Thirteen Things About Toby

In honour of Toby, who went mental when I dropped him off at the boarding kennels this morning, here are 13 things about the new dog in my life. (I wanted to use the Thursday 13 code, like what Fence has, but, sadly, it's a bandwagon I jumped on at the very last second and the code and the project are after retiring.)

1. It took Toby two weeks to figure out that dogs beds are for sleeping on. He thought they were giant toys.


2. He's not going to win any medals for his Sit-Stay right now.


3. His favourite snack is carrots.


4. His most endearing trait is the way he expresses frustration - by flopping down and sighing loudly.


5. Toby is not real keen on water.


6. He loves his red Kong chew toy.


7. He follows us from room to room.


8. His incisors seem to all be broken. At the very least, they're not properly pointy.


9. Unlike Kodiak, Toby doesn't recognise the word 'walk'. This makes it easier to have conversations with people but it takes all the fun out of announcing "Who wants to go FOR A WALK!?! Do YOU want to go for a WALK?? WALK?"


10. Sometimes, for no apparent reason, Toby rolls on his back and makes funny noises.


11. I don't think his eyesight is the greatest. One windy night, the garbage can had blown over, so it wasn't in its usual spot. Toby went barrelling down driveway and ran right into it, giving himself quite a fright.


12. He's in desperate need of socialisation classes. He doesn't quite know how to act around other dogs.


13. He does a fantastic Chewbacca impression.

I'm posting this from Cork Airport, waiting for a flight to Dublin, where I'm going to enjoy a long weekend with Peter (whom I haven't seen in 2 weeks).