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Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Deep relationship between owner, pet proven by hardship
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Toby, a black-and-white Shih Tzu, came to the family when he was a pup. He was loyal and his love steadfast, very unhumanlike.
For a while, he was the closest thing to family Matt Ammons had.
“I went through a pretty rough time,” he said, noting the devastating divorce of his parents.
Three years ago, the 24-year-old Knoxville native moved to Gwinnett. He’d been hired as the music minister at Victory World Church in Norcross. Toby, a gift from a cousin, moved with him.
On May 18, Ammons and Toby took their usual morning walk around the neighborhood. He put the dog back in the townhouse he shares with two housemates and headed to work. Somehow during the day, the nearly blind 12-year-old pooch got out.
After work that night, Ammons spent hours searching for Toby. He canvassed his neighborhood off Sugarloaf Parkway and Old Norcross Tucker Road. No Toby. He went back to the church that night and printed out 100 “lost pet” fliers. He checked the animal shelter.
Nothing.
The bond between a pet and its owner is just as strong as that of a parent and child. A friend of mine, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Grogan, says people can learn a lot about life from their dogs, stuff like loyalty and devotion. He ought to know.
He wrote a memoir about a Labrador retriever that he and his wife, Jenny, brought home before they had three kids. “Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World’s Worst Dog,” makes burly men cry. It’s a New York Times best seller and may be turned into a movie.
Ammons understands why the tale of Marley resonates with so many people.
“They say dogs are man’s best friends,” he said. “That’s definitely a fact. Anytime I was down or hurting or anything, Toby would be there to love on and to hold. You definitely build a relationship with them. A lot of times people aren’t there for you when you need them. I can say that I could always rely on my dog.”
Three days after Toby vanished, a roommate found the canine near a lake, in a spot that Ammons had searched the day Toby first went missing. I saw photographs of Toby’s condition. Poor dog. Someone had apparently tried to burn him. Parts of his rear and back legs looked like charred marshmallows.
“There were rolled up newspapers that had not burned all the way,” Ammons told me. “There’s no way he made it to where he was found alone because the path to get there was even difficult for me. He probably went into shock and more than likely died there.”
Ammons is trying to find the miscreant(s) who did this. A colleague has put up a $500 reward for information. The sordid tale of Toby makes me think of a line from a Curtis Mayfield song. “If there’s a hell below, we’re all gonna go.” Well, let’s hope not.
But I’d imagine that, somewhere, there’s a special place for people who would torture an animal to its death.
If you have information about Toby, please contact Matt Ammons at 770-597-9972.
