There are many things that can be said of Murphy the dog: He is Murphy. Yes, he is. He is a dog, a good one, a dog he is decidedly. Murphy is ten, and has some teeth. He lives with me now, and has a head shaped exactly like a teacup.
Murphy, as you can see here, came attached with wall eyes, which is a version of dog I highly recommend.
When this weekend began, I had no plans for acquiring a Murphy. And yet here he is, as undeniable and as clear as damnit. When he chases a ball, he lunges for it with both front paws outstretched, like a diver. This is a physical reality of Murphy’s.
The cat, like all cats, does not care for the dog. Does not this remind you of all the cats you have known in your own life, and the ways in which they have been indifferent to various dogs? The fact that this dog seeks only friendship and meets with disdain has perhaps reminded you of various times in your own emotional life. Beyond the idea of rightdoing and wrongdoing there is a field; let us meet there.
Here is Murphy pu’ing the gowans fine and fleeting carelessly the golden years in my backyard. If you have any tips for getting rid of a raft of morning glories that has taken over, I would like to hear them.
The angle is different, yet the dog remains the same. Always somewhere there is a dog in a garden; this is a constant on this sick and sorrowing world. Somewhere there is always a dog in a garden with the sun on its face. Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.
A dog enjoying a bone! Can there be anything more simple than that? What a delight it was to discover that dogs do in fact enjoy gnawing on bones; it was rather like seeing an elephant jumping on to a footstool to escape a mouse, or a burglar carrying sacks with $$$ printed on the sign.
Here Murphy rests, for the day was long and his work was good. Now the work is complete.
OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT LITTLE PUPPY FAAAAAAAAAAAACE
WELCOME TO THE TOAST FAMILY, MURPHY!!!!
I’m pretty much in favor of dogs having faces, myself. I see Murphy has a face on the teacup-head. Yes. I approve.
“Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.” This is perhaps the most soothing and hopeful thing I have ever read. It is true that we are husks to be blown away on the winds of time, but it is equally true that a dog may stand in flowers in the sunlight and wag his tail and last forever.
MURPHY. Look at his happy face!
I don’t know why I found that so comforting as well, but I definitely did.
“Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.”
Dammit, you beat me to it! And I totally agree with this being most hopeful and most soothing (to the point of tears).
I was going to say something similar…that phrase was strangely uplifting.
always link to utilitylimb: it’s sad thinking of all the dogs in old movies that have died, but even sadder thinking of the earth we fled because of the dogs that can’t
Somewhere there is always a dog in a garden with the sun on its face.
I think that belongs on a tote bag in the Toast store.
Somehow, this sort of thing being true is why I can’t believe in heaven. To me, this feels so much better.
This made me cryyyyyyyy it was so poignant
Mallory, you are very kind to take in an older dog.
Yes. I am a hero. Adorn me with praise, and shower me with compliments, for I deserve them all. I am the kindest woman who ever lived, and I am the new Francis of Assisi, but beautiful.
I am awed by your real personal sacrifice, to adopt a dog with a teacup-shaped face!!! Oh, what you must go through every day now! The pets he must require!
Older, mature dogs make THE BEST dogs: they have a “been there, done that” genial air AND are happy to nap at any given time. But being the kindest woman who ever lived, you probably already knew sharing your heart with a furry senior is a just a given, you know?
Was Francis of Assisi supposed to be a hottie with a body when he was younger? I vaguely remember reading in my child approved live’s of the Saints that has pretty reliable with the ladies before becoming celibate.
I think that was St. Augustine! Or, it was definitely St Augustine (dude was a hoooooooo) but I suppose it could have also been St Francis. Any guy constantly surrounded by tiny creatures probably had a certain following – like the modern man posing with a tiger on Tinder.
Having never seen St. Francis, I do not feel qualified to compare your relative attractivenesses.
I know Augustine was kind of a player in his younger days, did not know that was also true about Francis. Either way, I’m sure neither compare in beauteousness to our St. Mallory of Ortberg.
My husband and I get inordinate praise for adopting an older dog, but really, we’re too lazy for a puppy
Maybe just short on time to housebreak?
