Sometimes it seems as if pets come into our lives in exactly the right time. That was certainly the case for Tobillo, the dog who spent many loyal years with the family of composer and actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, who first discovered the pup abandoned as a stray on a beach in the Dominican Republic. But these same pets always seem to leave too early. Last week, Miranda and his family had to say goodbye to their beloved companion, and he wrote her a beautiful tribute.
“Tobillo chose us,” Miranda writes. “She was a stray puppy surviving on Cabarete Beach when she spotted Vanessa, propped her front legs on Vanessa’s beach chair and nipped her ankle.” (Tobillo, ankle in Spanish, is in honor of this moment. “ She knew exactly the heart to melt to make a better life for herself.”
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The cat seemed to instantly know where she was.
Miranda goes on to explain that he was actually working on the piece of music that would become “Dear Theodosia” from his hit show Hamilton, and that the lyrics about the meaningful new member of the family seemed to take on new life when they adopted the dog.
A Family Dog
For more than thirteen years, Tobillo was his constant companion. “She was the best writing partner anyone could ask for,” Miranda says, “happily walking me around the neighborhood until I had the lyrics I needed at any given time.” And when the family had children, she was always by their side, as another famous Miranda lyric goes.
Over a slideshow of pictures of Miranda and his family with Tobillo over the years, he tells stories of their favorite moments, of her quirks that he attributes to her former life as a stray beach dog.
She Never Forgot the Beach
“She’d do this weird dance every time she got on a couch or bed: bucking back and forth like a weird reindeer, before spinning around and collapsing. It wasn’t until we brought her back to the beach a year later that we realized it was a move from her survival days: digging past the hot sand until she could settle in the cool earth below.”
Tobillo was a medium sized, mixed-breed dog with a wiry coat and a terrier-like face, and she’s featured in much media about Miranda during his rise to stardom, a testament to how close the two were.
“Thank you for choosing us, Tobi,” the artist writes. “Our hearts are broken but it would be selfish to ask for more than the time you gave us. Here’s to cool earth and dropped food and long happy walks. I love you and wherever I go you are with me.”
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