Murphy is officially 3 years old today. It has been a great 3 years. The only problem I have had is I am getting tennis elbow from throwing the tennis balls (I use one of those chuckit flinger thingies). I cannot rave enough about how good he is and how much he means to us. We have settled down into a routine more or less. My OH is an early riser so she takes him out with her while she inspects all her gardening projects. While she is doing that he brings her pine cones to throw and if available one of her thin plastic pots. He loves those thin pots. He comes in, gets his vitamin, a drink, a bite to eat and they go back out. That is all around 7 AM. About 7:30 he comes traipsing into the room to make sure I am still alive. About 9 AM I take him out for some play. He will go out with my OH, but he will not play...that is evidently my job in his mind. We come back in about a half hour later. If I am on the computer he will put his paw on my mouse hand about 11 AM. Yup, time to go do something else. We do different things at 11, maybe pick up the yard, a small project, etc. He supervises me. After lunch, you guessed it, time to go back out and toss the balls around. He has this habit, he must play with two balls at once. Around 3:30 we go out again for a small play break. As soon as we finish dinner we go out again. He never wants to go out later in the evening so he is good to go until the following morning. Oh, wait, I must correct myself. At precisely 8 o'clock he gets his "blue blanket" (a small airline blanket we somehow wound up with) and we play blue blanket along with "rocky the flying squirrel" for about a half hour. He has been quite an addition to our home, gets me up off my backside and moving about. Makes my OH smile a lot. We each have a very different relationship with Murphy and he is definitely not a one person guy. He has defined each of our duties very clearly, we could learn a lot from him about training! I have prattled on long enough...oh yea, it is our anniversary today too!
Sounds like Murphy has a great life! Funny, we also have a blue airline blanket...it came home with Quinn the day we brought her home and now raggedy with holes, is still on her bed!
Happy birthday Murphy and congratulations on your anniversary. Your post made me smile - I love reading about the positive changes our dogs make in our lives.
Happy birthday Murphy and happy anniversary to you. Murphy sounds like he has a great life and has done an excellent job of training you
Thanks everyone! Murphy had a fun birthday. We started out the day in the usual manner but at around 9 AM we headed for the Riverwalk in town. He loves the riverwalk, lots of people and other dogs to meet, and KIDS!!! He absolutely loves kids. He never jumps on them, but boy, when he can sneak in a lick, wow! On our walk there is a place that serves coffee and they have a policy of giving dogs a spoon of ice cream. So we stopped for that which made him very happy. We spent about an hour and a half wandering around. He has a memory that would make an elephant jealous. We got about a half block from the car and he decided he was having too much fun, so he just sat down. I never make a big deal of it because it does not last very long, a few minutes at most. So off we went again after a bit. When we got home he wanted to go out and play tennis ball. A walk really does not tire him out at all. He also got to chase a bunch of squirrels around the yard, one of his favorite sports. He spent the afternoon snoozing on top of the ottoman (that is the only piece of furniture that he is allowed to get on). The rest of the day was pretty much normal. Oh, I forgot, near the Riverwalk is the City courthouse and they have a fountain out back. He likes to jump into it and get a drink when we go there. I believe he thinks it is a form of functional art.
