We adopted Toby (Judah to HART) on October 2, 2010 after falling in love with him at an adoption event. He was a Rottweiler mix, about a year and a half old, and only 40 pounds. That is almost half the size of a normal Rottie and that was perfect because we didn't want too big of a dog since we live in a townhouse.
Toby was surrendered to HART by his owner in July 2010 when the owner realized that he had a very sick puppy that he could not care for. Toby had been badly neglected, he was full of worms, had dry skin and dull fur, weighed only 21 pounds, and on top of all that, he tested positive for parvo. After a short stay at the vet he went home with his foster mom, Cailan, to get healthy. He was still dangerously underweight and a bit timid but Cailan proved to be the most amazing foster mom and helped Toby become an outgoing, loving, sweet, and energetic dog.
When we brought Toby home on October 4, he was full of life, loved peanut butter, was house broken, crate trained and loved making friends with all of our friends; furry and human alike. He became an integral part of our family and we couldn't imagine life without him. He soon learned that even though he was not allowed on the furniture without being invited that we loved for him to lay on our laps while we were in our recliners. His favorite trick was to put his front paws up on our knees and stare at us expectantly until we pulled the handle to put the recliner footrest up. He would then snuggle with us and watch TV. His favorite show was Cops because he loved to watch the canine officers get the bad guy.
Toby also loved riding in the car with the window down and his favorite place to go was of course the dog park. We tried to take him at least once a week, since we didn't have a back yard for him to run in, so he made a lot of doggy and human friends. We even met up with his foster mom Cailan and the dogs she was fostering at the time to play at the dog park and go to the farmer's market. The dogs loved it and the visits with Cailan soon turned into a great friendship.
In October, we noticed that Toby seemed to be urinating a lot more than normal and he started having accidents in his crate. We decided to take him to the vet to see if there was something wrong with him. The vet determined that he had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) and put him on antibiotics for two weeks. Ten days after he finished the meds the vet wanted to see him for a follow-up. At the follow-up he was still having accidents in his crate so the vet decided to do some blood work and urine cultures.
On November 23, the blood work revealed that Toby had acute renal (kidney) failure. The disease was already considered Stage 3. The vet didn't know what had caused the failure but she asked that we do more tests to find out. The tests all came back negative. So the next step was a doggy ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed that he had no abnormalities in his kidneys that caused the disease, like stones, so we were left with the knowledge that he was more than likely born with the disease.
On January 3, 2011 we had his blood work done again and learned that the kidney failure had progressed to Stage 4. We couldn't believe it because he was very energetic, still loved going to the dog park to play, and the vet had hoped he could live with the disease for at least a year or two.
By January 10 he was so sick due to the kidney failure and the anemia that it caused him to throw up constantly and he wouldn't eat. We took Toby to the vet and she gave him subcutaneous fluids to ward off dehydration and something to help with the nausea. The vet informed us we could give him shots to help with the anemia but the shots may only help for two weeks before he became immune and since the kidney failure was progressing so quickly the shots for the anemia may not improve his quality of life or even prolong it. So we made the decision on January 12 that the best thing for Toby was to let him go to a better place. He entered Doggy Heaven on January 14. We miss him like crazy but we know he is now free of the disease.
Even though Toby was only with us for a short time we can't thank Cailan and HART enough for bringing such an amazing dog into our lives.
We love you and miss you Toby!
Trevor and Wendy