Goodbye is never easy...

Our sweet dog Tobie went to doggy heaven today. Tobie, and her brother Howdy, joined our family in April 1998. They were four months old. We picked them up from their farm in Weatherford, TX. They had never been inside, on stairs, on concrete, in a car, etc. when we got them. They were country dogs who moved to a third floor apartment.

Tobie, is actually short for Tobacco. Her coat was the color of cured tobacco. Of course going around calling your dog Tobacco, just wasn't going to work. Tabaccer or Bacca didn't work either, but Tobie did. So did Tobie-Tobs and Tobers.

Tobie was always our princess dog. She liked things her way. When they weren't, she let you know. Her favorite thing in the world was to have one of her front paws rubbed. She loved to get "Scooby snacks" out of the litter box. She always wanted to be in the middle of the action. She and the cat, Zach, loved to play chase. He would come up and swat at her so then she would snap at him and chase him out of the room. Then he would come back and do it all over again. Sometimes she would just go over and nudge him, just to get him started. We kept a gate on our bedroom door so the dogs would stay in but the cat could come and go. Zach loved to perch on the gate waiting for Tobie to come get him and then jump off the other side and run away knowing she couldn't chase him.

She was not a fan of thunder storms. They made her scratch the carpet, get on top of the patio table, or jump on the bed. Fireworks weren't her thing either. Back in the day before we had kids and took the dogs out for hikes on the weekends, she was not a fan of water. Her brother always enjoyed a good romp in the creek. Not Tobie, she preferred to stay dry. She wasn't a huge fan of loud chaotic children. She never did anything to the children but when they got too rambunctious she would quickly leave the room.


Tobie was 3 months shy of 12 years old. Until this spring she had never had any health problems. OK, so she had bad teeth and had to have them cleaned twice as frequently as her brother but, no emergencies, no chronic conditions, nothing. In the spring she hurt her hip jumping off the patio table. Yeah I know, what is an 11 year old dog thinking to be jumping off the table. When we took her in for that, they were not concerned about the hip but about her weight. Apparently she had lost quite a bit since the previous year. Blood work yielded somewhat elevated liver numbers but nothing more. Oh, and her teeth were so bad the insisted they were affecting her quality of life. They weren't and cleaned up fine and nothing changed. Our job was to get her to eat more.
About a month ago Tobie developed a condition called Megaesaphogus. It led to pneumonia. Things didn't look good. We started antibiotics and miraculously the Megaesaphogus went away. After ten really bad days we had two really great weeks. She was pretty much her normal, somewhat crotchety self. Monday we took her in for a recheck. The vet raved over her progress and how well she was doing. She was so surprised. Tuesday the Megaesophogus came back. Since Tuesday Tobie had been trying to tell us she was done. She quit eating entirely. Today it was clear it was her time. She went very peacefully to doggy heaven with her head resting sweetly on her paw while I rubbed it. She is now in doggy heaven, where I'm sure she has already convinced "someone" to continue rubbing her paw 24/7.

It seems so weird to not have her in our house. To not have her getting into trouble. Did I mention she was our trouble maker? She was always into something. The trash, the litter box, eating the carpet (she out grew that one), or scratching the carpet (she developed that one in the last couple years). She was a great part of our family. Her people miss her and so does her brother.

Farewell, dear friend,
Jenn