Tag: beach

1994: Toby is Dead. Long live Toby.

I never saw him in his final days but I did get a last good-bye.

(last updated: 25 November 2025)

In 1994, I made the film “Toby is Dead” with our Border Collie for media class and the teacher Karen showed it to the whole class for inspiration on one of the days I happened to be absent.

I used all the tricks he knew and completed the film without editing as a string of one-shot takes where he walks around Como park, swims in the Yarra River, crosses the road, passes a beer bottle and cruises around until he finally makes it home to be greeted by my mum at the end of the hallway!

While that film is now lost, there is a short snippet of Toby here (at 0.13) that I filmed in 1989:

Toby did die within a year when we were on a trip to Bali in early 1995.

I originally wanted to call the film ‘Lassie is Dead’ with Toby meant to be Lassie’s replacement.

But then I changed the name simply to ‘Toby is Dead,’ not sure why, I think I wanted the film to be a memoir for the day when his time would finally pass. Looking back, I think it was a poor choice. Really, the title should’ve been “Toby is Dead, Long Live Toby!” or just “Toby Lives!” because legends never die and heroes live forever.

Easy dog to train, very intelligent breed.

My mother said, “I can’t believe you called it Toby is Dead, you must’ve had a premonition” but I didn’t really have any strong premonition, although I was aware that he was slowing down and perhaps I was mentally preparing for him dying, due to my memory of Cocoa. He was in the same litter.

In Bali, he was being looked after by my grandparents by the sea and he was sick when we left him.

So it was a bittersweet holiday, that’s for sure, with the regular phone updates from my grandfather.

Prior to us leaving, we thought he would recover. The diagnosis was vague.

Like with Desmond…

[ 2000 ] [ 2001? ]

…I never saw him in his final hours. Perhaps he would have wanted it that way.

However, the local vet kept the corpse and after arriving home from Bali, Toby M (the musician, not the dog) and I dug a grave for him in the front garden behind the fence. The vet came over and put the corpse into the grave and the pair covered him in lime. (see T below)

At that moment, I was waiting near the house because I didn’t want to see the carcass due to my distress.

When the vet left, Toby M and I filled the grave with dirt. The vet said he probably had stomach cancer and we put it down to him drinking Yarra River water when he went for a swim as he splashed around. He looked to be snapping away at the splashes he made.  But I also once saw his dog food covered in slugs when it stayed out overnight, uneaten. It was best for it to be kept inside. Also, the quality of dog food has improved since that time, I suspect.

And Last Good-bye came out around that time too. But it never made it onto the soundtrack. It was absent.

Maybe Toby heard the song too.
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