TOBY
Born October 1993
Died 15 November 1996
You were so noble
Until your bitter end
Your gift was the teaching
Of a true and loyal friend
I first saw Toby three days after he was born. He was a son of my friend Jessie who was a beautiful red Kelpie. His father was a Great Dane cross. Toby grew up to be a big dog with a soft grey coat and incredible yellow eyes, and the sweetest nature of all of the dogs I have ever known. He could not actually speak English but he had a tremendous understanding of it. He could also read minds.
My lover Steve and I had him for three years. He practically lived in Steve's truck and everybody in town loved him. If Steve was away and I wasn't home Toby would come to my office to find me, and if I wasn't there he would come to our hospital and find me there.
I fell in love with Toby when he was about a year old. It was just about the time he fell in love with me. He used to sit out on the patio with me, one paw on my knee, gazing steadily into my eyes. My soul drowned in those twin pools of love.
On 15 November last year I came home to find him dead. He had been deliberately poisoned.
I carried his lifeless cold body out to the car and drove him one last time out to our favourite forest. There in the dusk, in a quiet clearing, with only the sound of the birds and my tears, I made him a bed in the clean forgiving earth.
I could tell you about the love we shared, but you will already know this. Those memories are buried with Toby, and in the inner sanctuary of my heart.
If any of you who read this wonder still if there is a Spirit who hears our tears of sorrow, then let me tell you the sequel.
Five days after I laid my baby to rest, a dog came to my front gate. He is a black and tan Doberman/Rottweiler cross. When he came to me he was about four months old, so now he's a bit more than a year old. He sleeps in Toby's bed; eats from his bowl and sits on the patio with one paw on my knee, gazing into my eyes with love. When I look really hard, I can see my soul there.
His name is Toby.
Nick