It grieves me to have to tell you that I lost my Toby on Sunday, May 25th. We took our usual 3 mile walk in the morning, Around 4pm he said he wanted to go out, so we did. He walked up to our pet cemetery and collapsed. I couldn't pick him up so I called a neighbor - we got him back in the house. I gave him a drink and sat with him for about an hour. Then he said he wanted to go out again - went to my car and stood there. I opened the door and he climbed in - not normal Toby. I took him to the emergency vet in Manchester and they did an ultrasound - he had a really big tumor on his spleen and it had ruptured. The vet was super - he said they could operate and remove the spleen and Toby would probably have several more months - but the cancer was a very aggressive one and was undoubtedly already in other organs. He said, "Toby is such a sweet boy - if he were mine, I would not do it." So I took his advice. They let me stay with Toby until he was gone. It broke my heart. I brought him home - he's buried in the pet cemetery with his favorite blanket and his squeaky tiger. Lord, how I miss that boy. He made me laugh with his silliness. His last big adventure was the Thursday before he died - a very large bear was coming up the stairs to the deck - and Toby went nuts. He was yelling at that bear something fierce. The bear re-thought the deck and turned and left.

We're signing up for heartbreak,
and know someday we'll rue it.
But oh the way our life lights up
the years a dog runs through it.

Sally

Toby's Happy Ending Page