Murphy

Today we received a letter from the Veterinary Medical Center at Michigan State University.  It says that every year they nominate miracle and inspirational pets who have left a special impact on the clinicians, faculty and students throughout the year, and celebrates their stories in an event called the “Celebration of Life.”  These animals are the guests of honor and are generally those who beat the odds or have demonstrated a tremendous will to overcome their disease.  This year Murphy has been nominated to celebrate and honor his story!!

We’ve been invited to join them for a lunch, a ceremony and a tour of the hospital.   We have to submit his story with a couple of pictures.

I’m so excited and proud of Murphy!  He’s come so far and beaten all of the odds!  Right now I’m scheduled to work that day, but I’m working on getting someone to cover me or switch with me so that we can go.

Just 2 days ago I had to make Murphy come in because he insisted on laying outside in the snow just watching the neighborhood. And today it hit 71! He really loved being out there today 🙂 All of the snow that was on the ground is completely gone. It’s been such a strange winter in Michigan this year.

Michigan hasn’t had much snow this year, but Murphy still loves running around the yard with Cassie & Max!

Hi Everyone!

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been on here for almost 3 years and I’ve never started a blog!  But I’ve always had a hard time with diary-type writing, so I’ve shied away from it.  But today is Murphy’s 10th birthday so I thought I would start one!  I really can’t believe that 3 years ago we had never heard of Tripawds, never thought about having a dog with 3 legs, of how that would impact our lives.

When they told us that Murphy had cancer and his best option was surgery, we knew we had to do it.  He was only 7 years old and was such a happy boy!  How could we not offer him a chance at life?  When we finally got the pathology of histiocytic sarcoma, they told us that if we were lucky, we might get 12 – 18 months with him.  You start counting…and as that year ampuversary comes up and everything is still good, you think, ‘ok, we’re still clear!’  Then 18 months…then 2 years!  Well, today Murphy turned 10 years old and it’s been 33 months since his surgery!  We still can’t believe it.  He is such a happy dog.  He bounces, and jumps and he barks at us.  He moans and groans when he’s rolling around on the floor or on our bed.  He loves to go outside no matter what the weather – he’ll just lay out on the deck and watch the yard, maybe he can see an evil squirrel to chase!

As time keeps moving, we worry that our time is getting shorter and shorter.  His bones stick out a little bit.  On his last exam they found just a tiny bit of free fluid in his abdomen and a small cyst on one kidney.  But his lungs are still clear, he eats every day (usually with coercion), and he rarely needs anything for pain.  I’m not sure what I’d do without this community – I think helping others helps me just as much as it helps them.

So today we celebrate!  Murphy was already about 8 months old when we adopted him, so the exact date is a guesstimate.  We made some grain-free apple/peanut butter muffins for a treat.  🙂  I tried to get pictures from Murphy’s ‘party,’ but it’s hard to get ones that aren’t blurry!  lol

Thank you for always being here!

Donna, Glenn

Murphy, Cassie & Max

Max

cupcakes!

Birthday Boy!