Yoshi as a baby
- I knew from his picture that "Oliver" was the boston terrier I wanted. He had two brothers, Tucker and Maverick, but I liked Oliver best. As fate would have it, by the time we picked him up in Ravenna, OH, he was the only sibling left.
- The day we got him, Riddick was excited to meet him. But when we packed Yoshi into the car with us, and he got to sit up front on my lap, Riddick was not so happy.
- We have some pictures of that day, including one at the adoption home, where he is shorter than the blades of grass, and two of him on my lap on a towel in the car.
- At our first apartment, Spicetree, we would let him walk off-leash around the apartment complex because he was so unadventurous. He would just plod along behind us, and if we got too far ahead he'd get scared and run to catch up.
- Once we were walking around the apartment and a toddler stopped to pet him, but the baby and his mom didn't realize he was peeing while they pet him.
- There was about one week where Yoshi had the strongest jaw. He would clamp down on a bone and you could pick up the bone and have Yoshi dangling off the end by his teeth, his body totally limp.
- For the first few months, Yoshi had a yellow stuffed toy we called "duckie" which he would hump to no end. We have since tried to find duckie replacements, but he never found another he liked.
Yoshi peeing
- For the first couple years, Yoshi only peed girl-style, never lifting his leg.
- At around 6 months, we took him camping and canoeing the first time. He had the craziest projectile pee for the first time, and it pretty much stayed that way the rest of his life. Hence his nickname "pee paw", because he peed so far it always got on his front feet.
- He was about two when he lifted his leg the first time, at bird hills, and I was sad because my baby was all grown up.
Yoshi sleeping
- As a puppy, we tried crating Yoshi because he would have accidents in the house otherwise. I don't think we made it even one night because his crying was so sad and cute, we'd always let him out. For a few weeks we would start him in the crate and move him to bed after he woke and started crying.
- Yoshi used to sleep on our pillows by our faces. Eventually he preferred "twixt" -- sleeping between my legs. In the last year or two, he began to love spooning. He would walk up to our faces and wait for us to lift the covers, then he'd circle in and fall into spooning position.
Yoshi with the zoomies
- Yoshi loves to play. He especially loves to be chased. When he was very young, and Riddick still played fetch, Yoshi would steal the ball just to get chased by him and other dogs.
- Later, Yoshi loved to be chased in circles around the house. He will make eye contact and then run away, or come bark at us until we stand up and he runs away.
- Around mid-life, maybe sometime after we moved to San Francisco, he started play biting. He loves to be shoved around a little, or tapped on the cheek or head, and then he'll chomp his teeth at me. Sometimes he catches my fingers and bites but his underbite means it doesn't usually hurt too bad. We tell him he bites like a fish.
Yoshi loving Riddick
- Yoshi loved Riddick from day 1. He follows him around, and always tries to give him kisses.
- For years we hoped that one day Riddick and Yoshi would spoon. It eventually happened, and then happened somewhat consistently for ~the last several years. I hope to one day get a tattoo of their silhouettes sitting together.
- Yoshi loves to give and receive ear baths. He'll stand with his shoulders by Riddick's face and press into him, or just go wild on Riddick's ears. We always have to stop Riddick from kissing Yoshi too much because he's prone to ear infections.
- Riddick also "flea bites" Yoshi, which causes Yoshi to get so relaxed and lean into him, eyes half closed. Sometimes Riddick gets sick of Yoshi's zoomies and tries to flea bite him to get him to stop.
Yoshi cuddles
- We coined the term back-it-up butt because of the way Yoshi cuddles in closer by backing up his bottom.
- Yoshi is not super cuddly during the day, but in the evening he demands cuddles. He has jumped onto family and friends laps in the evenings while we're watching TV. Eventually he gets hot and jumps down and flops onto a nearby human's foot.
- Yoshi sleeps so hard that he can be moved all around. If he's asleep in bed and we want to change the sheets, I can set him in a beanbag or on the sofa and then bring him back when we're ready. Sometimes I get stiff spooning him, so I'll move him twixt, and then back spooning again when I miss him.
Yoshi and his dad
- I call Yoshi and Jon the morning men, because they spend long mornings cuddling in bed, often til 12 or 1pm.
- Later in life, maybe the last two years, Yoshi stopped sleeping in so late and would come follow me around. So we developed a routine where I would pee him, feed him, poop him, then give him a bully stick. After all of that, he would finally be prepped for cuddles with Jon.
- Yoshi loves to have his face bitten, and Jon does it to calm him down sometimes.
- Jon picks Yoshi up to dance sometimes, and says "Relax relax relax" to get him to lower his feet so they can have their bellies pressed together.
- Yo-yoshi, Yo-yoshi is a call Jon reserves for the most desperate occasions, so Yoshi almost always comes when Jon calls him like that.
