We are dealing with something that we can't understand, so I'm coming to you folks for some ideas or thoughts. Murphy has always been afraid of thunder and fireworks...and strangely enough, some sound in Target commercials. Things we could pretty much understand what was causing him to tremble and pant, etc.

Three weeks ago, we had a family wedding, which resulted in many people be in and out of, and in some cases staying, in our house. Murphy seemed to deal with it just fine and had lots of fun. The couple staying with us would get up early and go out and smoke on the patio and he would go out with them. For a few days after they left, he wanted to continue getting up VERY early, but didn't get a lot of cooperation from us on that, so he stopped waking so early.

However, a little while after that was over with, he began to have night time panic attacks. Sometimes just after his last outside trip of the day, sometimes in the middle of the night. A couple of these have lasted as long as 3 hours, with hard shaking, panting, scratching at doors, and such. We can't determine anything that could trigger this. We've tried closing the windows on the bedroom side of the house (he sleeps on our bed most of the time) thinking maybe there is some sort of critter roaming around. After these night time terrors, he is fine the next morning...happy and perfectly normal. At 3:00 this morning, he suddenly jumped off the bed and began to scratch doors and pant and shake. I got him back to bed and held him close for an hour and then he got down. He wasn't scratching anymore, but was still panting softley. This went on for about another hour, then Bill left the bathroom door open and he went in there and was quiet. When we woke up he was sound asleep in the bathroom.

We are thinking maybe we need to have our vet check him over, but it does sound strange, since he is perfectly normal at all other times. Any ideas or suggestions?







I wish I could tell my mom and dad what is making me so unhappy....I don't like this either!
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Anne, Bill, and Murphy

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