Toby Locke is a hansome Mini Poo, about 5 in human. He’s also a rescue from Puerto Rico, so I brushed up on my Spanish, just in case. He wanted to meet at the Dog Park by the river in Vero, cuz it’s, like, his favorite place to play. (He’s very social.)
Me an my assistant arrived first, so we sat in the shade an watched the pooches playin.’ I’d told Toby he’d recognize us cuz I’m a Springer Span-yull and my assistant wears red sneakers. Toby was easy to spot with his short, curly apricot coat. Soon as they came through the gate, Toby’s Dad came right over. Toby did a lap to greet his pooch pals – very con-fuh-dent, very much his own dog. Then he came bounding up for the Wag-an-Sniff.
“Hola, Bonzo! Como estas? This is my Dad, Walter. My Mom’s Kathleen. She’s home.”
“Hola, Toby. A pleasure. Do you come her often?”
“Si! Mucho! There are not so many places for playing at our condo. An I have many amigos here. So, ahora que? I speak, an you write?”
“Pretty much,” I said, opening my notebook.
“Bueno! As you know, I’m a rescue from Puerto Rico, a quite beautiful American island. Most of my life, I am onna chain in the backyard. I have food an water. But they never play with me or pat me or brush me or anything. I am bored, lonely, an a dusty, matted mess. One of our human neighbors feels sorry for me an calls the local rescue. The rescue place asks my owners if they will give me up. My owners say ‘Si!,’ so I am taken to the rescue place, where they got me todo limpiado so I’d be more uh-DOP-tubble. The Puerto Rico rescue works with others here on the mainland, an they fly me to Miami.”
“Woof, Toby. What was that like? Were you scared?”
“No mucho. Only a liddle ANK-shus. Then a very kind human named Beth from Stray From the Heart rescue meets me at the airport an takes good care of me.”
“How’d you find your Forever Famly?”
“Mom an Dad had recently lost dos perros. So, when they feel better, they look for a Rescue. Well, you’ll NEVER buh-leave this, one of their perros who went to Heaven was an apricot Mini Poo from Puerto Rico named Toby.
“Are you woofin’ me?” I asked.
“NO. Naturalmente, when Mom an Dad see my pickshur an bio on line, they ree-lize it was, how do you say, Meant To Be. They call Beth an she comes to check them out. After she is sure they’d be buenos padres an won’t chain me in the back yard, she brings me up for a Meet-an-Greet, right here, in the Dog Park. Dad gets down on the ground with me. I can see he loves perros. We hit it off immediatamente. I go back with Beth for shots an paperwork, then she bring me back, this time to be with Mom an Dad forEVER.
“Me an Beth are sad porque we went through a lot together. I cry for a couple nights. But we are mostly happy cuz I find my Forever Famly, an, after a few days, I ree-lize ‘this is FUN, an I’m having it!’ Plus, we gave Beth an especial gift to remember me by: a Kleenex box with a beach scene an my pawprint, an ‘Mom Hearts Toby’ on it (cuz she was my first Mom).”
“That was SO nice,” I said, sniffin’ a liddle. “How was it at first? Was there, like, a lang-gwudge barrier?”
“No mucho. When Mom an Dad see I understand Beth an my groomer when they are speaking Espanol to me, they learn some basic words, an I am very quickly learning English.
“I did come Potty Trained, but there was mucho mas to learn, Bonzo. Mom an Dad live on the beach so you would think, coming from an island, I’d be fuh-miliar with the beach, an the water. But I never got to go to the beach so it was, like you say, freakin’ me out at first. Now I enjoy the beach. But not the waves. They are sneaky. I think they are wanting to grab me. I am running faster than those liddle birds. It is also mui fun chasing clumps of seagrass blowing along the beach.
“I had never seen stairs or beach walkways. I had No Clue what to do. Dad carried me up an down ’em at first. Then he helped me learn one step at a time till finally I could do it. But I hugged the wall por mucho tiempo.
“Then there is this scary, liddle box called an elly-vader. Humans go in it an disappear. At first I say ‘No WAY am I getting in THAT liddle box! Nunca! So Dad hadda carry me there, too. Now I’m Cool Dog Biscuits with it.”
“What about toys? Gotta favorite?”
“I didn’t know what a toy WAS until Beth got some for me. Now I have muchos. The best are the squeaky ones.
“I very much like Car Rides. When Dad puts his flip-flops on, I stand up on my back legs and paw so he knows I must go with him. It is the same when Mom starts to get dressed an gets out her pocketbook.
“Also, I have a Responsabilidad Importante: I am Mom’s Support Perro, a job I take Very Seriously. I know a trick, too. It is called ‘Si-EN-ta-te.’ ‘Sit’ in English. Mom says ‘Sit’ an I do. About 80 percent of the time. A hundred percent with a treat. I’m very proud of that.”
“As you should be,” I agreed.
“Por la noche, we all snuggle together on the couch an watch TV. It’s excellente!”
Heading home, I was thinkin’ about all the humans, from a buncha different countries, who work hard to rescue Pooches Less Fortunate an find them loving forever homes. Every perro deserves that.
Till next time,
The Bonz
