This past Sunday, July 22nd, was Murphy's first birthday! I can't believe it!

For Murphy's birthday I ordered a cake from Three Dog Bakery (that's one of their deli cases, featuring dog cookies, pastries, "chocolate", cakes and so on, to your right). I know it's insane to buy your dog a cake, but for $12 I just had to see what they made. As you will see, they take their cakes very seriously, and they look way too gorgeous to feed your dog. But trust me, no human would want to eat this. Though the ingredients are all palatable (whole wheat flour, peanut butter, yogurt icing) there is no sugar added, so it's incredibly bland. I tried a tiny bite, and it tasted sort of like fancy bread. I ordered the cake a few days ahead of time, at which time they told me to bring Murphy down for the free brunch they serve every Sunday. I had to see this.

So I (and Ryan, that's him to the left, who I roped into coming with us) took Murphy down to Three Dog on his birthday. Ryan, who had been up til 3 am the night before at a bachelor party, was a very good sport about all this. Anyway, you walk in to the bakery and at the back of the store they have a little wooden platform on which they serve brunch. Every Sunday they pick a different recipe from their dog cookbook to serve. This Sunday they made German Shepherd's Pie and Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins, for dessert. They both looked just like something humans would eat. Murphy, with tail and bum wagging madly, gobbled it all down in a flash, much to the amusement of the staff. Ryan pointed out that since Allie likes to cook I should have bought the cookbook so Allie would bake stuff for Murph. I'm considering heading back to make that purchase...Murphy's stomach tolerates "human" food better than kibble. Anyway, after brunch Murphy was off to explore the rest of the bakery (with Ryan in tow). See how happy Murph is in this picture? That's how thrilled he was to visit this store, it was like heaven to him.

I wandered around the bakery (that's it pictured from the street, below) and ended up buying a watermelon cookie, a fire hydrant cookie, a peanut butter cup (carob instead of chocolate), a pup tart, a star cookie with "Stay" written on it as well as a bulk bag of peanut butter and beef vegetable Jump 'n Sit bits (for rewards). Murphy couldn't believe that there were huge bins of treats out in the open, but (thankfully) just out of his reach.

I was expecting mostly little spoiled dogs to be coming in for brunch, but the first two dogs we met there were a Rottweiler cross and a Pitt Bull. And the Pit Bull was the first dog I've ever seen be submissive to Murphy, so that was interesting. They had a submission-off, both trying to be the first to roll over and show their bellies. As we were leaving, two Pomeranians came in, so I guess they get the whole rainbow of dogs in the bakery.

So Murphy and I came home from the bakery, he sampled the peanut butter cup, then we headed off for a bit of a nap. I had already given him his gift from me (a doggie backpack, see photo), so that was it for treats til Allie got home from San Francisco with her gift. She bought Murphy a collar and leash set from Old Navy, in black with a reflective strip as well as a frisbee (also pictured below).

    

Then, it was time for the cake! Murphy was extremely excited about this cake, and managed to lick a little bit of the icing off while I was cutting him a slice (you can just see the smudge his nose left in the photo to the right). Then, when he was given his piece, he dove right in, grabbed the whole piece and tried to eat it all at once. He failed and had to chew a bit, but he did manage to get lots of icing in his ears. It took me 2 days to get all the icing out. But the cake was a hit.

So that was it for Murphy's birthday. Even this small cake was way too much for Murphy to eat alone (he's had several pieces and most of it got caught in his ears, as you can see), so on Tuesday we shared it with Abby (one of our agents, Karen's, Miniature Poodle) and Calvin (the agency's accountant, Elba's, Bichon Frise). Luckily they both fuss over their dogs enough to just giggle at me for having bought a dog cake,without making fun. I took pieces over to my aunt's two dogs (a Border Collie Shepherd cross, Kona, and an Akita Shepherd cross, Sargeant). They were a little confused by it. They'd never had peanut butter before, so that was a new experience for them, but they ate both their pieces. Can you believe the dog cakes are this big? I think they're intended to be served at a dog birthday party, but even *I'm* not crazy enough to have one of those!

In other recent news: we had our company's summer barbeque earlier this month, and all our dogs were invited. Abby and Murphy came out, but Calvin stayed home. Abby has never really taken a liking to Murphy (I don't think she understands his happy go lucky ways) but during the barbeque she seemed to adjust to him much better, especially when the neighbour's 2 Miniature Schnauzers got too rough. Even though Murphy was the biggest dog there, the Schnauzers ganged up on him, sometimes making him retreat to the bushes. But by the end of the evening Abby was barking at them whenever they got too mean. I was very impressed with her, and so was Murphy!

I spent the whole party talking about Murphy and dogs in general, specifically to Donita's husband Marcus, they're contemplating a dog, and Jennifer's husband Sanjay. The other big development during the barbeque was that Murphy was exposed to kids. The neighbour's daughter is about 8, and really used to dogs (they were her Schnauzers) so she was very matter of fact with Murphy, just came over and patted him without hesitating. This gave Murphy no choice in the matter, since he was caught off guard and didn't have the chance to run away. Then Jennifer's daughter Maia (just one year old) and her brother Schiel (11) both got a chance to pat him, and Murphy was very calm about it, thank God. Murphy let Maia touch his face and even tug gently on his ears. What a milestone!

I'm hell bent on getting Murphy out onto the trails more, especially with this gorgeous weather we've been having, but have been having trouble finding people who want to explore the North Shore trails with us. Heidi, who is my trainer at the gym, came along with us on a hike from Lynn Headwaters to home, and Murphy enjoyed that immensely. He jumped right into the 30 foot pool, clear out of sight, and scared the living daylights out of me and Heidi. But when called he emerged, scrambling up the rocks looking like a drowned rat. On our next hike I'm going to strap on his backpack, empty, for a test run.

What else is new...medically there's news. This isn't very interesting, but I'm going to write about it so I'll have a record of what happened when, for future reference. Murphy switched foods about a month ago to Nutro from Wysong. He didn't take to Nutro Natural Chicken Meal and Rice all that well, and his night time vomiting increased. Dr. Moe, his vet, had suggested that all this puking might be diet related (he x-rayed Murph's chest and couldn't find any physical explanation for all his regurgitating), so I was hoping that we might see some improvement with a switch (which was just a coincidence. At this same time I had switched his food because I was sick of the garlic breath that Wysong gave him). But the puking got worse, not better. Also, and this is probably just a coincidence, Murphy came down with an ear infection and a paw infection when he was on Nutro. Around this same time he also started wallowing in mud puddles, and swimming, so that's probably the source of the infections, but I can't be sure...

So I went online to check out any more alternatives and came across California Naturals Chicken Meal and Rice, which is supposed to be good for sensitive stomachs. It only has 4 ingredients; chicken meal, rice, sunflower oil, flaxseed and vitamins and minerals. Low in protein, relatively high in fibre, and with the seal of approval from the American livestock feeding trials (AAFCO). Apparently since it only has one source of protein, it's supposed to be easier on their stomachs. I just started feeding him this on Monday, and only a tiny bit, but he seems to like it so far. By coincidence, I just found out that Abby has switched from Wysong to California Naturals and is doing well on it.

In other medical news at the end of June Murphy got his all clear on heartworm, started on flea prevention (Advantage), and ism at a healthy weight (30-32 pounds). Unfortunately ever since he was neutered he cowers when Dr. Moe tries to touch him, but the fear seems to make him better behaved while being examined, so who am I to complain?

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: Aug 14, 2001
Here's the link to the previous update: July 19, 2001

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