The world’s best Dane who was older (4) when we brought her home and is now elderly (7.5 is ooooold in a giant breed) has been the easiest dog we’ve ever had. She’s learned nothing in our care, but she was already perfect. Lola came to us house trained, polite about meeting people in the outdoors, willing to bite the wrong people in the indoors and a guardian/life coach for the small bad dog…and kind to cats. For us, an old dog was the ultimate in not settling for a fixer-upper.
aaaahhh I want one!! How did you come to host this wonderful being?
Murphy is a mirror image of my sister’s dog Molly, who is a former puppyfarming rescue. She has the occasional tooth, and is stone deaf.
“The occasional tooth”
Yes. Good doggie.
She is about 104 years old so it really is just the occasional one…
Oh, what a sweetheart. She looks like she’d be very fun to pet.
One of the delights of my life is my weekend gig in a shop that is welcoming to dogs, and I get to flop no small number of dog ears and cradle many a dog head in my hands, while said head gazes at me with the soulful eyes of a dog who has recognized a complete sucker. But I have never yet cradled a dog-head in the shape of a teacup!
Dogs can smell “Sucker for dogs.” I know this to be true.
They definitely can smell “person who has pet umpteen other dogs while wearing this coat.”
It is conceivable that I wear This Coat to smell like a sucker for dogs, the better to encourage further dog attention.
This is a clever strategy, but I also think dogs (or at least, most dogs. some dogs?) are very fluent in human expressions and body language. This is a really common interaction I have:
customer: *shops*
dog: *gazes meaningfully at me*
me: *gazes meaningfully at dog*
dog: *tentatively rests chin on the sales counter or trots inquisitively behind said counter, maintaining eye contact*
me: *scritchascritchascritcha*
There’s usually a step where I hold out my hand for sniffestigation and I do try to address the customer first–hey, can I say hi to your dog?–but there are just so many clever dogs who are prepared to politely negotiate scritches on their own power, and who am I to insist on formality?
I work in a retirement home that allows dogs, and every single dog here is a total sweetheart, though some are more affectionate than others. One of the best parts of working the front desk is seeing them come and go, and getting to pet them when it’s not busy and their people aren’t in a hurry anywhere. This happens fairly often, thankfully.
The problem is that I can sometimes remember the dog’s name but not their people’s. Whoops.
Murphy!!!!!
Yes yes the dog-chewing-on-bone truism!
My dearly departed pup took several years– she was hunting stock and so had a “soft” mouth– before we determined she enjoyed chewing on pressed rawhide bones. No other bones or bone look-alikes. She also enjoyed marrow bones, but not for chewing. Just for licking out the fatty roasted marrow.
My dog, who is not very dog-like in many respects, loves licking the marrow out of marrow bones, and then just barks at them when it’s all gone, presumably to request more marrow.
WHY ARE YOU EMPTY OF DELICIOUS FATNESS, WHEN BEFORE YOU CONTAINED DELICIOUS FATNESS. THIS DOES NOT ACCORD WITH MY SENSE OF ORDER AND RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE.
Her little snaggle-toothed underbite really adds to the look of righteous indignation.
It’s like when my cat kills a vole or a shrew, and then looks up at me in confusion, wondering why it’s stopped moving and being fun.
My dad’s best friend has a dog who absolutely adores my dad, in part because he gets bones for her when he goes to the butcher’s. It’s an excellent way to a dog’s heart.
I can’t explain how or why but he looks like an endearing old English grampy with many, many books and several ships in bottles in the spaces on the bookshelves
The important question here is: Will there be Murphy pictures on the Link Roundup? Perhaps he can take turns with Carmella? (Or, even better, maybe we can get TWO dog pictures per day??)
Murph! What a smile-y wonderful pup!
Spaniel eeee! I luff him. My dear departed Molly was a Cocker and spaniels have a special place in my heart.
I love cavalier kings charles spaniels soooo much. This makes me happy. When I was a foster-mom-volunteer for a local pet rescue and I ended up with a cavalier-mix, I kept him. I couldn’t help myself. His name is Oliver and he is seven.
