Author: Michael Murray

The other day while taking Heidi, our Miniature Dachshund, for a walk, I stepped into a diner at Queen East and Broadview to pick up a sandwich. Looking out through the window, I saw a large man crouching down beside Heidi, whom I’d tied up to some pipes. He had massive, swollen hands that were…

At the Eaton’s Centre on Saturday, I sat on a bench beside a young woman and her dog. The dog was a young Golden Lab, and he sat happily on the floor, smiling in his dog way at everybody who passed. Not surprisingly, the animal was attracting huge amounts of attention. A woman with precise…

Going to the Urban Dog Fitness Center is kind of like going to a petting zoo. It’s a 7500 sq. ft. facility, and on certain days, you can pay $4 and let your dog charge about a huge rubber-floored gymnasium with about 50 other dogs. For Rachelle, who has the purest love of animals that…

The other day, an acquaintance that was considering playing floor hockey on our Recreational league team, wrote to tell us that she was having seconds thoughts. This person, a Christian, thought that our team name– The Jesus Cobras– was potentially insulting and offensive, and needed some time to figure out if she wanted to play…

On Monday, after a party we had on the weekend, Rachelle and I took about three big bags of empties out onto the sidewalk. As I was turning away to head back up to the apartment, I heard a woman yell, “I can’t believe it! I’m in fucking heaven!!” The woman was a firecracker, full…

Today I have given the Blog over to Heidi, our 3 year-old Miniature Dachshund.   Four-eyed-two-legged treat giver very, very old dog! Can no longer chase ball but just watch, look on his old dog face suggest he in past, remembering day when he used to chase ball. Now when he sleep I hear him…

Over lunch, a friend spoke of the time in his life that he felt most at peace. He thought it might have been when he was a boy, and alone, would spend hours in his summer afternoons building makeshift damns on the creek near his family farm. Using twigs and stones and other found objects,…

It’s a beautiful sunny day, one that offers the limitless promise of the future, and the entire city has emerged into sunlight. They stand on street corners and look up at the sky, humming. Rollerblading! Hoops! Hopscotch! Flying a kite or painting a bike! Everything feels like a good idea on this day. Two girls…

My dear Lord: I am so terribly sorry. I beg you, in all of your beauty, glory and infinite compassion, to please forgive me. I was feeling old and vulnerable on my birthday, and I guess a little bit angry, too. I am ashamed to admit that I took to the drink, and it was…