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Murphy's Newsletter October 20, 2002 Hello All!
1) The dog parks suck. There's one good one, Kenna Cartright Park, but it's way on the other side of the city. It's right by The University College of the Cariboo, where I go to school, so it's a pain in the ass for me to drive all the way to school, then all the way home, then pack Murphy into the car, drive all the way back to the other side of the river, then all the way home, then all the way back to school! All the other dog designated parks we've gone to have either been right next to a road, with no fence, or covered in nothing but rocks and dog poop. We're talking no grass, no trees, just dirt, rocks and poop! 2) The city smells. And Murphy is really sensitive to smells, so the pulp mill drives him crazy. On bad days he sneezes and sneezes! 3) He's lonely. I'm at school, sometimes for more than 8 hours straight, and he's here all by his lonesome. I leave out toys, chews, music, and a treasure hunt of dog treats every morning, but it's just not fun for him. I've discovered that he doesn't even sleep on my couch or bed while I'm gone. He sleeps right by the door so he can see me when I come in! So I've taken to leaving one of his pillows there so he can at least be comfy on the floor. 4) He never gets to see other dogs. We have an American Cocker right next door who never comes out to play! Me, on the other hand? I'm doing fine here. The people in my program are nice, I'm doing well in my classes, and I'm so busy that I don't even mind living in a smaller, somewhat more rural, city. 
 The move itself weirded Murph out a bit. He was super clingy at first, not sure just what was going on. He likes the new apartment, but it took him a while to get used to it. Above we have Murphy standing and lying down right behind me as I do the dishes. He didn't like it when I went out of his sight. Below we have Murphy supervising my unpacking. He even, very helpfully, helped pull my socks out of the suitcases! 
Another thing that's great about the new place for Murphy is that he isn't barricaded in to one area all day. One day I forgot to put up both of his gates, so I came home to find him wandering around the apartment. Nothing was broken, eaten, or destroyed, so I let him try freedom the next day too. He had no problems, so he's been free to wander the apartment while I'm gone ever since. A third thing Murphy likes about the new place is how close he can get to the microwave. "Microwave Supervisor" is his new title around here, since his old job, "Prewash for the Dishwasher" is now obsolete as we don't have a dishwasher.  Before leaving Vancouver I bought a kid's toy box from Ikea and painted it to match Murphy's coat. It came out a little more "Butterscotch" than "Tan", but what does Murphy care, he's a dog! As you can see Murphy has enough toys and chews to fill it up to the brim.
In the first few weeks that we were here Murphy rediscovered how much he likes his octopus that has squeaks in every tentacle, so here we have a montage of Murphy and Oscar the Octopus: 
   
 He also likes to use Octopus to get my attention, either by ramming him into my leg, or by ripping out his fur. The other thing that Murphy loves to do for attention is running away with towels. He can't get to the tea towels here (they're up too high) so he's switched over to bathroom towels: 
 The dog has no shame! He loves it when you confront him about the towel in his mouth, since that means that he's getting just what he was looking for! Murphy and I have explored the neighbourhood a bit. I live way far away from the school (when you have a dog you'll take what you can get), so we've wandered around on foot a bit. I found a big stretch of grass behind a power station a few blocks from our place where Murphy can run around off leash. Since it's not a park, it isn't designated "on leash" or "off leash", but I think we're still breaking bylaws. Below we have Murphy, just having come back from a walk, thinking; "Hey, I'll keep walking myself around the apartment if you're done walking me":  
 Unfortunately, Murphy does a lot of snoozing around here, since even when I'm home I'm studying a lot of the time:     That last one is my favourite. Note that he's not actually asleep, he's looking at me pointedly! "Why must you study so much Meg?", he asks! I've tried to explain to him that as an RT I'll be making enough money that he'll lead a life of luxury, and that I'll have 4 days off in a row to play with him all the time, but he's not convinced yet.  But please don't get the wrong idea, Murphy isn't horribly depressed or anything. Here we have him playing with me on the floor, getting all tuckered out. I make sure I take a break from studying every hour or so to play some fetch or catch or tag or hide and seek. I've also taught him to roll over. That trick was taught while I was studying for pharmacology midterms, and I got an A+ on one of those, so it worked out well for both of us!
So I think that's about it for now! I have to run so I can take people's blood pressures at an open house UCC is having today. All our blood pressure cuffs are waaaay off, so it should be interesting to see how many people get diagnosed as hypertensive! Ok, that's probably only funny to me.
Meghan
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So as you all know,
Murphy and I moved to Kamloops at the end of August so I could
take the only respiratory therapy program that's offered in BC.
It's been quite the change for us! Murphy isn't too big of a
fan of this city as:
One thing Murphy does like about the new
place is that I've fixed all his old stuffies up so he has something
to play with while I'm out. Here we have him playing with his
bunny. Note that he's not so much playing with her as he is eating
her ears. I've discovered I can't leave that one out for him,
or even let him have her for more than a couple minutes at a
time, or he consumes her appendages.
And we watch some
good tv together too, like "Doggin' It" and the Westminster
Kennel Club Show. Murphy is much more a fan of action on tv,
like the live action version of "101 Dalmations", but
he gave in to me and took in a little of the dog show. I believe
this was the Hound Group (I think that's an Otterhound).