NewsRescue
A Japanese guy only known as Toco claims to have achieved a childhood goal by spending nearly $15,000 on a hyper-realistic collie dog costume.
Toco can be seen wearing the complex outfit in public while being led around on a leash in videos released to the man’s YouTube channel, which has over 30,000 followers, sniffing other dogs in a park and performing other dog-like behaviours such as rolling around on the grass.
“I became a collie, fulfilling a dream I’d had since I was a little child to be an animal,” Toco was reported as saying at the start of one of the video pieces. He doesn’t speak in any of the films, presumably to preserve the canine.
“Do you recall any of your childhood dreams?” “You aspire to be a hero or a wizard,” he said. “I remember writing in my grade school graduation book that I wanted to be a dog and go for a walk outside.”
While the four-legged version of Toco is unafraid to parade in public as a popular breed of herding dog, the human version is less open about what he does in his leisure time.
“I don’t want people knowing about my hobbies, especially the people I work with,” he told the Daily Mail last year. “They find it strange that I wish to be a dog. I can’t display my face for the same reason.”
In a separate interview with the UK tabloid the Mirror, he said, “I rarely tell my friends because I’m afraid they’ll think I’m weird.” My friends and relatives were taken aback when they learned I had turned into an animal.”
Toco’s first time walking outside in full collie costume was last September in the safe confines of his backyard – yet even without prying eyes on him, Toco described the experience as “nervous and a little scared.”
