Toby's Story

by W. Bruce Cameron

  “Boy, he’s full of energy today, huh?” Tyler said as I licked his chin. “Mona said his feet were getting better. Here, Toby, want to chase something?” He tugged a small, rubbery ball out of a pocket and showed it to me. “Toby, ready?”

  I looked up alertly. Was the ball for me?

  “Get it, Toby!”

  Tyler tossed the ball. It bounced away down the hallway. Instantly, I lunged after it.

  Or I tried to.

  All four of my feet slid out from under me at once, and I ended up flat on my stomach on the floor. Tyler and Grandad laughed, and Tyler bent down to help me up. But I had already scrambled back to my feet. That ball was getting away from me!

  With my feet skidding at every step, I still managed to get up a good amount of speed. The ball ricocheted around a corner, and I did exactly the same thing, barking as I went. “Whoops, Toby, wait up!” Tyler called from behind me.

  I heard Tyler saying my name, so maybe he wanted me to go back to him. But I was not interested in going back. I was interested in chasing.

  The ball bounced through an open door, and I headed after it. “Hey, watch out!” yelled a voice. Feet stepped over me. I jumped and landed with both of my front paws on the ball. They still hurt a little, but the satisfaction of getting that ball more than made up for it.

  I flopped down to give the ball a good chew, and then hands I had never smelled before seized me under the belly and hoisted me into the air. The ball fell out of my mouth, and I found I was looking into a dark brown face. The man holding me had fierce eyes and bristly gray hair between his lip and his nose.

  “What are you doing in here?” the man said sternly. “This is a kitchen. No dogs allowed! You’re in real trouble, buster!”

  I squirmed in his hands. My ears and tail drooped. I was beginning to get the feeling that somehow, I’d done something wrong.

  6

  To my surprise, the face of the man who had me in his hands broke into a smile.

  “Little rascal, aren’t you?” he asked. “I’ve heard about you. You’re Toby. I’m Eddie, and this is my kitchen.”

  Maybe I wasn’t in trouble after all? I wagged hopefully, and Eddie laughed.

  He smelled delicious. I squirmed to get closer to him. I could smell butter and salt and juicy meat. My nose twitched wildly, and I realized that the scents didn’t just belong to Eddie. They were all around! There was a pile of sliced-up oranges on a table with a powerful odor that was sharp and sweet all at once. Bread was toasting. Sausage was sizzling on a grill. My tail wagged faster and faster. What an astounding place I’d discovered! I liked this room! I liked Eddie! A lot!

  Eddie kept laughing as he put me on the floor. I snatched up the ball before it rolled away, but then I dropped it again because Eddie held out a finger with a sticky smear on the tip. Peanut butter! Marvelous!

  I heard running footsteps, and a moment later, Tyler burst into the kitchen. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I threw the ball, and Toby ran after it.”

  I wagged hard for Tyler, but I couldn’t stop my licking to go to him.

  “No kidding!” Eddie still sounded amused. “Here you go, Toby boy. I’ve got something better than peanut butter. Want some bacon?”

  Something dropped on the floor right in front of my nose. Something that smelled salty and meaty and amazing! I grabbed it between my teeth. It crunched. It was the best thing I’d ever tasted! Better than the dog food Mona put in my bowl. Better than the treats my other friends sometimes fed me. If this was called bacon, I knew I wanted more of it. Maybe I belonged to Eddie, since he fed me the best treats? That seemed reasonable. It would be all right with me!

  “Never met a dog who didn’t appreciate a piece of bacon,” Eddie said. “But keep him out of the kitchen, okay?”

  “Sure, okay.” Tyler picked me up.

  I was still busy with my bacon as Tyler carried me away from Eddie and the kitchen. A heavy door closed firmly behind us as we left. I wiggled, trying to get back to my new friend and the best room I’d ever been in, but Tyler didn’t let me down.

  “No way, Toby,” he told me. “We’d better get you back to Mona.”

  Mona. I knew that name. I wagged a little for Mona and licked my chops to get all the traces of bacon that I could. Maybe I’d get another chance to visit Eddie and his bacon soon.

