…Looking back at pictures of Murray, it occurs to me that we have so, so many pictures of him sleeping. This might lead one to believe that Murray was a dog who slept a lot. He wasn’t. I mean, he did get an average amount of sleep and, as he aged, his sleep increased accordingly. But he was a light sleeper, especially back when he had better hearing. He could be asleep in one room and hear a squirrel slipping over the wall into his yard and be at that door faster than a bolt of lightning. He really could. Way back in the day, he could be sound asleep and would recognize the sound of, even the slightest movement of the (dog) cookie jar. This always made it tricky when you were wiping down the counters.
When Murray slept, especially after he lost his hearing, he didn’t like it if you left the room without telling him. He didn’t always follow you when you left, though usually he did, but he just didn’t like falling asleep and then waking up to find you gone. Now, to be clear, we never, ever, left Murray without making sure that he knew that we were leaving. We had a whole ‘bye-bye’ routine so that he would always know, without a doubt, that we walking out the door and we would be away from him for a while. We never sneaked out without him knowing, never waited until he was asleep and then slipped out the door. Never-the-less, just to make sure we didn’t tip-toe out and abandon him, the last few years of his life, whenever he napped, he would sleep for a while, then lift his head, look around the room, and make sure everyone was where they should be. And then he would sleep some more.
So it gave me pause for thought, wondering why we have so many millions of pictures of Murray sleeping. And as I looked at them all, I realized that the reason we took so many pictures of him asleep was not because he slept a lot, but because he was so ridiculously adorable when he slept. The pictures don’t do him justice, but holy-cow that boy was delicious!
Last night, I slept a little bit for the first time in days. While I slept, I had a collection of odd dreams and nightmarish adventures. But in the middle of these strange, surreal experiences, I had a dream that I was walking Murray. I was just walking him at first, like a normal dream of walking your pup. But suddenly, within the dream, I seemed to realize that it was, in fact a dream. I understood the dream and was aware of the reality. I grabbed Murray and started crying and kissing him and hugging him and all the while, I kept saying “Thank you baby. Thank you for coming to visit me in my dream. I miss you. I love you so much!”
And then I woke up…. I wish I could just sleep and sleep and dream forever!
My boy could sleep!
January 11, 2010 at 5:03 am |
I also realized just this weekend that I have lots of sleeping pics of all three of my dogs. It’s true- they’re just so cute and peaceful when they’re asleep!
I have to say, though, as cute as she was when she slept (she looked just like those pound puppy toys from the 80s) my favorite photos of Brandy are the few great ones I have of her awake, curious, running. Maybe because they were harder to snap..
I love the one in the second row of Murray sleeping on his blue pillow. I love pups when they’re all snuggled in like that. It always makes me want to cuddle up next to them and take a nap myself!