Hello All!

In this update we have pictures from two different fund raising walks Murphy and I attended; The BCSPCA Walkathon, which raised money for their youth outreach program and AIDS Walk, which raised money for social services for people living with HIV and AIDS. Yes, Murphy is *very* socially aware.

First we have the SPCA fund raiser. I dragged my Mom along with us, this was the first fund raiser she'd attended with us. We each got a bag filled with all sorts of stuff for dogs including two tennis balls, a bandana, a dentabone, liver treats, a sausage, coupons, SPCA info and an emergency sticker for your front door telling people that a dog lives there, in case they need to be rescued. Plus for a dollar donation we bought a Koko's Gourmet cookie (Murphy loves their treats). So for two $20 registration fees we got one hell of a lot of stuff!

The SPCA event had lots of booths advertising dog food companies, volunteer opportunities for you and your dog, various animal welfare organisations, Mastercard (they have an SPCA version, which, I know it's hard to believe, I have), micro chipping, and so on. I grabbed info for BC Pets and Friends, who run a pet therapy program, visiting retirement homes and hospitals all over the Lower Mainland. Murphy is still too crazy right now to do that, but maybe in a year's time he'll be more suited. I also took info on micro chipping, something I'd been meaning to get to for months.

Before the walk they had all sorts of entertainment, from men on stilts to flyball demonstrations. They also had kids compete against the dogs in flyball, even giving the kids a head start. The older kids came close to beating the dogs (I think the 10 year olds might have beaten them in one round). In the above picture you can see the flyball setup, as well as some of the booths in the background. As you can see there were tons of people there.

The walk itself was supposedly 5km, but Mom and I have our doubts as to whether it was actually that long. We did the whole circuit in 45 minutes, including water breaks etc. But it was a good introduction for my Mom to charity walks. She joined me for the Terry Fox Run (without Murphy, he wasn't allowed) the following weekend, and the Run for the Cure (also without Murph...it was held downtown, starting and ending inside BC Place and we weren't sure if dogs were allowed in, but we did drag my Dad) at the end of September.

It turned out that dogs *were* allowed at the Run for the Cure, and we even saw a blue roan English Cocker! The owner thought my father and I were insane, shouting at each other "Look! It's a Cocker! And it's blue roan!". My father then went on to explain some basics of Cockers to the strangers standing behind us, who looked very bewildered by our enthusiasm. It has just occurred to me that I might have run into that same Cocker before, on Robson Street, in May. I very excitedly pointed him out to Dan, the same way my father and I were chattering about the dog at the stadium. No wonder the owner looked like a deer in headlights...that could very well have been the second time she was confronted by the same psycho girl talking away about her dog. It's all so clear to me now...god I hope she doesn't think I'm stalking her dog...

So two weekends later Murphy and I invited Heidi and Dan to join us for the AIDS Walk. My Mom was supposed to come, but she and my Dad took a last minute cruise to Alaska. We still got her money though, so the AIDS Walk people didn't suffer any! In fact, between the Terry Fox Run and the AIDS Walk, our office raised about $300. Not bad. We were also supposed to meet up with Scott and Brent from our office, but things got confused and we never saw them. Anyway, the four of us who walked together had fun. Similar setup to the SPCA Walkathon; lots of booths, entertainment (in this case, professional musicians) and prizes. The walk was 10k this time, and it took us about 2 hours. As you can see from the picture to the left, and below, it was packed. In fact, it was packed like that the entire 2 hours.

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At the moment that this picture was taken we had a little breathing room, but notice how the line of people extends all the way around to the far right of the shot. The whole seawall was like that.

We had a good time, Heidi and Dan seemed to get along very well, which didn't surprise me at all, and Murphy was exhausted by the time we finished. They had dog water stations, with treats, at every human water station, but Murphy wasn't too interested in drinking during the walk. So by the time we made it all the way around the seawall, he was exhausted and dehydrated. Notice how he lounged with his bowl between his paws. By this time I had gotten a little grumpy myself, from dealing with the crowds etc., so I wasn't in the best mood to deal with Murphy. But Dan and Heidi both helped out, I got my hotdogs, Murphy got his water and some treats, and all ended well!

After picking up the microchip info at the SPCA Walkathon, I decided I ought to get right on it and get Murphy implanted. So off we went a few weeks ago to get it done. We had to go to the SPCA clinic downtown, as our vet doesn't do micro chipping. It cost $50, of which I got $40 back from Pet Plan Insurance.

Not that I have deposited that yet, as a few minutes after I opened the mail containing the refund Murphy decided that the perfect place to deposit the cheque was into his stomach. He only managed to eat one end of the cheque before I got it back, but of course it was the end with the dollar amount and cheque number. The people at Pet Plan were very amused when I phoned them to ask for another cheque, though they did say they would issue me a new one.

Anyway, we had to wait for an hour at the clinic, so Murphy got fussed over by several different women, including a breeder of Springers. She wants to downsize to Cockers, but her husband doesn't want little, yappy, undignified dogs. This woman stood over us fussing over Murph, then wandered back to her companion, and fussed over him from the other side of the room. Apparently she loves the roan and tan look, and has bred her Springers into producing tricolours, which aren't even allowed by CKC rules. At any rate, she thinks Murphy is a "Perfect English gentleman" and "would change my husband's mind". Murphy seemed to agree...til he got tired of waiting and decided to jump on the furniture and tug at my clothes. We finally got in to see the doctor, who took all of 45 seconds to implant the chip, and we were on our way. Murphy barely fussed at all about the procedure...in fact, he was more scared of all the kids we ran into on our way into the clinic...but he did sit to be patted, so all round it was a good day!

Murphy and I haven't been heading down to Inter River as much as we used to (I'm getting bored of walking the same trails, over and over and over) but the last two times we were down there we ran into his friend Eli, who goes to the same daycare as Murph. Eli is a blue roan who is only week older than Murph. Murphy is always thrilled to see Eli, and I get to chat with his owner Sherry, so it's always fun to run into him. I've never seen Murphy play with such enthusiasm and abandon as he does with Eli, and last Sunday he even mounted him, something I'd never seen Murphy do, as he's usually so submissive with dogs (and Eli doesn't seem at all submissive). But Sherry insisted she'd seen Murph do that before, so I'll take her word for it. Eli seems to be going through a bit of a pushy stage, so Sherry was going; "Yeah Murphy, you show Eli who's boss!" the whole time. If we'd been anywhere other than a dog park, passers-by would have thought we were *insane*, but that's a dog park for you. Sherry and I got to exchange info on our dogs, their food, training, breeders etc while the dogs romped, so it was a great Sunday walk for both of us!

Murphy has just had a groom, and that's (in photo above) how he came home from the groomers; with a bandana covered in black cats, ghosts and witches, and bows in his ears featuring dancing skeletons with top hats. You gotta love a groomer with a sense of humour. Oh, and he got another A+ on his report card, so it's officially a fact, Murphy is scampy only around me.

I have a few more pictures taken in early October, but they're still in my camera. They feature cookies I made for Murphy with leftover Thanksgiving turkey. But those photos are just going to have to wait for the next update.

Email me!

Meghan

Here's the link to the next update: Dec 19, 2001
Here's the link to the previous update: Sept 6, 2001

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