Goodbye Toby

Our faithful, little, lazy lizard has passed away.  For the past ten years, Toby, has been a companion, a toy,  and a constant source of entertainment in this house.  Whenever someone would enter this house, the first thing the kids would do was get the lizard and show him off to the visitor.  The first thing that the kids would do when they came home from school was get him out of his cage.  He was carried around, plopped down, and even fought over by all of my children.  In short, he was very, very loved.  But over the past year or so, we could see the signs of old age beginning to take effect.  He fell one too many times, and was slightly paralyzed from his midsection down.  We are fairly certain that he couldn't see out of one of his eyes, and he had a hard time picking up his food.  But we continued to hold him, feed him and care for him.  We were a little more delicate and gentle, but not any less loving.  He has finally left us and in his wake, there is a big hole in our hearts.  We will miss our favorite lizard.