My family has always been fairly tranquil, even boring at times, which has always been reflected in the personality of our dog. Daisy, our Beardie of 15 years, was often approaching comatose. She slept constantly, both in the house and on the front lawn, and never had to be on a leash. If anyone passed by she would never think of moving off the property, but she would bark sometimes.

After her death we were lucky enough to find Toby and Ann Dixon's rescue outside of Montreal. We drove to pick him up, loved his nature and talked about him throughout our long drive to Toronto while the dog slept all the way home. What a wonderful guy!

That was it. Toby woke up the next morning full of energy. he had eaten the telephone, which had to be replaced, chewed the remote control for the car alarm, resulting in the car locks consistently going up and down for three days non-stop, and on numerous occasions he has taken the dishes out of the dishwasher and into the living room. What a guy! He barks at everyone, especially those on bicycles, and on at least one occasion he tore the leash from my hand and ran 3 blocks after a 7 year old cyclist who was terrified of Toby's kisses. He jumps on everyone he sees and at 6:00am jumps on my bed because he wants to go for a walk. What a guy!

Toby has added spunk and life to my family of 3 children which I am sure you can appreciate was about the last thing we really needed. He is comical, lovable and truly loved. Last week he was neutered which was very traumatic for us all. My daughter's job was to take Toby to the vet early in the morning. The two boys went off to school, but called home 4 times to check his condition. I went out of town because I guess the pain was too much to handle. I did make several phone calls to the vet though. Is he ok? Out of surgery? Crying? Thirsty? In pain? At 4:00pm he was picked up by a friend while we waited at home for the patient. At 4:30 the car drove up. Toby came running in the house, bounding up the stairs, on the couch, on the bed, jumping over chairs. You would never know that he was the patient as he was full of the usual energy, eating my tennis shoes. The family on the other hand was in bed by 9:00pm, exhausted from the stress of the surgery.

To be serious for a moment, we have found Toby to be a wonderful and loving dog that has become a very integral, yet active part of our family. Everyone in the neighbourhood knows him by name, although they don't know me or my wife who have lived here for 25 years. Although he is truly a character, we love him so much that we don't even care that he has us wrapped around his finger (paw).