Nurse Adopts Patient’s Dog After He Was Forced To Give Him Up

Life can be difficult when you’re living at a rehabilitation center and nursing home. Nobody knows this better than Jennifer Smith, who is a nurse at the Grand Rehabilitation and Nursing Home in Rome, New York.

When you are a nurse at such a location, you quickly learn some very personal things about some of your patients. That includes something that Jennifer learned about one of the patients that had to give up his dog when he was hospitalized.

According to CNN, the man’s name is John Burley, and he was concerned about Boomer, his dog. He gave Jennifer a call and wanted to find out how the dog was doing.

The problem is, Boomer was at the pound and John had a very special request. He wanted Jennifer to go get his beloved dog from the pound and take care of the dog for him.

I think that all of us recognize the importance of caring for an animal that is part of our family. John was no different because he had brought the dog into his life as a puppy 12 years ago.

Unfortunately, John fell ill, and now, Boomer was living in a shelter. He was happy that he had Jennifer by his side, however, because he knew that she was kind and would do what she could to help.

There was a problem that needed to be overcome in the process. Jennifer was willing to get Boomer but she did not know where he was.

She spoke to CNN, saying: “I was a little panicked because I didn’t know how long he had been in the shelter or if he had already been adopted to another family.”

She went on to say that she also had a 13-year-old dog that was brought into her family as a puppy, so she understood how he felt.

After learning where Boomer was, she went to the shelter and adopted him. Now that she has Boomer as a part of her family, she brings him regularly to the nursing home to visit John while he recovers. Not only has it been good for John, many others appreciate seeing Boomer as well.

The nursing home posted about her kind act on Facebook:

Jennifer said to CNN:

“There are just so many worries in the world right now. If I can take one worry away from John, that’s the least I can do. I can’t cure diseases. I’m not a miracle worker … I made a promise to John to take care of Boomer. I will take care of him as long as he needs me to. John knows that. Right now the focus is on John getting better and taking it one day at a time.”