Our learning curve about Toby the Puppy keeps us alert.

Readers of this blog know that my wife and I have been lifelong cat lovers. At this writing, we no longer have cats in our family. Our 14-year-old female alley cat, Mittens, died on Leap Day of this year. We miss her terribly.

But our puppy, well, he’s keeping us in stitches.

This morning we took Toby to the veterinarian to receive a microchip in his neck. We thought it would require a bit of minor surgery: an injection to deaden the feeling in his skin, a small incision, an insertion of the chip and then … presto!

Oh, no. It’s even less invasive than that. The vet tech said all she did was insert the chip through an oversized hypodermic needle. Poof! That’s it. He’s now registered in case he gets lost and someone picks him up.

Then my wife asked: “Why does he keep peeing everywhere when we take him for walks? Is that normal?”

Yes, the tech said. “He’s marking his territory,” she explained. Male dogs do that. The pee on everything. Bushes. Curbs. Rocks. Light posts. Yep, fire hydrants.

I guess it never dawned on me that our pooch felt the need to mark his territory. I have watched enough Animal Planet and PBS “Nature” programs to know that male lions and tigers do it in the wild. But, hey, they have a serious need to let other male lions and tigers know who’s boss, correct?

Toby weighs about 10 pounds. He is extremely sweet. He doesn’t need to prove his male puppyhood to anyone, or so I would have thought.

Silly me.

Boys, I reckon, will be boys.