The last family vacation we took was to Sunset Beach the summer that my brothers and I were 18, 19, and 20 years old. Of course we would spend the days walking around and talking to girls.

We met a group of girls from Virginia, and decided to tell them that we were triplets. We all have similar builds, and look roughly the same age. We kept this story going all day, and then we ran into our parents.

One of the girls asked our mom if it was true that we were triplets. We all figured our story was over, since mom is incapable of lying. Instead of lying, she said to the girl, “I was there when all of them were born.” She didn’t exactly answer the question, but she did tell the truth, and we got to keep our silly story going for the day.

When my mom was training Toby, she went about it the usual way, where you say a command, and give him the treat when he does what you taught him to do.  What she didn’t realize was that she not only said the command, but she also did a hand motion with each command.

Toby picked up on not only the words, but the hand motions as well.  So eventually, you didn’t even have to say the command.  You could just do the motion and he would perform the trick.

When my brother Michael was in high school, he had a project for his Spanish class.  He decided to “teach his dog Spanish.”  All he had to do was learn the Spanish words for sit, shake, lie down, roll over, and play dead.  He took Toby to school with him, gave him all the commands, and did the hand motions.  Of course, everyone was looking at the dog, not at his hands, so it looked like he had actually taught the dog Spanish.  And he got an A.

I started delivering newspapers when I was nine years old, and did it until our local paper changed from afternoons to mornings, when I was 14.  Every day after school I would ride my bike and deliver 40-50 papers.  On Sunday mornings, I would deliver about 120 papers, which were about 3 times the size of the weekday papers, with the extra sections, plus all the comics, coupons, and advertisements.  Which meant that I used a wheeled garden cart to haul the papers, and Toby would walk with me.

Toby never needed to be on a leash.  He always stayed close by.  When I went into apartment buildings, he would wait for me by the door.  And he was so smart that he learned the route.  He knew which houses we delivered to, and which ones we skipped.  I didn’t know that he knew that route until the first time a customer cancelled their delivery.  I was walking past their house, but Toby turned up their driveway.  He knew that we normally delivered there.  I called him back, and laughed out loud at how smart that dog was.  He remembered the next week.  When we got to that house, he just walked past.

I always felt that I was actually an adult, even when I was a little boy.  I wanted nothing more than to be independent.  My first chance at independence came when I was 2 years old.  I was in the front yard with my mom when the phone rang.  She went in the house to answer it, and when she came out, I was gone.

We lived five doors down from the nearest cross street.  She looked up towards that street, just in time to see my blonde hair bouncing out of sight around the corner.  She ran after me, and brought me back home.

I have no idea where I thought I was going, but I knew I wanted to go.  It took me another 16 years before I actually moved out.

My brothers and I wanted a dog.  I mean, what little boys don’t want a dog?  Of course, our dad, being angry at everything, insisted that there was no way we were ever going to get a dog.  The more we begged, the more insistent he became.

Then one day, dad was driving home from work, down a long stretch state route.  It was a busy road, and carried a lot of truck traffic, as it ran parallel to the interstate.  He passed a pull-off area where truckers would park overnight, and he saw a small black puppy by the side of the road.

As he drove on, he thought about how bad he would feel if he drove by the next day and saw the puppy dead on the road, so he turned around, intending to pick up the puppy and drop him off at the shelter on his way home.  When he got back to the pull-off, and got out of the car, he saw that the puppy was sitting on a plastic garbage  bag, that he had appeared to have clawed his way out of.

Dad stepped back from the open car door, and told the puppy that he could get in if he wanted to.  He trotted over and climbed onto the front seat, and dad got back in and started driving.  This being 1980, the car had a bench seat, and as dad drove, the puppy crawled across the front seat until his little furry head was resting on dad’s leg.  When he looked down into those dark brown eyes looking up at him, his heart melted.

When dad got home from work that day, he pulled the car into the driveway, but he didn’t get out.  Finally, mom went out to see why he was just sitting in the driveway.  After how emphatic he had been that we were never getting a dog, he was trying to figure out how to explain to us that he had changed his mind.  Of course, we didn’t care about his reasons at all.  We were thrilled to have a dog, however it came to us.

We named him Toby.  Well, technically his name was Toby-Wan Kenobi.  Did I mention that this was 1980?  The Empire Strikes Back had just come out, and he was our little Jedi puppy.  He was a spaniel mix, and grew to about 35 pounds.  He was with us for 14 years, and was the best dog a family could have asked for.