So after all the excitement of the Olympics, Spring was, in some ways, a bit more laid back around here. Above you have Murphy resting after our visitors had gone. But, of course, Murphy didn't want to relax forever, so Murphy persuaded me in his own way, to get up and out, and have some fun! To your left we have Murphy oh so subtly telling me that, once I had put his leash on, he had no intention of waiting to go outside and explore.

Spring brought us hikes, a visit down to Poulsbo to visit Owen, Jason and a quite pregnant Allie, and lots of English Cocker rescue work! But, of course, we also had lots of relaxing down time. Below you'll see some typical, lazy day activities from Murphy's daily life.

This first one looks like Murphy is just staring at something on the floor, but it's actually a little more complicated than that. Murphy is pointing to a treat that's under the couch. This is what Murphy does every time I arrive home, as I always leave him with his rollaball, which dispenses treats as he rolls it. Invariably one or more treats gets lodged under the furniture, and we go through a ritual of him pointing under the couch, the bookshelf, the secretary, and me moving about the furniture to get every last treat for him!

And below, you have Murphy looking out the window in our den. Again, a little more complex than it looks - Murphy was watching a cat who has been wandering through our yard lately. He LOVES pouncing at the window and barking at that cat!

One last everyday kinda shot - Murphy waiting at the door. I know this isn't terribly exciting, but I thought I'd document this daily action that he undertakes whenever he wants to be let outside. He always has this same look on his face like "Can't you move a little faster? I'm so bored with waiting on your hand with the fancy opposable thumb to work this damn doorknob to let me out"! Or at least I imagine that's what he's thinking.

Once he's outside he's truly king of his domain, inspecting the yard, staring into our neighbour's property, barking (while wagging madly) at any passing dog.

Next up, Lighthouse Park! Murphy and I had wandered around Lighthouse Park before, but Russ had never gone, so one weekday afternoon we headed out to West Van to show off this cool suburban park to Russ.

Below we have Murphy and Russ hitting the trails upon our arrival at the park. Murphy of course had to blaze the trail:

It's not a huge park, and in my experience it's never too crowded, but it is big enough that you can get turned around and a little lost, so there is good signage to keep you on the correct path:

Murphy and Russ were a little braver than I, and ventured out further on this gigantic boulder. Notice that Russ does in fact have his hand on Murphy's leash. In the top right corner of the photo you can see Vancouver, Point Grey to be precise:

We took in the view for awhile, to the North as well. That's a BC ferry going by in the distance, heading to the Horseshoe Bay terminal, presumably from Vancouver Island:

Then we headed back into the forest to explore the rest of the park. You can tell by Murphy's smile how much he was enjoying his day:

This photo below is simply a favourite of mine, showing how Murphy will, in his older years, now hesitate a bit before tackling a slightly daunting, unfamiliar, obstacle:

Now, that being said, he still has a lot of his behavioural quirks, like lying down in the shallowest, muddiest bodies of water he can find, preferably puddles:

So maybe another 20 minutes went by before the trail took us out to the shoreline again. This spot was a little trickier to get down to, you have to shimmy down a boulder, but Murphy was feeling bold:

So Lighthouse Park got its name from the lighthouse that sits on one of the outcroppings of cliffs along its shoreline. Below you se Murphy and Russ, having finally reached the lighthouse:

And that was our visit to Lighthouse Park! Pretty cool, and less than a half hour drive from home.

But the big excitement around here in the spring was English Cocker rescue. I've mentioned before that I'm now the B.C. Coordinator of Rescue for the English Cocker Spaniel Club of Canada. I'd done one rehoming in 2009, but February brought me my first real rescue. We took in two siblings from a family here in Vancouver. My parents agreed to foster Goldie (on the left) and Julie, for what turned out to be several months.

The girls were extremely shy, terrified of everything really, and had some medical issues, so it took us til June to get them tuned up and ready to go to a new home. My parents were amazing, making many trips to the vet for their spays and other treatment, and getting them used to the outside world. The girls settled in fairly quickly, as you can see by Julie's post to your right, but were still scared of anything out of their usual.

Murphy and I stopped in on our way down to Poulsbo in April for a quick visit, to see how the girls would do with another dog. They were both very wary of him, and retreated from him:

With time Goldie was a little braver, though Julie preferred the security of examining Murphy from behind a gate:

We had many other people also pitch in to help. Members of The English Cocker Spaniel Club of Canada contributed everything from socialization advice to crates for transport (and of course our club also paid for everything!). Donna, a professional dog trainer, voluntarily made several visits to my parents' home to show them how to work with these shy girls. Board members of The English Cocker Spaniel Club of America gave us tons of advice on how to proceed with this fostering and adoption, and posted their profile on their club's website while ours was being overhauled. And when members of the Association for the Advancement in Agility of English Cocker Spaniels found the girls' adoption ad online, they contacted me the next day to find out what they could do to help.

