"Hard to believe, 8 years ago the week of Thanksgiving, we learned my precious Tanker, my Guide Dog, my Soul Mate, had Lymphoma. And right after that horrid discovery, even though I didn't learn about him till a couple months later, there was a litter born in MI to a lovely Boxer girl co-owned by Phylis of Cinnamon Boxers and Christina of PawPrint Boxers with his sire
being Spirit of the Carroll's Brentwood Boxers. There was a little white boy who was for sure destined to become my next Guide Dog for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and yet another Soul Mate.
When we were planning our trip to MI to pick up this little bundle of love, we kept trying out names, and nothing seemed to be working for us. Wayne would say "will he be good like Tanker" and I'd say "will he be able to learn as many words and understand me/us like Tanker did" and then Wayne would say "will he be.." and I'd say "will he be..." and all of a sudden it hit me. Wayne, that's his name. What? His name will be Will he be, or Willie B. So, it became will he be Tanker's paw print. Gee - so his official name is Willie B Tanker's PawPrint (yep, took the space out). How fitting can that be?
Shortly after Lymphoma took Tanker from us completely, that next May, just a couple weeks after he turned 7, I heard Willie B with something in his mouth. He was on the other side of the bed from where I was getting dressed. Wayne was in the in the shower. An irony of Willie's dad having the call name of "Spirit" for sure happened that day. When Tanker was not quite two years old, his tags came off his collar and we found his rabies and county license tag, but never could find his ID tag with phone numbers and all on it. We had looked and looked everywhere, and finally got Tanker another one. Well, we have NO CLUE where Willie B found it, but Willie B walked around the bed when I asked him what he had and was starting to get up to go see, and dropped what he had in his mouth into my lap. Right, it was Tanker's ID tag that had been so lost for five years or so by then.
Willie B is not Tanker, but none of them are ever the exact of another we have had or will have, but that doesn't mean the next one can't be as great in his or her own ways!"
On to our favourite part, pictures!
Willie B with his predecessor and mentor, Tanker, on the way home from one of Tanker's chemo treatments.
When he's not working at his first job, Willie B helps out with the GO Boxer Rescue fosters that pass through. Here he is with little Mercy Anna, patiently letting her feast on his legs.
And finally, Willie B doing what he was meant to do, "walking Rachel".
