Monday

Toby is a messy eater. He gets too much food in his mouth, so it falls out all over the floor.

BUT, he quickly chases down all the stray bits before resuming his meal. I like a man that can pick up after himself!

 

 

  

We took Toby to our veterinarian today. It was good to see the folks there again and to talk to the doctor. COVID-19 procedures limit you to drop-off at the curb. Then the doctor calls to discuss things. We got our answers to our questions and some flea/tick and heart worm meds.

1. It's okay to go ahead and do the neutering on Wednesday at the vet affiliated with the adoption agency, even though he prefers to wait until 6 months because "that's the way I was taught 30 years ago." He says there's no reason not to do it now, except with really large breed dogs. 
2. We will get the rabies shot and final booster shot for his vaccines at the same time.
3. He prescribed some medicated shampoo for the belly rash. It should kill the bacteria causing it. The rash is a minor issue, and he said it might even clear up on its own. But the shampoo would speed things up.
4. His guess for what breed Toby is was surprising: Labrador Retriever and hound. Toby does like to retrieve things.
5. He confessed that he was not very good at guessing adult dog weight in puppies, but he thought he might fall in the 50-60 lb range. That's a bit higher than the 50 lbs the foster predicted.
6. The doctor said he seemed healthy. He took a stool sample. Toby's pooping 4 times a day!
7. Toby weighs 31.2 lbs.
   

While we were handing off Toby to the vet tech, she asked if he was having any issues. We said no. She said, "Oh, you're still in the honeymoon period. Most rescues are well-behaved while they are getting acclimated. You might see issues later."

That was both a concern and a relief. We were concerned because he has been such a sweetie. He's stopped peeing when you touch him or lift him in or out of the car or try to put a leash on him. He's learned "sit," "down," "come," and his name. He's working on "stay." He's less and less messy eating and drinking. He only gets up once in the night to pee, which is better than the two of us can say. He's whining less and less when confined to the crate in the car or house. He hasn't destroyed anything. He's friendly to strangers and mostly calm in the house, except in the mornings before his walk and at night before bed. Our concern is that he's too good to be true. When will the real Toby come out? Perhaps we saw it when he did his crazy running around the house? But all dogs do that to burn off energy, even senior dogs. I've heard him bark a few times now. Once to the dog barking behind our house, but it was a muffled bark. Once when I played the video of him squealing in his crate that the foster sent. How's that for ironic? Once when he heard me outside racking leaves and the lid of the yard waste bin opened with a loud clunk. I have yet to hear an unrestrained and sustained bark. I'm sure that it's coming.

So, the relief in the vet tech's comment is that whenever he does develop "issues," it will be normal and not necessarily something wrong that we have done. They will just be things that we have to learn to deal with.

Right now, he's a delight. You don't know how different it is to walk past dogs without having your nerves jangled and without having to look for alternate routes, short cuts, tall bushes, parked cars, etc. to hide behind.

When the vet tech walked Toby into the clinic, they had to pass a one-foot tall ceramic puppy. Toby stopped dead in his tracks and sat down. The vet tech had to reach down and pick him up. Toby didn't like that at all. We saw him squirming in the tech's arms as the door closed. Hope he didn't get peed on.

We enjoyed a leisurely 2-mile walk this morning on the causeway with Toby.  I did a pre-walk in the neighborhood during prime dog-walking time to give him the exposure. He passed every dog without incident. We used to avoid prime dog-walking time, assiduously.

 

John and I have both called Toby, Dee Dee. It's hard to change.

After we got Toby settled from his morning walks, we put him in his crate and rode our bikes to Palm Harbor to check out the lines at our Early Voting site. Today was the first day for in-person early voting. We took our I.D., sample ballot, and masks just in case the line was short. 

Going to try and save our democracy.

The weather was perfect: 72 degrees and sunny skies at 10:00 a.m.

 

The parking lot was full, but the line wasn't too long, so we locked up our bikes, put on our masks, and waited in line. Voting went mostly smoothly. John forgot his readers, so he couldn't see the bubbles that he needed to fill in. We had side-by-side booths, so I helped him fill in his bubbles. The entire time, I was worried we were going to get thrown out or arrested. I had my "he's a special needs person" explanation ready, but, thankfully I didn't have to use it. I was a little aggravated that he forgot his readers, but he said, "You should be happy. You got to vote twice!" I like the way he can put a positive spin on things.

We had a Home Run Inn Pizza for dinner and a salad.

We had two passing showers. Everyone's yard is looking a little tired. We took one last walk around the block and said goodbye to the sun for a few hours.

Miles walked: 7.8

Miles biked: 9.81