Oliver is a delightfully ironic name for a King Charles Cavalier Spaniel. It makes me very, very happy.
“What a delight it was to discover that dogs do in fact enjoy gnawing on bones; it was rather like seeing an elephant jumping on to a footstool to escape a mouse, or a burglar carrying sacks with $$$ printed on the sign.”
One of my favorite things about dogs is that they do not even bother to defy the clichés associated with them. Our dog chews bones, chases cats, wags her tail at the slightest provocation, and is overall totally unoriginal and totally wonderful.
Murphy is adorable. Congratulations!
Every time the boy dog pees on a fire hydrant, my husband says “Good boy, go for the classics.”
My cat has known how to be a cat since I first met her. She was about as substantial as a piece of dandelion fluff, but she knew how to wrap her tail around her feet and bat at a piece of string and knead and purr and behave exactly like cats are supposed to. I still look at her sometimes and announce, “You sure are a cat.”
I have just recently (in the last two weeks) come into acquisition of a cat, and while she is a whole year old already, I am constantly amazed by how utterly cattish she is, while also being her own self.
“Always somewhere there is a dog in a garden; this is a constant on this sick and sorrowing world. Somewhere there is always a dog in a garden with the sun on its face. Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.”
This is somehow an incredibly soothing statement. Can we hear about how you acquired a Murphy? Did you cotch him as you did that wee kitten?
Yah that line made me feel more-or-less okay with my own mortality.
Getting rid of the morning glories depends on what you want to do with the space after. I seem to recall that they’re growing in the cracks of a paved backyard, so you likely won’t be planting new things in their place. Some options:
*Leave them alone, they’re pretty.
*Yank them, and that’s it. They may or may not grow back.
(everything else starts with “yank them”, because otherwise you just end up with dead plant matter that will eventually be gross)
*Yank them, and then if/when they start growing back, give them a trellis so that they grow up, look pretty, but you still have a ground.
*Yank them, and then if/when they start growing back, pour boiling water over the itsy plants to kill them (but not other things)
*Yank them, then spray some sort of friendly pesticide (vinegar) (pro- your pets should be safe, con- it doesn’t always work)
*Yank them, then spray something heavier duty (pro- more likely to work, con- more likely to hurt your pets or destroy the world)
You also might be able to hire goats to eat them.
I WILL HIRE THE GOATS
If you write about them, they’re probably even a business expense. and if you hire them, you HAVE to write about it.
Please article this with many, many pictures.
As has been pointed out whimsically elsewhere, lawnmowers (and their cousins, the weed whackers) also exist, and may help with the “yanking” portion.
Removing said yard waste is still key.
If the goats don’t work out for ya, you can try peeing on them. Undiluted pee will kill plants without harming worms and soil bacteria. Cut it by half with water and it is great fertilizer.
My male person is reluctant to pee on our compost pile, but his equipment is much more compatible with outside watering…I’m still working on him.
MrChouffe is a huge proponent of peeing on the compost. Unfortunately our compost bin faces a vacation rental, so opportunities are somewhat limited.
The dog can assist with the peeing project. Mine has completely destroyed the patch of bermuda grass in our front yard (which means its ready for xeriscaping).
I am kind of disappointed that this list didn’t include one of those weed torches. I guess they are growing right up next to wooden structures, though.
Yes, ordinarily “burn everything to the ground” is an option, but it’s California, so it would just light the entire state on fire, and that would be inconvenient.
I adopted a 9 year old Boston Terrier mix in August. So many people have asked me why in the world I would adopt an old dog, as if I were making a terrible mistake. She is an angel, the best dog ever, and I don’t know how her previous owner(s) could have given her up. I plan on spoiling her for the rest of her life. Way to go, Mallory!
If I can ever convince my cats that we need a dog, I would definitely adopt an older one. Have these people never seen how much work puppies are?? Might as well have a dang baby.
Delurking to say that old dogs are amazing. Some people think that you can’t train or bond closely with an old dog, but that’s not been my experience at all.
