Nose to Nose A Story About Friendship and Courage

**Lisa Bueno** (0:01)
Okay, our friends. So today, we are reading a story for those of you who like pets. Do you like dogs? Are you a dog fan? If you are, then we have a story for you today, and I think you're gonna love it. It is called Nose to Nose.
And it was written by Thyra Hader, and it is read today by Mommy, and Philip. And we are excited about this dog story because dogs are great, and we like them. And this particular story has one of the best dog names in the history of dog names. Are you ready for it?
No.
It's one of our favorite dog names.
Nope. Toby. Okay. So when we open the book, the very first thing that we see is a dog, and he's in a car, and he's zooming along, and it says, Toby was new. And so he did what all dogs do. He introduced himself. He introduced himself a lot. Actually, what do dogs do to introduce themselves? If you take your dog for a walk around the neighborhood, what's the very first thing your dog is going to do?
They're going to pee. It's so gross.
They check their pee mail. They are going to pee on everything that they smell, that there's another dog. Oh, there's another dog here. Well, let me do a little bit of peeing and let them know that I'm going to be here, too.
The neighbors hardly noticed his arrival. The neighbors, by the way, are all dogs. Various types of dogs. And what about their usual business? And what are they doing? Peeing. Peeing. That's correct. Every day he hoped for a message. Is somebody going to leave him a pee mail? Hmm. And here's his human. Come on, Toby, it's just a wall.
They had a lot to say to each other, just not to him. And so we can see their pee actually is a hidden language. And his pee says, hello, I'm Toby. And here are all the other messages. My tummy feels bad, Merlin. Merlin, eat grass. Hi, hi, hi, hi. Must chase squirrels. Beware the candy. Quincy loves Suki. Suki, stick. Leave it. All these things are written for all of the other dogs, so we know what's going on with them. I mean, the list of things that they say to each other, don't trust the squirrels, that's from Wall-E. Anyone for a howl? Yep, I'm in. Me too. Beware the babies. Okay, that's true. Warning, cat on eighth will not back down. Uh-oh, that's a good one to note. So all these messages are peed all over the walls. Agreement to not pee on Quincy's flowers.
Toby checked the local postings to get a better sense of the neighborhood. Train your human classes with Muffin will cover. How to big for double dinner? Rolling for tummy rubs does not include roll over. I don't teach tricks.
So how do the dogs all communicate? This is how they do it. Maybe there was a chance to make a friend. Uh-oh, look at this one. It's a peed mail that says, Sookie's party at the stick pit! After work walk, bring your own stick! Oh, if he shows up there, do you think Toby can make friends? Well, let's see. If we look on the next page, he has come with his stick. His person says, Go play! But it was hard not knowing anyone. All the other dogs are roaring about with their sticks and their humans are throwing their sticks and everybody seems to be really happy. It wasn't the end of the world spending time alone, Toby thinks, because he just sits there in the shadow of a tree. All the other dogs are playing. And he found a ball, so that was good. Great, actually, because it smelled terrible. It smelled like puddles and raccoons, and it fit nicely with his collection. And we can see he does have a bunch of gross looking chewed up dog toys that have been slobbered on. And his human says, ew, Toby, this is gross. She does not want him to have it. The next morning, however, he realized he had made a mistake.
In fact, the female today says, Missing my beloved Whizball, last thrown at park, slobbered to perfection, notes of puddle mud and raccoon, will chase for safe return. Sincerely Armando van Bacon III, aka Pancake.
That's a dog named Pancake.
The doll, the ball, was clearly special to someone. It seemed like the whole neighborhood was getting involved. Wherefore art thou, Whizball? Have you seen it? You want to borrow mine? Whizball alert! I bet it was the squirrels. All paws on deck!
They're all trying to help him.