Thursday

Happy 56th Birthday, John!

 

We rode our bikes to Carvor's Fish House downtown Dunedin, on Broadway, for a grouper sandwich, blackened with a side of cucumber and tomato salad.

 

It was 70 degrees today. On the way back from lunch, I saw this huge tree with new growth catching the sun's rays against the deep blue sky. I had to stop and take a picture.

We took Toby to the Enterprise Dog Park after our morning walk and before we went to Carvor's. We decided to leave him home in the crate for lunch this time, so we wanted to make sure he was good and tired and would sleep.

 

 Here he is in a pack.

 

 Here he is walking back to the entrance all good and tired.

He managed to avoid the mud holes today, so a quick rinse at the gate and another rinse in the driveway was sufficient to gain admittance to the house.

Toby has learned our routines and plays all sorts of tricks to avoid the dreaded crate. Here, he is trying to look ridiculous and cute at the same time.

Alas, it's the only place where he will be safe and sleep while we are away.  But it's really hard to put him in there and walk away. John calls it, “puppy jail.”

We had beautiful weather for our morning causeway walk, about 66 degrees. The coolness made us walk fast, as we got away without our long sleeves.

 

 

 Toby spotted this dog a half a block away.

 

 He laid down on the edge of the curb to wait for her arrival. He wasn't budging until he said hi. 

 Mazy is new to the neighborhood and belongs to Meg, and they couldn’t resist Toby’s good manners.

Toby plays really well with all dogs. Here he is being ultra submissive and playful.

Mazy is a mixed breed like Toby and also very sweet. 

Meg is apparently fashion aware, noting Toby’s Burberry style harness. We had to go home and google it, being pretty much fashion rubes. Burberry is a venerable British brand founded in 1856 and known for their trench coats and scarves, as well as this iconic check design.

Who knew? We thought the plaid design with just a little bit of white would look good on Toby.

They played for a good long time. We exchanged numbers with style maven Meg and hope to meet again.

 

 

 There are two specific places on our 1.6 mile morning and afternoon walks where Toby likes to stop and take a break, evenly spaced out. He will roll in the grass and do some puppy crawling and watch passers-by. With some coaxing (with a treat), he will pop up and continue the walk. He's a funny dog.

On our final walk of the day, he got to play with Leo, who belongs to Jessie and Jolene and their two young girls. Leo is a miniature Schnauzer, about 4 months old—cutest dog ever.  Toby enjoyed Leo, but the best thing for him was he got to meet the children. He’s had very little experience with kids outside of the dog park (John says, “Who brings kids to the dog park?”), but he did really well. He sniffed ears and licked hair and faces, to their delight. Sorry, no pictures. I was too nervous.

 

Today's bike route to Carvor's Fish House

Miles walked: 10.7
Miles biked: 6.57