Written by Patti Dienhoffer
Toven is a rescue dog. As a puppy he lived in a shelter for dogs hoping to find a family. This is where Toven met his Mommy.
Toven loved his mom, and was so excited to move into his new home.
At his new house he had so many new toys to play with, and a huge backyard to play ball, run and explore.
Every morning Toven would start his day exploring the backyard. Sometimes in the morning when Toven would be outside there would be a very peculiar smell in the air.
On a not so particular morning when Toven was out in the yard he came across a strange looking animal, he didn’t know what it was. Toven had never seen anything like it. Toven thought it kind of looked like a cat because it was black and fury like a cat, but this animal had a big bushy tail and a white stripe running down its back going all the way from its head, straight down to its tail.
Toven was so curious about this strange looking animal he ran right over to where it was in the yard. In his charge across the yard Toven scared that little guy. The next thing he knew, Toven was in a misty cloud of stink! It was a Skunk! Toven was shocked and confused, he wasn’t exactly sure what just happened. He immediately ran to the house to get Mommy.
When Toven got into the house Mommy was so upset, she picked him up and put him straight into the bathtub. Toven hated taking a bath.
Toven was so upset. He was so mad at that mean skunk that did this to him.
Toven vowed to never play with any other animals he found in the backyard again; he never wanted something like this to happen to him ever again.
A few weeks later, when Toven and his mom were inside a groundhog came up to the back door and peeked into the house at Toven. Little did he know that soon this groundhog would become Toven’s best friend.
One day Toven was playing and exploring the backyard when he found a giant hole in the ground. As he was inspecting the hole and exploring how it could have gotten there out popped a groundhog.
At first Toven didn’t know what to make of this little guy, he remembered what happened to him when he met the skunk. He was scared that this silly looking animal would do something to him that would get him right back into the bathtub.
Toven thought to himself, it doesn’t look like a skunk. Was it a puppy? But, it didn’t look like the any puppy he had ever seen before.
Toven jumped back, and asked, “What kind of puppy are you?”
The groundhog laughed at Toven’s silly question, “I’m not a dog, I’m a groundhog. My name is Charley”
Toven was very suspicious and thought he was better off staying away from Charley.
One day Toven and Mommy were playing ball in the backyard. Charley was in the neighbors yard taking a nap in the sunshine.
Mommy threw the ball but it got stuck in a tree.
Toven and Mommy were at the tree trying to see where the ball had gotten stuck. Mommy couldn’t see the ball at all, so she started shaking the branches.
All this commotion woke Charley up, he looked over and saw mommy shaking the tree. He was so confused by what he saw that he had to know what Toven and Mommy were up to.
Charley ran over to the tree where Toven and Mommy were hard at work trying to get the ball.
Charley looked up at Mommy and asked, “What are you guys doing?”
Toven saw Charley and said “hey Charley. The ball got stuck in the tree again, Mommy is shaking the tree to try to get the ball back.”
Mommy didn’t know Charley or that Charley and Toven had met days before. So when mommy saw Charley she got so scared, she jumped, she screamed, and she ran away as fast as she could towards the house.
Toven was confused, what was Mommy so scared of?
He looked at Charley and asked, what happened to Mommy?
Toven ran after Mommy to see what scared her so much.
Charley didn’t know what happened either, so he called out to Toven as he ran after his Mommy. ”Ok, I’ll stay here and keep watch, I’ll let you know if the ball comes down while you’re gone.”
Toven found Mommy up on the deck shaking from fright. Toven realized it was Charley who had scared mommy so much. Toven thought Mommy was so silly; he just had to run down to tell Charley.
Charley and Toven laughed and laughed about how silly it was that mommy was so scared of little old Charley.
Toven and Charley were laughing and having so much fun that they forgot all about the ball and went running off, playing and chasing each other all over the backyard.
After Charley helped Toven with his lost ball they became great friends. Toven couldn’t wait to get outside every morning. As soon as Toven wakes up he jumps onto mommy’s bed to wake her up, just so that she will let him outside to play with Charley.
Charley introduced Toven to all the animals that also lived in the backyard.
There was the Hoppits family. They were the family of bunnies that lived in the garden under the big pine tree.
Toven loved sneaking up on them and chasing them all around the yard.
There was Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, they are Robins who come to lay eggs and live in the bushes every spring.
Toven loves to check on the eggs everyday, and once the eggs hatch he helps to protect the babies until they are big enough to fly away on their own.
Toven absolutely loved all his backyard friends