Tag Archives: Toby the Puppy

local news

Happy Trails, Part Four

Now that full-time retirement has arrived, I plan to engage in the one activity I pursue with unbridled vigor.

I love to write. I take great pleasure in sharing thoughts — the wisdom and quality of which I’ll let others decide — with others. I do so through this forum.

After I left full-time print journalism in August 2012, I continued to write on this blog and then started writing for a couple of other media outlets: KFDA-TV NewsChannel 10 and Panhandle PBS.

My wife joked with me constantly about how cool it was to get paid for “having fun.” It truly was a labor of joy; I refer to it as such because calling it a “labor of love” would imply I did it for free. That, obviously, wasn’t the case. But that work did allow to continue pursuing something I have loved doing since I decided in late 1970 — as I prepared to re-enroll in college after my two-year U.S. Army stint — to pursue a career in journalism.

That love hasn’t abated one bit in the 47 years that have come and gone.

My focus now — besides travel and preparing to relocate somewhere much nearer to our precious granddaughter, Emma — will be this blog.

It’s going to focus primarily on politics and public policy. I’ll make no apologies for the criticism I intend to launch toward the current president of the United States. I do hope to be able to praise him when the opportunity presents itself; indeed, I did so recently when he signed that big NASA appropriations bill that lays out a lot of money for Mars exploration.

The blog also will continue to include what I like to call “life experience” commentary. You know about Toby the Puppy and the joy he has brought to my wife and me. There’ll be more of those musings as time marches on.

And, of course, I intend to share the expected enjoyment of retired life and the travel across North America that it will bring to us.

With that …

We’re off like a dirty shirt to see what lies ahead.

national news, political news

Yep, Trump speech was worth watching

It was an open question in my own mind for most of the day whether I would watch Donald J. Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress.

When the time arrived, and the House of Representatives sergeant at arms introduced the president of the United States, there I was … waiting to hear what Trump had to say.

I got scolded, though, from a friend of mine, an Amarillo businessman and apparently an avowed Trumpkin. He was putting some comments out on social media about how Democrats weren’t willing to stand and applaud the president. He and I got into a brief snit this evening over it, but I think we’re still friends.

He did imply, though, that I don’t respect the office of president. I sought to assure him that I most certainly do respect the office; I don’t think my friend believes me.

I’ll say so here: I respect the office, even if I dislike the occupant. This isn’t the first time I’ve had this dual feeling of respect for the office but disrespect for the individual. Hey, it happens.

My friend also implored me to “get over it!” I should get over it, but then so should have Republicans “gotten over it” when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. Many of them didn’t, even to the point of questioning whether he was constitutionally qualified to hold the office to which he was elected twice; one of them was — oh yeah! — Donald J. Trump.

I watched all but about four minutes of Trump’s speech tonight. I had to take Toby the Puppy for a brief walk in the middle of it. But I watched most of the speech precisely because I do respect — even revere — the office.

I powered through it. I’m proud of myself.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 32

My wife and I have discovered yet another fascinating trait about Toby the Puppy.

He is a discerning television watcher.

Here’s what I mean.

Toby likes to play “fetch” while we’re watching TV in the evening. We toss the toy, the puppy fetches it from across the room and brings it back. He’ll do this repeatedly. Then he lies down, usually on his mother’s lap.

We watch some more TV quietly while Toby relaxes for a bit, catching his breath.

Then it happens. The moment — the instant — the TV goes to commercial, Toby jumps to the floor, grabs his fetch toy and wants us to toss it some more.

Then we resume our game. It goes on and on and on.

Until the next time he takes a breather. Then the commercial.

And off we go — again!

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 31

Toby the Puppy has an affliction that my wife and I cannot cure.

He suffers from acute cabin fever.

Unfortunately, given that he’s so fluent in English — and we sense that he is learning how to spell — we have to be very careful when we speak within earshot of our puppy.

We cannot say the word “walk.” We have to spell it out whenever we’re in his presence, which usually is, well, all the time. That’s how he is. He shadows his mother mostly; me … some of the time.

The cabin fever has become quite acute as the weather has turned nasty here in the Texas Panhandle. We can’t take him for W-A-L-Ks when it’s rainy, cold and windy. Thus, he demonstrates his fidgetiness by demanding we go outside.

How does he do that? He sends us signals only my wife and I can interpret. He stands in front of us, tail wagging, looking anxious; if we stand up, he twirls around and heads for the closet door where we hang his leash.

If only we could do something about the weather. We cannot. We keep telling him of that fact. He doesn’t seem to listen … or care.

