Toddy: Man's Best Friend

There she is....our sweet Madi and, here lately, Luke's best friend. Luke has always been very interested in Max and Madi. For the first 8 months of his life, the dogs were allowed to roam around the entire house freely so he always enjoyed watching them and touching them. Then, as Luke began crawling and walking, we put the dogs in their own bedroom and put up a gate so they stayed in that room most of the time. We still let them out to play (separately, because together, they are too out of control) as much as we can and we let them outside to run around quite often.

During the last few weeks, Luke has become quite attached to the dogs, especially Madi. He now says both of their names very clear. I love to hear him say "Max" because the "x" sound is super cute and very distinct. Luke loves to take treats back to the gate and hand each dog one through the bars.

Here lately, Madi has become Luke's favorite. Madi is very gentle and loving with Luke. Max is a little rough - he doesn't mean to be, but he is so big that he knocks Luke down on accident. Madi must have noticed this because when she's around, she doesn't let Max near Luke. She's very protective of him. (Good girl!) :) I think it's because Luke and Madi have bonded on our way to take Madi to the vet. In the past two months, Madi has gone to the vet about 5 times. She had a surgery on her ear and we had to take her back several times for a few weeks to get her bandages rewrapped and then last week I noticed that she had some type of infection on her side so I took her back to the vet and they gave her some medicine.

When I take Madi to the vet, I let her sit in the back seat with Luke. Luke sits in his car seat on one side and Madi sits on a blanket in the other seat. It's so cute to look back there to see Madi's head laying on Luke's car seat and Luke rubbing her head. Matter of fact, on our way home from the vet last week, they both fell asleep just like that - Madi's head in the car seat, Luke's hand on her head. I wish I had a camera with me but I didn't. Now that I think about it, I should have used my phone. :)

One day last week Luke was having a rough day - he woke up early from his nap and was ill as a hornet. I tried everything to get him back in a better mood and nothing worked. The only thing he kept doing was going to "hang" on the gate to the dogs' room, so I asked him if he wanted Madi out and he shook his head, "yes". So, Madi and Luke played in the living room the rest of the afternoon. It was amazing how much his mood improved with her in the room. I loved it! They sat on the couch together. Luke played with Mad's feet and tail. Luke would "hide" and Madi would "find" her (with my help, of course). They truly had a lot of fun!

Unfortunately, Madi turns 9 years old this month - she is getting gray and is starting to show some pretty strong aging symptoms - she walks slower, sleeps more, and sometimes doesn't eat well - but, even when she's tired, she will perk up for little Luke. She's a good dog. My first dog and for a long time, my only baby! I've taken good care of her and her terrible allergies. She has cost me a lot of money, but now seeing how good she is with Luke, I know that every penny was worth it. I just already dread the day that something happens to her. Until then, Luke and Madi will continue to enjoy each other and I will be there to record those moments.

Enjoy the pictures!

That was a random picture of "reading" while we rode one day.

The first few pictures show Luke goofing off on the couch in his diaper. He goofed off with Madi on the other end of the couch watching him as close as she could...