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Murphy's Newsletter August 6, 2002  Hello All! I've had several complaints about how out of date Murphy's website is, but all I can say is that I've been studying hard so that I can continue to provide Murphy with the cushy lifestyle he's accustomed to. So don't think that Murphy has been ignored just because his website has been! Ok, what has happened since the last update? Well, I've gotten into the respiratory therapy program, so Murphy and I are moving up to Kamloops in September. He came with me to look at apartments, and we managed to find a place that would allow Murphy! Ok, let's get to the photos here. The first series is from a hike Allie, Murphy and I took back in June. The one above is Murphy lying in a patch of wildflowers that were just growing by the side of the road. It's from the end of the hike, so let's jump back to see the rest of them in chronological order...   Above we have Murphy posed with us at the 30 foot pool, this calm bit of water that for some reason the tourists love. Murphy loves to jump in the water there, but with so many people around, who he would them jump on, I try to keep him on terra firma.
It's driving me crazy that you can't see Murph's eyes in any of these pictures, but I digress... The next photo below is of Murphy wading in water at a shallow spot on the creek. This is what he does every single time we get near water. He runs in, lies down, and laps up a drink of water. He'll often go quite a bit deeper than this, but he always has that strip of dry fur down his back. Skipping ahead to this past weekend for a sec...Murphy swam all on his own in the creek! I was tossing treats out to him, and he'd wade in to fetch them, and then he just decided to explore a little further. I hadn't thrown a treat too far out or anything, he just paddled off for a few seconds. Well, I'm always trying to encourage Murph to swim, so I rolled up my pants and waded in. For a good 30 minutes we waded, and he swam a few more times.  Ok, back to the hike... Here we have Murphy just sitting, relaxing,
cooling off a bit. I like how this shot shows his bristly face.
At this point in the hike we'd been It takes about 1 1/2 hours to get to Riverside Drive from Lynn Headwaters. Riverside takes us right back home, so it's one of the options when hiking from Lynn back home. It's a long, fairly quiet road, with all sorts of houses along the way, so it's a nice route. It's not a really planned/developed area, so there are lots of tall trees, berry bushes and wildflowers along the side of the road. Below we have me and Murphy checking out the berries and flowers. Look at how steady Murphy is on those hind legs! Much steadier than Allie, it turns out, as she slipped while trying to take this photo, her legs sliding under the barrier you see there. She was ok, though she felt a little silly, since my dog is steadier on his feet than she is on hers. 
So that was our hike! The next set of pictures we have were taken at our local Canada Day celebration. For you non-Canadians, that's July 1. Murphy is an American by birth, so he was very excited to go to his first Canada party. I don't know why we didn't go out and celebrate last year...I'm a horrible owner. Ok, so first off we have me and Murphy sitting on the sea wall. To the right of the photo is North Vancouver, across the water is Vancouver proper. Note the crowds of people behind us. The park is signed "No Dogs", but we saw lots of other people with their dogs, and big public gatherings are such a great way to socialize Murphy, so we went on in anyway.  Next we have Murphy taking a bit of a breather with Allie by the swing ride. It was quite warm that day, and as you can see Murphy has quite a bit of fur on him, so he heats up all the quicker. We had a nice little rest while watching the kids go round and round, then we headed off to explore a little further. They had all sorts of booths, a petting zoo from our local hobby farm, a climbing wall, rides, food, and so on.   The picture on the right above is Murphy dancing with Allie to a little country music. They two stepped for a bit, whirled around...yes, passersby laughed a little, but this could be Murphy's last Canada Day with Allie for quite some time, so they partied it up despite the onlookers.
While rolling around, he caught the eye of a nearby family, and they brought their year old son over to meet Murph. He's been getting so much better with kids! He sat for a pat, took a cookie from the toddler, and was admired by all. The little boy offered Murphy some of his food, but his parents and I managed to intervene before Murphy could get a hold of the meal. Allie was off fetching us some lunch, so we hung out with this family for a few minutes while Allie did our bidding. So we left the Canada Day celebrations, and headed for a little walk. Allie went into the 7 Eleven and got us a couple of slurpees. Murphy loves any sort of frozen treat, so after I had had enough of my slurpee, Murphy got to finish it off.   At this point we'd made it to our office, where Murphy recuperated in the air conditioning. Check out the blue tongue! Below we have a picture of what Murphy got up to once he was rehydrated: getting tangled in the cords under my computer. He also enjoys this pass time at home under the computer there.  Finally we have Murphy' birthday greeting from Sofi and Maggie, members of our petcockerspaniels list on Yahoo. We got all sorts of well wishes, but I just love Murphy in a hat, so I had to post this one here. Murphy and I had great fun on his birthday, going out for brunch, taking a nice long walk, having a bubble bath (just Murphy, even I'm not crazy enough to get into the bath with my dog). I have pictures from that day, but haven't uploaded them yet, so you'll just have to come back and check us out again to see them! 
Meghan
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I know we already have pictures
of Murphy on the Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, but I love the
goofy way he's sitting here, so I had to include it. For some
reason Murphy was hesitant about getting on the bridge, even
though he's shown no fear of it in the past. Well, Allie and
I would have none of it, so on we went! He got lots of giggles
from the tourists as usual, we snapped some pictures, and we
headed off on our hike again.
walking for a good hour, hour and a quarter, so
he was panting a bit, as you can see. And finally we can see
his eyes! I think it was at this point where we ran into a couple
of girls about our age who were hiking in the opposite direction
from us. Murphy waggled for them while they tried to figure out
where they were heading. He tried for some kisses as he often
does, then we all went our separate ways.
And here we have Murphy wiggling on the grass.
He does this all the time, inside or out. When outside he prefers
that the rolling be in something mucky or dead, but here I think
it was just the coolness of the grass that got him going.