging his tail and he still has has light in his eyes that tells me he's here for this and fighting hard to recover.. We are so lucky to live where we do and have been shown so much love in the form of a ramp and harnesses to help hold Boomer up, a new bed, and we are feeding him extra treats and he's getting extra snuggles.

I have never started a fundraiser for myself before but so many people have asked how they can help and when it comes to this old guy who completely has my heart I am willing to accept. Our immediate needs are to cover the vet bills. Beyond that I want to hire a lawyer and fight for the rights of my old dog and yours. I never knew this would be my platform and the thing I would fight for. Here we are. Not only do I love my old dog but after hearing the stories of how regularly this happens I want to make a change. I want to live in a world where self defense claims are not a quick easy "get out of jail free" card for shooting someone's family member. I want to see more rights for dogs. There were so many other appropriate courses of action here and none of them were taken.

I have set the goal for the campaign to $2,000 which is an estimate for our vet bills. Anything we raise beyond that will go to legal fees.

#justiceforboomer