Sir Tumbleweed

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: Undetermined

Don’t question that look
In the eyes of your dog
It’s just that he already knows
The heart that he won
The day that he come
He must surely break when he goes.

"I have lots of very fond memories of Bob. He and my dad were very close and they spent a lot of time together working on songs or just enjoying each other's company. I remember Bob's dog "Tumble". Bob never stopped mourning for the loss of that beautiful black lab that he loved so much. Bob was a very special human. He was reclusive by nature but still capable of real friendship and affection. He could be quiet and appear aloof but he had a wonderful sense of humor and I can remember he and my dad giggling like kids over some shared joke. He loved the sound of the Spanish language and he and my grandmother would speak Spanish together for hours. I think that some of the happiest times that my father had were with Bob."
—Wayne Perryman

When Sir Tumbleweed died, Bob did not replace him. Stuart Hamblen attempted to give him one of his hound pups but Bob refused, saying his dog couldn’t be replaced. This bothered Stuart who said at Bob's memorial on July 27, 1980:

"He didn’t want any hound dogs, he didn’t want any horses. He had one dog and his wife will tell you that when that dog died…. I heard about the dog dying and I went over and I said, 'Bob, my daughter raises a lot of those Labrador retrievers so we’d like for to give you one.' And here’s what he said, 'No. My dog and I talked that over before he died and he didn’t think I needed another dog.' I never had a man talk to me like that in my life. People say he was crazy. Maybe he had an insight I never had. That was Bob Nolan. A strange, strange man."

This little scrap of paper was found among Bob's affects after his sudden death in 1980.

Sir Tumbleweed, the Nolan’s Labrador Retriever, better known as ‘Tumble’, ever attentive to Bob and P-Nuts in the garden of their San Fernando Valley home. (Pioneer News No. 10-13, p.35 (1980)