Today is the (estimated) 12th birthday of my dog who I busted out of the animal shelter when she was 9. It was a blind date adoption, on the strength of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDyV4ylToY8
She had been in there at least 6 months, which I cannot understand because… look at that underbite!
Best decision ever. Best dog ever. We are celebrating today by hardcore sofa snuggling indoors and squirrel spotting outdoors.
My parents have a dog of the Murphy type. Also an excellent dog. Cavs are adorable at whatever age. Looking forward to more Murphy.
Someday when I am in better financial shape I will adopt an older dog! The main obstacle for me is the potential vet bills. Obviously any pet, at any age, can unexpectedly cost you an arm and a leg at the vet, but my cats have been geriatric for a couple years now and hooooo boy have we spent a lot more time at the vet than we used to.
Boston terriers are frog demons and I love them. Though hopefully whatever mix yours is has fixed a few of the genetic issues we’ve inflicted on them through breeding.
This is one of my goals, to adopt an older dog and cosset him/her through his/her golden years, enjoying many snuggles along the way.
My sister is already living this dream with a four-year-old rescue beagle where the rescue was like, WHOOPS, we forgot she was actually nine, thanks for agreeing to take her anyway. Old lady dog is kind of stinky and not very bright and everyone just adores her and she adores them right back. I want to steal her.
I have had my dog since she was a tiny wee newborn puplet. She is now an old lady of 12 and she is the best she has ever been! She’s super chilled, she sleeps all day, she gambols with joy when we take her out for a walk but would rather not go on a rainy day. Every now and then she catches sight of a cat in the garden and does a maximum of five (5) barks before she forgets what was going on. People who don’t like older dogs are fools.
What a wonderful Murphy. Not that this site wasn’t already becoming a #DogBlog, but I feel more whole as a person now that Mallory has a Murphy.
Speak for your own cats Mallory:
Though to be fair, our other cats loathe the dogs.
ahhhhhhh
I have two cats. One, the elder, is not impressed with dogs. The second loves them (cat-love only, and within reason) and looks EXACTLY like the gorgeous gray mess pictured above. Now I think it must be a genetic mutation.
Must be! This guy is totally fearless and super affectionate 🙂
what a noble hound!
I love this picture.
Does he have extra thumbs?
He does! Extra toes on each front paw. He is also a tripod kitty as he had to have a rear leg removed due to problems from birth. Doesn’t slow him down though.
My cat gets mad if I take my dog on a walk without him. They like patrolling the neighborhood together.
(Congrats on Murphy!)
I love this. Inter-species animal friendships: best thing ever in history, or best POSSIBLE thing in the universe, past, present or future? The controversy continues.
Yissss inter-species friendships/cuddling are my jam. The more exotic/unlikely, the better.
Have you seen this video of a cat playing with dolphins? It may be the ultimate in unlikely inter-species interactions. It did me in completely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynvewVe21Y
This is excellent. Also, your cat is super awesome 🙂
I am looking forward to many more Murphy posts! He is so adorable! Old dogs are the best dogs. 🙂
When I was a child, my parents built a house. When the contractor seeded the yard, he did so with grass seed that had somehow become mixed with morning glory seed. In the spring, when the yard appeared from beneath its straw blanket, it was a riot of morning glories. I, being a child, was delighted. My parents, being adults were appalled. Adults are ever appalled by that which children find delightful. I recall my father despairing of how to rid himself of this pest of flowers without killing the grass. But, as it is with so many things in life, that goal which appears insurmountable is often easily obtained, while the goal which appears easily within reach is often unreachable. This is not unlike the jingly bell hidden within the blue rubber ball that bounced through that same field of morning glories and which our no matter how our dog did try to remove its jingly tones, and try, and try, it did yet remain elusive: within reach, yet as remote as the furthest star. For lo, the amazing blooms were unable to withstand the onslaught of the lawn mower. They did bow their heads under its implacable blade and did not rise again, though the grass, less splendidly dressed but hardier, did grow and grow and grow and the blue rubber ball did bounce and jingle through its leaves.
i’ve never understood the fascination with a perfect grass lawn. i would much rather have a carpet of morning glories. or wild flowers. or clover. anything really, really.
