Hi! I’m PADS Triton – God of the Deep Sea, Son of Poseidon. I’ve been with my Raiser now for two and a half weeks. When I first came, I was rather small and boxy, but I’ve grown so much in 18 days that I hardly recognize my reflection in the window pane.
I’m really loving my new neighbourhood. Every time I think I’ve seen it all, I discover, nope, there are many more people and places, twists and turns, the ins and outs and miles of adventures still to see. I don’t know if I can sniff out all the fun in only 18 months. But I’m making a dent.
Autumn is making my walks extra eventful. The wind and the rain dropped so many tricky things on the ground. They flip, flee, and hide under bushes right in front of my face. My favourite is the little tufts of grass that the raccoons scratch up and leave behind. Mostly, I pretend not to notice. But, sometimes, I can’t help it – they’re so fluffy and fun to toss about. Oh, and I love the wooden walkway at the Bog! It goes right over water where tall stalks wave in the breeze. Plus, there are tons of smells to smell.
I also like urban hiking. There are two shopping streets in my neighbourhood. So far, I’ve been to the bank, pet store, produce store, stationery store and two supermarkets! My favourite is the one with the automatic sliding doors, where I practice my waiting and walking through it. One day, when my Raiser and I were on an errand, a pretty big thing happened. As we were crossing the street, a huge fire engine from the neighbourhood station suddenly blared its siren! Nearly knocked my socks off. But my Raiser explained everything to me, and in a couple of seconds, we were back on our way, again, to the hardware store. Have you ever noticed how many aisles there are in stores?! With super interesting stuff at exactly my eye level? And queues! So many queues. I’m getting really good at aisles and queues. My Raiser tells me so all the time.
I went to two parties in October. Can you believe it?! One was a Garden Tea Party at the house across the street. It was held in my honour to welcome me to the neighbourhood. I met two very nice dogs – Tessa, the hostess (a Springer Spaniel), and Sally from Maine Island (a Lab like me but black.) Both of them are older and set a good example. I also met four people. One was extra special! She has worked with PADS puppies for fourteen years and thinks I’m very polite. She gave me rubs while my Raiser had a bite of almond cake. (I pretended not to notice the almond cake.)
My other party was the Puppy Class Halloween Party. It was amazing! And the Trainers are such good sports! They wore hilarious costumes and brought games of all kinds. I wore a pumpkin cape and a scary spider on my back, but they kept sliding off. My favourite game was the huge jumble of pots with kibble hiding inside. The noise and rattling didn’t bother me a bit. I got the point of the Class Party right away – Have Fun! My Raiser was a bit more distracted. But that’s okay, it was her first time. She’s working on it. (She also put a pocketful of kibble through the wash the other day, but I probably shouldn’t say.)
My Raiser thinks I’m perfect. Well, maybe not so much my pointy shark’s teeth that sometimes nip. But that’s okay; they’re my first teeth. I’m working on it. I’m trying hard to grow into my mighty name. My Raiser says I’m more of a prince than a god at this stage. And I don’t quite know what the Sea is yet, but it sure sounds important. Maybe I’ll know all about it by next month and tell you the details.
Thanks for listening! Thanks for being there!
Submitted by: Mikal
