Toby

Hi! I’m Toby!

My parents say that my full name is Tobi Wan Kenobi. I think it has something to do with the other humans who live in the bright box in our living room and make pew pew noises, but I’m not too sure. Just plain Toby is fine by me!

I was born in Austin, Texas on a farm with eight siblings! I’m the one in the middle.

Now I’m six months-old.

My doggie mom was a tri-colored Pembroke Corgi and my doggie dad was a Sable Shetland Sheepdog. Boy, were they surprised when I popped out with white, grey, black and tan spots all over! They called me a blue merle and said it was because of my doggie dad. This is what I looked like back when I was just a little guy.

Anyways, these very nice people came and played with me one day and to my surprise took me with them! They told me I was a present for their daughter and son-in-law and that they were going to take me to them. I guess they lived pretty far away in a place called Virginia Beach, because we had to spend three whole days in the car to get there.

When we finally made it home I was really excited but so exhausted from all the excitement I didn’t get past the door mat before collapsing. My new Mommy Alisha gave me a big hug and my new Daddy Mike scratched me behind the ears. Oh, it felt sooooo good! They even gave me a great bone; I was still pretty sleepy, but I chewed on it anyways.

It was Christmastime then, so there was a lot of good food for my Grandpa to sneak me. They tried to get me to pose in front of this big tree.

I did a pretty good job — I didn’t even try to eat the shiny things! (Not while the cameras were on me, anyway).

I love my home. It’s warm and my parents give me all kinds of things to play with, and there are all kinds of interesting places to explore!

This is a favorite sleepy spot …

I think it must have got smaller, somehow!

Mom says I used to run and hide there, pretending to be asleep just so I could dart out and jump on her legs, or Daddy’s.

Gotcha!

This is me in the kitchen chewing on my ball. I help Mom clean up every bit of food she drops!

I also help with chores like the laundry. This is me after getting Daddy’s T-shirt out of the hamper.

See? It fits!

Can I keep it?

More than anything else, my favorite thing to play with is the rope toy.

TUGS games are the best!

I also really like my backyard, where we play fetch with my tennis ball. I’d stay out there all the time if Mom would let me!

I’ll admit, I can be a little stubborn and don’t always listen to her when she calls for me to come back inside …

… but it’s really just part of my charm. Don’t you think?

One day we even had this cold, wet, white powdery stuff falling from the sky. It totally covered our yard. I LOVED playing soccer in it!

Daddy tried to play too, but as you can see, I’m very good at defending. Yup, I had fun! I keep telling my parents to bring it back, and they say maybe more will come next year. Sure hope so.

My folks take me to a lot of other fun places too. We go to this terrific park near our house almost every day!

I especially like the monkey bars.

There’s even a lake where I can bark at the waves and chase birds til I fall over!

It’s a darn good thing I’m there to supervise.

All in all, I think I’ve got it pretty good here! I’m working with my parents everyday on training and I think real soon they’re gonna be just the way I want them.