Patience is the order of the day.

And for many days ahead.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 30

Toby the Puppy fears no one.

He doesn’t realize he is a small pooch. He spots a big bruiser, a dog with much more heft? “Let me at him!” he seems to say.

Now, having said that, I need to stipulate that we don’t let him loose to interact with said bruiser-dogs. We keep Toby on a short leash as we walk through the ‘hood. Just yesterday, a large boxer spotted Toby from across the street and sprinted toward us — at which point we picked our puppy up to avoid any kind of potential canine-on-canine conflict.

However, Toby has developed a curious friendship with another critter on our walks. It’s a neighbor’s cat.

The kitty lives on the street that’s one block north of ours and about two blocks east. We see the kitty frequently, as its home is along our normal route; we haven’t checked closely, by the way, to determine the gender of this furry feline.

The kitty initiates the contact when we’re walking by. It approaches Toby with zero trepidation. They sniff noses and, oh yes, occasionally sniff each other’s backsides; I guess this is something dogs and cats have in common.

The kitty makes no hostile moves. Nor does Toby, although he tends to tug on his leash in an apparent effort to engage the cat in a more friendly/aggressive manner. We discourage it — with emphasis.

My wife and I are longtime kitty parents, so we have a keen understanding of cat psychology. Now that we’ve been puppy parents for about two years and three months, we’re getting pretty good at reading dog psychology, too.

Has our puppy become a sort of “critter whisperer”? Hardly.

Unless, of course, we find him nuzzling one of the many squirrels we encounter during our strolls through the neighborhood.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 29

puppy

My wife and I might live forever.

OK. No. We won’t. Not really. The thought occurs to me that if laughter is what they say it is — that it helps with emotional, psychological, even physical health — then we’re likely in store for many more years on this good Earth.

Why? It’s Toby the Puppy.

He joined our family on Labor Day Weekend 2014. You’ve read the abridged story of how that event occurred already on this blog. In case you haven’t, here it is once more:

https://highplainsblogger.com/2014/09/puppy-tales-part-3/

My point, though, is simply this: We’ve been in stitches every single day since he came into our lives.

Toby makes my wife and me laugh damn near every hour.

We take him for walks through the neighborhood almost daily. Every time we take his leash off the doorknob in our entry way, he spins in circles; he can’t wait to get going. When we set out, he pulls on the leash, ready for action and his rear end wiggles and waggles as he tries to get to somewhere straight ahead in the briefest amount of time possible.

He goes straight to a bed we have positioned in our dining room. That’s his place while my wife and I have our meals. He looks at us just waiting for something from the dinner table. We don’t give him table food, but we do allow him to clean our plates. He cannot wait for us to finish eating.

Toby likes to play “fetch” with any number of toys we have scattered around the house. We toss the toy. He grabs it, shakes it viciously and then brings it to us. Often, it’s too far for us to reach. “Bring it here, Puppy,” we tell him. He nudges it closer, and closer, and closer. Then he paws one of our feet to let us know, “OK, it’s close enough. Now … will you throw it again — please?”

He cracks us up. We howl. We laugh at times until it hurts. I’ve given you just a small sampling of the things Toby does that brings smiles to our faces and joy to our hearts.

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm

Laughter can cure a lot of ills. That’s what we are told. Doctors have said as much. Other pet parents have as well.

Man, I believe ’em.

national news

Puppy Tales, Part 28

toby

Never mind the human being in this picture.

This blog post is about the pooch. That would be Toby the Puppy, our 2 1/2-year-old road warrior.

My wife and I spent nearly two weeks on the road. We traveled in our Dodge Ram pickup, which was hauling our 28-foot fifth wheel RV.

Our trip began in Amarillo; we went to Allen to see our granddaughter Emma, her parents and her brothers; then we spent a night in Enid, Okla.; we spent another night in North Platte, Neb.; we spent four nights near Rapid City, S.D., where we did our share of sightseeing; a night in Lusk, Wyo.; and three nights in Colorado Springs, Colo., where we visited friends and saw some more sights.

Toby rode along. He was nothing short of spectacular. He hiked with us on trails in the Badlands, the Garden of the Gods and on a mountain path to Inspiration Point in the Rocky Mountains.

He sleeps most of the time when he travels with us. Toby is not one of those puppies that likes to stick his nose out the window. He much prefers to cuddle with his mother when I’m at the wheel. When she’s driving, he’ll ride on the console between us and he might decide to spend some time on my lap.

