Meet Toby! The New Guardian of the Hipster Hens

Apr 29

Apr 29 Meet Toby! The New Guardian of the Hipster Hens

Once there was a dog named Bailey. Bailey’s job was to oversee the activities at our house, to guard the cats and the Hipster Hens, and to keep all of them in line. It was also her responsibility to go along on walks or runs, and to ride shotgun in the truck when I ran errands. Bailey took her duties very seriously and performed them admirably for sixteen years. When she left us, we felt for quite some time that nobody could ever fill her role in the excellent fashion that she had, so the role of Guardian of the Hipster Hens remained unfilled—an empty box in the household org chart.

Recently, though, we’ve been feeling that maybe that empty org chart box was beginning to feel just a little too empty. So, we began to pay a little closer attention to all those pictures that get posted on all the various local shelter and rescue websites. That’s when we met Toby.

There's this great nonprofit in the Twin Cities called Can Do Canines that raises and trains service dogs and provides them to people who have mobility issues, hearing loss, autism, seizures, and other personal assistance needs. Much of their training program takes place at local prisons where the inmates work with and train the dogs. Not only has this program produced many well trained dogs (and terrific trainers!), but many inmates have affirmed that the dog-training program has been a very positive life-changing experience for them.

Occasionally there’s a dog that for a variety of reasons they deem not acceptable as a service dog. They keep a list of people who would like to adopt one of those dogs as a pet and as dogs become available they match the dog with someone on the list. We got ourselves on that list and had the great fortune to be matched with Toby. Toby is an adorable, handsome, smart, chill, six-month-old lab puppy. When we adopted him a month ago he was already an old hand with commands like "sit", "stay", "down" and a few others. But Toby was born with a congenital overbite issue - bad enough that his canine teeth, if not corrected, could pierce the roof of his mouth - causing abscesses in his mouth and all sorts of other issues. That's why he was booted out of the program. Can Do Canines’ mission is to provide service dogs to those in need at a reasonable cost and a dog with the potential for major oral surgery in his future would not fit that bill. So this little guy got shuttled around a little during his first five months - but we’re thrilled to have him.

His puppy canines had been pulled before we got him. Now his adult teeth are coming in, and we’ve taken him to see a doggy dentist. He’ll be, without a doubt, facing some major dental surgery. And we’ll be facing some doggy dentist bills. And that's OK - Tob is a delight. In addition to "sit”, “stay”, “down” and all those other commands, in the month he’s been with us he’s also learned that squeaky toys are fun, that there’s nothing quite like cuddling for a post-lunch nap on the living room floor, that riding shotgun in the truck is an important responsibility, and that this place he’s found himself, with its conglomeration of kitties and chickens and humans is a great place to call “home.”