Our Murphy Wu

Peter Wu

19 April 2011

Born: 23 Feb 2004

Returned to the creator: 14 Mar 2009

Cause of his demise: ‘Nasal Arthritus’

He was our German Shepherd, nicknamed ‘Silver Puppy’ (for a streak of silver fur when he was about eight weeks old), who spent five years and 19 happy days with us. The US-Canadian-Oz gang saw him when they came to visit me in March 2004.

He had a condition called Nasal Arthritus which I believe was caused by the recklessness of the breeder. This caused uncontrolled bleeding from inside his nose. Blood spurted out like a water pistol under pressure. There was no cure despite treatment by the best vet in Auckland. His condition is said to be the only one of its kind in the world. He also had other conditions which were un-usual for his age, like constant discharge from his eyes, a cloudy patch on his irises which could lead to blindness, cracks at the tip of his nose which would not heal, and his dragging his back feet from an early age. He had a very good hip score though. Despite eating hardly anything, he was prone to weight gain. At one stage, he tipped the scale at 56kgs. When he walked into the vet’s waiting room (often), everyone’s jaw dropped. People with smaller dogs often decided to protect their dogs by cuddling them close to their chest.

His sense of smell and hearing was worse than a human and was nothing compared to our first Shepherd which lived to a ripe old age.

However, you would not dare to get near him if you don’t know him. Door-to-door sales people often had a shock of their lives when I opened the door. He seldom barked when the door bell rang so people don’t realize there is a huge dog (a pony disguised as a dog?) behind closed door.

Other than that, he was the most placid, most beautiful, most regal and best-natured Shepherd we have ever come across. We know. We are connoisseurs of German Shepherds.

We had him cremated and the box of ashes sitting proudly in our lounge for a couple of years before sitting in the book shelf in our study. My second son spent the last night with him sleeping together on the floor.

He was one dog we don’t forget easily.