Hi there!  This is Rio.  Mom has been reading a lot about the Monkeybutt dogs on the Tripawds site, and I’m considering joining the AMBF, because I have two of my own:  Zephyr and Tosca.  Sheesh, every time Mom wants to give me a cookie or a lovie, these two have to practically knock me down to get in on the fun.

Tosca is only part MBD, but Zephyr is full-blooded, to the core.

Zephyr, rider of the short bus.

Here she is, wearing mom’s hat.  Dad put it on her as a joke one day while we were out for a buh-bye, and she wore it all around town and all the way home.  People saw her and pointed and honked.  It was really embarrassing, but she just smiled and wagged like she was the greatest dog on the planet.  No wonder mom and dad call her “goofy” and “doofus” and “helmet-child” and “our very own Crash Test Dummy.”  We love her, but she is just plain silly!  She likes to hang out by herself in the bedroom during the day, but then she gets scared cuz she’s all alone.  And that makes her bark at imaginary noises.  Sometimes T believes her and barks like crazy to help her scare away the invisible bad guys, but I only bark when there are real dangers, like the UPS guy and the Fed Ex guy and the mailman or people ringing the doorbell.

My mom and dad say Tosca is 100% blonde, but they also say she’s part hippo, part moose and part alligator.  She was pretty much ignored for her first two years before mom decided I needed a dog of my own.  Her people kept her tied up outside on a rope, and when we got her, she had no manners at all.  Mom had to take her to special school because T bit her and dad and the vet.  And the vet said “maybe you should think about putting her down.”   My mom said “no way, she deserves a chance to be a good dog.”  But I still try to protect my mom whenever she is brushing T or cutting her toenails, even though I mostly don’t need to any more.

A golden moose emerges from the surf

Did I mention that she is OBSESSED with water?  I like water, too, don’t get me wrong.  But she is absolutely NUTS.  Shortly after we got her, we went camping near the Yakima River.  Dad was skipping rocks across the water, and T  dove in and completely disappeared.  Just when mom was starting to get scared, the Moose popped back up with the rock in her mouth!  That’s just plain crazy!

Anyhow, I didn’t want my mom’s friends out there to think it was always all about me, even though I mostly think it should be!  After all, I am the WOO!  And I’m the one who has to get poked and prodded and stuck with needles and shaved and be a 3-legged dog and take medicine that makes my tummy mad.  So it’s only fair!