Cosmo Toth

My boy Cosmo
The plan was to go on a cross country road trip and bring him along. We bought a nice SUV so he would be comfortable. He liked traveling with us. Unfortunately, old age and lots of pain got to him first. We took turns sleeping next to him on the floor as he was crying all night and was only comforted in some way when we were with him. The doctors at Little Silver animal hospital had been making his life easier but he declined drastically in the last 48 hours. Dr Nicole was an angel in helping him on his final journey.
Cosmo was a rescue. He had three homes before he came to us, and to show his gratitude he remodeled all of my shoes. He also found Laura Ashley quilts and pillow cases to be quite satisfying. He was already trained to sit on the couch when we got him. He had designer ears with little spots on them, one in the shape of a heart. We think his first language was probably Spanish as he seemed to not understand a word we said. That may be true but he also had selective hearing; like me. I would call him to come in from the back yard and he would just stare at me like a cow in a pasture. But when I said “mommy’s home” he would bolt to the door to greet her. He was needy and at the same time, somewhat aloof. He loved to run in the woods with me and loved hashing with the boys and mountain biking in the parks. He liked to take off after the “front running bastards” or FRB’s for short but seemed to always know where I was even if I couldn’t see him. As he got older we just walked in the woods and walked around the neighborhood until even that was too much for him. His last walk on Thursday may have been 100 yards. Still, it took over half an hour.
Cosmo loved babies and children and without exception, was the gentlest dog I have ever known. Young ones and toddlers could hand feed him without concern. He let them dress him up and pile toys and hats on him and babies could climb on him and lay all over him and he would just let them. When babies showed up at our house, he could would just love them to death.
I would often be able to take Coz to work with me. I was working on a empty mansion on Navesink River Rd when he got out of the house in the snow. It took Greg Strasser and I about 30 minutes to catch him as he ran circles around us playing the snow. Another time while still working at the same house in the spring he got loose and ran across the street to the Navesink County Club, where they were having an outing. He thought that was just fun as he chased golf balls and ran through the sand traps for 40 minutes before he got tired and went over to a caddie and leaned against him, allowing me to put his leash back on. Another time he was in the back yard of the property, where the pool was covered in duck weed from lack of use and cleaning and he thought he could walk on it. He hated getting wet and that was a big surprise. And he didn't like it.
Cosmo had a lot of friends. Some of them were dogs, and he loved all dogs, but most were people.  Wayne at Home Depot in Long Branch would see Cosmo and call out to him from across the store. Of course, Wayne always had treats. He would always be ready to take a ride in the truck to visit his friends at Fair Haven Hardware, where he was treated like a king. He always had to smell the fertilizer first then pick out a squeaky toy pig before getting treats from all of his friends there. He was a model for some of the dogs I painted on the windows over the years. The average life expectancy of a squeaky pig toy was about twelve hours.
It is a shame that our canine friends have such short life expectancy but I think it could be harder for our pets to outlive us, as they could not really process what happens. We are heartbroken after losing our little buddy, as he was such a part of our daily lives that we feel like we have a hole in our hearts that can’t be filled. I went through my pictures and found that Cosmo was my favorite subject. I made an album of him which I will share some of my favorite shots.