We’re digging up probably 80% of our yard next year and seeding with annual wildflowers. The ones we did this year were a fantastic success and we still get the occasional lazily-droning bee, although two weeks ago there was a constant buzz over them and a really unbelievably beautiful honey scent everywhere. Never doing anything else.
this sounds absolutely heavenly.
Oooh, I’m doing the same thing over the next … um … more years than I care to think about! MY PEOPLE
Growing up, my parents were very lazy about the lawn, so it was always full of clover and (a few) dandelions and little purple flowers. I liked it so much better than the neighbors’ lawns.
Murphy is everything I want out of life.
(No really. Life Goal #5 is to have a squadron of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels that gambol in my wake, all named after various Restoration courtiers.)
You, friend, are a scholar and a hero. I love this idea. I do cocker spaniel rescue and while I like the other volunteers, they give the dogs the world’s dumbest names. You and I could do so much better. Imagine, if you will, a flock of cockers named after characters in School for Scandal.
I am imagining it and it is beautiful.
I’m pretty solidly Roundhead myself, but that doesn’t keep Murphy from being adorbs.
Who’s a good boy?
Is… is it me?
Blurk, I messed up the URL!
Fix
Well, the first link brought me back here and I thought, well, yea, I mean…Murphy’s a good dog.
I long for the day when my own cat will be indifferent to dogs. Her habit now is to hiss at all other creatures great and small (including children, but adults merely send her into hiding) who come within 15 feet of her.
Her habit now is to hiss at all other creatures great and small … who come within 15 feet of her
Who among us does not wish we could do the same thing, if only we weren’t hindered by the need to maintain even a thin veneer of respectability?
It is a glorious freedom. I was so proud of her the day she hissed at a neighbor’s dog, rather than just running away in terror.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work as well with the neighbor’s puppy as she’d like. The hissing confuses him and keeps him from approaching her, but the other part of her strategy, which is “crouch down and try to look big” makes him think she wants to play, so then he crouches down and starts bouncing around to get her to play with him.
Across from my house is a house with two dogs, and the boss of said dogs (in the Netherlands, they say “boss” instead of “owner,” which is delightful), and my cat always runs right into the house when they come out and stands at the window, looking wary. He does not trust them.
Whenever anybody knocks on my front door, the cat growls and runs under my bed. Like, full-on legit growling. She is a nervous and suspicious creature.
My cat doesn’t growl, but he does race upstairs and then stare at me in fear.
Aw, cavaliers are the best. I wish I could remember the movie I once saw about King Charles (I assume) in which a flock of cavaliers followed him through the giant halls of his castle; that is my idea of heaven.
That would be “Restoration” – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114272/
Thank you! Sadly, I still can’t find a gif of the flock of cavaliers. Maybe I will have to download the movie and make one myself. I did find this adorable photo from filming, though.
Cavs are so adorable. I aspire to this photo. Sam Neill can stay, but he needs to ditch the wig and mustache. Everyone else has to go too….
I was really hoping that “Meet Murphy” was going to be an American Girl-like short illustrated story of how Murphy or his family came to America. HOWEVER, this is equally as pleasant and lovely and it warms my heart to know that there are always dogs in gardens under the sun.
Congratulations on your pup!
MALLORY YOU ARE LIVING MY DREAM LIFE. I have wanted a Cavalier for years! I am not currently in the ~life space~ to have a dog, but when I am, I will gets me a Cavalier.
Please be aware that Cavaliers have a host of really dreadful health problems, including nearly all of them being born with heart trouble! If you’re going to get one, be sure to go to a rescue – it’s not good to support Cavalier breeders.
The first time I saw a cat sit on a mat I was like “THAT REALLY HAPPENS I THOUGHT THAT WAS JUST IN PHONICS BOOKS”
I want to pet all the dogs, yours in particular.
Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.
Oh, Mallory! *adds that to the Toast embroidery sampler*
If you ever do this, SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY! Seriously, take my money. I need this in my house, stat.
