 Murphy went peacefully to the Rainbow Bridge on March 4, 2013. Murphy had a good long life, was so loved and lived to the age of about 15. I never knew his exact age, but I know I was close. Fortunately, Murphy had no major health problems but old age was catching up to him. I could see his quality of life wasn't the same because of escalating physical disabilities, dementia, hearing loss and separation anxiety. It was the perfect storm. He had lost his ever-so-strong confidence and was not his Murphy-self. After much trepidation and sadness, I made the decision to set Murphy free.
As a new RAGOM volunteer, Murphy was my 2nd foster and my first ‘foster failure’. It’s funny how random it can be some times when things happen in your life. I happened to respond to a plea to go get the 10 year old senior boy out of hock who had been picked up the Hopkins police. His family no longer wanted him and his original foster Cheryl was willing to take him back, but I said I could go get him immediately to get him out of the kennel. Well the rest his history. I asked Cheryl if it was ok if I could continue to foster him, as I was clearly falling for the senior boy and the rest was history. On January 1, 2009, I officially adopted Murphy. Murphy was a character. He was such a mixture of confidence, stubbornness, flakiness, lovingness and independence. He had such a mind of his own, we would often say that he was busy “Murphin’”. ‘Just doin’ what he does.’ That really summed it up for us. Murphy marched to the beat of his own drum. Murphy helped me foster many dogs, and was especially good with my Puppy Mill fosters. He just had such an attitude and all they could do was aspire to be his BFF. He was fine either way. My first Puppy Mill dog, Sunshine 09-381 (R.I.P 10/31/12) was in love with Murphy. We decided that Sunshine thought that Murphy was actually the one who saved her from the Puppy Mill. The funny thing is, I think that Murphy thought so too. That was my Murphy, full of confidence (and himself) sometimes! There will never be another dog like my Murphy. I love and miss you Murphy and I’ll never forget you! I will look forward to seeing you again one day. |
