BFFs (Best Friends Forever)

Ray was bored. I knew this because he came into my office and started chewing on things. Ray finds this a fairly effective way to get my attention. He will walk in, pick something up, and either walk out with it so that he can chew on it in the hallway, or just rip into it right in front of me. Either way, it works. I am trained to get his leash and take him out for a walk.

Now that Murphy has moved in down the street, Ray always tries to take me to her house first. Technically, it's not really Murphy's house, it's Saint Marva's house. Murphy's mom, Rachel, recently moved in with Marva, which is nice, because Marva is Rachel's grandma. Good for Marva to have her wonderful granddaughter with her for awhile. Good for Rachel to get to spend time with her equally wonderful grandma. The "Saint" part of Saint Marva comes into play because when Rachel moved in she brought along with her a husband (a truly terrific guy named Josh), Murphy (the Australian Shepherd), Turkish (a Turkish Van cat), and Izzy (a regular ole' cat). They all live in Marva's basement and Ray finds every single person and animal in that house totally fascinating and heads that direction every time we step outside. So, as usual, Ray has acted as a deus ex machina to introduce me to a whole new set of friends. Rachel and Josh come over on the weekends with Murphy so that she can play with Ray (and Rachel, Josh and I get to chat and have a good time) and I have had a good time going out to lunch and shopping with Murphy's Great Grandma, Marva. (Although I did get a laughing reaction from my eye doctor when I told her to hurry up with my eye exam because I was going to lunch with my dog's best friend's Great Grandmother.)

So anyway, on Saturday, as usual, we headed to Marva's to visit Murphy and

Rachel and Josh and Marva and Izzy and Turkish. And as usual we stayed way too long and had way too much fun.

Rachel snapped a few pix to record for posterity, Murphy and Ray in the pachysandra.