Straight-Like-A-Stick, Part 1

I was so excited the day I was going to the park with my best friend Luca. We were going to spend all our time climbing up a big blue mountain and slide all the way down, over and over, and have lots of fun!

But things didn't go quite as planned because when I got to the top of the big blue mountain, it was so very high and I got really scared.

My heart was beating too loudly, my paws felt stuck and very shaky, and I couldn't slide down to my Mama and my best friend Luca waiting at the bottom of the big blue mountain to have lots more fun just like we'd planned.

And I was extra mad because this wasn't the first time something like this had happened!

Every time dogs from our neighborhood come walking down MY street and think it's okay to sniff on MY lawn as if it's theirs, I want to go outside so badly and chase them away, but I'm always too scared, so I end up staying inside at the window and hope that my barking will get them to leave.

And I was also sad because I wanted to be a very brave dog, and I just wasn't, so there were too many times I didn't end up doing lots of things I really wanted to do.

I tried to figure out why this problem kept happening, but even my very smart brain couldn't find the right answer.

So I did what I usually do when I can't fix a problem—I went to my Mama to tell her about my newest big trouble because somehow, she always seemed to know the best solution to put everything in my life back in order.

Mama said if I wanted to know why I was sometimes too scared to do the things I really wanted to do, then I needed to try to find a pattern and see if anything else happened when I felt scared and my heart beat too loudly and my paws felt stuck and very shaky - like when I wanted to slide down the big blue mountain or chase the neighborhood dogs away from MY lawn. She said if I found a pattern, in one way or another, it would help me understand my very big trouble, and then I'd be able to find a very smart solution.

So now I was very mad at Mama! I knew she had the answer, but she wasn't telling me what it was; instead, she was making me figure it out all on my own. 

Luckily, I already knew to pay extra attention to find impawtant patterns. I'd done it before with a lot of success.

One pattern I found a long while back was actually about my very smart Mama.

The reason I needed to figure out this pattern, even though I didn't know that's what I was doing back then, was because I kept getting "surprises" I didn't like and never wanted.

The pattern I found was that whenever we went for a ride in the car and Mama sang more songs than usual, and sang much more loudly, we almost always ended up at either the vet or the groomer. You might wonder how knowing this pattern helped me at all because I still always ended up at either the vet or the groomer, and never very happy.

But here's how it helped.

Because I knew this pattern and what would happen, I had time to put a very clever plan in my head. I'd tell myself to stay calm and be brave because by the time I left the vet or groomer, I was always still in very good shape. So it helped me not be quite so scared, and my heart not beat much too loudly. But the smartest thing in my very clever plan was not to help my paws get unstuck and keep moving.

I decided that would be a plan for my very smart Mama to figure out in her very smart head. And I always knew when she was trying to put her very clever plan in her very smart head because all of a sudden, she wasn't singing as much and definitely not so loudly.

And, guess what? This was one time that I had a very clever plan that worked as expected. In fact, it was more than just a very clever plan; it was actually quite brilliant and definitely smarter than the plan Mama had. How did I know? Because whatever my Mama's very smart plan was in her very smart head, it never worked out quite like she expected.

So I knew how to find patterns and would find this one too because my head isn't just cute and floofy, it's also very smart. The pattern I found was that whenever I wanted to do something fun or impawtant that was also new and maybe scary, but then I didn't, my tail always happened to be straight-like-a-stick.

I was so happy to find the pattern I did because it meant it wasn't me who wasn't brave, but my straight-like-a-stick tail who was causing me all kinds of trouble.

I was also so happy because now I wouldn't need Mama's help to solve my big trouble. I had it figured out all on my own because Mama is not the only coach in this house—I'm also one, in case you didn't know!

The solution I had to fixing my very big trouble was simply to get rid of my straight-as-a-stick tail that was getting in my way.

But when I thought about getting rid of my straight-as-a-stick-tail, causing me all kinds of trouble, it also made me realize that I'd be getting rid of my not straight-like-a-stick tail that I loved very much - the one that always wagged from side to side and made me really happy from my the top of head to the tip of my TAIL.

But even though the thought of losing my fun-loving not straight-like-a-stick tail made me sad, it wasn't a good enough reason to not get rid of my straight-like-a-stick tail that was ruining my fun, and making me scared, and my heart beat too loudly, and my paws feel stuck and very shaky.

And this wasn't the only reason it was time to get rid of my straight-like-a-stick-tail.

I didn't think it was fair that it was always only me who felt scared, with my heart beating too loudly and my paws feeling stuck and very shaky. And the reason I knew that my straight-like-a-stick-tail never felt scared, like I know I'll never go a day without a treat from my Mama, was that I always only felt scared from the my top of head to the tips of my toes, and not from the top my head to the tip of my straight-like-a-stick-tail.

And, I also didn't like that, besides Mama taking me to the vet or the groomer, and climbing the big blue mountain and seeing dogs on MY lawn who had no place being there, I never knew when my tail would get straight-like-a-stick and spoil all my fun.

So, all that was left to do was to get rid of my straight-like-a-stick tail and chase it very, very far away from my head and my toes.

But no matter how much I chased it around, I never could catch it, and all that ended up happening was that I became more and more dizzy.

So now I did need my Mama's help after all, to figure out a plan to get rid of my troublesome straight-like-a-stick tail. And I knew she could help because this is her job—fixing big problems and finding impawtant patterns that others couldn't see, so she could help their heart not beat too loud and their paws feel stuck and very shaky so they could keep moving forward and have all the fun that they had expected.

But when I went to ask Mama to help me get rid of my straight-like-a-stick tail, this also didn't go quite as expected.

And now I was really mad because my very smart Mama said that my straight-like-a-stick tail wasn't really my problem. She said I'd be very sorry if I chased it away because it really was my friend who just needed my help.

Now, I know well enough that my Mama is very smart and almost always right, but this was too much—this could never be true.

And because my tail wasn't straight-like-a-stick right at that moment I was brave enough to tell my very smart Mama that it was absolutely impawssible that she was right and that my straight-like-a-stick tail could ever be my friend and not the cause of all my big troubles, because friends don't try to ruin all your fun and make you feel scared.

But Mama reminded me of a rule in our house—that before I decided what I thought might be true, I had to make sure that I'd sniffed around well enough to be certain that I hadn't missed something that might change my mind.

And because I knew I had to stick to the rules, I was extra, extra, extra mad because now I had to start all over again to make sure that with all my sniffing around I hadn't missed something else very impawtant that might make me see that my straight-like-a-stick could, by some unlikely miracle, actually be my friend.

So I began sniffing around again, even in places I knew I'd sniffed around before, to see if I'd missed something about my very big trouble that might make me discover that my straight-like-a-stick might really not be the problem, and that miracles can happen and it would turn out to be a real friend like my Mama had said.

To be continued...

Toffy xoxo #lifewithtoffy #toffysdogblog #thinkliketoffy PS! If you liked this edition of Toffy’s Dog Blog, please share it with your friends and family and help me share my message to live*love*play!