OH, and now you’ve inspired me to create something, too! Thanks!
I am not nearly crafty enough to make your dream come true! We need to solicit the crafty Toasties — or our mods should look to selling such actual samplers in the future Toast store! God knows we’d buy them. Everyone can get mugs or tote bags or posters of their favorite thing, but embroidery samplers?
Really, when I commenting that I’m “adding something to the embroidery sampler,” I mean I’m just saving the quote to lovingly inscribe in a blank page of a notebook, since people keep giving me those.
Who’s a good boy? Murphy’s a good boy!
http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comics/2014-08-19-3…
I love this comic so much I can’t even say. It makes me cry. Dogs are so perfect.
This is perfection.
Dogs are the best. Nothing against cats, but dogs have my heart.
There have been dogs in the train car in BOTH directions on my commute in the last 24 hours. I may have gotten a bit of a raised eyebrow after making friends with the first dog without acknowledging her owner, but hey your dog introduced herself to me via knee snuffling so really what else could I do?
The other day I was on the metro and the only seat left was next to a tiny longhaired chihuahua who was so happy to introduce himself to me. Lots of jumping and sniffing and needing attention. Then I said hi to the person his leash was attached to, but hey, the dog just wanted to say hi and who was I to say no?
i am terrible (great?) at meeting dogs with little regard for their owners. sorry, human, but you do not interest me. i just want snuffles and sniffs and licks from your furry companion, thankyouverymuch.
I feel, with deepest certainty, that his wavy auburn locks had something to do with his acquisition. He looks like a very good boy.
Dogs, especially Cavaliers, are the best because of their unconditional love. The universe might try to beat me down, but I can always count on my dog to want to snuggle and play with me. They’re an endless font of love and adoration.
My Cavalier also really wanted to be friends with the family cat. The dog was about a year old and the cat was 10 years old when we got the dog. The energy levels of a young dog and and older cat were not quite compatible. The friendship didn’t work out. 🙁 The best we were able to do was to teach the dog to leave the cat alone. But the dog forever wondered why the cat didn’t want to be one of the recipients of her unlimited love.
I am sitting here, at my desk, in my cubicle, with my desk decorations staring at me in silent judgment as I weep softly into a Lean Cuisine frozen lunch chased with diet ginger ale. Because there will always be dogs, in gardens, with the sun on their faces, but their eyes lit from within.
And of course it isn’t about that, not really. It never is, the weeping, about what it seems to be about. But these direct channels to the deepest parts of our emotions, these conduits that allow us access to what is really making us cry, are a goodly portion of what makes art, and writing in particular, something worth doing. This gave me hope today. Thank you so much.
Dog to cat also times in my emotional life:
Hi hi hello hi
Love me forever?
No? Maybe you want to just love me from over there, away over there?
Yes that must be it. Okay okay good.
I know what you mean—every time my dog enjoys a bone I snicker and say “cuh-LASSIC dog”
I call my dog a cliche when he pees on a fire hydrant.
Most creatures have at least one flaw of some sort, but Murphy is clearly not most creatures.
Oh, gosh, the Marty Feldman eyes of the Cavalier! A lovely, classic spaniel-dog. Congratulations on your acquisition of a Murphy!
Adorable! I love it. <3
Also, our puppy dogs have the same name! However, my Murphy is an Australian terrier, and at age 13, is admittedly a little past puppyhood.
DAMMIT I WANT A DOG
(My kids don’t. I’m gonna wear them down, though. SOMEDAY, SOMEDAY)
JUST BRING HOME THE DOG NIKKI BRING THEM A CORGI THEY WILL BE INSEPARABLE.
(No really I get stopped all the time by people who had corgis when they were kids and how much they loved them.)
I say get the dog. Some days your kids will sit in a dorm room at 4 am and someone will be like “so I haven’t told you guys this before, but my mom didn’t even let me talk to a boy until I was 15 and if I looked at one she’d make me wash my eyes with soap” and your kid will be like “OMG I know exactly what you mean my mom got us a labradoodle parents are the WORST right” and they will bond over their shared misery.
