Alright Hobbs, knock the cover off the ball!

When my wife and I married 13 years ago, we wanted to give ourselves a wedding present upon return from our honeymoon. We're both dog lovers, so it was natural that we started our family with a puppy before even thinking of having any kids.

Our search began and ended at Wayside Waifs. While trying to find that perfect dog, my attention was soon captured by a little black Labrador mix. The folks at Wayside allowed us to take him into a special room to get acquainted with the little puppy, and he immediately came over to my shoe and untied it with his mouth. This was our dog.

The next step was deciding on what to name him. Being a huge baseball fan, I was thinking of anything associated with the sport. Then I thought of what my favorite movies were that had to do with baseball. "The Natural" is one of my all time favorites, and I've always been fascinated by the lead character Roy Hobbs. I didn't want to call him Roy...too many dogs named Roy. How about Hobbs? That's a cool name. My wife liked it, and Hobbs was "born" to the Spano family in July of 2000.

The headline to this piece is a line from "The Natural" when Roy Hobbs comes to bat in a game for the very first time. He laces a triple into the gap in left-center field, and in the process, actually knocks the cover off the ball. It's that moment in the movie you know that Roy Hobbs is a very special ballplayer.

Hobbs was about as good-natured and playful of a dog as anyone could have right from the beginning. Sure he was a bit wild and rambunctious, but that's how most puppies act. We were strict and meticulous in our training. He learned all the basic commands of "sit," "stay," "lie down," and so forth. But what we liked best about him was how he became loyal and protective. He wasn't a vicious watchdog by any stretch of the imagination. If an intruder happened to enter our home, he would give a few, loud barks and then probably lick them into an uncontrollable laughter.

When a car door slammed outside, that was always the worst...especially in the middle of the night. I don't know how many times I hit the ceiling after waking up from his loud bark. But I loved the fact that he loved us and wanted to protect his territory.

He never suffered from separation anxiety like a lot of dogs can when we left the house for lengthy periods of time. We began to trust him more and more and as he got older, we allowed him to roam the entire house when we were gone. Rarely was there an accident, but never was anything damaged.

Hobbs became a great lake companion. He loved our weekend trips to the Lake of the Ozarks during the summer, the excitement almost too unbearable for him...and us. Being a black dog, it didn't take much for him to overheat, so he wasn't shy about getting into the water to cool off.

When my wife became pregnant with our first child, we had heard stories about how dogs can become jealous or even withdraw when a baby joins the family and is the new center of attention. Hobbs, although extremely curious at first, couldn't have been better suited for the situation. Somehow he knew, when my son Jack was born, this new person was part of the family, and he was someone he had to love and protect too. It was uncanny the way he took to Jack immediately.

It happened again just three short years later when my daughter Emily was born. This was becoming old hat for Hobbs.

My kids grew to love Hobbs as well. His gentle nature around kids and even strangers when they entered my home was something to behold.

But somewhere along the way, Hobbs got older. His bark became muted, although still startling me in the middle of the night or when he saw a stranger walk down the street. His hearing began to go. His walk became slower. And in the end, he began eating less.

My final memory of Hobbs will be when the veterinarian opened the door of the exam room while he lay motionless on the floor with a catheter in his leg and he sees me, my wife and my two kids for the very last time, his eyes glassy and sad, as he musters enough energy to wag his tail.

The four of us gathered around our friend for a last time as he took his final breaths, ending a short, and I hope painless, bout with cancer.

I will miss the jingle of his collar, the look on his face when I'd leave the house for work every morning, the look on his face when I'd get home from work every night, the excitement he'd show when we went to the lake, the times he wanted to play fetch with the ball, whenever he begged for popcorn, watching him roll around in the grass. I will miss everything about him.

I'm sure someday we'll bring another dog into our family, but for now, we'll grieve together for a fantastic friend and family member.

We'll have memories and photographs and stories to keep Hobbs alive in our hearts and in our minds. We knew that it was that moment in our "movie" that when we selected him, or should I say when he selected us, that we had a very special dog.

My wife and I really did knock the cover off the ball when we got Hobbs.