Murphy Clark

HE IS SORELY MISSED (JANUARY 2013)

Sadly, our Murphy passed away recently aged 8. Since he’s been with us he had a total of 5 operations to remove various lumps. The last one turned out to be a tumor and sadly he didn’t recover.  

He was a amazing dog and he even starred in our daughter’s film at The University of Greenwich. He lost his first friend, Myrtle in 2011, but got a new friend last summer called Layla who is a GSD.  

He is sorely missed by all the family and friends.  

Here  are some pictures of Murphy and Layla.

MURPHY’S STORY

Murphy was originally called BRUCE. He was an approximately 3yr old, castrated male when he was surrendered to us to make room for a new baby.

He had never been in a house before he arrived at Sandie’s and had never walked on a lead.

Bruce has now made himself thoroughly at home with his fosterer in the UK and has found out the delights of toys to play with and of gathering and eating apples. He is proving to be quite a comedian.

He is certainly one very handsome boy but he is quite large so we were looking for an adult home or a home with older children for him. Although he got some basic training, we felt this needed to be continued in his forever home. He appeared to have been hit on the side of his head so this was checked by the vet.

INITIAL UPDATE FROM HIS FOREVER HOME

Bruce is now called Murphy. His new owner said “So far so good, woke us up at 3.30am must have heard a noise, but went straight back to bed when told. Myrtle & Murphy are being quite polite to each other. Myrtle starts the barking when the front door goes and Murphy joins in but is slightly confused at the full length mirror in the hall and hasn’t worked out that he is barking at himself. He met our friend’s 2 dogs and was very well behaved.

FURTHER UPDATE ON MURPHY

Murphy had an operation to repair his cleft pallet which the vet has said may require futher sugery. We think this could be the case, as there are still holes along the roof of his mouth, but all his mouth ulcers have gone and, as he is managing quite well at the moment, we don’t want to put him through another op until it’s absolutely necessary. He is OK with dry food, anything else seems to make it’s way through one of the holes and out through his nose, poor thing. He does sneeze a lot when something has ‘gone the wrong way’ and this usually causes bouts of bad breath but he seems to know how to clear it (I won’t go into detail.)

Other than that he is settling in well and is learning to share toys with Myrtle our other dog. We have discovered he doesn’t like his nose being touched or loud noises He still chases shadows and has a strange habit of hitting anything in his way with his paw, especially if it’s something new. He has worked out how to open back door and will constantly bark if someone/something startles him.

He loves his daily runs in the woods with our friends’ two dogs, Sadie and Maisey, and insists on dragging half a tree along (not satisfied with a small log). Maisey is a collie cross and a real tease, but is great to play with as Myrtle, our jack russell, prefers a more dignified walk. We are so happy to have him, and look forward to going to the next Reunion. P.S you’re not getting him back.