Episode 20: Spoiling the Granddogs: Murphy

Hey, welcome to Happy Tales of Happy Tales, the podcast where you’ll hear stories of the way pups have touched our hearts and our lives. So for the next few minutes, let everything else go and just listen and smile. I’m your host, Julie Jackson. Hi, friends and welcome back this morning. I just was thinking about a story from many, many years ago, but it was really sweet and I thought I would share it with you. Years ago when I was still in college. I remember I called home and said that I wanted to adopt a dog and my parents, you know, no, you can’t do that. You’re going to school, you’re busy. That’s a big commitment. You don’t have time to take care of a dog. But I was really determined that I was going to rescue a dog. And then that first weekend that I had her that was Allie. She was a little Sheltie Corgi mix, and she was adorable. I took her home. And of course, from then on, my parents always had grand dogs, they were immediately swit smitten with her and every other dog of course that ever rescued me. So, years later, I was out of school. And I had three dogs. At the time, it was Allie, Murphy, who was a precious little Border Collie, yellow lab mix. And a little guy named Carver who was such a character. He was a little, I used to say he was a chihuahua, fox, flying squirrel mix. And I’ll have plenty of stories to share about them in the future as well. But this one’s about sweet Murphy. Murphy was kind of the underdog. And so he, Murphy, came from the SPCA, and someone had not been kind to Murphy. So he was very timid sometimes and a little skittish. As long as I had him, if I reached down to pat him on the head too fast, he would just drop to the ground and tuck his little tail. So he was very, very sweet, though- gentle natured, and always looking out for everybody. So Murphy kind of had an underdog personality. At one point in the mix, Murphy needed to have surgery. And because he was one of three dogs, they said we should probably after his surgery, you know, he needed to stay still for a few days. And so we were trying to figure out how to do that, because they said we probably should separate him from the other pups so that he’s not tempted to play, or, you know, watch out for over everybody or anything like that. And so of course, immediately my father, my dad will take him, we’ll take him or if he can stay with us. So Murphy had his surgery. And we took I took Murphy over to my mom and dad’s house. And in their room, whenever whenever I would go visit, they lived about 40 minutes away. And so anytime I would go over there, I would always take the pups with me, they always wanted to see the pups, the pups always wanted to see them. And in my end, sometimes the pups of course, would spend the night over there and, and my parents in their room, they had a couch and the bed. And Murphy loves to jump back and forth between the two. And especially when he’s feeling playful, he’d get all excited and and he would jump back and forth between the two. And so we that we were concerned about him pulling stitches and didn’t want him jumping up on the bed or jumping between the furniture. So he’s staying there with my mom and dad. And then my mom informs me, they had a room we always called it the sewing room. It was kind of a crafting room laundry room, and it had in it the good old linoleum floors instead of carpet. And my mother informs me that my father has put a little like camping mattress on the floor and made a little bed out of some other cushion things for Murphy in that room. And my dad was sleeping on the floor in this room with Murphy so that Murphy would not be tempted to jump up on the furniture in their room, but also so that he didn’t have to sleep by himself. Well, as the day start going on, I start talking about my plans to come pick Murphy up and when they thought would be a good day. what’s convenient for them when I could make it over. And Dad, I don’t I don’t think he’s fully recovered yet. I think I think he needs a little bit more time. Oh, okay. Is everything all right? Yeah, yeah, everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. He just I just think he needs I need he needs a few more days. Okay. Well, okay, days started running into week two. And then I could see that week two was kind of creeping towards me. Eat three. And it quickly became apparent Murphy was fine. But dad did not want to let Murphy go. So we eventually agreed it was time for Murphy to come back home. And I go over there. I go to get Murphy. Of course dad’s very sad. But then he hands me this piece of paper. And on it it says Kroger, French vanilla. And I looked at him and I was like, what, what is this? He said, This is Murphy’s favorite brand of ice cream and favorite flavor. Like what? And mom says, yes, your dad gives him a bowl of ice cream every night. And they’ve gone through multiple flavors and finally determined that French Vanilla is his favorite, but it has to be the Kroger brand. That’s what he likes best. And I started laughing and I looked at him and he also, he really loves to see the buildings in downtown Fort Worth talking about. And she said he discovered that that Murphy also really likes to go for rides. And so he was taking Murphy for drives. And Murphy really loved to see all the activity in downtown Fort Worth and all the buildings. So that was his favorite destination. So at least at least once a you know, every few days, he would load Murphy up in the car and drive him through downtown Fort Worth so he could see the buildings and every night if a bowl of Kroger French vanilla ice cream. So I did believe it or not get Murphy back. Although I think that Murphy and dad were reluctant. And it did become obvious that I might have a hard time providing Murphy with the standard of living he had become accustomed to over the last couple of weeks. But it was very, very sweet just to see, of course my dad always did have a soft heart, but just to see the way that those two bonded with each other and loved each other and how how dogs just can make such a profound impact on our lives in just by being themselves. So I hope you all enjoyed this just a quick little, little anecdote this morning to share some of the joy that pups have brought into our lives. So have a wonderful day. If you would please follow subscribe and your pod catcher go to the website. Check us out. We’ve got resources on the website of some great pup things as we discover them that we like to share. You can follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn editor at her to anyone know what that is Twitter formally X. That’s what that is. We’ll just call it add her now. I don’t even know. And let’s see what else anyway, also if you know people that are dog lovers, if you would just share with them. And if you have a dog, I would love to hear your story. It doesn’t have to be a specific event. Although everybody can come up with stories about their dogs when they think about it that make them smile or make them laugh and it’s just fun and heartwarming to talk about our pups. It’s fun and heartwarming to hear other people who love their pups as much as we do. So, if you have a dog, I would love to hear your story. You can contact me through the website. That’s HappyTalesofHappyTails.com. And I hope you have a wonderful week and remember you are as great as your dog. Oh my gosh, how about X, formerly Twitter?! Thanks, y’all!