A Dog's Life

Last Tuesday (3/22) marked 8 years since we welcomed our first baby into our family - our yellow lab, Toby.  It's amazing how much has changed in those 8 years.  When we first got him, Jeff and I hadn't even been married a year and we still lived in our old house in Grass Lake.  I thought I would celebrate Toby by sharing his story on the blog since he really has been a major part of our family.
We bought Toby from a pet shop that used to operate in Jackson Crossings Mall.  I first saw him on a Friday night - Jeff and I were going to a Tim McGraw concert that night and I had to stop at the Secretary of State office in the mall.  I remember I was in a big hurry because I had to make sure I got from Jackson to Ann Arbor to meet Jeff in time so we weren't late for the concert.  I couldn't remember which end the Secretary of State's office was, so I guessed, and when I walked in the mall I realized that I had guessed wrong and would have to walk all the way to the other end of the mall.  I was SO mad! 

Whenever we went to the mall I would always make Jeff go by the pet store so we could see if they had any cute puppies.  Since I was in such a hurry I hadn't planned on walking by that night, but because I had to go through the whole mall I ended up walking right past it and saw they had the most adorable little yellow lab puppies right in the window.  I wanted to stop really bad, but I knew that I didn't have time.  I noticed that there were 3 of them in there and I tried to see if they were boys or girls but couldn't tell. 
When I met up with Jeff, the first words out of my mouth were, "We have to go to the mall as soon as they open tomorrow morning - there are the CUTEST puppies there!"  I wanted to make sure we got there right away so that they wouldn't all be bought before we had a chance to see them.  We had been thinking about getting a dog for awhile and I was positive that I wanted a girl dog, so I was really worried that if any of them were girls they would already be sold.  I couldn't stop thinking about the puppies that night!
We got to the mall right at 10 am and went straight to the pet store.  The puppies were still there!  There was a yellow male, a yellow female, and a black male.  One of the yellow ones was cuter than the other, but I was disappointed to see that he was the male.  We had the worker get out the female puppy and she was pretty cute but didn't do anything while we were holding her.  I wasn't really sure at this point, so on a whim I decided to ask if we could hold the yellow male (the black male was barking his head off the whole time we were in there, so I knew I didn't want to hold him!!).  As soon as they brought the puppy out and set him on the floor, he rolled right over and showed us his belly and I was in love!  I knew we had to have this puppy and there was no way I was leaving without him, even if he wasn't a female!  He had even won Jeff over - Jeff wasn't as crazy about getting a dog as I was.
The first night home was pretty interesting.  We borrowed my mom's dog cage and put him in it in the foyer of our house and tried to go to bed.  As soon as we left the room, he started barking.  I guess we did the dog version of cry-it-out, but after 2 hours of barking we gave in and somehow squeezed the cage into our tiny bedroom and let him sleep in our room with us.  As soon as we brought the cage into our room he stopped barking and went right to sleep.  The next day we went to church and while we were gone he shredded all the newspaper in the cage and pooped all over so he got his first bath that day!  When we took him to the vet a few days after we got him they told us that he most likely had separation anxiety - when we would leave for work we could hear him barking in the house as we got into the car, and when we got home from work the first thing we heard when we got out of the car was barking.  He also licked spots raw on his paws while we were gone.  Thankfully after a month or so he got over it and learned to like going in his cage when we left since it meant he got a treat!!

It took us a few days to decide on a name.  At first we tried to do a name that was Tim McGraw-related since we had gone to the concert the night before we got him, but nothing seemed to fit.  I don't remember exactly how Toby came about, but I think it was just a name that came to me and it seemed to fit. 
They estimated that Toby was about 12 weeks old when we got him so we made up his birthday and decided on 1-11-03.  He was probably one of the best puppies that we could have gotten, especially since he didn't come from a breeder that had worked with him before we got him.  The biggest issue we had was potty training him.  It seemed like it took forever before he wouldn't pee in the house.  A lot of times we would let him out, he would pee, and then as soon as he came back in he would pee again, and it was always on the carpet.  I think it took 4 months or so before this finally stopped happening.  Other than that, the only other times he did something bad was if we tried to leave him out of his cage while we went out.  He never chewed up furniture or destroyed anything of major value. 
Toby has always loved on going walks and when he was a puppy he would always pick something up in his mouth and carry it while he was walking, usually a pine cone or stick.  It was so cute!!  We truly could not have picked a better dog for our family and I never knew how loving a dog could be until Toby came into our lives.  When I had my surgeries/miscarriages he would lay by my side in bed and never let me out of his sight.  We always joke that he should have been a chihuahua since he tries to climb in your lap and lay there.  He is the gentlest soul and just wants to love and be loved. 

It was pretty hard on him when Grace came into the picture - he was so used to being our baby and getting all the attention.  A month after she was born we went on a walk and he started acting really weird and we had to coax him to walk back home.  As soon as we got to our house he laid down in the lawn and wouldn't get back up.  We half-dragged him into the house thinking maybe he was too hot and as soon as we stepped inside he threw up and it was all blood.  I thought for sure he was going to die (it was a lot of blood) and we rushed him to the vet ER and they did all kinds of tests on him and kept him overnight.  After all the tests the weren't able to find anything and we still don't know what happened.  He may have had an ulcer, but I have always wondered if it was his food.  We had started a new bag of dog food a few weeks before and he had seemed to have issues after that.  With all the stuff in the news lately about poisoned dog food it has really made me wonder.  Thankfully it hasn't happened again and he seems to be his usually goofy self. 
So that's Toby's story - he really is our baby bear and when I am with him I can totally see why dog is God spelled backwards.  I can't imagine not having Toby in our family and I always pray that he can live a long life.  I can't wait to see him and Grace playing together!  We love you Toby!!