We're going back to October, when Allie, Jason and Owen came up to visit. Murphy hadn't seen Owen since he was 5 weeks old, so this was our first big test of how they'd get along. And they both did great! Owen doesn't make any quick moves or try to grab at Murphy's ears or tail, and Murphy only touches Owen to lick food off his fingers or face. SUCH relief for me, as Murphy had previously been shy of kids. He does still give Owen a fairly wide berth, but that's fine with me! Can you hear the relief in through my typing?

Anyway, the three of them came up for Canadian Thanksgiving, and stayed with my parents (who have guest rooms). But they made the 6 minute trek via car to my place, and took us out for a walk. But first we had to try to pose the boys for some pictures:

I now remember why I usually wear a little blush and concealer on a daily basis...and why I should pay more than $15 for a haircut. After a few moments of getting them settled we managed to get one with them both looking at the camera, though Owen looks less than pleased, and Murphy looks possessed:

We headed out for a walk around my neighbourhood, showing the three of them the little local parks and playgrounds. Allie got in front of the camera for this one:

A little blurry, but you get the idea. So that was their brief weekend visit, or at least the hour or so I caught with my camera. The big news was Owen's first birthday, at the end of November:

I headed down to Poulsbo early to help Allie with the birthday preparations...if by "help" I mean shop at all the outlets and malls. I did do a little clean up and leant her a hand with the birthday cake, but that was about it. Murphy came down with my parents a few days later, the day before the party. At first they were a little leery of each other:

An awful picture of Owen, but it gives you a sense that they were both a little uneasy with each other. But soon enough they learned that universal truth about kids and dogs:

The other thing that they had in common was a love of toys. I think Murphy thought he'd entered some kind of toy shop:

Especially when you consider that some of Murphy's toys are actually designed for humans, I can understand Murphy's confusion. And one of Owen's toys Murphy had seen before:

I bought this giraffe stackable toy for Owen just before he was born. When I brought it home Murphy was sure it was for him, and kept trying to jump up and pull it down to play with. Clearly he remembered this toy, as once he spotted it he was all over it immediately. Each body part is a ring, and the whole thing comes apart, so Murphy (with Allie's permission) had a grand time carrying it around and taking it apart.

  

He then started further claiming it as his own by taking bits and pieces over to his temporary bed:

And when I took them away from him he took it one step further and tried to hide the pieces in the laundry basket had been temporarily, but conveniently, parked next to his bed:

Murphy was also enjoying a little bunny that Jason's mom Anne had just given Owen the day before. At one point my dad took it away from Murphy, but when Anne told my dad it was okay for Murphy to play with it, Murphy got what he wanted:

 

Despite his fascination with Owen's toys Murphy did save some time for his own:

Nothing will ever trump his rollaball! And in a bit of turnaround-is-fair play, Owen quite liked the rollaball too:

 

Luckily it was the relatively clean rollaball that lives at my parents' house, as opposed to the one I have which is not the kind of toy you'd want your 1 year old putting in his mouth! Owen also checked out Murphy's favourite stuffy:

And even though it was Owen's birthday, Murphy got a present too. Murphy had gone up into Owen's nursery, which has a toy box with all sorts of stuffies on it, and started pulling out the various stuffies. This one he got to keep:

It's a little dog, with long ears, not unlike Murphy. I had Allie keep it in Poulsbo so that Murphy has a toy there when he visits.

The other thing that Murphy had to sample was the laundry. Murphy found a pair of Owen's socks that were on the coffee table, and decided that, as a guest, he would help tidy up a bit:

I took them away from him a couple of times, but he continued to try to get at them. So I thought maybe if I put the socks on him he might not enjoy the socks so much:

That brings us to the party itself. Allie had invited about 20 people, including about 6 kids, all under the age of 8. Once the kids started arriving I put Murphy in his crate upstairs, away from all the noise and activity, and the kids who might not be used to dogs. But every time the doorbell rang he'd start barking, so I thought maybe I should just take him out to show him what was going on:

That's Owen crawling up the stairs to say hello to Murphy again, and one of his little friends peeking at Murphy through the rails. That little guy was very cute - every time he saw Murphy he wouldn't say "doggie", he'd look straight at Murphy and say "Woof, Woof"!

