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.