A Few Days Away with Wiley & Murphy

On Tuesday, May 6th, at 10 AM, I received a call from the kennel where my brother and his wife had put their two collies before leaving for a couple weeks of vacation in England. Murphy, the older dog who just turned 11, had stopped eating and was becoming weaker with each passing day. After consulting with the veterinarian, it was decided that Murphy needed to be brought home to familiar surroundings where hopefully he would start eating again and recover. Realizing that I was the only one with a key and therefore the only one who could take care of Murphy at their house, I worked a 24 hour day through to 10 AM on Wednesday to get all the paperwork done and make all of the necessary arrangements in order for me to leave for a few days. Then I packed my bags, took Wiley with me out to my brother’s house, and brought Murphy home from the kennel. We stayed with him to nurse him back to health until my brother and his wife returned from England on Sunday afternoon. With each passing day he ate a little bit more and regained more and more of his strength. But what really amazed me was the way that my dog Wiley watched over Murphy and helped me take care of him. Everywhere Murphy went Wiley was right there with him. Even when Murphy laid down to rest, Wiley would find a spot right next to him to watch over him and protect him. In the end I think that Wiley did more to help Murphy recover than I did. And as a result of watching the two of them together, I learned a valuable lesson on just how important it is that we simply be there for each other when things aren’t going well. There is no substitute for the presence of loved ones in our lives when we need that extra tender loving care. If our dogs know how to do this, how much more so should we all know the importance of being there for our family and our friends when they need us the most. By Sunday afternoon I realized that Wiley and Murphy had given me something that I hadn’t had been able to get for a long, long time: a few days away to rest and recuperate from some of the stress of my own hectic schedule. As I sat in the yard with them and watched the sun set for the first time in years, I realized just how much I have been missing. In the end, I think they wound up doing more for me than I did for them!