Tag Archives: Toby the Puppy

local news

Open road awaits

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As you know by now, my retirement journey has taken a dramatic — and so very tragic — turn in recent weeks.

My bride, Kathy Anne, passed away from cancer. I miss her every minute of every day.

But … the journey we took together is about to resume, but with one significant difference — which I do not need to explain.

Still, I am preparing to hit the road with Toby the Puppy, who’s all in on the travel plans. I’ve told him in vivid detail about our plans. He listened. Wagged his tail. Pawed my arm. He’s good to go!

I intend to make this a journey of adventure. I will travel along some fairly familiar rights-of-way, having made this trek before with my bride. But not all of it will be familiar. The return trip home to North Texas will include some remote stretches of highway through the Nevada mountains, into Utah and then north of Santa Fe, N.M.

Kathy Anne and I always loved to take new, unexplored routes on our travels. I will continue that tradition as best I can during the month Toby the Puppy and I are on the road. And … as some of my friends have requested, I intend fully to chronicle my journey on this blog.

As I have mentioned already, my mission is to clear my head and mend my heart. I won’t set my expectation for success too high; indeed, I won’t set any expectation. I will take this journey one day at a time … which will be the setup for how I intend to live the rest of my life.

So, the open road is clear.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Adaptability: name of game

It looks as though I will get to show off my adaptability chops once I head west next on my journey to the Pacific Ocean.

I had planned to head north from the Grand Canyon, into Utah, and then across Nevada along what they call the “Loneliest Highway in America,” U.S. 50.

Plans change, you know?

Immense snowfall has closed many highways near Lake Tahoe and through the Sierra Nevada Range.  So …

I’m going to take a more southerly route on my way to the ocean.

This I can do.

Toby the Puppy and I are planning our trip to clear our heads and our hearts after the passing my beloved bride, Kathy Anne. It’s something I must do and Toby is all in. At least he’s indicated as much.

I’ll get to see plenty of family members and friends along my journey. My sisters and their husbands await, along with nieces, cousins and their spouses, and many of the friends I have made over the years. I might even reunite with some of my high school classmates.

Just so you know, my plans only extend as far as the trip in a westerly and northerly direction. I haven’t even thought about the return trip.

I am going to stay — shall I say it — adaptable.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

medical news

Now comes the next leg

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Well, we now have arrived at the starting gate for the next leg of our amazing journey through life.

My cherished bride is home with where she belongs after spending three weeks in acute care. The Medical City/McKinney (Texas) emergency room team found a mass in her brain, the surgeon cut most of it out, the labs determined it is cancerous, she spent some time in ICU, then she went to rehab.

Now she is home to be with Toby the Puppy and yours truly.

Treatment for the disease they found will commence in a few days. I just have been utterly amazed, astonished and will be grateful for as long as I live for the care she received at all levels … from the ER, to ICU, to rehab.

I realize they are just “doing their job.” I realize they are trained and instructed to be nice to patients and to not let the stress of their jobs show on their smiling faces.

However, when you’re on the receiving end of that kindness and compassion — at least it’s true in my case — you might feel the need to offer serious shout-outs to the medical pros who tend to your loved one’s needs.

They answered the call.

Now comes the next step in our challenging journey through the marvelous life we are forging together. I believe we are ready.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 99: He’s dressing himself

You know by now that Toby the Puppy is a smart pooch, perhaps the smartest pooch who ever lived.

I want to provide a brief report on a skill that our puppy has just acquired: He can “dress himself.” Yes, you read that correctly.

How does he perform such a — um — human task? It goes like this:

We use a harness when we take him for walks around our neighborhood. We prefer the shoulder restraint over a collar for one obvious reason: We don’t want to choke him if we need to tug on his leash.

When I tell him I have his harness ready for him to wear, he runs to me and then sits down. I lower the harness below his face. Toby the Puppy then lifts one leg for me to slip one loop over him. Then he lifts the other leg.

Bada-bing, bada-boom! He’s dressed. No fuss whatsoever.

Being a puppy parent has been loads of fun for my bride and me. These little tricks or habits he has learned make it easy.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 98: Toby expands his BFF list

What you see in this picture are Toby the Puppy — he’s the one in the Superman shirt — and his newest best friend, Dolly.

I want to highlight this new friendship to illustrate how sociable Toby the Puppy can be, and how others of his, um, species relate to his sociability.

Dolly is a member of the Ed and Colleen Loos family in their home in the Phoenix, Ariz., suburbs. We visited the family and got acquainted immediately with Dolly, who took a few moments to, shall we say, sniff her way into Puppy’s good graces.

She nipped at him a couple of times as Toby got a little too familiar. But then? It was all good.

The two of them pranced around the house together. One would follow the other one. They chased each other around the back yard. They shared water bowls, Dolly even let Toby the Puppy eat some of her food.

We never worry about Toby the Puppy’s interaction with others of his type. He is among the most sociable beings we’ve ever encountered.

The best news is that he found another pooch who shares his desire to get acquainted.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 97: Cuter than ever

The picture you see here is of Toby the Puppy when he joined our family in early September 2014.