And one more common thread between Owen and Murphy:

  

After most of the guests had left, I let Murphy out to show the couple of kids who remained how his rollaball worked:

There were so many toys and boxes that Murphy was having to pick up the rollaball to move it to clearer paths. Once the rollaball was empty he went back to his true passion, begging for food (in this case, birthday cake):

And that was the end of our visit. We headed home right after the party ended.

The other event around here in November was Murph's continuing issue with food allergies. He'd been having digestive issues with his food, lots of burping and a rumbly tummy that I could hear when we went to bed at night, so I decided I'd try a new food. I hunted around, looking for one that was fish and veggie based, so he wouldn't have any further allergic issues. I picked up Go! Natural Salmon and Oatmeal. Murphy has had both these ingredients before, so I figured there wouldn't be any issues. In fact this food only has four main ingredients: salmon, oatmeal, canola oil and inulin (plus yucca schidigera, more on this later, and vitamins and minerals), so I figured there wouldn't be any problems. Plus it's locally made, which is always nice.

Murphy loved this stuff. Even before I opened the package he was jumping up and whining, trying to get at it. When that tactic didn't work he decided to try the polite route, sitting and staring at the bag with desperation in his eyes, pleading with me to give him some:

 

So I fed him this new food, just adding a bit to his regular food for the first couple of meals, then switching to it entirely for the next. That's when this happened:

His whole belly broke out in hives. So I stopped the Go! Natural Salmon and Oatmeal and went back to his regular food. The hives were gone within a week, but the burping and rumbling of his tummy were back. And I was mystified, as he has both salmon and oatmeal treats, which have never given him any trouble. I kept him on just his regular kibble for a week, then reintroduced the oatmeal treats - no trouble, so I assumed that it was the salmon. But just yesterday, about a month after I fed him the Go! Natural food I gave him half a tin of salmon to see if he had a reaction. At first I was scared that he might have an anaphylactic reaction, but NOTHING happened. So what the hell was causing the reaction?

Then, just now as I consulted the bag of Go! Natural food for its ingredients to tell this story, I found the probable culprit - Yucca. When I bought the food I must have skipped over it, thinking it was some natural form of a vitamin. It's not, it's a BERRY! Murphy has already had a reaction to blackberries, so I'd avoided all berries ever since, and in fact this had made it difficult to find a new food to switch him to, as a lot of the higher end "natural" foods have blueberries and/or cranberries for their antioxidants. It hadn't occurred to me, 'til I looked it up just now online, that Yucca might be a berry! Light bulb going on! Now it's back to the drawing board to find a new food, though now that I can feed him salmon it should be a lot easier.

Before I finish this update, a few more pictures from our everyday life here at home. First we have Murphy doing his new job - helping with the laundry:

Above Murphy is holding a single sock, which he had retrieved at my request from the floor, demonstrating one aspect of his job as sock patrolman. He also stands next to me when I'm emptying the washer or dryer, and picks up anything that might fall to hand to me. Then once the laundry is done he picks the socks out of the laundry basket and hands them to me to put away in my drawer. Then he does this:

Sits and points at the drawer next to my sock drawer, the one with the treats. He's really very good at overseeing the movement of socks in the household. He also helps me put my socks on in the morning - he holds one sock while I put the other on. You can tell he loves having a job around here.

And lastly we have the first sign of winter:

Murphy loves the snow, and despite what these pictures show, did get a chance to go outside and romp in it...then I got to haul him into the bath to melt off the snowballs that immediately form all over his paws and legs. Unfortunately the snow only lasted about one day, and it's been raining ever since, which is not nearly as fun for either of us.

So that's it for late fall! Next up will be, obviously, Christmas. I'm working Christmas Eve and Christmas, so there aren't going to be many pictures, unless I can con my father into taking some. Keep your fingers crossed!

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: December 2007
Here's the link to the previous update: Fall 2007

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