How a little dog helped start a family

RIP Marley Alexander

In January 2011, a young woman named Jen moved into a share house with her big sister.

Fresh out of uni, Jen liked to unwind in her upstairs room after work, as the house was often busy with guests.

One afternoon while relaxing on her bed, a little dog walked in.

"Hello" she said as the dog approached looking for a pat.

She picked it up and gave it a cuddle, before taking it downstairs.

Marley and Jen

"Whose dog is this?" she asked.

"It's my housemate Ben's" said Emma, who often visited the share house to see one of her friends.

"Oh, okay. She's really nice. What's her name?"

"Marley."

A few weeks passed, and one day Jen was at the pub with her housemates when three men walked over to say hello.

After greeting one of her housemate’s, one of the men turned to Jen and said, "Hi I'm Ben, and these are my brothers."

She smiled, but didn't say much, and after a few more words with her housemate, the men left.

Then a few weeks later, Jen received a Facebook friend request from Ben, which she accepted, but didn’t think much of because her housemates got requests too.

But one Sunday morning, she woke up to find a message from Ben sent at 5:30 a.m. asking her out. Ben had been at Mooseheads and sent the message while drunk because he’d been too scared to message her.

She replied yes, and three years later, they were married.

A few years after that, they had twin girls. And a year after that, they had another girl, and were the happiest of families.

3 kids and one little dog that helped start it all.

But on Tuesday, Marley passed away, and we are devastated.

I've been crying non stop, and I think it's because almost everything that's good in my life is because of that dog.

Adjusting to life without her has been hard, as Wednesday was the first day in our 14-year relationship without her there to cuddle.

She'd been sick for a while, and knew her time was coming.

But that hasn’t made it any easier and words can't describe how much we miss her.

I even broke down during a presentation I was giving about Energy on Thursday when someone asked about the role pets play in our health.

It was the worst question to be asked, but it made me reflect on how little fluff ball had taught me the importance of unconditional love.

Not matter how well I’d played or how good the Dock was going, she always greeted me the same when I get home.

She loved me for who I was, not what I did, and before Thursday's presentation I even told myself "Would Marley care if I stuffed this up?"

And of course the answer was no.

She would of just wanted a cuddle and I think society would be better off if we had more unconditional love, and less judgment.

How we do that without simply getting more dogs is beyond me.

But today, I’m sad, off to bury her, and I miss her so so much.

RIP Marley Alexander 5.1.10 - 8.10.24 😭😭😭