SACRAMENTO, Calif. — I have boasted for many years about the intelligence of my pooch, Toby the Puppy.
Well, today he outdid himself.
We pulled into California’s capital city to stay with my cousin and his wife for a couple of nights before we head to the rainy coast. We have been to this city before; we came here a year ago while my bride and I were pulling our RV.
But we did not venture into my cousin’s neighborhood on that earlier visit; we parked our RV in a park several miles from my cousin’s home. Today, we did.
What is so remarkable about Toby the Puppy is that we were about five minutes away from arriving at my cousin’s home when Toby awoke from his snooze, stood up and began peering out the window, looking for all the world as if he wanted to get out and explore wherever we were going. His tail was wagging. He was prancing around the front seat where he had been sleeping.
He does this very thing when we approach our own neighborhood in Princeton, Texas, or when we’re a couple of turns from driving up to my son’s home in Allen, Texas. He’s ready to get out and dash into his own backyard or is ready to play with my son’s two pooches, Madden and Ryder and, of course, to see our granddaughter, Emma.
Today was a different deal altogether. He seemed to recognize several streets away from my cousin’s home that — by golly! — this is where we are going.
Amazing. I’m tellin’ ya. Simply amazing.