Nothing but a nice, cold kiss to soothe the fraying nerves of an anxious Toby

Hello. I hope you have all been well.

Do you kiss your dog? As in, full frontal-no reservations-lip on lip-sometimes tongue-saliva smothering-face sucking-kiss?

Okay I jest with some of the seat squirming antics. Personally, I restrict my kisses and sometimes loving kicks to Toby’s face to just his nose (it’s almost always cold and wet; that’s a good thing) and on days when I know he’s just been cleaned and hasn’t been grovelling his face into some other dogs’ faeces, I allow him to lick my mouth and face.

Working in a dog environment, I get to interact a lot with owners and our conversations range from the mundane (“what kind of diet is your dog on?”) to the nitty gritty (“is he on Advocate? I heard Revolution is better!”). Most times, the conversations degenerates from the serious into a public declaration of how much their dog is loved. And it degenerates even further when they ask me whether I have a furry friend at home myself. Me? Of course! I don’t just love him, I kiss him too!

Often, that line alone is enough to put some dog owners off. Regardless of the dog’s size or breed, they are curious chumps and the likelihood of them stuffing their face silly into a dead possum, chook or (bless me!) his own faeces is relatively common.

Blink and you’ll miss.

Dog owners often tell funny stories of their dogs getting up to mischief and putting God knows what into their mouths. The worst I’ve ever seen Toby clean his teeth with are the skeletal remains of a *insert animal* when we went walking along a creek. He had disappeared behind some bushes for awhile, and when I called out to him, he reappeared with half a jawbone of an animal that had obviously passed on at that same spot. I didn’t know whether to feel disgust or laugh at Toby’s antics. Afterall, what do you say to a dog who’s obviously happy to find a chew toy and was wagging his tail furiously to show off his trophy.

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