Pet's Age
3

Pet's city
Carmel

Pet's Story or Bio
She didn't want a dog. But her kids did. It had been 20 years since she’d managed the dynamics of a dog in her Carmel household, and she hadn’t missed it. Her family had always said she’d do best with a toy dog that didn’t jump, bark, bite, drool or shed.
She actually appreciated animals in an artistic sense; she even had sculptures of horses, and paintings of rabbits and greyhounds and birds. Yet whenever she encountered a dog, she’d greet him with that flat-palmed, "Nice, doggie" kind of pat.
When her kids showed her a photo of an Airedale-Golden Retriever sheltered at the SPCA, she said no, but quietly saved the photo to her phone. As she looked into his beseeching brown eyes, she found she couldn’t take her eyes off his.
Deciding she could at least slip out to the SPCA, if only to show the kids she cared about their interests, she stopped by the shelter on her way to work. As soon as she saw the dog with the soulful eyes, sitting quietly behind the glass, her eyes welled with tears.
She led the dog into the yard, and sat down on a bench. He put his front paws on her knees and laid his head in her lap. She petted him with both hands and thought, “I think I’ll call you Toby.”
She put him on a 24-hour hold and went to work, not realizing her children would notice, in their constant vigil of the SPCA website, that “their” dog was on hold. The tearful texts began within minutes. “He’s on hold! He’s going to someone else! I’m devastated!” was accompanied by a string of sobbing emojis.
Once she got home, she surprised her girls with a trip to the SPCA to adopt the dog. In their exuberance, they started suggesting names for him.
“His name is Toby,” said his person.