Can you believe Murphy is 7? I can't...or maybe I just don't want to accept that he's now middle aged! At any rate, Murphy had a nice seventh birthday, with a cake, some cupcakes for friends, and a few gifts. This year I made a potato flour cake with apples and carrots. All the ingredients can be seen below:

It was easy enough to whip up, and then I poured the batter into a large fire hydrant shaped cookie cutter to create a fun shape to the cake:

   

The picture to your left actually shows him watching the cake bake. He hung out in front of the stove the whole time it was cooking.

I used the extra batter to make cupcakes, which I shared with friends' dogs.

I iced them both with the peanut butter icing that Murphy loves so much, then stacked them:

Then I topped the cake and cupcakes with bone shaped mini treats that I picked up in Seattle on a previous trip:

Murphy, no surprise, loved all of it. Below you have him licking his plate clean. I gave him about one third of the main cake on his birthday, then doled out more over the following days. I still have some in the freezer, now that I think about it!

The cake was easy, but the actual gifts gave me some trouble. Murphy has everything he could want, and I didn't feel like buying him a toy just for the sake of having a gift for him. My parents renewed his website as their gift to him, but I was having trouble coming up with something.

So I bought him some cookies from Big Dog Little Dog Bakery. The coloured ones are fire hydrant shaped cookies dipped in icing, and the paw print shaped ones are pumpkin based. I love that they come in a doggie sized bakery box. I'm such a sucker for details!

But that still left me with the main gift to find. So I came up with charity - I made a donation in Murphy's name to our local animal shelter. It's a no kill shelter that houses dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs and even birds. I was going to buy them dog stuff, but on their Petfinder page it showed that at the moment they were housing mostly cats, and since I didn't think Murphy would appreciate me directly contributing to the happiness of a species he lives to chase, I went with a straight monetary donation. Below is the thank you card they sent, with a tax receipt no less!

  

The other occurrence in July was the emergence of a new behaviour from Murphy. The picture to your left shows how it started, with him sitting in a daze, hanging his head, always pointed to the left.The lighting in my bedroom is terrible, and this video was taken at night, but you can make out the odd behaviour in the following videos. The first one shows how the behaviour started, the second one shows how it evolved. This mystified me at first, then I asked around to my friends who have dogs for their input. We managed to figure out, I think, the reason for this behaviour.

I developed pneumonia in mid July (thanks to all my patients at St Paul's Hospital!). I started sleeping more, and going to bed earlier. I've always been a night owl, but since getting sick I started going to bed earlier, and getting up earlier. What I didn't consider is that Murphy was used to this late night schedule too! So I was forcing him to go to bed at 10 - 11 pm when he'd been used to being able to wander around til 2ish. It probably didn't help matters that he'd usually get a bedtime snack at midnightish, which he'd also been missing out on. I know it looks like he just wants me to open the door, but I've always slept with the door closed because Murphy is prone to mischief, more so when I'm around, and he's also prone to vomiting at night (another reason for his midnight snack).

So I restarted the bedtime snack no matter how early I went to bed, then closed us both in my bedroom. He still likes to sit at the foot of my bed for a bit, and he does wander around with a toy for a minute or so if one is available, but he now settles in for sleep much more quickly. I mentioned this behaviour to our vet and he just chuckled, mostly at me when I told him I was worried it might be early dementia (his come back was "VERY early dementia!"). So I take it it's just another quirk of Murphy's.

And speaking of behaviour, Murphy's mischief hasn't abated now that he's 7. I often buy Murphy a banana when I go grocery shopping, and dole it out to him over a couple of days as a treat. Well this day in July Murphy didn't feel like waiting on me. So he methodically tugged at the end of it to work it to the edge of the counter where he could get a good grip on it, then pulled it down. Then he ate half the banana, including the peel! I heard some strange noises from the other room and discovered him ravaging this banana. Note in the picture he doesn't look ashamed, he looks angry at me for stopping him! He did not appreciate it when I threw out what remained of his treat.

The rest of the summer was just lazing about, nothing too exciting. But I did take several cute and funny pictures, so here they are:

 

The picture to your left is Murphy enjoying a scratch, and on your right is Murphy just hanging out afterwards, feeling good.

And some of you may be wondering "Where is Patches?". Murphy's favourite toy is still at the top of his list, as the following pictures will attest:

  

I went looking for Murphy and there he was, in my bedroom doorway, snuggling with Patches. Maybe part of her appeal is her rounded shape that makes her a great pillow?

Number two for Murphy is still Puppy. This picture to your right was taken during his pacing in front of my bedroom door phase. I couldn't find room to include it above, but it's so cute that I couldn't resist sneaking it in here.

So that's it for summer! Next up is fall, which features a walk with one of Murphy's favourite people, Natalie.

Email me!

Meghan

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

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