  Tyler brought me to Mona, and then something wonderful happened. Mona held me on her lap and rubbed my tummy while her mother carefully and tenderly unwrapped the bandages from my feet.

  “There you go, Toby,” she said as she pulled off the last scrap of white gauze. “All better. Set him down, Mona. Let’s see him go!”

  Running! Running was so fantastic!

  It was great that my new house was so big. There was a stupendous amount of space! I tore up and down the hallways, skidding on the tile. Mona and Patsy wanted to play, too. They chased me, and I barked with joy.

  Fran came out of her office, her hands on her hips, as I dashed by. “What is all this racket?” she asked. “What happened to our calm little puppy?”

  I didn’t hear if Mona or Patsy said anything to her in reply. I was too far ahead.

  Mona caught up to me at last and went outside with me so that we could play some more. We played that game over and over for the next few days. I’d run down the hallways and Mona would chase me and take me outside once she caught me. Sometimes other people played, too. Patsy did often. Tyler did, too. Once Eddie even joined in. I let him catch me quickly because I thought he might have more bacon, but he didn’t. Oh well. Maybe next time.

  When we played, I’d dodge in and out of rooms and jump on beds or chairs. Sometimes there were people on the beds or in the chairs. Most of them laughed. A few gasped with surprise. Often, they wanted to pet me, and I’d let them for a little while, but then I would wiggle out from under their hands and start running again so that everybody would chase me some more. It felt like the games I’d played back in the pen with my brothers and sisters. So much fun!

  A few days after my bandages came off, Mona and I were playing chase when I darted into a room and leaped upon the bed. “Well, hello there, boy!” said a person who was lying on the bed, with glasses on his face and a book propped up in front of him.

  It was Grandad! I knocked his book out of his hands and licked him all over his face.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry,” Mona said, gasping and running into the room behind me. “He’s got so much energy ever since those bandages came off. He keeps getting away from me.”

  “No problem,” Grandad said as he petted me warmly. “Nice to have somebody who’s this happy to see me.”

  “Hey there,” said a woman sitting on a chair across the room. She shook her head and laughed. “Tyler and I are always happy to see you!”

  This woman had said Tyler’s name. And she smelled a little like Tyler. That was interesting. I jumped off the bed and went over to sniff at her feet and legs.

  “Toby doesn’t nag me about getting on that treadmill,” Grandad said, picking up his book again.

  “Now, Dad, please…,” the woman said. “Just five minutes a day.”

  “I’m not a runner anymore,” Grandad said, and he sounded grumpy. “Running is for tracks and trails. Outside. Not on some kind of machine indoors. Where’s Tyler, anyway? How’s he coming with his running?”

  I heard the woman in the chair say something, but a cart rattling by in the hallway was more interesting to me. Carts often had fascinating things on them; I was beginning to learn that. Sandwiches. Mashed potatoes. Macaroni and cheese. Wiggly bits of Jell-O. I dashed to the door, ready to investigate, but Mona snatched me up before I could get there.

  “No way, Toby. You come with me!” she said, and she took me outside.

  That was the start of something Mona called training.

  Training meant that Mona would sit on the grass beside me and hold a crunchy treat in her hand. “Sit, Toby!” she’d say and press on my rear end until my legs folded up under
neath me.

  Or she’d say, “Down, Toby!” and tug gently on my front legs until I was stretched out on the grass.

  Then I’d get the treat. That was really the only fun part.

  Honestly, I thought we could find some better games to play. But I liked Mona and I liked the treats, so I went along with it.

  Or I went along with it as long as one of my friends didn’t walk out of the doors to join us on the lawn. Then I’d have to run over and greet the new person and see what smells he or she had brought. Or as long as a squirrel didn’t try to climb up one of the trees near the fence, in which case I’d need to chase that squirrel and prop my front legs up on the tree and bark and bark.

  Sometimes Tyler came outside to play Training, and Eddie came to watch now and then as well. Once, Eddie sat down on the grass with us, and I instantly burrowed into his lap, sniffing up all the delicious smells that clung to his skin and his clothing. Eddie smelled better than anyone I had ever met.

