On this first full day in more than nine years without Toby the Puppy in our lives, I am left to ponder just why his passing has hit me so damn hard.

I figured it out this morning as I rolled out of the rack after a mostly sleepless night.

Toby the Puppy simply bowled us over almost the moment he entered our life in Amarillo in September 2014. It took literally no time for us to fall in love with him … and him with us.

His impact on our family was immediate and everlasting. We learned a lot of things about Toby right from the get-go.

• He loved riding in motor vehicles. All we had to do was mention to him, even as a puppy of just a few months old, “Do you want to go for a ride?” He was good to go. Right then! Right now!
• Toby’s big-dog bark was music to our ears. He used it sparingly. He was not a yipper-yapper. He would bark selectively, such as when someone would approach the front door. He knew that if both Mommy and Daddy were home, that the person who was knocking at the door might not be welcome. If it was our sons, he learned quickly to recognize them. Oh, and Emma? Well, that’s another matter. He loved our granddaughter wholeheartedly … and she loved him back.
• Toby was five months old when he joined us. He had precisely two potty mistakes in our house. We never had to swat him. We simply told him, “No, Puppy. You can’t do that in the house.” I’m telling ya, he understood what we said. He didn’t do it ever again.
• We showered him with expressions of love several times every day. And he knew what the words “I love you” meant. How do I know that? I just did, OK?
• Toby loved to travel with Kathy Anne and me. We must have driven more than 15,000 miles with him in our truck as we hauled our RV across the nation. He saw the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone National Park, the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes; we toured through the western half of Canada … all with Toby the Puppy. He could sit quietly and ride with the best of ’em.

After I lost my bride to cancer earlier this year, Toby the Puppy stepped it up some more by being by my side constantly. He grieved right along with the rest of us. However, he continued to make us smile every day.

He was a constant source of joy for all who met him, knew him and, of course, loved him.

I will miss my one-of-a-kind pal.