Murphy was 15 months old when he
finally was in my life forever. From the beginning there was an unspoken bond between us that is hard to describe.
We both just knew that our lives were meant to be shared and that our hearts were joined.
He instantly became my shadow.
Wherever I was, there was Murphy always smiling and learning his special "murphspeak" at a young age. He came to us
with one bone and a rope toy. A few days later while investigating his new house, Murph came across a huge pile of stuffed
animals in my son's room. We watched as he ever so carefully carried one after another downstairs to the living room,
so proud of his discovery. From then on, Murph was definitely the "king of the woobies", and had a passion for stuffed
animals. He would not go anywhere without one in his mouth (Murph's favorite motto was "Never leave home without
one!" They were his "babies".
Some of the best times we had were
early morning walks and runs. With "wooby" in mouth, he and I would set out when it was still quiet and barely
getting light. Every once in awhile, he would look up at me with pure joy in his eyes as if to say "Mom, life doesn't
get any better than this!" On our walks Murph discovered that another one of life's fun things to do was to attack the
revolving sprinkler heads trying to get a drink of water. He perfected the technique of rotating around with them.
One of Murph's favorite places was
in northern Michigan on the lake. Lazy days in the sun, swimming in the lake...what a life! The best thing to
do on vacation, though was to get as many large rocks as possible from the bottom of the lake and build a large pile of rocks
on the dock. Every night we would put the rocks back in the lake and his fun would start all over again the next day.
Murphy was my helper around
the house. Working in the yard, trotting right by my side, he would never go more than 3 feet from me, but always looking
up to make sure I was close by. Washing cars, with his love of water, was always a treat for him as he would jump
around trying to catch the water in mid air. No, life doesn't get any better.....
Probably one of the funniest things
Murph ever did (where was the video camera) was when he was "helping" me load the dishwasher. Always my prewash cycle,
he was washing and licking the dishes and one of the prongs got caught in the link on his collar for his tags.
As he went to move he realized that we was "hooked" and panicked. As he yanked away, the entire bottom rack of the dishwasher
went with him and did he ever go. He was racing around trying to get loose of the dishwasher monster and plates and
silverware were flying everywhere! I finally managed to catch him and set him free. Poor guy - he didn't know
what had happened.....didn't stop him from helping out in the kitchen, though. He was so embarrassed - as much as we
tried we were laughing hysterically as he singlehandedly "emptied" the dishwasher all over the house....
Murph also learned to be very secretive
in getting to mom if he needed to be. When we got him we had 2 other dogs, Nicky, a beagle, and Bullet, an English
Springer Spaniel. Being the submissive, gentle one that he was, if I were in a room and the other dogs were also there,
Murph figured that the best way to get to mom without them seeing him was to do the "Murphy Army Crawl" - with wooby in mouth
he would drop down on his belly and drag himself across the floor as low to the ground as he could get until he reached my
lap and then he would take a flying leap to get the best seat in the house - mom's lap! - I'm sure he had the other 2 dogs
completely fooled!!
There was so much that was so special
about my sweet boy. His joy and passion for life, his gentle, kind nature with everyone, his famous "ear to ear"
grin and most importantly, his undying love for me. He was a gift from heaven from the very start. So many memories
of life with Murph that are with me always........
"And now I'm glad I didn't know,
the way it all would go,
the way it all would end.
Our lives are better left to chance,
I could have missed the pain,
But I'd of had to miss the dance."
