Welcome to Murphy Nelson's Rainbow Residency

Memories of Murphy Nelson

Murphy came to us from God for our 25th wedding anniversary. There was no greater gift. He filled our lives with more joy and happiness than we ever thought was possible. Smart and cute...quick to learn tricks...knowing that doing so translated into "treats".He rang a bell on the door whenever he had to go potty and always went straight to the utility room afterwards to be cleaned. A food lover from day one, he loved carrots and peanut butter. Every toy he ever got he loved. When we came home with a new toy he would bark until we got the tags cut off then run in the family room and sqeak it and shake it and you didn't dare take it from him for at least a day. We could tell him to go get a toy by name and he knew which toy we were talking about. Everyday was so wonderful to wake up to his little kisses and cuddles. He brought smiles to all our family members...and he loved them in return. Diane's Mother called him her Granddog. Since we never had any children, the Murph was our "child" and was he ever special. He knew so many commands. It was like he knew our langauge and he spoke to us in return. He had a wonderful vet named Dr. Dee. He and his staff were so wonderful and always there for us and believe me, we were there a lot. If we thought the slightest thing was wrong with him, we would rush to the Vet. His file there was three times the size he was. They were like an extended family to us. He always got special treats there and lots of love. He also had a Pet Nanny, Mickie, he thought she was the greatest. We didn't leave him very often, but if we needed her any time day or night she was there. Unfortunately, about three years ago his trachea collapsed God answered our prayers because we took him to the University of Florida Vet Medicine where a wonderful Doctor named Dr. Ellison put a stent in his trachea. It was wonderful he breathed better than ever. As fate would have it, he broke the stent about four weeks later. Not willing to give up,we took him back to the University and Dr. Ellison performed a first, he put another stent inside of the existing one and it healed wonderfully. They now teach about his case at the college. He loved to sit in the window and wait for us when we were gone and when we would drive up to the house we would roll our window down and wave at him and he would bark and wag his tail. His tail was so tiny and he could never bark without moving his whole body. By the time we got to the door he was there barking and waiting for us with sooooooooooooo many kisses. (of course he expected a treat for those kisses). Since he only weighed 5.5 lbs. at most,we were able to take him with us on the plane when we traveled. He was a good little traveler. He had a special wardrobe when we traveled because we would go up home to Nebraska for the holidays and we live in Florida and he did not like the cold so he had sweaters and coats for when we traveled. He loved visting his Uncle Tom and his Uncle Tom Loved him. When we would go to Uncle Tom's house he had pictures of his little "nephew" all over his house. On nice days at home he liked to go for walks, he had a little dog stroller that he loved because we could put his water in there with him and he just sat and enjoyed the ride. When we went for bicycle rides he had his very own basket with a padded seat and he rode as if he were king. He really liked that. You could tell because his ears would go up and his little nose was wet. His ears were wonderful, they sat straight up and were like a radar they would turn all directions. His little profile was so very perfect, we use to love to just put him up to our face and rub our cheek against his little face. He was so loving. We had his picture taken at Glamour shots at the mall in Altamonte Springs, Fl. They now have that picture on the wall in their shop. He is sitting in a little suitcase with ties hanging over the side and another one of him on a pretty white chair, the picture is in black and white with a red rose in color sitting by his side. Every Christmas he sent out his own Christmas cards with a picture that we had taken. He had a list of about 20 friends that he sent them to, always with his own return address and postage stamp with his picture on it. He always knew when it was his dinner time. Diane would be working at home at her desk and about 5:30PM he would come and just lightly tap her on the foot until he got her attention. He knew it was dinner time and time for Mom to call it a day. His coat was so soft and pretty. It was a black almost like a steel blue and a beautiful white golden face. When he was a baby his coat was very dark black and he had brown around his eyes, it almost looked like he had a mask on. There isn't anything in the world that we wouldn't do for him. He loved to have us chase him and he was so quick and hard to catch. He would stop and look at you and then dart the other way like a tiny furry bullet. Once Diane broke her toe playing catch me with him. He touched so many lives and caused so many smiles. His groomer would come to the house with her van and when she was finished and put him down he would just strut through the house as if to say "look at me, aren't I the cutest thing you've ever seen" and he truly was. He loved to be clean. He had a bath at least once a week and his coat was always brushed and soft. We kept some of his fur and like to take it out now as it sort of reminds us of when we would kiss him on the head. It was so soft and sweet. Sometimes he would be laying on the bed and we would come over and kiss the top of his little head and all that would move would be his eyes. He loved kisses. At the end he was such a trooper. He never complained. He was suffering from cushings disease and we tried to do an MRI to see how large the pituitary gland was to see if maybe we could do a radiation treatment, but he turned blue during the MRI so they aborted the procedure. We tried using a drug for the cushings disease but it didn't seem to work. He was suffering from an enlarged liver and heart, his primary brochial tubes were starting to collapse, his salivatory glands were swollen and needed to be removed, and he had nine inoperable herniated discs in his spine. Surgery was no longer on option since the doctor's felt that he would not be able to survive another one. The night before we let him go back to God he was in terrible pain and it was heart-wrenching to watch. We hated to have to make the choice we did, but knew it ws not fair to him to go through all the pain of his little body shutting down. It was by far the hardest decision that we have ever made in our entire lives. The house is now very very empty and lonely and our hearts are breaking. Each of us have a huge "void" in our being that will not close for some time. We wake up in the morning and it's like it just can't be. That little personality is so badly missed. We pray that God takes good care of him until we can meet him at the Rainbow Bridge. In the meantime.....Dudes, Mommy and Daddy miss you so very much and we will always Love you with all our Hearts. You mean the world to us..........

Murphy Nelson's People Parent(s), Larry & Diane, would appreciate knowing you have visited their Baby's Residency. Click here to Email Larry & Diane a message, or to send a sympathy card click here. Email this page to a friend.   Give a gift renewal of Murphy Nelson's residency (by Credit Card, or PayPal)

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