So we've caught up to Easter! I'm still posting more than 2 months behind, but I've bound to get fully up to date at some point here.

For Easter my friends Natalie and Christine and I had an Easter egg hunt. Just because we're in our twenties doesn't mean that we should miss out on a wonderful opportunity to eat chocolate, after all. To feel a little less silly we invited neighbour kids of Natalie's. Natalie also suggested that Murphy have a hunt of his own, so he got in on the fun too. Christine, who has never had a pet, thinks I'm insane, so really a doggie Easter egg hunt did little to make me seem any more abnormal to her.

Above we see Murphy relaxing after the hunt, tied down to the bench so he couldn't get to any of the chocolate eggs. To your left we see me following Murphy around, encouraging him towards the cookies. Below we see Murphy during his hunt, routing around in the grassy area behind the house where Natalie lived. I'd bought all sorts of treat for Murphy for this hunt, from a store called "Wrapped around my Paw". The treats included peanut butter cookies, chicken cookies, an ice cream cone cookie and a fortune cookie, complete with doggie fortune! It read: "A bath will bring you closer to your loved ones".

 

So that was Easter. We got all of an hour of fun, then we had to return home so I could continue to study for the last of my exams.

Below we have Murphy playing with all his toys. When I left his toy box open he proceeded to pull out all his favourites and just leave them strewn about the living room. I think he just enjoyed laying in the bounty of toys he owns.

By the time these last few pictures of Murphy with his toys were taken I was nearing the end of exam time, feeling less and less like studying. But once studying and exams were over, I had to face the monumental task of packing everything up. My last exam was on Friday morning, so I arranged for my parents to come pick us up on Sunday so I'd have a day and a half to pack. They arrived Saturday night, and was Murphy ever glad to see them! He hadn't seen them since February, the longest he'd ever gone without seeing them. Check out the evidence of his joy below:

 

My parents stayed over night in a hotel as my place was half packed up. The following morning we finished packing and my father and I loaded up the truck, which he drove back to Vancouver. My mom and I then did the last of the cleaning and by 1pm my Mom, Murphy and I hit the road. So by April 27th we were home in Vancouver!

Next up, pictures taken during May, a busy month. Murphy finally got a haircut, Allie came out to Vancouver to visit before she headed down to St Louis to live with her fiance, and I went down to visit the two of them in St Louis, and we also traveled to Chicago.

 

Check out the before and afters above! Can you believe it's the same dog? That's the magic Murphy's groomer can work! I quite liked this style of haircut that Cheryl did, it's a very natural sort of look for a cocker. Not too fancy, not shaved right down. Just right.

Now below we see some of Murphy's idiosyncrasies at home in Vancouver. First, Murphy's love of tangling himself in the blinds in the kitchen. He loves doing this! He purposely lies down with his body weaving in and out of the vertical blinds.

Next we have Murphy watching over his "kingdom", ie. the backyard. He checks out any mischief that's going on back there from above, from what used to be Allie's bedroom but is now the computer room. He hops up on the treadmill and oversees everything, barking if he doesn't like what he sees, especially if that white cat who seems to think it's *her* back yard is hiding in our flowers back there.

Allie came out for a 10 day visit at the beginning of May, which Murphy enjoyed quite a bit. Below we have Allie feeding Murphy some of her yogurt:

Check out the reach of that tongue!

It's going to be a while until Murphy sees Allie again as she can't leave the US until she gets her green card. Just while I was typing this paragraph she phone to say that she won't be able to come visit us while her fiance's parents are in town, so he's coming up alone!

So only like 10 days after Allie moved down to St Louis I went down to visit her and her fiance, who's name is Jason, just to confuse you readers. Of course I missed Murphy every day, but I did have a nice time. Allie and Jason took me to the American Kennel Club's Museum of the Dog, which was fantastic. It had photographs, paintings, sculptures, a Hall of Fame to commemorate great show dogs, actors, rescue dogs and so on, and a display all about the dogs of war. There were at least 3 paintings featuring English Cocker Spaniels. Their current exhibit featured sculptures depicting dogs in all sorts of odd circumstances like a Doberman done up like a dominatrix.

         

Above are a few examples that I was able to "borrow" off their website. At the top is a painting from the 1800's. I hadn't been expecting "real" paintings that just happened to depict dogs, as compared to portrait studies of dogs, which is what I had been expecting to see. Bottom left is "Words of Comfort" a terrier giving a bloodhound a comforting kiss, and bottom right is an enamel pin that was part of the temporary exhibit. And the gift shop was insane, just packed with every breed depicted on everything from embroidered pillows and bags to notepads and bookmarks. Allie in fact found a blue roan on a bookmark, which I of course had to buy.

Jason was such a good sport about it, staying up after working all night just to drive us out there from downtown St Louis. The poor guy actually fell asleep on a bench while we were in the gift shop! I tried to catch that on film, but he woke up due to the giggling. I also got to meet Allie's soon to be aunt, uncle and cousin in law when we went to Chicago. Notice that, at least for the purposes of this website, future family members get one line while a dog museum got an entire paragraph. I swear to you that this is only due to this website's mandate, which is all about Murphy...obviously.

Below we have Murphy helping me unpack upon my return from the states.

 

As thoughtful as he was to pull out my socks for me, he was banned from the suitcase once he hopped in and started actually digging through my clothes.

So that brings us up to June! I think I may just sit here and pound out that update right now, and finally be up to date!

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: June 22, 2003
Here's the link to the previous update: June 5, 2003

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