All About Murphy

Well...it's been a hell of a day.

Murphy, our gorgeous Newfoundland was hit by a car. It was obviously no one we know, because they would have come straight in.

We heard him barking at something outside, and the next thing we heard was the most awful noise - I have never heard anything like it. He was crying and yelping. I was still in my nightie, and looked out of the sitting room window to see my dad bringing him in with blood dripping from his front leg. I ran outside, in nightie and bare feet - the driveway is gravel, but I didn't feel a thing. My mum and Isla were out there too, and all we could see was the blood on his leg. We brought him into the kitchen, and I sat down on the floor and just cuddled him while my mum raced around the house looking for Dettol, iodine, gauze and bandages. We managed to get him lying down, with his head in my lap, ready to be checked over, cleaned and bandages.

Luckily, the wound wasn't that bad. The car must have just dealt him a glancing blow, because he didn't have any other injuries, and the leg is fine apart from a couple of flesh wounds. Obviously no arteries had been severed, so we cleaned him up with Dettol, which is antiseptic. We then put vetinary iodine on the wounds, covered them in a sheet of something containing silver which promotes wound healing, gauze and bandages. Isla was brilliant - she helped to cuddle hm to calm him down, and she helds the pieces of gauze in place while my mum was doing the bandaging. She did admit to me afterwards that her legs were very wobbly because it had scared her, but she put that aside because at that point he was the important one, and got stuck in and helped. It wasn't until we'd finished that she let her own feelings take over. She's a brave girl - a chip off the old blocks - me and my mum! Give us a crisis and we can handle it calmly, and then give into feelings afterwards. My dad, on the other hand, goes all wobbly, and I swear his brain stops working! He can't handle it at all.

After all the nursing, Murphy was very shaky, so we gave him a brownie (one of those I made the other day) to boost his sugar level and some water. Actually, when we went to the pharmacy to get some more bandages and gauze, the pharmacist told us that if he is in pain we can give him up to 1000mg of paracetamol. We haven't, because he seems to be ok, but it's good to know that. Pharmacists here have to all be qualified - they're not just glorified pill givers - so she knows what she's talking about.

He can't stand on his leg yet, possibly because we had to bandage over his paw pads as the second wound was very low on the leg. He is alright in himself - he has been eating and drinking fine, and the various bodily functions are good, if a little wobbly! He's feeling very sorry for himself, and every time we go to cuddle him he holds his paw out as it to say "Look at me - I have a poor sore paw - love me".
What I can't understand is how anyone can hit a 55kg/120lb dog and not feel it. Or did they not think it was necessary to come in to admit that they had hit just a dog? I am so angry that someone could be that unfeeling and uncaring. They MUST have known. Bastard - whoever it was.

I will leave you with the inscription on the tomb of Boatswain - Lord Byron's faithful Newfoundland. Byron adored animals, and famously had a Newfoundland called Boatswain. Boatswain got rabies, and Byron apprently nursed him himself, without any fear of being bitten and infected. Boatswain is buried at Newstead Abbey, and his gravestone is larger than Byron's. It has been said that Byron always wanted to be buried next to Boatswain. His inscription says more about the breed than any other description could.

"Near this spot
Are deposited the Remains of one
Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
Strength without Insolence,
Courage without Ferocity,
And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
If inscribed over human ashes,
Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
BOATSWAIN, a Dog,
Who was born at Newfoundland, May, 1803,
And died at Newstead Abbey, Nov. 18, 1808."

We are so lucky that Murphy escaped without hideous injury today - we just have to love him and care for him until his leg is healed. And after that obviously, but that goes without saying!