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Murphy's Newsletter Fall 2007  Ok, so I've titled this update "Fall 2007", but it really picks up in late August. I figure I'm only going to do one more this year, which will be in winter, so this one by default is fall. Enough semantics! Above we have Murphy lazing about, as he and I have been doing too much of lately. So when our friend Natalie came into town, we took her up on her suggestion to go for a walk in Richmond.
Above we have Murphy with Natalie, at McDonald
Park by our airport. Natalie was staying with her parents who
live out in Richmond, so she asked me to pick a dog To your left is Murphy playing on a huge log. The park was very clean, except for that beer can you can make out on the far left of that picture! Natalie, Murphy and I spent nearly an hour
there, though as you can see I didn't let Murphy off leash near
the water for fear of getting my car completely covered in sand
and mud during our 45 minute drive home. I'm cruel, I know. Plus
I was nervous around all the other dogs - there were several,
despite what the pictures show. Earlier this year Murphy was
pounced on at the dog park and became defensively growly afterwards.
Despite the fact that he's been fine for a good 6 months, gently
sniffing other dogs, even playing with them, I'm still worried
that a big dog is going to pounce on him and he'll be terrified
all over again. As a woman told me at this park Another development this fall was figuring out more foods that Murphy is allergic to. On local walks there are wild blackberry bushes. Since I was a little kid I've picked those berries and eaten them, and since Murphy was a puppy he's shared in them. But as this is a popular activity around here, you have to get them when they're still not quite ripe, or you'll never get any. So Murphy has always eaten wild, slightly under ripe blackberries. Well one day I bought some ripe blackberries from the grocery store, and being the wonderful owner I am, I gave Murphy about 4 of them. 45 minutes later as I lifted Murphy up onto the bathroom counter to brush his teeth his belly caught my eye - it was bright red! On closer inspection it was covered in hives. He'd just had a haircut earlier that day, so I phoned his groomer to ask if any new products or treats were given to him, but she assured me, in a very, unnecessarily guilty tone, that she'd used his shampoo and his treats. Poor woman, my worried tone must have come across as accusatory. Any way, the only new thing was the blackberries. So no more berries for Murphy, which is a bit of a pain, because a lot of the wheat/corn/soy/chicken/beef free treats I buy have berries in them. But then a stroke of luck...I found sweet potato treats!
They're ridged and hard, so they're marketed as good for cleaning dog's teeth. Frankly I didn't care what the hell they were for, they're nothing but sweet potato! Are you getting how exciting this was for me? Well Murphy was excited too, and had to have one:  Note that he has picked it up so that it's
laying across his mouth. He paraded around like this with it,
making me worry that he didn't understand that he was One truly terrifying event took place a few months ago - Murphy was attacked by the dishwasher! Now, by the looks of it in the picture to your right, the dishwasher is a perfectly nice appliance, and Murphy seems to get along with it just fine. But that picture is deceiving! You see Murphy likes to investigate the dishes in the dishwasher, or more specifically all the forbidden foods on the dishes. Well one day the dishwasher had had enough and fought back! Murphy had his nose inside the dishwasher, as he tries to do every day, several times a day. He was systematically working his way around the dishwasher, licking as he went. The picture below shows him on the far side of the the dishwasher: 
But note the cutlery basket on the near side of the dishwasher. Apparently that's a sensitive spot for the appliance, as when Murphy started in on that particular place the dishwasher reached out, grabbed onto Murph's collar and wouldn't let go! Murphy thrashed and jumped and bobbed this way and that, throwing dishes about, pulling the lower rack off it's hinges and managing to break off one of the wheels. I was rinsing dishes right next to him and heard this incredibly loud bang, followed by rattling. I looked over to see just a blur of shaking fur and plastic and china. He didn't stop til I screamed "Murphy STOP!" at the top of my lungs. Frankly I couldn't even tell what the problem was til he froze. Then I was able to free him from the evil dishwasher, who he ran from as fast as his legs would carry him. Now, you'd think that this might have taught him a lesson, right? Well, you'd be wrong. He was back in there licking dishes (and posing for these recreation pictures) the next day. Below is a sequence of three pictures that depict one of Murphy's favourite summertime activities - poking his head out the living room window. He creates a little divot for himself in the cushions and settles in: 
...then he settles in to watch the world go by. But if he hears me moving around he has to see what's going on inside. Below is him spotting me:  ...activity inside trumps activity outside (he probably figures it's more likely to involve food), so he has to get up to investigate:  Sorry the pictures are so grainy, my camera sucks indoors in low light. But you'll be happy to hear that I'm asking for a new one for Christmas! After all this guarding and investigating, Murphy will eventually fall asleep:
And speaking of crappy indoor photos, the adorable photo below had to be lightened on my computer to enable you to make out Murphy's face. But it's too cute to not post:
So that's it for now. I still have pictures from Allie, Jason and Owen's visit in October, but they're too small to post, so I'll have to get Allie to send them to me at full size. After that we're on to Christmas! Meghan
Here's the link to the next update: October/November 2007
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walk
out there. Murphy and I had never been to any dog parks out that
way, so I looked up the best rated walk in our 
Murphy's
fine, the problem is me! Since then I've gotten better, letting
him off leash, and we've had no problems.
Ok,
so they cost me $15 for dried sweet potato slices (honestly,
it's probably 2 sliced up sweet potatoes), but it was incredibly
exciting to find a treat made of nothing but pure sweet potato,
as his meals are whitefish and sweet potato. Here's a close up:
supposed
to chew it prior to swallowing it. So he eats them with my assistance
- I hold the slice upright while he breaks off manageable pieces.