  Eddie laughed and took some of the treats from Mona. “Let’s see if I can get in on this training,” he said.

  Mona sat down on the grass to watch us.

  Eddie told me to sit. I did. Then he gently pushed on one of my shoulders until I felt a little bit off balance. I lifted one paw to steady myself.

  “Shake!” Eddie said. He took my lifted paw in his hand. Then he gave me a treat.

  Crunch! I snapped it up. I liked treats. I liked Eddie.

  We did that game a few more times, until I got impatient for the treat. When Eddie said, “Shake!” I didn’t wait for him to push on my shoulder. I just picked up my paw and put it into his hand.

  “Good boy!” Eddie gave me a treat right away. “Smart little thing, isn’t he? He’s going to be a great dog to have around the place.”

  “Maybe,” Mona said with a sigh. “If he can figure out Stay.”

  “He can’t do stay? Let’s see. Give it a try,” Eddie said.

  Mona got up. She had a treat hidden in her fingers. I could smell it. A little drool dripped from my chin as I thought about how much I wanted that treat.

  “Sit!” Mona told me.

  I’d figured that one out. I put my rear end on the grass. My tail beat against the ground.

  But Mona did not give me the treat! How unfair.

  “Stay!” she said, and she took a step backward. Then another.

  Whatever “stay” meant, the important issue was that I wanted that treat! And I wanted Mona! I wanted to play with her and lick her and feel her fingers scratching along my back or rubbing my ears. Why should I just sit and do nothing when I could be with a girl like Mona?

  I jumped up and barked and ran to her, wagging wildly, jumping up to put my feet on her knees and pant up into her face and remind her that I was here and needed to be played with and given a treat.

  “Oh, Toby!” She sighed. She did not give me the treat.

  But I didn’t mind too much. I’d just spotted a wiggly line of gray fur zipping up a tree on the far end of the lawn.

  A squirrel! Squirrels were meant to be chased! I dashed off, barking, as fast as I could go. I could hear Eddie chuckling behind me.

  Running over the grass was wonderful. Eating treats with Mona and Eddie was wonderful. Training was not so wonderful, but I didn’t really mind.

  I was just glad to be outside in the soft grass with that scent I remembered from the Ranch in my nose. The smell of fresh growing things and warm dirt and quickly moving air.

  The smell of running.

  7

  After Mona and I had played Training, she left for the day. That night, Patsy fed me and petted me good-bye. Once she’d left, I lay still in my bed for a while, but I couldn’t go to sleep. So I got up and stretched and wandered to the door of my room.

  I pushed at it with one of my paws, and it swung open.

  Outside, the hallway was dark and quiet. It wasn’t like it was in the daytime, with people walking up and down, some briskly and quickly on their own feet, some slowly in those tall cages they called walkers. There were no carts rattling by and no people in chairs. In fact, there was nobody in sight.

  All that running today in the grass outside had made me remember the Ranch and how I used to sleep in a pile with all my brothers and sisters, cuddled close to my mother’s side. I didn’t feel like sleeping alone. Why should I, when I had so many friends?

  I trotted down the halls until I reached a familiar room. Grandad’s. The door was open a crack. I stuck my nose into the crack so that I could sniff up Grandad’s smell. That made the door open wider. So, naturally, I went inside.

  Grandad was lying in his bed, with a light on over his head. He had a book propped up on his chest. When the door opened, he glanced over and smiled.

  “Hey there, Toby boy,” he said.

  I wagged to hear my name and the affection in his voice. I knew I was welcome, so I hopped up on the end of his bed, turned in a circle a few times, flopped down next to his feet, and sighed with contentment.

  “You telling me it’s time to turn out the light?” Grandad said. He put the book on a bedside table and reached up to touch the lamp next to him. The light vanished. He shifted and settled in the bed, and I waited until he was lying still. Then I wiggled closer so that his feet would keep me warm.

  It felt better to sleep like this than all alone in my bed. Did that mean I belonged to Grandad now?

