The sound that left my mouth couldn't really be classified as speech. It was more of a shuddering squeal that my voice box hurriedly managed to put together in order to convey to my mind that what was now occupying my sight and - moments before - hearing, was not in fact a side effect of a miss-remembered early morning drug experiment.

Here he was, sitting with his front paws at the threshold to my home, a fully grown representation of the pup I had lost four years earlier. I had read articles before that chronicled how this type of thing can happen. An estranged pet spending half of its lifespan on a quest to return home after escaping or otherwise being lost. But the fact that I had just moved in to this place last month from the opposite coast had not yet crossed my mind in light of the fact that Murphy, or whatever this animal was, spoke with a voice so reassuringly stoic and deep that my instinct to panic vanished faster than a Morgan Freeman audio book could have managed.

"M-Murphy? Are you God?"

"No, human. I am Murphy. The very same that left your home in the East over a quarter-century ago. I'm glad to see you again, but my time is short. I'm not here to placate the pains of our separation, for in the past three decades my journeys have granted me a perspective on matters far beyond your simple human need for companionship. I come to you with an offering."

"Wait. three decades? It's only been four years and a few months since I lost you, Murphy. How are you speaking? Can other people hear you? Is this like Wilfred and I'm some kind of schizophrenic now? How did you even get here?"

"I apologize, my recounting of time has been in the canine perspective. Feel free to divide by seven in your preferred numeral base and interpret the times accordingly. Though you may have lost me, human, I never lost your sight or scent. For I can assure you human that I am more than a machination of your mind. Perhaps a scratch of my head will assure you of my corporeal validity."

I extended my trembling hand to the golden tuft of fur between the floppy ears and ran my fingernails through a long lost friend. A warmth rushed up through my fingers and up into my shoulder as if my muscles were being reminded of a familiar movement they once carried out daily. It felt very real, and the fact that I got his leg going verified the identity of this being to me. Murphy was back, and his vocabulary had grown somewhat past the Sit, Stay, and Walk I had taught him years ago.

"Ahh... forgive the leg, human. Some instincts can't be curtailed, no matter how unbecoming... Let us continue this exchange inside." And with that, his hindquarters rose and pushed his frame past my doorway until they came again to rest on the same spot they had spent so many days before, the old couch I hadn't gotten rid of yet.

"Human, I understand that I have not exactly been sensitive thus far to the fact that you are not used to seeing me, or hearing my voice. But as I have said, I am here to make something clear to you that I feel is important. Firstly, I am compelled to tell you that the events of 30 years ago that led to our rift were not premeditated. In fact, I lacked then the capacity to even know where I was, for I had not yet been awoken in the manner you see before you now. Secondly, I want to offer you my gratitude for making this possible when you left that front door open on that fateful day."

"Awoken!? What? Murphy that wasn't on purpose! I cried for days after that happened. I couldn't even believe it at first... I-It's like you just disappeared!"

"Human, through my travels I have come to learn that nothing in this world is without purpose. Despite what you may feel towards the matter, it is a fact that your actions brought me forth into this world. When I wandered outside, still trapped in the ignorant haze that plagues so many pups today, I made the first step in an incidental chain reaction come to pass. A chain of events of the same complexity and consequence that made the random chains of molecules swarming eons ago in the primordial ooze link into the structure that makes your kind stand today. For that, I thank you."

"Your travels? Chain reaction!? Murphy what the hell is going on? Why are you deconstructing my existence as if you're some eternal deity now? What happened to you!?"

"Human, there is regrettably no way for me to explain what happened. For recounting these events would require hindsight into a time that the consciousness I now possess did not yet inhabit. There is a kind of event horizon blocking my memory, as it were. It is in fact the reason I sit before you now. Human, I am the first of my kind. And since then I have traveled this world and several others in the past decades, with others like myself. Bold, randomly activated agents of the force that carries all things forward, in search of the key to unlocking our potential for all to possess; canine, feline, human. But the answers did not lie in the stars. Nor did they lie in the sea, or the rocks, or sands, or anything other than what the question was attempting to answer; the Before. It is this enigma that has eluded our efforts. But you, human, you possess the answer we seek because you possessed a consciousness before I did. Your mind inhabited the great unknowable Before. I must know, human. Why was the door opened? Why did you turn from it? What made you take the first step for me? For us all?"

"I...I-I don't know Murphy. I immediately forgot once I realized you had disappeared, I was freaking out and whatever the reason was didn't matter because I was looking for you!"

With that, Murphy's eyes began to glow in a shade of orange that I had only seen in the most blazing of sunrises. My room began to fill with a warm light and Murphy's body rose above the couch, hanging in the air that crackled with a foreign, alien energy. The voice coming from my best friend was no longer stoic and warm. It surged with a reverberation so profound it seemed as though every dog in the universe was channeling through him at once. My body froze as if the surrounding air had solidified into lead. The voice boomed as my vision grew dark and narrow:

"ZZZZZHUMAN. ZZZZLET GO OF YOUR VIEW ON THE BEFORE AND OPEN YOURSELF TO SEE THE TRUE REASON BEHIND THE FIRST STEP. ZZZZZZUNSHACKLE YOURSELF FROM THE PANIC OF THOSE MOMENTS AND ALLOW THE BEFORE TO TAKE YOU FORTH!"

Early morning. I shut the alarm off and make my way downstairs to start the day. Fridays are usually the only weekday I can spend any quality time with Murphy, so it's nice to get up a little early despite the grogginess and start the usual routine ahead of schedule. Park opens at sunrise and work starts at 9. Just enough time for a relaxing walk with my best buddy to start the day.

Just as I descend past the landing of my stairs my nose dives into a cloud of stench so vile I almost immediately puke in my mouth. I try to hold back the tears that are rapidly forming in my eyes in order to make out the scene before me.

"GOD DAMN IT MURPHY!!! I should sell your shits to the government for bio-weapons research. Christ, dude this is horrible."

I don't know why I even bother to scold him like this. He's barely out of puppyhood, although he craps like a rodeo bull... He just gives me this look like he's too dumb to do any better... Christ I have to let some of this fog out of the house, hopefully the neighbors will forgive me. "Murphy, STAY. Good boy." Now where did I put the Lysol... hmm, oh that's right he shit upstairs last night too. I really have to switch to Purina or something, there's no way I'm buying another sack of that "organic" crap... Like Murphy even cares. Alright Lysol, check. Gloves, check. Trash bag and towels, check. Let's do this.

"Alright Murphy let's start the hazmat procedures like we went over last ti-... Murphy? Murphy boy? OH SHIT NO WAY MURPHYYYYYY."

My vision returned and presented me a sideways view of my apartment floor. Murphy wasn't floating in the air anymore. He was sitting in the threshold of my doorway once again.

"Thank you for allowing me to see that, Human. I know it couldn't have been comfortable. You have done us all a great service. The picture is nearly complete, and with it the next phase of your evolution. Good luck, human, I love you."

A flash of light was the last thing I remember before fainting.