Travels with Toby

Hi there! Toby here. Sorry to stay away so long. I've been busy running around at parks, taking naps, giving kisses, learning to take long trips in the car, and growing bigger every day.

First of all, I LOVE the park! Mandi and I go most every morning after Kyle goes off to work. I wake up full of energy as soon as the sun rises (which Mandi and Kyle don't seem so excited about), and I want to run and play and chew on things. I've grown older and bigger now, and like to run and play with the big dogs in the dog park. Sometimes I get scared with so many other large dogs there, but I run over and say hi and ask if anyone wants to play, and then we run and run.  I always check to make sure not to lose Mandi though, I like to keep her in my sights. She is usually sitting on the ground or a nearby bench, and I smile at her, she waves back to me, and off I go! The dog park even has two small doggie pools (think plastic kiddie pool in the shape of a bone), and although I'm not a fan of water deep enough to touch my belly, I do like to jump in and wade around.  I especially like to get covered in water first, and then run through the grass and dirt at the park. On days after they mow the grass, the white hair on my feet turns green. The other park we go to has quite a few baby geese and baby ducks, which means goose and duck poop for me to roll in. For some reason, I have been getting more baths on those days. I'll have to talk to Mandi about that.

A few weeks ago, I got to go on my first long car ride.  When Mandi put me in the car and said we were going to visit Aunt Suzie, Miss Madeline and Sumo, I thought we were going down the street, but no.  We drove all the way to Indiana.

Here's a picture of me in the car ready to go. Mandi did roll up the window once we got on the freeway, but while we are in town, I like to hang my nose out and say hi to all the people passing by. Mandi said I was a good pup and stayed in my harness and car seat for the entire trip out there - well, almost. About 4 hours in to our 4.5 hour drive, I got the "puppy crazies" and chewed my way out of the harness. I was in the back seat and Mandi couldn't pull over in time, and before she could turn around to stop me, my seat belt was down around my ankles. Oops. I was a good boy and say in my seat for the rest of the trip though. I just got tired of wearing the harness.

 When we arrived, I got to meet Aunt Suzie, Miss Madeline, and my new favorite bud, Sumo.  Sumo and I were fast friends and ran circles around each other, literally. We ran around and around inside the house, and outside in the screened-in room. Mandi said I did a good job playing with Sumo and being gentle with Miss Madeline, although I'm pretty sure she is one tough cookie and can hold her own.

Sumo and I played and played in that outside room all day. Even Miss Madeline came out to play with us. Here we are looking in the house to see what the adults were up to.

We might be small, but we make very good watch dogs. We stood on alert for the smallest thing - even a bull frog croaking in the pond.

I learned a lot of things during my stay at their house, mostly how to jump up on outdoor furniture, how to jump up on indoor furniture, and I had to learn which toys were Sumo's (that I could chew on) vs. which toys were Miss Madeline's (NOT allowed to chew on). That was a tough one. I'm not sure I got that right 100% of the time.

I had such a fun time on my trip, I hope I can go back again soon. The good news is that I really like car rides and making new friends. Although, if you ask Mandi, sometimes I am not such a good copilot as I tend to fall asleep.

As you can see, I am a big boy now. I am up to 15 lbs, and may hit 20 lbs before I stop growing. You can check out my two previous blogs to see how little I was when I first came home.

• Safety First
• And along came Toby...

And if you haven't gotten enough already, Mandi likes to take pictures of me. Click HERE for a few more of those.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, keep on sniffing the flowers, making friends, taking naps and giving snuggles.

Toby