Goodbye, Murphy

I had every intention of returning to writing now that we were moving back to Europe.  I even posted a "stay tuned" post to get people ready for it.  Then, we moved here, and with a 2 and 3 year old, any down time I had was spent catching my breath, not writing.  Things are progressing, though.  We move in to our house tomorrow, our first of two cars arrived yesterday, and we're slowly getting close to normalcy again.

That said, I also didn't expect my first post to be a "Goodbye" to the first dog I ever owned.  Technically, he was Shanna's first.  She got him as a puppy in Texas in 2004 right after she graduated college.  I met them three years later, and I still remember the first time  I met Murphy.  I had gone over to Shanna's house to pick her up to go out, and she was out walking Murphy.  He ran right up to me and put his paws up on my legs, wagging his little nub.   I saw him often enough that, after a while, he would sit by Shanna's front door window looking outside, and would start jumping as soon as he saw my black truck pull up.   Over the past 11 years, he's been there for some major milestones in my life.  I tied the engagement ring to his collar when I asked Shanna to marry me.  The first year we lived in Germany, before I worked, he and our other dog, Milo, went every where with me.  Europe is more accepting of dogs in public places than the U.S., so they were my constant companions.  That dog also knew how to relax...he didn't care who was watching or how undignified he looked.

A few years later, in 2014, he was there to greet Ben when we brought him home from the hospital.  He quickly figured out that Ben was a great source of food.  I can't count the amount of times I'd leave the room while Ben was eating, and within seconds, I'd hear him laughing and giggling as he dropped food and watched Murphy eat it.  Ben's first crawls and steps were immediately followed by chasing after Murphy.

In April of 2015, when we moved back to the U.S., Murphy and Ben were inseparable, even in the bathroom.

In August 2015, when William came along, there were now two sources of food for him to wait under the table for, and two sources of hugs, laughs, and pets.

Over the years, that dog has made me mad more times than I can count.  If you did something he didn't like, he made sure to let you know by leaving a nice "surprise" near your bed.  And if I slipped up even once, and left a bag or container on the ground that had some sort of food in it, that little nose would sniff it out, and be in to it within seconds.  Even after all that, though, I wouldn't trade my time with him for anything.

For the past four weeks, Murphy had gradually lost control of his lower half.  The doctors gave us various shots and medicine to try, but all came with the caveat that we start to prepare ourselves because they might not work.  It turned out he had something called a "kissing spine", where the cartilage in his spine was non-existent, causing his vertebrae to "kiss".  That, plus the onset of arthritis, caused a deadly combination that pinched the nerve that connected his brain to his lower half.  By the time the end came this morning, he had no feeling or control of his lower body.  You could see the misery in his eyes, and we knew it was his time.

I kept the boys occupied outside this morning so Shanna could hold him and spend the last few hours with him.  When our appointment time arrived, we put him in his favorite blanket and drove to the vet.  They were very good with him, taking an impression of his paw print for Shanna to keep, and giving us time to say our goodbyes.  I don't think the boys really understood, but we'll see how they are over the next few days.  The entire process was quick and painless.  He just went to sleep.

I'm glad we have so many videos and pictures of him with the boys.  While they probably won't remember him years from now, we'll always be able to show them pictures of Murphy.

Rest in Peace, Murphy Dog.