The Flat Puppy

Look at the flat puppy. He likes lying down like this and just moving his eyes to observe his surroundings. Food offerings always snap him out of it though....

After Henri's last post we found out that the chicken in the neighborhood is named Puffy, she is a family pet and not meant to be Thanksgiving or any other day dinner. She is outside quite a lot in the evenings, and seems like she just hangs out on the front yard without being tied down or anything. I guess chickens don't run away too often.

Togo is getting settled in the Summer mode. It is a start of the summer heat here in Georgia, and it is not easy for a black dog in the hot sunshine. I don't think it is easy for any dog - but his black fur seems to absorb all the heat around him. So during the day we just let him out for "bathroom breaks" and then in the evening when sun starts to set we take him for the long loop. He loves his walks but then when we come back he is done for the evening. Togo prefers to have lots of ice cubes after the walks - he doesn't seem to like drinking water immediately after. Few times I have tried to compromise and put ice cubes in his water, but he thinks they are some sort of intruders in his water and just barks at them until they melt. Silly dog.

Leena

Chicken Run

When we walk Mr. Taco in our sprawling suburban neighborhood, we have two choices: the Little Loop and the Big Loop. The Little Loop is three quarters of a mile; the Big Loop is two miles. Taco likes the Big Loop best. Along the route he is something of a legend. Everyone we pass recognizes him as "that big black dog." One guy even waits on the end of his driveway on the return part of the Loop to give him cookies, and he gladly exacts his tribute. He's like the Don or something.

Taco is a strong mutt. It takes all available energy to hold him back if he gets excited and charges at something. Usually it's another dog or someone he recognizes, but earlier this week he charged a chicken. A chicken. There's this Chinese family that lives in the big brick house at the corner by the park, and they have a chicken. I don't know if it's a pet or if they're going to take a cleaver to it some day down the road, but apparently they think it's a good idea to let it out of the house every now and again to wander around the yard. Free-range suburban living: if it's good for humans, it must be good for the chicken.

Taking your ten-pound chicken outside is a good idea sometimes, but not when there is a 125-pound mutt lurking about. Mr. Taco and I turned the corner and before my brain made the connection that the little thing hopping around this house's front yard was a chicken, I found myself straining to keep the mutt from charging the chicken. Taco's only experience with chicken so far had been "mmm, tasty," and I didn't particularly feel like having to explain to Mom that Mr. Taco devoured a new playmate. Luckily Taco's excited howling and barking made the chicken flap away to the backyard, and I was able to get the dog home safely. No animals were harmed in the making of this walk, etc.

Too bad it's impossible to do either the Little or Big loop without passing this house; we'll just have to hope the chicken's not there whenever we walk the dog.

-Henri

How Mr Taco came to be

When Togo first came to the house he was named after the CSI Miami actor Jonathan Togo (Guess who's owner was a 16 year old girl!). When Togo arrived, we had learned that Togo is also a small republic in Africa and that there was a Japanese admiral named Togo, who reached some sort of fame over in Japan before WWI. All that known, my son who has a tendency of naming people after food, started quickly calling him Taco and Mr. Taco and soon the name stuck. And he answers to both names, Togo and Taco...

Taco is sort of addictive name, even if you don't mean to call him that, you do, and since he answers it too, I guess he will always be known as Mr. Taco