No wait they won’t! Because having a dog is NORMAL and AWESOME and parents have the ultimate say in such things! Also I can’t have a dog right now so everyone else should have one to increase my theoretically available amount of dog in the average day. DOGS DOGS EVERYWHERE
This made me crack up hahaha
I was terrified of dogs when I was a kid but my dad brought home one anyway and I got over it! DO IT.
“Always somewhere there is a dog in a garden; this is a constant on this sick and sorrowing world. Somewhere there is always a dog in a garden with the sun on its face. Even after you die and are gone from this earth, there will be dogs standing in the sun with flowers growing under their feet.”
Well now I’m getting all teary at the library…my date scone is getting soggy.
Murphy is simply gorgeous and I’m so happy that he has a loving home and a garden to romp in, bones to chew, and a cat to win over. I really want another dog (I’m greedy that way) but my partner is not too enthused about the idea. I WILL WEAR HIM DOWN.
Dogs! My parents’ 15 year old beagle is probably dying now, and it is the worst. 🙁
Aw, I’m sorry! Even if the dog is old and tired it really hurts to say goodbye. I sometimes wonder how I will deal when my in-law’s dog dies and I’m pretty sure it will be by bawling until I’m all out of tears.
At least your parents’ beagle got to have a long life? Not much of a comfort, I know. Dogs, man. Dogs.
One of these days, perhaps a cold rainy day in February, you’ll find that cat curled up with the dog–not loving him, you understand, just absorbing warmth.
HAS MURPHY LEANED ON YOU YET
He also has such an expressive face, which is also the best.
Congratulations on your Murphy! I myself do not have a Murphy, but I do have a Bobby. Bobby is eight, but he does not know that he is Old. He is very playful. His favourite game is to sit at the top of the stairs, drop the ball and watch it bounce down the stairs where I am waiting to catch it, whereupon I throw it back up to him.
“Bobby is eight, but he does not know that he is Old.”
Love it. Young at Heart.
#TeamDog
Old dogs are the best dogs.
This has me thinking about my terrier mix, Fred, who’s somewhere in the vicinity of 20 years old. He officially became an ‘Old Dog’ about 5 years ago, we thought he was off then, but he’s still going! He’s been going down hill this year (He can only eat soft food, has heart problems, can’t get up stairs or into the car, is completely deaf etc), but he’s still very happy; Vets and I are in agreement that we’ll wait until he’s not happy anymore, but I’ve literally been waiting 5 years, and now I live abroad and he’s with my mother, who cares for him but is not an animal person so doesn’t like being tied down by a geriatric dog who just wants cuddles all the time.
If he passes naturally I think I’d be ok with not being there, but if he has to be put to sleep I want to be there, which is going to take some organisation (I’ll be home at Christmas, but I don’t want to kill the family dog at Christmas!)
I must write up Freds story, its a long and winding one! He’s been with us since 2001, I found him when I was about 10 I think! I was going to bring him to London this summer, but in the end we’d left it too late, he wouldn’t be strong enough for the journey and adjusting to a new place would be difficult for him I think. Its a pity, I really wanted to have him around and bring him on trains and to the office (in a bag of course, he can’t walk for more than 10 minutes anymore, and only slowly.)
So yeah, adopt all the old dogs! One day I’m going to go to the pound and take home the scruffiest, grumpiest, oldest dog I can find.
ETA: This is Fred in the bath, for reference https://instagram.com/p/zey32eBxN9/?taken-by=selm…
Bless you and bless your Fred!
This puppiness! (I do not mean his physical age, you understand, but his spirit.) <3 !
We adopted a 9 year old Fox Terrier. He was great. He did leave us sooner than we might have wanted (my husband is a softie) so our next dog was young, but I’m glad we had him for the 5 or so years he had left.
Morning glory, bindweed, convolvulus in general: direct nuclear strike only. (Repeated yanking and application of Roundup will slow it but not stop it.)
“The angle is different, yet the dog remains the same.” Pure gold, Mallory. Gold.
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