So the big event around here in June was my sister Allie's wedding. Since Murphy is a part of the family, but wasn't going to be allowed into the church for the ceremony, Allie had him host a barbeque to welcome all of her out of town guests. Her fiance, who is named Jason, just to confuse everyone, is from Texas originally, but went to the Air Force Academy in Colorado for school, and was then posted in L.A. and St. Louis. Allie has lived here in Vancouver, spent high school and university in Calgary, did a second degree in Thunder Bay Ontario, and then moved to St. Louis to be with Jason. Needless to say there were tons of out of town guests, probably more out of town than in town guests, in fact. So this was quite an honour for Murphy to host such an important event! Above you have the picture that was used on the Evite (e-mail invite) to all the guests for the barbeque. I'd seen this tux online before, and managed to find one here in town last October - it was being sold by Three Dog Bakery as a Halloween costume. To your right we have a different view of the tux, showing off its tails.

So we had several months before the barbeque in mid-June to get Murphy used to the tux. The great thing about putting Murphy into costumes is that they act like a little straight jacket for him, inhibiting him from jumping up on chairs, preventing counter-surfing and so on. It's great! The problem this day was that we were in the middle of a heat wave - like 30 degrees Celsius (which to Vancouverites is a heat wave). So Murphy would have died had I kept him in his costume all day. So he was in and out of it, plus he spent some time in his crate just to have some time away from the 40 or so people we had coming in and out of our house.

Below we have Murphy hanging out on our back deck as the guests started to arrive. Left to right that's my Dad, Mom, Jason's Mom (remember that's not *my* Jason we're talking about, but Allie's husband), his best man Brent and Jason's Dad.

Jason's parents are huge dog people too, so Murphy gets tons of hugs, kisses, and treats from them when they make the trip up from Texas. The first thing Jason's mom showed her sister Janet when they arrived from Chicago for the wedding was Murphy's treat drawer. You can imagine how over fed Murphy was the day of the barbeque. And speaking of Janet, for all the ECS owners who are reading this, she asked me the funniest thing. Nearing the end of the day I was sitting with Janet just chatting and she asked me; "Now Meghan, is this how Murphy's supposed to look? I mean, I've seen Cocker Spaniels before, and I mean, he's very elegant, but is this how he's *supposed* to look?". So then I got to give the whole spiel about the diversion of the American Cocker from the English Cocker, the physical differences between the two breeds and so on. I never know if non-dog people believe me when I tell them the whole explanation, or if they think I'm just a deluded Cocker Spaniel owner.

But back to the barbeque. Below we have Murphy getting some affection from both Allie and my Jason:

He quite enjoyed getting these hugs, but there was one person whose hugs he kept trying to escape:

That's Cameron, Jason's sister's 2 year old son (Allie's nephew, now that she's married to Jason). Cameron, like everyone in his family except his uncle Jason, is a big fan of dogs. We organized a private meeting between Cameron and Murphy the day prior to the barbeque, just to get them introduced without the big crowd. We took Murphy over to their hotel, knocked on their room's door and as it opened I heard "PUPPY!" and the sound of tiny feet pounding toward me. Cameron opened his arms and fell onto Murphy in a hug. These two are about the same size, Murphy weighs 33 pounds, Cameron 28, so this was pretty frightening to a dog who is scared of kids under 5 feet tall to begin with. And I was already on edge knowing this fact. I'd been warned by Cameron's mother that he rides his Golden Retriever Gus at home, but I truly wasn't prepared for how obsessed this little toddler was with dogs. We walked into the room and Cameron continued to try to hug Murphy, which I found incredibly endearing, but which Murphy did not. I picked Murphy up, and Cameron would come over to us and rub his face against Murphy's feet and belly. It was truly adorable. Meanwhile Courtney (Allie's best friend and other bridesmaid) and I were trying to get introduced to Jason's sister, brother in law and grandmother. Point of the story, Murphy had great fear of Cameron, and Cameron just wanted to hang out with Murphy...and maybe ride him, I can't be sure.

So needless to say I was nervous for the barbeque, when Murphy would be around, and Cameron would be scampering all over the place, quite possibly, lovingly, after Murph. I ended up bringing Murphy out for short periods, then putting him in his crate - I just didn't feel comfortable with the idea of losing Murphy in the crowd only to find him grumbling at Cameron out of confusion and fear. By the end of the night Cameron had figured out where Murphy kept disappearing to and climbed up the stairs to my bedroom, standing outside my door saying "Puppy, PUPPY!". I brought him out and tried to engineer a picture with my Jason holding Murphy, and Cameron standing beside them. Instead Cameron came running up the stairs and dived for Murphy in a hug (perhaps reasoning that Murphy couldn't escape since Jason was holding him). At the sound of Cameron's feet I started snapping pictures as quickly as my digital camera would allow. The one 2 paragraphs up was the best I managed. Murphy even looks semi calm!

By the end of the evening Murphy was exhausted and boiling. Smart and enterprising dog that he is, he went for the coldest water around - the bucket that the beer was cooling in. By this point in the evening almost all the ice had melted, leaving a giant ice cold trough for Murphy to enjoy.

The next day was the wedding itself. The day started at 9am for us three girls in the wedding party- Allie, Courtney and myself - and went at full speed until after midnight. But Murphy wasn't entirely forgotten. Below we have Murphy helping Allie write her toast to her new husband:

Maybe it was Allie's squirrel covered pj's that attracted Murphy's attention! He helped us get our makeup on in the bathroom, pausing with us for some photos, as the one with Allie and Courtney below:

And I even managed to squeeze in a couple pictures of us all done up with Murphy, before dashing off for the limo to the church:

 

For a ton of pictures from Allie's wedding, including the barbeque, getting ready, the ceremony and the reception, go to her wedding page which is also right here on this site, put together by my father from different relatives' pictures. There are far more flattering pictures of both me and Allie, than the two above! There are even a few more of Murphy at his barbeque, just look for his name in the list of pictures.

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: November 2004
Here's the link to the previous update: April 2004

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