The day Alto, Toffee and I took over the whole campus

Toffee found the bench first. He always finds the good spot first. He was up there sniffing around before I even got out of the car, and by the time I caught up he'd already claimed the whole seat with his face hanging over the armrest, tongue out, looking very pleased with himself.

This was Princeton. Big stone buildings, ivy on the walls, doors older than anything I've ever chewed on. Alto had never been and neither had I, so we were both losing our minds a little. There was a smell coming off the bricks like cold stone and rain from days ago. I stood on the bench like I owned it. Toffee stayed lying down like he'd already seen enough for one day. Someone's leash was just sitting on the ground, all coiled up, and I thought about grabbing it but there was too much else going on.

Then we found the big lawn with the sculpture that looks like a giant ring someone forgot outside. We sat for pictures in front of it and I tried so hard to hold still that my tongue fell out of my mouth sideways. Toffee looked like he was already bored of the whole thing. Alto had his bandana on, the blue one, looking fancy like he knew this was a fancy place.

The best part happened at the front doors with the two stone tigers. Alto and I climbed the steps together and just stood there next to the tiger statue like we were guarding the building too. I don't know what we were guarding it from. Nobody came. We stood there anyway because it felt important.

Then somebody said go and Alto and I took off across that huge lawn like our legs forgot how to stop. I don't even remember deciding to run. One second we were standing there being fancy statue dogs and the next we were flying past a giant pine tree with some old stone building watching us. Toffee was somewhere behind, probably still thinking about the bench.

At the very end Alto walked right up next to me and just leaned his whole head into my neck. Didn't say anything. Didn't need to. We stood there like that for a second with our tails all tangled up while the sky got dark and gray behind us.

There's no water bowls out on that lawn so bring your own if you're taking your dog, and it's a lot of open space with no fences, so anyone off leash needs really good recall or a long line. Also watch for the sprinklers, I heard they turn on without warning.

Toffee never did get off that bench the whole first hour. I still don't know what he was thinking about.