Toby Book

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Chapter 13

     Just after I turned seven, my folks decided to move out of the city.  We moved about 20 miles south of the city where we lived to a small town of about 175 people.  Mom was getting into taking dogs to dog shows, and she wanted to live where she could have more than the three dogs that were allowed in the city.
     I've lived in rural areas ever since.  Except for one brief interlude that Toby and I could not stand.  It was not a pleasant experience.
     When my folks moved to the country, they kept their jobs in town.  My Mom worked for the same doctor from 1957 until she retired in 2000.  After she moved, she had to commute 32 miles each way.  Living out in the country made it hard to get to work sometimes because the county often didn't make it a  priority to clean off the rural roads.  She didn't have any trouble getting to work when it was just snowy, because she had an old International Scout four-wheel drive.  My Dad never did have any trouble driving in bad weather.
     One year, we had a series of terrible ice storms.  We even lost power for an extended period.  Mom was having a terrible time getting to work in the slick conditions.  So, she decided to move back to town.  I have to say that I don't understand what came over my Mother at this point.  She decided to sell all of her show dogs.  Everyone of them!! Including my Dad's rottweiler, Abraham.  She even wanted me to sell Toby so that she had better choices of apartments and condominiums to move in to.  I said no way.  I told her that if she tried to pull that, I was gone.  I was a senior in high school at this time.  I would have left too if she would have pressed me. 
     She found an apartment in town to move into.  Toby and I just about died.  We absolutely could not stand that place.  It was a nice apartment as far as apartments go, but it was just terrible with all of the noise and confinement.  I could only take Toby out on the leash, and he hated it.  Mom was happy because she was close to work.
     Well, Toby and I decided to try and make the best of bad situation.  I told him that we could endure until  I was done with high school, and then we could escape. 
     Then came a bad night.  I decided to take a walk with Toby down through the back part of the apartment complex that led in back of some businesses in the area.  We were a few blocks away when a car with three men in it pulled up.  They rolled down the window and started making vulgar statements at me.  I ignored them, and then one of the men told me to get in the car.  About two blocks down, another car pulled on to the road, and the men in the car drove off.
     Well, Toby and I headed for somewhere safe.  We took off fast.  Unfortunately, this was the time before cellphones, so I couldn't call the police. 
     Before we got very far, these same guys came back round again.  They stopped, and one of them got out of the car.  This set Toby off.  He started growling, and every hair on his back was on end.  He ran to the end of the leash and started barking his head off.  The man who got out of the car started laughing, but he didn't laugh long when Toby got loose from me.  He took after them.  The man jumped back in his car and they took off.  Thank God, Toby came back when I called him, but he was mad. If I hadn't been with Toby, those guys would have jumped me. 
    We made it back to the apartment quick.  The police never did catch the men. 
    We lived in the apartment for about seven weeks.  My Dad finally put his foot down.  He usually did whatever my Mom wanted to do, but he wasn't liking the apartment.  We still had the house, and Dad wanted to move back.  And we did.  What a dreadful episode.
     One good thing happened.  The people who bought Abraham called us about one week after we moved back home.  They said that Abraham was too much for them to handle, and wanted to know if Dad would take him back.  He sure did.
     I like living away from people.  Unfortunately, my health may not let me live in the rural areas too long.  As I get older, it gets harder to take care of everything.  I don't know if I will be able to stand living in town.  One thing I know, Toby saved the day.  He was just a corgi, but he was fierce.  He sounded mean when he growled. 
     Toby saved the day one other time.  My Dad had trouble with his heart, so he retired when I was a freshman in college.  On days when I got back early from class,(this is after I graduated from Bible college and was going to a different college and not going to school at home) Dad and I would sometimes go to the little town about seven miles to the south and have lunch at the buffet restaurant.  We got back home, and I could hear Toby going crazy barking and growling inside the house.
     I went inside, and Toby was barking and barking at my parents bedroom window.  I went outside, and I discovered the source.  While my Dad and I were away, someone had tried to break in.  The screen on the window was cut, probably with a knife.  I could see where the intruder had tried to force open the lock and get the window up.  The thief must have thought better of it when he heard Toby.  Toby sounded meaner than my Dad's rottweiler.  The thief probably thought that there was a monster in the house and split.  Once again, Toby kept me safe.