We met Murray on a beautiful November day at a breeder's house in Waddell in '04. There were two litters of Corgi puppies running around the backyard. Because his back legs were more powerful than his front, Murray appeared to run sideways. He was also the chubbiest puppy. Jeff gravitated right to him, but I had to check out every puppy before I fell for him. I asked, "You like the fat one, that runs sideways?" Yes, that was the one Jeff liked best. There was a gorgeous tri-colored adult male, so I asked the breeder, "which one will look most like him?" She said, "The fat one, that runs sideways." He was only 8 or 10 weeks old when we got him.
For most of his life he had more energy than my wife and I combined but we kept up. He would play fetch until his little legs couldn’t go any more, then he’d nose the ball closer to us for one more throw. Once we found out he would swim if it involved fetching a ball he was great at it. He also quickly learned to lay in the shallow beach entry to stay cool on 110+ days here in Arizona. My father-in-law, who isn’t an animal person, told us after meeting Murray for the first time that if anything happened and we couldn’t keep Murray that he would take him.
He would get so excited when my mom would come visit, she would come 3 or 4 times a year. One more than one occasion he got too excited and knocked her onto the couch, he didn’t hurt her though. We always wished there was a way to bottle that energy and sell it.
The last couple years were harder for him. While he could still play a mean game of fetch, it took a few days to recover. He had cataracts and his hearing was going. He was starting to have trouble moving around.
He had a great life and brought lots of joy to us. We are remembering all of the good times we had with him over the years.
RIP Murray, the fat one who ran sideways.