Monday, September 14, 2009

Yoshi's Weekend Adventures - End of Summer Party, bacon! and more parties!

Lucky Yoshi! Another weekend trip to the beach and this time he got a nice yummy piece of bacon fresh off the grill from the local tavern owner... and then he got to go to another party that same day! Hey, how come they don't give me any bacon when I visit the beach?

Here's today's story from his mom:
Hi you two… Here are some pics of our dear Yoshi at the ‘End of summer Bash’ we had this past Saturday, on the water… Of course, as always, Yoshi was the main attraction… he even ate a Seattle Mariners barbecued hotdog with us!… (no worries - just one and also just a bit of BBQ chicken minus the sauce). He is so wonderful in settings like this; after the initial sniff around he just settles in and is quite happy and content just lying there, being a part of the action.

Here's a photo of Yoshi with his new best friend (my brother, Jimmy) and just a few others (sans Yoshi) to give you an idea of our view…
Yoshi played on the private beach in the sand and we all had a wonderful time.

After this party, (yes, we were social butterflies this weekend!), we went home and then were invited across the street for a front-yard, 8-year old's birthday party with about 100 people in attendance (about 60 parents and 40 kids between 3 to 10 years of age). Again, Yoshi was the main attraction and indeed in his element. He even outshined the jumpy tent they had at the party and we stayed for about 2 hours… At one point while Yoshi was laying down and he literally had 11 girls (4-7 years old) surrounding him; they were laying beside him and ‘loving’ him…it was quite a sight – all the girls had pastel summer party dresses on. I tried so hard to get someone to take a picture but although promised; no one did... it was very chaotic (as I am sure you can visualize) but Yoshi loved each moment. Sheba not so much, but she was a trooper. We got home - Sheba was glad. I think Yoshi would have been content to go back over for a few more hours…LOL

The best part and truly the heartwarming part of this story was when Yoshi was busy being "loved on" by the little girls as described above, one of the dad’s yelled out for Zander (the autistic 5-year old) who was on his tricycle and I guess the dad thought he was about to tip over. The dad yelled, "Zaaaaannnnnnndddddeeerrrrrr!” quite loudly and rushed over to him (Zander) in one fell swoop. In a split second, Yoshi (unsure of the dad’s intent; I believe thinking the dad may be trying to harm his dear buddy Zander), leapt up, was on his feet and dashed over about 15 feet to Zander.

Yoshi first "nosed" the dad; when the dad paid no mind to this, he then kind of body slammed him (not too hard; just enough force to simply get the dad out of his way!)… and then,  ever so gently and sweetly, Yoshi sniffed at Zander (who had started to cry when he initially heard the dad yell) before giving him several Yoshi Kisses… Zander stopped crying upon receiving the Yoshi kisses (afterwards he told me he was so happy that Yoshi kissed him; as he knows “yoshikisses’ are handed out infrequently)  and hugged our Yoshi – it really was amazing… the startled dad (who weighed all of about maybe 120lbs) had thankfully backed up with his hands up and afterwards said, “Well this must be Yoshi who I have heard so much about."… Boy, how true it is...what they say about Akitas protecting and guarding children… don’t you just have the chills and love our boy even more?...
I actually got a bit teary eyed witnessing this…"

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Yoshi meets the neighborhood


I guess this is the first story from Yoshi's collection of ongoing adventures. Many thanks to Yoshi's Mom's for sharing them with us.

And here we go...

...Yoshi is indeed quite the attraction in the neighborhood...My brother has even brought some of his friends over to meet Yoshi – hard to impress my brother, but he is happy to have Yoshi as his favorite nephew! The feeling is mutual as Yoshi loves him as well.

There are three kids across the street who daily await his arrival. One is autistic and is learning (with some prompting from me) the proper way to treat an animal, so Yoshi is really an unofficial therapy dog. Yoshi loves the kids and does his crying/whimpering thing later on in the evening if by chance the kids are not out when we walk – he lays in the entry way facing the door – and whimpers as if to say “I miss them and want to see my friends, mom!” I have met about twenty neighbors because of Yoshi. He is so very good at just getting loved on and then making himself comfortable.

Yesterday, there were two 13-year olds who looked liked hooligans, but turned out to be really great kids and loved Yoshi and learning all about the Akita Breed. We talked for about a half hour. One kid was going home to go online to look up more information and to check out the WA Akita Rescue Group and TikiHut Akita Rescue.

When I was talking to another neighbor down the road this past weekend, Yoshi was laying down and a cat literally walked five feet in front of him (brave cat)...Yoshi was certainly watching intently but as soon as I said "leave it” (Best command ever), he did...the neighbor, as I, were dully impressed. The cat was quite relieved, I am sure!...


[For those of you joining us for the first time, Yoshi is a graduate from the TikiHut Foster Care program and was adopted by his new Mom and big sister, Sheba, during Spring 2009.]