Exit Max, enter Toby
I met Max for the first, and last, time when I was at home in June for the parents' golden wedding anniversary. He had joined the family in early spring after a rigorous selection process. Max was a dog, I should add.
My mother is very fussy about dogs and she surely tested a dozen before settling on Max. The unsuccessful candidates failed either because they weren't gentle companions or didn't bark loud enough at strangers or were overly fond of sheep. Finding a dog that combines friendship with wariness and restraint is not an easy task because those virtues are somewhat contradictory. Good watchdogs tend to be fierce, and it isn't easy to get them to step out of the role; good canine companions tend to be trusting and that's not always the best quality in a rural Ireland where gangs of young blackguards have made robbing isolated farmhouses their profession. And then there's the sheep. Most dogs sense that the wool bearers are dim creatures and they enjoy a bit of laugh by chasing them around the fields. The trouble with this fun is that it usually ends in tears as the dogs don't give up until the sheep have run themselves through fences or over cliffs. Given the economics of mutton and wool, the sheep owners get upset at the loss and the dogs have to die.
Die Max did but it wasn't because of rustling. No, he was doing some roadwork when a neighbour drove over him last month. It's the kind of thing that happens in the countryside. The roads are narrow, the drivers young and the vehicles ever more powerful.
A family from the Cork side turned up with Toby. Apparently, the children had tired of her. The name, which is usually associated with males, dates from puppyhood and confusion about the dog's gender. He was actually a she but the name stuck. My mother writes:
"Toby is going good. When she's let loose she'll stay outside the back door with bones. So far she can't get out of the yard. The sheep will be the next investigation. I'd say if she got out the field she' run after them. That would be too bad."
I want Toby to succeed.
