Toby the Dog

I have enjoyed books and movies like:  “A Dog’s Purpose, Rin Tin Tin,” “Lassie,” “Marley & Me” and “The Art of Racing in the Rain,” which is set in Seattle. And a big shout out to Edmonds, Washington author Kizzie Elizabeth Jones and her books:  “How Dachshunds Came to Be: A Tall Tale About a Short Long Dog (Volume 1”  and  “A Tall Tale About a Dachshund and a Pelican: How a Friendship Came to Be (Tall Tales).”

With the darkness and overcast of the Seattle winter, I have left my apartment windows closed until now. I also have left the blinds down because the tenant across the alley, who watches reruns of “The Office,” looks, smiles, gives me two thumbs up and mouths “Good form” as I play the Wii.

I have opened the blinds every evening this week in hopes of Vitamin D reaching me. Instead, I have found a dog, who guards the alley from his owner’s apartment window. I have named him Toby. His inquisitiveness delights me.  He is better than Lassie and hearing, “Timmy fell down the well.”