Well, what the girls really needed was exposure to the outside world. So Dave, Shelley and Joan offered to get the girls out and walking! Below you see Dave and my dad walking Julie and Dave's dog Emme:

Joan brought her dog Stanley out too, but my father didn't have his camera that day, so you'll have to wait til the September update to see Stanley! A bit of a tease there, as I have in fact continued to see all these agility folk since they first came into our lives to help with the girls...

At any rate, the girls made slow but steady progress, and by June it was time to start searching for each girls' forever home. We had lots of enquiries, from all over North America, nearly every day, til we found exactly what we were looking for!

So one weekend in July my Mom and I packed the girls up, loaded them into the car, and headed to Vancouver Island, where we'd found the girls each a home with a single woman and her senior dog. Goldie and Julie both got a big brother, a fantastically loving home, and a second chance at a wonderful life!

Below you have Julie and Goldie, each exploring their new yard. Julie was thrilled to finally have a home where she could run:

This whole experience was very emotional for my parents and me, and certainly didn't come cheap for our club, but, and I know this is a cliche, it was so incredibly rewarding, especially now to hear how they're continuing to make progress. When we hear simple things back, like how much Goldie loves camping and swimming, or how Julie loves her evening walks with the neighbour dogs, we're indescribably thrilled.

And by the way, we're always looking for foster homes, all over the province. So please, drop me a line if you're interested. Not all fosterings last months like this one did. A little more foreshadowing: we had another rescue English Cocker at the end of September. His fostering lasted all of 10 days, and he was a senior! I'll write all about him in a future update, but, again, please e-mail me (there's a link at the bottom of this page) if you'd get the same emotional satisfaction from helping out a dog in need that my parents did.

So I'd already mentioned that Murphy and I made a visit to Poulsbo in April (we are now backtracking to the day that Murphy visited Goldie and Julie at my parents' house). We really only visited with the girls for less than an hour, then decided they'd had enough, and got back in the car.

To your left you have Murphy riding in the car. Notice that he's sitting on top of a mound of blankets. He always does this! He insists on digging the blanket into a pile, then rests his butt on it, so that his rear end is higher than his head, once he's lying down. Strange little dog!

You may also notice that he's wearing a seat belt, that's not actually attached to the seat. That's because this photo was taken on the ferry, which is the one place Murphy gets respite from having to wear the dreaded seat belt!

Owen, as always, was very excited to see Murphy. Though I have to be honest and tell you that Murphy, in his old age, is not a big fan of toddler through preschool age children. Don't ask me why, Owen has never been anything but wonderful to him. Frankly, Murphy has gotten grumpier about everything from kids to baths in the last year...I think he thinks that he's entitled to have things his way now that he's 10. Well, what it's lead to is him ending up in his crate more often!

So the place that Murphy and Owen got to really let loose was the backyard. Lots of room for both of them to play. Murphy had to explore all the cool toys that Owen has stashed back there, from sidewalk chalk to dump trucks:

Allie, being 7 months pregnant at this point, was more than happy to hang out inside while I supervised out back. But she did join us, at the "Coffee Drivethrough":

Then, Murphy and Owen got to run about the yard. Owen decided it was high time the grass got a trim, so he went out with his toy vacuum cleaner to give it a mow. Murphy had to follow behind, trying to figure out what the heck Owen was up to:

He followed Owen all around the yard, around the tree, along the paver bricks and between plants. Then he laid down for a rest:

I'm not sure when Murphy had last seen bubbles, but he was quite taken with them. Both he and Owen took to chasing and popping the bubbles:

We only hung out in Poulsbo for a couple days, having a very relaxing time. Now, what isn't relaxing is the annual fire alarm/smoke detector test here in our building! Every year this absolutely terrifies Murphy. Now, you might be saying; "Why not just get Murphy out of the house while this is going on?". Well, unfortunately I have to be here to let the inspectors in to my unit to test our detectors! Next year I'm planning on shipping Murphy to my parents' while this is going on, so I can be here and he can have some peace. But this year, poor Murphy suffered through hours of bells and sirens. Below you have Murphy hiding in my closet, with a nest of shoes that he created:

He's also a big fan of making nests out of any blankets and pillows he can find. Below you have him sandwiched between the couch pillows:

Lastly, we had a bit of a health scare here during the spring - I found a lump on Murphy's side. It felt different from the usual senior dog fatty lumps, so in we went to the vet. Dr. Kennedy at first couldn't even find the lump, but once she got her fingers on it she agreed that it felt unusual, so we scheduled surgery. Below you can see the stitches:

Luckily, it turned out to just be a harder than usual fatty lipoma! Murphy wasn't too troubled at all by all this, though he did try to tear out the stitches himself!

 

And that folks, was spring! Summer brought all sorts of excitement around here, including a new family member, so be sure to check back to read up about that.

And please, consider fostering, or of course, adopting, a rescue dog, whether it's an English Cocker, or a mutt from your local shelter. All dogs deserve a second chance!

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: Summer 2010
Here's the link to the previous update: February 2010

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