Oh WHY did they leave me?

By the end of the first day, Ray was exhausted. It was probably 8 o'clock, way past his usual bedtime, before he curled up on my feet. Murphy layed down in front of the front door waiting for Rachel and Josh to come get her. When it became kind of obvious that it wasn't going to happen, she started to roam around. She rummaged through Ray's toy basket and picked up one thing after another to toss around. When she became bored playing by herself, she brought Ray one of his Christmas presents, a fuzzy yellow thing with a squeaker and a rope running through the middle. She laid the rope toy on his front feet. Ray lifted his head and briefly nuzzled her face then laid his head down on the toy and went back to sleep. Murphy turned and left.

It was a minute or two before I realized that there was no more noise coming from Ray's office. I shifted Ray off my feet and went to look for the other dog. She was in the darkened living room laying on the couch, alone, abandoned, dejected.

"Are you alright?" I asked. Murphy briefly looked at me, then dropped her head to the couch with a dispirited thud. A long, loud sigh issued from her furry body. "Did your parents abandon you to complete strangers?" I asked again in a very sympathetic tone. Murphy's head didn't move, but she watched me with eyes that expressed the pain of abandonment. "Are they never coming back? Are you going to have to live with us forever?" I asked. Murphy remained the picture of limp dejection. I petted her a few times, reassured her that her parents were just gone for a few days, and returned to the couch and the sleeping, exhausted Ray.

The next morning, Murphy was fine, her abandonment forgotten in the excitment of chasing squirrels and wrestling with the big dog in the backyard.

Until that night when depressed dog returned.