Toby doesn’t require a lot of, uh, “bathroom breaks.” He powers through it all. He waits until we stop for our own breaks. Then he takes care of his own business.

A member of my family has a dog that apparently gets car sick. The pooch’s queasiness in a moving motor vehicle makes it difficult for my family member to drive long distances with his dog. I truly feel sad for that situation.

This is my way of giving thanks that we were able to accept our new family member who makes traveling so easy.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 27

puppy

I’ve declared already my belief that we need to dump the term “pet owner” in favor of “pet parent.”

Toby the Puppy isn’t just our dog. He’s our baby. He’s our “good boy.”

He also isn’t just a possession. He’s a member of the family.

You have known this already, through the posts I’ve put out detailing our life with Toby, whom we acquired two years ago this month.

He joined our family in a most unexpected fashion. But it was no time at all before he captured our hearts. In fact, it well might have been love at first sight — for him as well as for us.

My wife and I have been married for 45 years. For most of that time we’ve had cats in our family. I can count precisely two dogs joining our family during that time. We had one in Portland for a brief period; after we moved to Beaumont, another pooch showed up one very hot, humid day in our garage. We had neither of those two dogs for very long.

All the while, we remained a cat family.

Toby joined us while we still had two kitties. They were getting older. Socks died suddenly in November 2014; we lost Mittens just this past February.

Neither of them were possessions, either. They were our babies every bit as much as Toby has been.

When we traveled two Germany and The Netherlands earlier this month, we took Toby to a pet spa, where he was treated well, spoiled and pampered.

We missed him terribly while we were away.

One does not miss something you “own.” Did I miss our car, or our pickup or our recreational vehicle? Did I miss the house we’ve called home in Amarillo for nearly 20 years? Not for one second.

Toby the Puppy? We missed him.

That convinced me beyond all reasonable doubt that one is not a pet owner. One is a pet parent — especially when the pet is as lovable as those who have come into our lives over the years.

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 26

puppy

You know about our trip to Germany and The Netherlands.

You also know about our return home aboard a packed Boeing 777 which included a toddler who wouldn’t stop screaming his lungs out for the entire 10-hour flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Also, you know about some of the sights, smells and sounds we experienced in Europe.

Now for the best part: We picked up Toby the Puppy from the puppy/kitty spa where we boarded him while we were away.

I’d give anything to re-create the moment he recognized us when the young woman brought him out from the kennel area where he had been staying.

The joy was obvious in an almost human-like way when he jumped out of her arms and began showering us with kisses.

I actually had wondered: Would he be mad at us for leaving him for two weeks?

We got our answer the instant he laid eyes on us.

No. Not at all.

He is glad to be home.

I was reminded of a favorite comedian/singer of ours, Mark Lowry, who jokes often during his stand-up about dogs’ unmatched loyalty.

“Try locking your wife and your dog in the trunk of your car,” Lowry says. “Leave them in there for an hour — and then see which of them is glad to see you when you open the door.”

International news

Ready for vacation to end? Yes … and no

retirement.pic_

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

FRANKFURT, Germany — Friends have asked me on occasion about how I respond to taking time off from work.

My answer usually has been: “I’m good for about a week, maybe 10 days. Then I’m ready to go home, to get back to the grind.”

Guess what. I’m no longer working full time. Neither is my wife. We’re in semi-retirement mode. Our 11-day journey to Germany and The Netherlands is about to end. And for the first time in as long as I can remember I can say that I’m not nearly as ready to return home as I was when I worked for a living.

What’s up with that? What gives?

It’s easy, man. We no longer have job requirements awaiting us. Sure, I still work a couple of part-time jobs. I’m grateful for them both. I’m having fun writing for an Amarillo television station’s website and greeting customers at an auto dealership.

But I have to tell you that our time away from all of that has been glorious in the extreme.

We got reacquainted with good friends. We met their spouses and their children. They showed us the sights and introduced us to cultures in western Europe with which we were unfamiliar.

At this moment, getting ready to catch an 11-hour flight home, I am not entirely ready for this adventure to end.

I believe our semi-retired status is pulling harder on us than any desire to return the “grind” that awaits us in the Panhandle of Texas.

OK, this much also is true. We miss Toby the Puppy; we’re looking forward to seeing our sons, their families and, oh yes, our granddaughter Emma.

But there’s a part of this marvelous journey in Europe I don’t want to end. There’s more to see. More to enjoy. More to taste and smell.

We’ll get back here eventually. My hope is that it’s sooner rather than later.