He is five months of age in this photograph. We took him to the veterinarian almost the moment we decided he would join us; the vet took one quick look in his mouth and without blinking or pausing for even a second told us “five months old.” 

There you have it.

Eight years later I am thrilled to tell everyone who reads this blog that Toby the Puppy continues to make us laugh every … single … day.

I have boasted incessantly on this platform and when we meet people with Toby the Puppy in our presence that he is the perfect addition to our family. Jeez, I have trouble even referring to him as a “pet.” He is much more than that.

He joined us when we had two cats, siblings Socks and Mittens. They have since left us and we miss them terribly. Toby, though, has managed to more than fill the void left by our kitties’ departure.

He is a road warrior who loves to travel with us. Our granddaughter, who’s now 9 years old, fell in love with him when she was a toddler and has treated him ever since with tender, loving kindness … which he clearly appreciates. Indeed, he gives her much love in return.

We love this puppy to the stars in the sky … and back again.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 96: He is the best … ever!

Normally, when I offer a Puppy Tales installment it is to brag about something new in Toby the Puppy’s life, a revelation that he delivers to us, a new example of just how smart and adorable he is.

Not this time. Instead, I am offering this brief salute to Toby the Puppy by commemorating an event that is fast approaching: the eighth anniversary of the moment he joined our family.

I won’t belabor the details of the event itself. I do want to salute Toby the Puppy for being just about the perfect addition to our family.

He’s now eight years of age. He was five months old when he came home with our great niece in early September 2014.

Toby the Puppy has been, to put it as clearly as I can, a total riot ever since. He has brought us great joy through the love he displays to my wife and me every … single … day. He quite literally jumps for joy when we mention our granddaughter’s name in his presence. We tell him Emma is coming over and he can hardly restrain himself.

Our puppy has been the most joyful addition to our clan than I can even imagine.

Puppy tales, Part 3 | High Plains Blogger

I just wanted to share the good news with those of you who have told me that you enjoy hearing about his exploits.

The even better news is that Toby the Puppy is at the tippy-top of his game.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 95: Body language speaks loudly

Toby the Puppy’s body-language “vocabulary” is expanding. I want to report briefly on a way he communicates to his Mommy and me and how we learned quickly to understand the message he was delivering.

When we want to take him for one of his twice-daily walks — yes, we’re on a schedule to take him twice each day through the neighborhood — we know he is ready to go … when we ask if he’s “ready” and he grabs the nearest toy and shakes it vigorously.

There you go. He tells us he’s good to go for a walk by grabbing a toy — preferably a squeaker, of which he has plenty laying around the house — and biting it so it makes noise and then shaking the daylights out of it.

It’s a fairly remarkable way of communicating, if you want my humble opinion on it. Well, whether you want my opinion or not, you have it. So there.

It’s just one more aspect of puppy parenthood that has made my bride and me laugh every single day since Toby the Puppy came into our lives.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

Puppy Tales, Part 94: He ‘speaks’ to us!

As smart as I have proclaimed Toby the Puppy to be, I concede readily that he doesn’t speak English. That is, he doesn’t communicate with my wife and me in the language that we both speak.

That does not mean that our puppy doesn’t communicate. I have recently concluded that after nearly eight years in our family, he has a way of telling us certain things.

One thing in particular is how he tells us we must get up to let him go into the backyard to relieve himself. How does he do that? By shaking. It usually occurs in the middle of the night.

Toby the Puppy usually sleeps with us at night. When he awakens, he is likely to jump from the bed and then shake the way pooches shake. If we don’t move, he shakes again. He will do so a third time if neither of us still doesn’t get out of bed to take him out.

Do you get it? He knows how to awaken us. He won’t make a sound with his mouth. He just shakes, which creates enough of a noise to awaken us … eventually.

Toby the Puppy remains an amazing family member. He is about to turn 8. We love him dearly. We tell him he’s the “best puppy in the whole world.” He believes it.

He also demonstrates it by refraining from barking in that loud bark of his in the wee hours of the morning. If he has to go outside to take care of business, he just shakes.

His parents — my wife and me — get the message … and we comply.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

The streak continues

I don’t write often these days about my blog, which I named High Plains Blogger when I set it up more than a decade ago. I’ll take a brief leap into self-congratulations.

My blog is in the midst of another pretty healthy streak. I have gone 141 consecutive days posting items about this and that. It’s mostly political, but I have branched out to talk about sports on occasion, about my retired (or shall I say semi-retired) life and also about my beloved family.

Oh, and then there’s Toby the Puppy, the pooch who makes my wife and me laugh every single day.

A few of my friends have said they “marvel” at the prolific nature of this blog. A couple of them are bloggers themselves. I admire their work, as it is generally a lot more thoughtful than my own submissions. I haven’t told them as much; I will make sure I do so in short order.

But my blog is part of who I am. I have been writing on High Plains Blogger since before I left my daily print journalism career in August 2012.

I will acknowledge that the current streak isn’t as long as a previous streak that got curtailed after more than 350 straight days by a technical glitch. I missed a day — or maybe it was two of them. I’m back at it now.

I intend to keep doing this for as long as I can string sentences together. It is a lead-pipe cinch I won’t run out of topics on which to comment.

Let the topics keep offering themselves to me. I am standing by.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com