Our son Michael was 3 when we adopted “Murphy’s Law”. We call him “Old” Murphy because we’ve since named the new Dog, Murphy as well. Old Murph used to be named “Princeton” but that lasted all but two hours because a few of our closest relatives kept mispronouncing it as ”Clinton” and I so very much wanted to like this dog. So we quickly discarded the now infamous, surname.

Old Murph was a nipper terrier, for the uninitiated, he was the mutt in the picture sitting next to the original RCA phonograph. We knew Old Murph was the one immediately when we first saw him. We went to a dog breeder in Princeton NJ and a visited several of his breads but noticed 15 nipper pups in a viwing area bouncing around, hyper as hell. I yelled out the word “sit” and the only one that sat attentively in the middle of a sea of uncontrollable terriers was Old Murph. He was “Joe Cool” without the shades We all together said “that’s the one”!

Murphy quickly became my son’s best friend and he was more remarkable then we could ever imagine. We never walked him on a leash, so he became accustomed to following us around, everywhere. He would even chase our car down the street for few blocks until we were out of sight. The kids rode their bike around the block and we felt safe because Old Murph would keep up with them. He never let anyone approach them in a threatening way or even raised their voice to them. He became their protector. We’ve never seen such an independent dog and were sure that he would not get lost or try to run away.

My in-laws lived around the block and he used to visit them on his own. He’d walk in the back yard and bark at the kitchen window until they’d let him in for a little coffee and milk and some times toast. When he was done he’d always make it back around the block back to our house and wait on the front porch until our car pulled into the driveway or someone let him in the house. He was so smart that the stupid dog tricks were boring compared to all the other things he was able to do.

We’ll never have another dog like Old Murph. He was one of a kind, a loyal, protective, loving member of the family. He lived 10 years. I can go on about this old friend but that would require a lot more website space and room for pictures. In the last 2 years he became very sick. He had grown week and developed Cancer of the liver. We had him operated a few times but the ulcers kept coming out and he was suffering.

Putting him down was the hardest decision my wife and I ever had to make. Everyone knew he was sick but we never told anyone, exactly how it ended, except on this page. Michael was 13 at the time and Jacky was 17. The news of his death was hard enough. I will eventually come clean with them when they were ready.

In the end, he was on table looking up at me with his big brown eyes and I just lost it completely. The doctor let me have some time alone to say goodbye. I just hugged him and kissed him and cried. I held his head with the little life that was left. We look into each others eyes and seconds later, he was gone. No heart beat, nothing.

We had him cremated and when I brought him home, we just hugged and kissed that little box with his ashes. Three years later (2007) we still cherish that wonderful dog. He taught us how to really love animals. We now have 3 Irish Jack Russell Terriers The mother (Roxy), The Father (Murphy’s Law II) and we kept one from the litter (Gordy) before we gave the remaining four pups to family and friends to adopt.

Now we can’t go on family vacation without mtaking arrangements for at least 6 dogs. Raised from birth in our home, Gordy is the spitting image of Old Murph and they are the most loved and best cared animals anyone has ever seen.

RJF from NJ