HANCEVILLE, Ala. (AP) - A week ago, his future looked dim. Limping, dirty, and alone, a then-nameless pupper was spotted by residents at Hanceville Nursing Home, bedded down in a nearby field and looking like he might just be ready to give up on life. A day earlier, motorists on U.S. Highway 31 had seen him gingerly favoring his left side, this time with a companion dog, in the same area.
Now, the big, beautiful lab-Great Pyrenees mix has a name - Toby - and a completely new lease on life. Taken in by the Hanceville Police Department until a willing adopter came forward, the gentle giant has spent the past week inside the records office at HPD headquarters, nipping at the heartstrings of assistant police records administrator Blake Burns…an inadvertent tactic that finally moved Burns, a confessed dog lover, to adopt (and name) Toby himself.
It’s a story that couldn’t have a happier ending for Toby. But when Hanceville officer Kyle Duncan first picked him up, Toby’s future looked sad indeed. A trip to the vet revealed a pair of old wounds to his right foreleg, injuries that the veterinarian believes indicate that, at some point in the past, someone had shot him with a small-caliber weapon - likely a .22 pistol. That’s the leg that gives Toby his mobility trouble, though in the wake of some police TLC and a round of pain medicine, it shouldn’t hamper his long-term doggie dreams of galloping in the grass.
“It’s an older injury, and we thought maybe it was beginning to cause him pain again since he’s been outside all this time with the weather turning colder,” says Burns. “He’ll limp when he walks, but he can run, and if he’s going through those scratching motions after he’s used the bathroom, he can kick up dirt like there’s nothing wrong with him. We think he’s gonna be alright.”
Records staffer Michelle Allen has shared the same close-quartered office space as Burns has with Toby over the past week, and she, too, has formed a bond with her new pal - whom she’ll soon be doggie-sitting when Burns leaves for an out-of-town trip.
“I just want to know what kind of person would shoot a dog like this. It’s really pitiful. And just look at him,” she says, as Toby lazes upside-down nearby, freely giving out paw like everyone’s new best friend. “He loves for you to pet him. I believe he would take petting all day long, if you gave it to him.”
Toby couldn’t have asked for a better rags-to-riches story. With Burns, he’s about to find a home on a large patch of rural farmland in Blount County, where he’ll be top dog (that means the biggest by far) among Burns’ happy little group of rescue pups. Toby will tower over Coco (a 20 year-old hairless Chihuahua with a painful history of her own), as well as a hairless mix with a hard-knock past named Pee Wee (just guess why he’s named that), and Rocky, a Manchester terrier. All of Toby’s new pals are rescue-dog veterans, so he’s starting out his new life with a canine family that definitely shares some hard times in common.
“All my dogs are rescues, and the way I feel about it is, you don’t know where they could have wound up,” says Burns. “You don’t know if he would’ve ended up just chained to a tree.”
Fat chance of that happening now, though. Toby’s still in need of a bath (“We tried, and he doesn’t like that,” jokes Allen), but he’s already dining like a doggie duke. “I went and got him some of this new dog food last night; it’s that Pure Balance stuff. It’s got bison and venison in it. It’s expensive, but he scarfs that stuff up like crazy,” says Burns. Toby sits nearby, looking with agreement from a face that’s part-grateful…and part-hungry.
It’s been almost exactly one year since Hanceville city clerk Tania Wilcox persuaded mayor Kenneth Nail to allow another rescue dog - who’s since gone on to become building’s unofficial mascot - to take up permanent residence just a few short steps away inside city hall. Wilcox calls the elder rescue pupper “Hancen” (pronounced “Hanson”) in commemoration of the city’s namesake founder. But what led Burns to name his new rescue “Toby?”
“We were trying to figure out a name for him, and we started just going down the line calling him stuff - and he just seemed to respond pretty well to ‘Toby,’” he says.
“I’ve always liked the name ‘Tobias.’ I’ve always wanted a little boy named ‘Tobias,’ so at least now I’ve got a ‘Toby.’ He’s not a little boy, but he’s about to be out on the farm soon…hanging around with all the cows.”
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