After getting so far behind on updates, I've decided to catch up by cramming 5 months into one update. So get ready for a quick tour through early 2009 with Murphy!

Above, we have Owen, looking somewhat like he does in present day, hanging out with Murphy at Allie's place in Seattle. My camera let me down once again in the absolutely regular daylight indoors, but the picture was too cute not to post.

But that's jumping ahead. Let's go back to January:

That's right, more snow! It snowed and snowed and snowed this winter. Poor Murphy gave up even trying to find grass for a couple weeks there, as you can see above. We spent a lot of time indoors, as the streets and sidewalks were literally impassible. Below you have Murphy "helping" me with laundry, in the bedroom:

In February my parents moved to White Rock, a Vancouver suburb that's about an hour south of me, right at the Canada/USA border. Below you have Murphy hanging out at their place in North Van, right before they moved. My Dad took this picture while he was dog sitting, while I was at work. You can see they treat Murphy HORRIBLY!

Now, I don't have many pictures of Murphy from March, as, for a large part of it, I was in Hawaii with coworkers (NOT official hospital business). To the left you can see the five coworkers I traveled with, and if your memories are good you might recognize all but one from Christmas dinner. Left to right we have Russ, Maureen, Chris, Alexis and Carrie Ann. Chris wanted to go somewhere warm for Spring Break, and, with much planning, we compromised on Hawaii. Most of us had never been before, and we had a great time.

We split our time between Oahu and Maui, staying in the cities of Honolulu and Lahaina, respectively. We rented condos, doubling up in the beds, and did a fair bit of cooking ourselves. We did a little touring, but spent at least part of every day at the beach or in the pool.

Murphy spent the week at my parents' new house. His bed was tucked in to a nook in their home office:

So that was March. Luckily for Murphy, in April I took a trip on which he was welcome - down to Poulsbo to visit Allie, Jason and Owen! Owen, as always, was fascinated by Murphy.

Strangely, Murphy is becoming less enamoured with Owen as he grows. Maybe it's because he's now up and about, and can access everything, like Murphy's crate:

Or maybe it's because I do stuff like leave him at home when we go to the beach! I'd never been to this beach before, and even though Allie assured me it was dog friendly, I didn't want to take the chance and end up having to stick Murphy in the car for an hour! But this place, on Bainbridge Island, was beautiful:

The other reason I was hesitant was because we were meeting up with Owen's friend Porter, and his Mom, Mary, as you can see in the above photo. Parents can be hesitant around strange dogs, and I didn't want to ruin their playdate. But, even without Murphy, it was a nice day. I stayed back, literally holding down the beach blanket, while the moms took the boys out to the shoreline. I thought this was a nice one of the two boys (I cropped Allie out of the frame, you can see her shadow to the right side of the picture):

After we'd settled in for a picnic I became even more disappointed at not having brought Murphy, as a woman came walking by with TWO English Cockers! Poor Mary had no idea why I was so excited at seeing these two dogs, and I was so excited that I didn't take the time to ask for a picture. I'm such a terrible owner!

But Murphy did have a nice time back at Allie's place, doing stuff like listening to Owen's skills on the piano:

Even though there was no actual food, Murphy seemed to know that this place was food related. He sniffed around very authentically:

And once Owen had moved off his bed to the kitchen, Murphy jumped up on the bed to check out all the toys:

I swear, Murphy likes Owen's stuffies more than Owen does. Every time Murphy needs to go sniff them all, and carry a few around. Owen is very patient about it, and never tries to grab anything back from Murphy.

Owen also shares his artwork with Murphy, like the sunflower, below:

So those were the Murphy highlights of Seattle, April 2009! And despite what the pictures might have you believe, Murphy did get out for walks throughout our stay. Again, I must take my camera next time!

May didn't bring too much excitement to our lives, though I did find this cute little statue at Homesense:

Granted, while its ears and body look English, its eyes are very American. But it's as close to an English Cocker I've seen in stores here. It's found a nice little home in the corner of our yard:

So that's January - May 2009 in Murphy's world! At least Murphy's world as I caught it in photos. Stuff I didn't catch: my friend Wendy's daughter Haley's birth (though Murphy has yet to meet her, and that's going back slightly, to December), vaccinations in January (he's now on a 3 year protocol for most diseases), his nose developing a drip in the spring (apparently it's a new symptom of his allergies), making a new friend, and me joining the English Cocker Spaniel Club of Canada. I'll cover those last two items in the next update.

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: July 2009
Here's the link to the previous update: December 2008

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