Otto is doing quite well, has fully recovered from his surgery and is more playful than ever. He always wants to play fetch and is constantly trying to involve me in a game. But that has been a bit difficult, since his toys started mysteriously disappearing a couple months ago. I have searched high and low, in couches and under beds, but to no avail. So, in the interest of keeping the peace in the house, I restocked his toy supply at Christmas, and he was again a happy pup.
Gone. All Gone.
It was truly a mystery. I wracked my brains to try and find Otto's missing playmates, and I finally realized what might be happening. 
Otto spends a large portion of his day out on our balcony, doing what dogs love to do, smelling the wind and lying in the sun. And he has been known to stand at the edge of the balcony and stick his tiny little head through the fence and sniff for extended periods at a time. So I surmised that perhaps he was in the middle of playing with one of his toys and a particular small caught his nose, and he just had to immediately go investigate, keeping the poor innocent toy locked tightly in his jaw. I further speculate that over time, the concentration that is necessarily required when one is engaged in a serious sniffing session may have caused a lack of concentration in other areas, and the grip on the toy may have slackened, even to the point of letting the poor little toy plunge five stories to its eventual demise in the alley below.
This hypothesis I could hold in theory only with little hope of proving it, since there was little that I could do to recreate the perfect circumstances that would bring about an unintended toy homocide. That is, until last week, when I was summoned to the balcony upon overhearing the most pitiful whining coming from outside. I looked around, but could find no apparent cause for Otto's worry. There were no other dogs on other balconies to cause him distress, he had not hurt himself, food and water dishes were both brimming. And then I remembered my idea from earlier and I leaned over the railing, only to find, five floors down, a tiny pink bear lying face down in the alley. Needless to say, the little bear was saved and Otto is no longer allowed on the balcony with any toy that is smaller than the separation between the bars of the railing (and don't wory about the bear, in her short little life she has had her eyes picked out, her nose bitten off and a significant chunk of her bottom removed, so the drop from the balony was, sadly, par for the course.)
Other than the toy mystery, things have been pretty good for Otto. This morning I tried to capture what it is like to wake up in the morning and have his little puppy face make its way out from under the covers. Although I couldn't capture the exact feeling, you get a pretty good idea from these pics.
Speaking of Otto in the morning, some mornings when I get up, he is simply not ready to wake up so he stays behind to finish his dream. The other morning, when I got back into the bedroom, I found no Otto von Bisbarck, but I did discover a perfectly preserved escape tunnel, and I just had to document it:
Well that is about it on Otto. He is a pretty happy puppy and a great companion for me. He does miss Mister Josh, but he knows he will be coming home soon. As for upcoming events, Otto is in the midst of planning our second annual Oscar party, and I am trying to keep it from overwhelming him. He gets so caught up in the details. But I am taking care of alot of things, and I think he is comforted knowing that his tux has already been laundered and pressed. Plus he is looking forward to the imminent arrival of the Graves Family from Rhode Island. We will keep you updated and will post once we have pictures of the Oscar Ex-tra-va-gan-za! Bye!
