The Murphy/Rat Poison Incident

Jonathan & I went to Sumter, SC last weekend to visit my parents. It was a very enjoyable and relaxing weekend - however, we did have an eventful Saturday evening.

At my parent's house, they have a walk-in attic that is connected to the bonus room so its very easy to get to. My parents are trying to down size and get rid of things that they don't need anymore and since we just bought a house and conveniently need ALL kinds of random things - I decided to go "shopping" in the attic. Mom and I were up there just looking around and I was picking things out to take home with us. We knew that Murphy had followed us upstairs out of interest (he's very nosey) and was just hanging out. He wandered into the attic (nosey again) and a few minutes later we turned around to find Murphy munching away on a dish of mice poison.. little green pellets that probably looked & smelled delicious to Murphy.. After all it is made to trick animals into eating it.

My first thought was "oh, its ok, Murphy has eaten a million things and has an iron stomach". Mom got really worried and then I realized that this is serious and could really harm him. Of course, I went straight to the internet. I am a pro at Googling.. "my dog ate a razor.." or "my dog ate an entire phone charger.." and so I typed "my dog ate mice poison"! Sure enough he wasn’t the only one. I quickly found directions to induce vomiting ASAP with hydrogen peroxide... 2 tbsp.. ASAP. Mom speed to the store to pick some up while I called the Vet hospital to confirm what I read. Sure enough, we poured it down his throat and the hydrogen peroxide worked like a charm. He threw up every last pellet of mice poison that he consumed (which was A LOT). We gave him water & dinner and he was back to his regular self in a few hours.

I did take him to the Vet on Monday morning to get his blood tested for clotting.. tests came back great and all is well for Murph man. The Vet did give us Vitamin K chewables that Murphy will eat for 2 weeks.. Murphy thinks it's a treat.

It was scary! But it really made us appreciate the crazy dog and all the joy he brings to our life.

...Wonder what he will eat next.

a scare in the night..

Last night Jonathan and I both headed up to bed around 10:30ish as we normally do during the week. We both read for about 1/2 an hour and then eventually fell asleep around 11:00 or so. After being sound asleep for what felt like a few hours, I remember vaguely, sub-consciously, hearing Murphy growl all of a sudden. Unsure if it was my dream or real life, I didn't really react.. I was definitely half asleep still but a little more aware of my surroundings. A few minutes later it had become clear to me that Murphy was now up and moving around and had walked to the top of our stairs.. and was growling even more intensely. That's when both Jonathan and I realized that, ok, we are not dreaming, and Murphy has heard something that has startled him, and that's not a good sign.

Jonathan quietly hopped out of bed to join Murphy at the top of the stairs. Although our hearts were pounding, we were both completely silent waiting for another sound that had set Murphy off to begin with. During those 5 minutes I was silently laying there thinking how grateful I was that 1.) I had a guard dog and 2.) I had a large husband and 3.) Jesus was my ultimate protector. After about 5 minutes of listening, neither of us heard anything. In the meantime, Murphy seemed to have lost interest and went back to his spot to lie down.

Jonathan got back in the bed and I asked "is everything OK”? Jonathan replied, "I haven't heard a single noise in the last 5 minutes". I did a recap of our nightly routine and I had specifically remembered checking both locked doors and I knew that all the windows were locked. I knew there was no way that anyone could get into our house via doors or windows without waking us up. That's one advantage of an old and creaky house. But then I asked Jonathan, "well, why was Murphy growling”? Then it occurred to me "has Murphy EVER growled in the middle of the night like that"? Jonathan confidently answered "No".

We both knew that neither of us would fall asleep without knowing for sure that the coast was clear downstairs. At 2:00am, Jonathan woke Murphy back up, I turned on the lights in our bedroom and I grabbed my cell phone incase I needed to call 911, and Jonathan lead the way down stairs to check things out.. I followed at a distance.

There were no signs of intruders downstairs.
Murphy, who had acted as a superb guard dog, certainly seemed to enjoy the late night adventure.

Here’s the funny thing... I didn’t even remember the whole ordeal until about five minutes ago.

Murphy's Summer Haircut

Murphy, our 2 year old Golden Retriever, got his first summer hair cut yesterday. To me, it was a pretty big deal. I LOVE Murphy's pretty hair. Its long, sometimes tangled, and probably really hot, but it so cute. A golden retriever is no golden retriever without the hair!

Anyways, after Jonathan insisted for almost two weeks that Murphy would LOVE a lighter load for the summer, I decided to give in. I mean, it grows back, right?? Jonathan was off on Friday, so he took Murphy into PetsMart and he gave them strict directions NOT to shave all the hair off the poor guy. I'm not gonna lie - I was pretty nervous.. and anxious to see the outcome.

Around 5:30pm Jonathan and I both went to pick up Murph and he looked so handsome! He was like a new dog - happy, lighter, cooler, and clean cut. This will probably be a yearly occurrence. Well, depends how the growing-out process goes.


BEFORE/WINTER:




AFTER/SUMMER: