Dunedin Diary: Wednesday

We took Toby on a walk this afternoon and he did his usual thing: taking a break and crawling in the grass. John says, "He's puppy crawling into my heart."

On my way to the outdoor gym, I pulled my bike over to inspect the dredging project on the edge of Hammock Park and the Pinellas Trail. Eventually, they'll restore the bridge over the water. There should be a lot of wildlife to observe.

Here's the main body of water. You can see the bridge in the background from the previous picture. This project represents a great solution to nearby street flooding.

This outdoor gym is fantastic. I'm trying to go three times a week to strengthen my core and make me more resilient.

It was 81 degrees this afternoon.

It's great to be able to look out over water when resting between sets.

After lunch we took Toby to our favorite dog park, Enterprise, in Clearwater. He touched every dog in the park at least once. He greeted a good number of them lying down.

He has a fantastic temperament. We've noticed that he matches his level of play to the other dog. If all they want to do is sniff, he'll sniff. If they want to chase, he'll chase. If they want to wrestle, he'll wrestle.

If they want to be the alpha dog, however, he goes completely submissive. Tail tucked, not moving, lying on the ground. If possible, he'll walk, then run away. If they chase him aggressively, he stops and plays dead. Fortunately, there was only one alpha dog today who tried to boss Toby around. He got away from him as quickly as he could with minimal drama.

He always approaches a new dog cautiously. I’m sure his behavior is fairly common, but we’ve never had a dog with a good disposition with other dogs. It’s amazing to us.

I think shadow boxing is his favorite style of play. That's when a dog bobs and weaves in front of the other dog and then they circle one another.

I turned away just after this shot. The next second, the approaching dog got down on her belly to match Toby, John says.

Then they both got up at the same time to sniff and say hi. So sweet.

This black dog had two white mittens on his front legs. His owner loved Toby’s eye patch.

John’s filling the water bowl. It took a couple of trips to the dog park to get Toby to drink out of the bowls because the special spigot makes a big splash and is noisy. The bowls have holes in the bottom so the water is always fresh and doesn’t breed mosquitoes, but that means the water runs out fast. Hence the need for the raised platform. It’s a pretty smart system. Notice Toby giving John a kiss.

Back to play!

Looking for friends.

Found some!

We lost track of him a couple of times.

But he didn’t stay away for long.

The German Shepherd was an awkward puppy and some of the dogs were scared of him. Toby is slinking away, just in case.

It was a great day at the dog park—a good group of fairly well behaved dogs.

After hosing Toby down at the dog park, we gave him a driveway bath, shampoo and all. I think he prefers his warm bath in the tub, and I don’t blame him.

This tiny flower, the size of my pinky nail, is growing in the joint of our driveway slabs of concrete. Some lives are tougher and more courageous than others.

This morning it was 70 degrees on our first neighborhood walk. Toby spotted a dog and prepared to greet him. But the dog had issues, so the owner passed by with the dog. I was impressed that Toby stayed down and waited for the dog to pass before getting up. I swear, it’s like he knew.