I just finished rescuing spite last night, I picked the book up and did not put it down until it was finished. My eyes are swollen this morning from crying. It has taken me three months to get this book; I knew it was going to effect me this way. I had to put the love of my life “Murphy” down October 20th, 2007. She was also a stray dog, she just showed up in my apartment complex. I was a single woman, living a single life, I wasn’t sure if I could handle such responsibility. At first I went thru my town asking police, UPS, and storeowners had known the owner of this beautiful well-behaved dog. Nobody seemed to know where she came from? I don’t live in a rural neighborhood, I have no idea how Murphy had managed to get in the middle of my apartment complex. Within 24 hours I knew I had to make the sacrifice, what I didn’t know was that it was not a sacrifice it was first day of many blessed days. I have to thank my mother, without her help with walking Murphy during the day when I had to go to work I would never have been able to have the best 9 years of my life.

She went everywhere with me, she loved the car, she went jet skiing with me, I got her a life vest because she always was on my heels and when I went in the water she would follow me. She was a yellow lab and she could swim but I was always so careful with her, she would follow me off the cliff. We shared so many joyous days; she had such a wonderful loving personality. My favorite thing about her was the way she looked at me; we had a way of communicating just thru our eyes. I did not have to walk her on a leach because she would always be by my side, she would bark her fool head off if I had someone else hold her leash if I had to walk away.
As I mentioned she was a stray dog so I too did not know how old she was, when I got her they said she was 5-6 years old. I had her for 9 glorious years, her hearing had gone, she had arthritis, and she seemed to tolerate that OK with medication. I want to say the God was good to us, I had become unemployed early in the summer of 2007, I knew that the end was near, I spend every day with her, I took her away on weekends up to New Hampshire where she could be free to roam (although she wouldn’t she would not leave my side)
The last 2 days of her life were just terrible, she started having difficulty breathing, I was at the vet several times, they had to use a nebulae, to see if that would help, they were going to put her on steroids to see if that would help. She was too old to try to perform any surgery on her. I just knew that she was struggling, but her heart and her eyes still looked at me so lovingly. I had to leave Murphy at the Vet to see if they could do anything but surgery to help her, my last ride to the Vet was the hardest thing I ever had to do, I knew that I had to make a decision, she could not even sit or lie down and would just pace the floors because her breathing was so bad, I could let her be in such discomfort and the Vet was unsure whether any medication would be of any help. I will always have guilt that I was not strong enough to see my love that very last time, I told the vet to please put her down. She was still groggy from the tests from the day, the pain was too much for me to bear to see her that very last time to just put my face in hers.
As with most dog lovers I could go on forever about the love I have for Murphy. She is currently on a mantel I made for her with the pictures of us and her ashes.
I know one day I will get another dog, I guess I am just afraid that my new dog which I already know the name will be shames, will not look at me that same loving way. I am choosing the name shames because that was Murphy’s middle name. When every she did something wrong I would call out to her MURPHY SHAMIS!!!. I hope that my new dog will bring me as much love as Murphy did. I love you Murphy!!

Traci from NY