  It didn’t seem quite right. I liked Grandad, and I was happy to be curled up next to his feet, but he wasn’t the one who fed me. Mona and sometimes Patsy did that. And they both petted me and praised me, and Mona took me outside to the lawn to do the training game.

  But then they left. That happened every day. They left, and I stayed.

  Tyler did the same thing. He played with me, and then he left.

  Grandad didn’t leave. He stayed.

  And there was Eddie, of course. He fed me bacon. My tail twitched a little at the thought. But it didn’t seem likely that I belonged to Eddie. I didn’t even see him every day, although I was happy whenever I did.

  I liked my new home, I really did, especially now that my feet felt better and I could run all I liked. But it was confusing. There were so many people here. Mona and Patsy. Grandad and Tyler. Eddie and Fran. Which one did I belong to?

  I fell asleep wondering.

  In the morning, Grandad stirred and I wiggled up to lick his face. Someone knocked on the door. “Come in!” Grandad called sleepily, pushing me back with one hand and patting me with it at the same time.

  “Excuse me. Have you seen—Toby! There you are!” Mona came in. “I’m so sorry. Did he bother you?”

  “No, no, don’t be sorry,” Grandad said. “I enjoyed the company.”

  Mona scooped me up. “Toby, I’m taking you out. And then we’re going to work on something new!”

  Mona took me outside to squat. Then she brought me back inside and filled up my bowl. Once I’d eaten, she clipped a leash onto my collar. “Come on, Toby. New lesson today.”

  She took me into a room I hadn’t been in before. There was a bed in it, and someone was lying in the bed.

  I perked up as I sniffed, smelling a familiar person. Patsy!

  “Okay, Toby, get on up,” Mona said. “We know you can do it.”

  She patted the bed, and I jumped up beside Patsy.

  “Down, Toby,” Mona said. She took a treat out of her pocket. We were doing Training? That was very strange. Why were we doing Training on a bed?

  But that treat smelled very interesting, so I did it. I lay down.

  “Good boy, Toby,” Mona said. She gave me the treat. Excellent!

  “Good. Now try Lie Still,” Patsy said.

  Patsy! I’d been so busy with the treat that I hadn’t greeted her properly. I jumped up and threw myself across her body to get to her face. I licked her cheeks and her chin and under her neck to show her how much I liked her.

  She pushed me back with one hand. “No, Toby. No!” she said sternly.


  I sat down in astonishment. No? Why was she saying no? I was beginning to learn that word, along with the other ones Mona used in training, and I did not like it. It was even worse than “stay.” Why would anyone say no to licking?

  A striped blanket was covering Patsy’s legs and feet. I pounced on it and grabbed it in my teeth, giving it a good shake. Once Patsy saw that I was ready to play, she wouldn’t say “no” anymore. We’d have fun!

  “Toby, no!” Mona said. I paused with the blanket still gripped between my teeth.

  Both of them saying no? What was going on here?

  “Toby, lie still,” Mona said, reaching out for me.

  I dropped the blanket, jumped away from her hands, and leaped off the bed. If Patsy did not want to play with the blanket, I’d find something else! I tore off toward the small room with my bed.

  Beside the bed was a basket of balls and toys. Good for chewing and also for chasing. I grabbed a rubber ring and trotted back to the room where I’d left Mona and Patsy.

  Now we could play! I jumped up on the bed and showed Patsy the toy. She sighed. “Oh, boy. This really isn’t working out.”

  I dropped the ring on the blanket next to Patsy, but for some strange reason, she did not play with it. She just lay there. Was there something wrong with her? Had she been chewing on her feet?

  “What’s this?” asked a new voice from the doorway. We all looked that way. Fran was standing there. She was frowning. Again.

  “Training,” Patsy said, sitting up.

  I picked up the chew toy and offered it to Patsy again. Surely she’d figure it out this time!

  Fran shook her head. “You can’t train a beagle not to be a beagle,” she said.

  It was not actually that much fun on the bed since Patsy kept ignoring the toy. I jumped off. Mona tried to grab me, but I dodged her hands and ran past Fran’s feet. Then Mona and I had a great game of Chase up and down the hallways.