A dear friend of mine on a bike ride Thursday evening found 3 littermates that had been dumped along the Rio Grande, so suddenly her house of 2 adult dogs became a house of 5 doggos. She has a background of previously volunteering for an animal rescue group, so she had these pups checked out at the vet and given their first round of shots by Friday morning. With a clean bill of health, by Friday evening I was meeting them. By Saturday morning one of them followed me home.
Meet Toby. His full name is Toby Twinkle Toes, as Mr. Twinkle Toes is what my his savior called him when the vet's office asked for a name. He was, by far, the calmest of the three. A little shy at first, but mostly content to just watch the world around him. The vet pegs him at about 10 weeks old, and from the spotted sister they look to be cattle dog mixes of some sort. Whatever he is, he's a very good boy!
We were both a little nervous for the ride home in the Ridgeline. I've had a dog/dogs most of my life, but puppies aren't something I have much experience with. There was also the giant question mark of how the head of household security would take to this change she certainly didn't vote for.
Ellie has been amazing with Toby, against all my expectations otherwise. She's taken to mothering him and is certainly assisting me in providing adult supervision. Toby is enamoured with her. I already have a lot of doggies in symmetry going on in the house again.
Toby is such a calm puppy. His primary interests in life seems to be cuddling, sleeping and following me or Ellie around the house. I took the opportunity of him snoozing next to me on the couch to imprint him on some F1 qualifying for his first TV show. Later that night, his first movie was Pulp Fiction.
He spent the first night in a container next to my bed, and Ellie helped wake me up a couple of times that first night when Toby woke up and was ready to go out for doggie business. It was quite remarkable, as she hasn't slept in my room or touched that dog bed in years. She prefers her own bedroom and full-size people bed that used to be the guest bedroom.
This wasn't a planned addition to the family, but he's been pretty amazing so far. After only one accident the first day, he seems to be getting the hang of doing the doggie business in the backyard. We're getting in the habit of going outside every 2-3 hours, and he's seems to be getting the idea down. He's picking up on his name, and Toby is learning the "come" command. A few days in, he is becoming so much more curious about his new world. He also figured out how to get out the crate in the first five minutes in it, so reinforcements in the form of some zip ties were added. Last night he slept in his crate and only needed a 0030 and 0430 backyard visit. Progress!
Both of us have enjoyed learning that wet grass functions as an automatic puppy wash. Toby gets to play, Ellie gets to supervise and I get to drink coffee on the back porch in the morning while he gets a quick Svending. I just dry him off when go back in the house.
Today he came to work with me. Falls asleep on the job, but his people skills are good. The plan right now is for him to be my assistant some days and go explore the Southern NM desert he lives in while I keep the flood warning hardware going. So far at home, he is completely unconcerned about vacuum cleaners, electric string trimmers and lawn mowers.
He's had his first trip to the store, where he got to meet a few people, see all the things and got to watch his name tag being engraved. He's too young to really do or have ground contact with parks/dog parks/places where lots of people bring dogs, but the focus will be on getting him as many places as possible to meet people, see things and controlled interactions with some other doggos that I know are fully vaccinated.
Toby is such a good boy. I guess I know what my project is for the rest of the year...