Toby

By Myron Edwards

We had been married seven years, the time of the ‘seven-year itch’ only neither of us took the opportunity to scratch it, because we were devoted to each other, as we had been since high school. Childhood sweethearts, me, and my Suzy. On the surface our life was idyllic, we both earned good salaries, me as a manager of a real estate agency and Suzy an Asset Manager in a Merchant Bank.

On the surface our lives were almost perfect, except for one thing, both of us wanted children.

From our first days of marriage, we were at it like rabbits, but no bunnies. we consulted Doctors, specialists, nothing worked. We considered adoption, but somehow it was not right for us.

That is when the arguments would start and usually over nothing.

To avoid this, I stayed late in the office, it was a cowardly thing to do. By the time I got home Suzy was already asleep, so I slept on the couch.

I think we both craved a distraction; we both liked animals, we settled on a dog, providing I took it for walks and clean up its mess. I agreed and a dog would get me out of the house.

We drove to the local dog shelter, there was a pungent smell, and a cacophony of barking, as we walked along the line of cages, there appeared to be breeds of every type from pedigree poodles, to Alsatian guard dogs, next to a particular aggressive Doberman, whose bite was much worse than its bark.

We rounded the corner that’s when I spotted him. 

He looked no more than a few months old, and immediately sat in front of us, if he could talk, I am sure he would say, ‘Please take me home with you.’

I looked at Suzy,

‘I like this one.’

‘He looks a bit scrawny.’ I don’t think she was so impressed.

But I insisted. Just then one of the kennel personnel came up to us.

‘Are you interested in this dog?’

Yes, I replied.

‘He does have a good nature; he was brought in because the family couldn’t look after him anymore. Next week we will have to put him down, as we have so many other dogs in waiting.’

‘WE will take him, what’s his name?’

He does not have one he was dumped with a note, saying sorry.

‘Fine we will take him home and name him.’

‘Excellent, I will just get the paperwork, be a few minutes, here is a lead, you can take him out and get used to each other.’

Suzy was the first to stroke our new arrival, this little black Labrador with the gorgeous blue eyes, appeared to melt her heart, as her reluctance disappeared.

After we took our new addition home. He seemed to settle in quickly and was well trained, fortunately, our back garden gave him the space he needed to run and to do his business.

As for his name we decided on Toby, it fitted his personality and over the months, Toby became part of the family. Particularly when it came to Suzy, as he would lay on her lap as she stroked his fur. I think the dog brought us closer, the arguments stopped, our affection returned, not just for the dog but for each other. Funny how an animal can bring people together, without even trying.

Toby was now four, he had over the years put on muscle and weight, he was a strong sturdy dog, his body may have matured, but his affectionate ways were always there. He also had a weird sense of danger, many a time, I felt her lead jerk as she stopped suddenly.

One night we were out a little later than normal, sometimes cars would park on the path so we would opt for the road, we were coming into ASHBURN DRIVE, when a car came around the corner on two wheels and almost hit us, I shouted after them, Toby joined in barking loudly.

‘You idiot you could have killed us.’ He accelerated away oblivious to my voice. I cradled Toby to me, reassuring him he was okay; he licked my face in appreciation. Together we walked back to the house.

The next day went quickly, Suzy had left early for work.

Toby was outside playing and I was working from home, Suzy was going to be late, so me and Toby went for our usual walk, the night was quite warm as we walked along, me patting the back of his head.

Ahead of us there was a commotion, blue lights flashing and an Ambulance coming into ASHBURN DRIVE I pulled on Toby’s lead as we got closer. There was now a crowd, and a car stopped on the corner, it’s front dented and a police officer talking to a young kid.

I moved closer, there was a man. with blood streaming from his body, next to him was a dog, the man had the dog’s lead in his hand.

I looked closer. It was Toby and me. In my hand I held Toby’s lead, he looked at me and I stroked him. realizing that the night before had been our last walk together. We both turned away from the scene and walked into the sunshine.

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