Murray Ralph passed away without my knowing it.
We loved Murray, a loquacious good man who really cared about others and was always fun to talk to. Murray and his wife, Deborah Jowitt, the dancer and world-famous dance critic, built a house on a hill in Alford and lived there into their eighties. In his youth, Murray had been quite an athlete, participating in marathons and extensive runs. He was a musicologist and a public-school teacher. He was always smartly attired, and he was a good father who paid attention to his boy, Toby, who is quite the drummer. Somehow, Murray got Toby and his drums to his gigs. When you saw Murray, he caught you up on the family life. You had to know him the way we did, but when you did, you were always glad to see him.
We loved Murray Ralph so much that named our Westie, Murray, after him. Our Murray is a lot like his namesake. He is full of himself, makes a great appearance, and is loved by all who know him. When I think of the name Murray, I think of a guy with a taxi cab driver’s hat eating a pastrami sandwich in Katz’s delicatessen on the lower East Side of Manhattan. It turns out that Murray is a Scottish name, which is appropriate for our little West Highland Terrier. When I brought Murray home, he was so tiny that we thought we might inadvertently step on him. He grew into a 20-pounder and became irresistible to everyone.
Murray hung around the Literacy Network of South Berkshire, where he learned to read and write, to the extent that there were times when he was called upon to write columns not unlike the one you are reading now. He became a top dog at WAMC public radio and a font of knowledge that he garnered from barking with all the other dogs in the neighborhood. He was fearless and had this intuition about who the bad guys really were. He despised Donald Trump and wrote fearlessly about all of Trump’s major wrongdoing.
Murray the dog taught me so much about courage. There isn’t a human or another dog that scares Murray. At night, he carefully positions himself on the bed between Roselle and me, so that contact between us is virtually impossible. When I try to fight back and push him out of the way a little, he’ll have none of it. He is a Freudian dog. Just as Murray Ralph seemed fearless, so does Murray the dog.
When I ask Murray the dog for a kiss he says, “Absolutely not.” The fact is that he favors his mother but there are others in his life who count for a lot. A wonderful friend, Nan Wile, takes care of Murray on the rare occasions when we can’t do it. Murray the dog has spread Nan’s reputation far and wide, to the point that everyone is trying to get her to take care of their dogs, too.
We try to keep Murray the dog sparkling clean and we have discovered the right dog groomer at Wash and Wag who does exactly that. When Murray gets home, he tells us about all the good dogs he has met on his cleanup day.
So we thank Murray Ralph for all he has done for us and for allowing his name to be attached to Murray the Westie.
