Among Murphy family athletic achievements have been my brother Dan’s heroic unassisted double play in Little League, my eight earned runs allowed in one inning of work as a baseball all-star and Dad’s spot on the sixth team offensive line at the Vincention Institute in Albany, N.Y.

Then there are the sports-related injuries. Dan ripped one anterior cruciate ligament while trying to dunk on current Philadelphia 76er Elton Brand as a senior at Peekskill High School. He ripped another during his first — and only — try at racquetball. His playing partner told him to get up and stop being a wimp. He couldn’t get up. Dan even broke his arm once trying to do a double-flip off a cinder block and plywood bike ramp on the corner of Pine and Elm streets — again a first and only attempt.

Sister Lori snapped her ACL on a ski slope and has yet to return to the powder, although that may have as much to do with the fact her residence is now in North Carolina.

But on Wednesday, the family took another hit when Cali the Dog, the three-time-gunshot-victim-turned-overseer-of-the-house, was diagnosed with a ruptured ACL, or, well, the canine equivalent of the ACL. The limp grew throughout the morning, eventually turning into a three-legged hop — not one of her best athletic moves. A trip to Vicksburg Animal Hospital revealed the ruptured tendon.

I know she wasn’t skiing and could easily dominate at raquetball. She chases rabbits, kind of, because like a diesel locomotive, it takes her plenty of time to get up to speed, while the quick rabbit is long gone. She’s cut open her chest in a barbed wire leap attempt, but this is her first leg injury.

So how did it happen? Cali the Dog said she is too embarrassed to say.

My guesses:

• She failed at a reverse 2 1/2 somersault off the couch when she heard a can of beer being opened in the kitchen.

• She tried scaling the big oak tree while chasing Rev. Al the Cat, making it a quarter way up before tumbling backward.

• She stumbled over the Brett Favre New York Jets memorabilia now clogging our living room.

• She toppled off the couch in boredom while watching Mississippi State’s offense against Auburn.

• She tried to dunk on Elton Brand.

However she did it, she did. Now the one-time canine track and field champion of Smith Station Road is on the shelf. No sports for two weeks; no beer or wild parties either. Her Olympic dreams in canine gymnastics are shattered, for now, at least.

Maybe she can get some healing tips from Dan.

Sean P. Murphy is sports editor. He can be reached at smurphy@vicksburgpost.com.