When we first got Toby back in 2006, I had no idea what a
great pal he would become. I set out to
document his first year with us and did it from his perspective and his voice
so to speak. If interested, the blog
still exists at the following link.
Toby has been a wonderful pal throughout the years and has
always been there for me. There was one
time I was so sick with pneumonia I could not get out of bed and I was
shivering so badly. Toby jumped up on
the bed and laid down next to me as close as he could get to keep me warm. He stayed there all day and into the evening,
protecting me. He only got up
twice. Once was to go out to pee (I had
left the door open, so he could) and the other was to eat. It was amazing. That was the only time in 12 years he didn’t
get out for his run or walk.
Every single day at 9:00 AM, I used to take him across the
street to the park and throw a ball for him to chase or just let him wander
around the park. Sunrise Park was an
off-leash park between the hours of 5:00 AM to 10:00 and from 5:00 PM to 10:00
PM. We sometimes went over, because
sometimes his runs would last for two hours.
He was very active.
When Dad was in hospital, he became sort of a therapy
dog. We were encouraged by the doctor at
Royal Columbian Hospital to bring him in.
Toby was very good at being still and quiet and would jump up on the bed
with Dad. But he became more than
that. I would visit Dad at the same time
every day at 1:00 PM and it got to the point that we would get off the elevator
on the sixth floor and there would be a fan club of 20-30 patients there just
to see and pet him. He was in his glory.
He loved to be up at the lake where he was free to wander
off leash. He would occasionally go two
lots over to visit Perry and Teri or he would go next door to visit with Dave
and his Mom when they were there. His
other favourite place to go was to our other neighbour to see Glenda.
At his peak, we would do some major walks. We would go 7 km down the logging road and
then 7 km back. This took us between 1.5
and 2 hours to complete. Then in the
evening we would do another 4 km walk.
It was great for him and great for me.
I think he did a lot more than that because he would run forward to
check things out and then run back to make sure we were still with him. Back and forth he went.
He even loved swimming, which is really something for a long-haired
dog. My previous dog, Scamp, a border
collie absolutely hated the water. He
would wade in up to his knees but no further.
Not Toby, he would go in and chase after and retrieve his ball. Then he wouldn’t get all the way out of the
water before trying to shake himself off.
It was funny to see.
When we moved to Maple Ridge, Toby had already slowed
down. Not running much anymore and at
the lake last year he would only do a 2 km walk. 1 km out bound and then he would turn around
and head for home. When I was taken to
hospital, Toby was extremely stress because we had never been apart and then
when he had to spend 3 days in a kennel alone, it almost killed him. He even chewed a hole in his leg.
Finally, Renee brought him home and took the summer off
work. She stayed at my place with him
and nursed him back to health. When I
got out of hospital and started walking again, he came right along with me and
we both slowly built our distance up, until we got to a maximum of 10 km walks
again. 6 km in the morning and 4 km in
the evening.
All of this takes us to the present day. In January 2018, I suddenly noticed that Toby
slowed down drastically. He was refusing
to do the full walks and got to the point he would only go to the end of the
walkway, not even a full block. I knew
this wasn’t right, especially when he stopped eating as well.
I booked an appointment with the vet and took him in on
January 26. Renee took the day off work,
so she could be there as well. When the
vet scooped him up and put him up on the examining table, he let out a howl of
pain. The examination didn’t take
long. The vet felt him all over and said
his lymph nodes were extremely swollen.
Then he gave us the devastating news that Toby has lymphoma and has less
than a month to live. I don’t know what
I’m going to do without my pal.
We are keeping him comfortable and he has good days and bad
days. Sometimes he is panting rapidly,
and his breathing is laboured. But,
other times he falls asleep and is breathing comfortably. Today, despite the pouring rain, he insisted on
lying out on the deck in the rain. Toby
used to hate the rain, but he appears to be quite comfortable.
I finally heard some crying and thought it was him. I went to check, and he was sleeping
soundly. The cries were from his buddy,
Harley, who was at the gate and wanted to say hello, but Toby could not get
down to see him. He did walk over to the
deck railing and look at Harley, who I think figured out that Toby will not be
with us much longer.
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