MURPHY -- RESCUED FROM A SMALL SHELTER, HE DELIVERS A BIG SERVING OF ADORATION

This dog give slobbery kisses. Read on. Be envious.

Dedicated rescuer and animal advocate Tami Kukla and I were involved in a discussion of saving animals and Murphy became a happy topic.
Tami kidded that Murphy was “auditioning for your weekly edition. Or maybe Shark Week. Heartworm survivor. Good Advocate for his breed.” [LARRY ASIDE: I went along with Tami’s capitalizing “Good Advocate.” She’s a veteran animal person and knows Murphy better than anybody else. Show of hands, please, for everybody who has ever loved a dog this much. Or a cat. Feels good, doesn’t it!?]
Thus, the adored Murphy is the Aug. 6-7, 2022, canine representative in our 17-year-old weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. That’s a lot of slumbering animals — dogs, cats, a bird, cow, turtle or lizard now and then. An in-law a time or two.
Back to the conversation with Tami: I typed a confession that I was drinking lots of coffee as I worked. And Tami replied wisely, “A great cup of coffee is a piece of serenity in this nutty world.” No argument from readlarrypowell.com or any of the animals who nod off mornings while watching me sip a cup and type with the vigor of the teenage reporter I once was.
Here is another readlarrypowell.com reality: I find great hope in the future of this planet when people adore their animals so much that they’ll snap their photos and happily tell the animal’s story. It’s evidence that human hearts are “touchable.”
 We opened with a photo of Murphy looking over the cushion to see what the camera was aiming at. Yes, the lens was seeking the handsome Murphy. So, what’s this stellar dog’s story?
The story is that he was “rescued off the EU list” at the small municipal shelter in Saginaw, on the northern edge of Fort Worth. 
Tami explained, “Murphy is a 🤡 [clown!] in a dog's body.  He is about to turn 7. I adopted him at 5 years.” 
That day, Tami recalls, “There were so many in need …What stood out to me — that I had to save him — was our first outing. He jumped in the car and just sat right next to me and gave me slobbery kisses.  
“When we were walking he would just look up at me and say ‘You are my human.’

“He would know when I got to the shelter to volunteer and be waiting at the outdoor part of his kennel going ‘meep meep.’ He knew and he hadn’t even seen me. I could say ‘Murphy’ and he knew my voice without seeing me. He can sense when I am about to have a seizure — with no training.

“He is an excellent swimmer. He feels bad for animals like squirrels, bunnies etc., hit by cars and we’ll carry their bodies out of the road and bury them.

“And his favorite food is meatballs.

“He just wants to be with his human. And of course gets to sleep under the covers and on a pillow. He is good with most people and other dogs. But he and I connect differently. Hard to explain.”

Hard to explain, perhaps, but so easily to accept because Murphy is that kind of a dog — rescued and loved and tuned in to his human’s needs. Plus, he has those slobbery kisses. Makes you smile, doesn't’ it!

[REMINDER, DEAR READERS: Celebrate your beloved slumbering dogs, napping cats, etc., by sending their stories and their snoozing photos to [email protected] We’ll post them and their — YOUR — story on readlarrypowell.com. You’ll be helping people decide to open their hearts and homes to animals who’ll become family members. And you’ll be helping insomniacs believed that we, too, can sleep -- if we can just curl our bipedal bodies into a comfortable quadrupedal shape on a living room couch.]
— Offer sleep advice or coffee tips by clicking on ‘comment’ below or by emailing [email protected] and put “DOGS AND CATS RULE!” in the subject line. —-