Toby (6th September 2006 - 9th February 2007)

Toby was left on our doorstep one summer evening last year.

Watching TV around 8pm, I hear the doorbell - when I go to open the door, I find a pet carrier - similar to what we have to transport our cats. Initially I thought it was one of ours, perhaps brought back by some neighbour who might have borrowed it.

When I picked it up I realised that the box was not empty and a closer examination revealed this small black puppy, with melting eyes looking back at me. I quickly took him inside and opened the carrier - out came a small black bundle who instantly proceeded to lick my toes.

After trying to decide whether we should try to find the owner or keep him we decided on the latter - it seemed quite obvious that someone left it on our doorstep knowing very well that he would be taken care of seeing how much we love animals.

So Toby, as we decided to name him (after logging onto the Web and finding some hilarious choices) became part of our family.

Toby was a loving, friendly and playful puppy - our vet established that he was probably a pure bred Labrador, around four weeks old. Although very small, his size changed dramatically over the weeks with his paws becoming larger than my hands! He would devour anything that came into his reach whether it was a dead pigeon on the ground during his daily walks or a plastic bag that we might have inadvertently dropped - if people saw him they would have thought that we didn't feed him!

All looked well, but one Friday morning, a week after I returned from my adventure in Kilimanjaro, Toby started to look listless, tired, no energy to give us the usual rowdy welcome. By the afternoon we got worried and called for the vet who came over immediately and took a blood sample fearing he might have contracted Sandfly.

A couple of hours later the vet confirmed it wasn't so but required to do more tests - told to keep him warm until the next day when the tests would be performed, I went to the garage where I kept him only to find that Toby was no more with us.

Seeing my beloved dog lying there was heart wrenching - I couldn't believe that such a healthy, lively and strong dog could have died so suddenly. The vet suggested an autopsy but for what? It wasn't going to bring Toby back...........

So for now I have decided that my luck with dogs is not that good and have decided not to keep dogs even though deep down I yearn for one.....who knows perhaps in a couple of years time I might get another dog.