hello from the west

Here we are in sunny Glasgow - well sunny at the moment - it was pouring when we arrived yesterday and particularly when we met up with Susan and Ian to take Murphy a walk round the country park! Not that it hampered the Murf's enjoyment of the mud, water and bushes to explore!

He's been very good - we left him with Mum & Dad while we went out socialising last night and he was apparently very good. We took his new toy, the Cookie Monster with us (an old soft toy of Emily's) and before we left him he had ripped the eyes off it (we rescued the plastic bits from his mouth before he swallowed them) and sooked all the stuffing out the head. He doesn't try to eat that, he spits it out and returns to the fray. Apparently as soon as we left he lost all interest in it (well he'd sooked the head dry by then). That's my boy!

In the meantime back at home Emily is looking after a friend's lab puppy... but Gizzy has apparently taken excpetion to the intruder and is defending Murphy's territory. She keeps following poor Charlie round the house and smacking him on the nose! Poor Charlie doesn't know what to do. So we've had to suggest quarantining Gizzy into the utility room where her food is.. she's probably stretched out on the clean towels as I write this, plotting her revenge. Welcome home Murphy!

hot news!

Just off the press - Murphy has turned veggy!

Totally forgot to say earlier, but yesterday when I went home at lunchtime it was a nice, sunny, blustery day and I went into the garden to play with him. There, in the middle of the grass, was something I'd been looking for for over a week - my beetroot!!

I was sure I'd bought some last weekend but couldn't find it when I went to look for it - now I know why.. the question remains whether he snuck into the fridge and purloined it or whether it'd been left on the counter and he took it from there. We will never know. (although the former is quite a worrying thought

Luckily (for all sorts of reasons!) it was vacuum packed and he hadn't been able to get into it...

-but good on him for going straight for the superfood! There's nothing gets past my Murphy..

poor gizzy!

she has a hard life of it sometimes. Murphy battered out the catflap this morning just before I went to work and shot across the lawn, barking - Gizzy just had time to get onto the garden wall, from where she sat and looked down at him enigmatically, while he bounced around in the bushes underneath, barking enthusiastically. Now she's getting her own back, doing her best to sit on me and the laptop while I do this, while Murphy can only lie at (on) my feet at ground level.

wednesday

after reading that Marley book, we really appreciate Murphy more. Not that he's behaving hugely better - he chased a spaniel round and through the brambles yesterday morning; he/she was squealing the whole time, it was very embarassing! Poor dog... I had to apologise to the owner and put him on the lead when she came round again

but Murphy, despite your sometimes awkward (for us) social niceties, we love you!

Marley or Murphy

Have you read that book, "Marley and me" by John Grogan? I got it for Richard for Christmas and since he finished it last week I've been reading it.. it's hilarious! Marley is a much worse version of Murphy, and the story's about him and his family. I've got the last chapter to go tonight and I know I'll be howling... the story is very warm and true to life, and extremely well written; the best thing I can say about it is that it has made me look at Murphy with new eyes and really appreciate him more while we have him. I'll be devastasted to say goodbye to Marley

mud, mud, glorious..

mud! How he loves it! We took him out to a different forest for a wee change on Sunday. Don't think he liked it so much, the first half of the walk was on vehicle tracks - he likes to be nearer nature than that! Once we got onto the foot tracks with the trees close in about us he was much happier, and bounded off amongst them, to reappear every now and then to make sure we were still around. Til, of course, he disappeared completely off down a hill and was eventually found by a group of 3 or 4 girls who heard me calling for him and called too (don't worry, he had been introduced earlier).. then he went and found the deepest, most deadly mud puddle - the type that doesn't come off when you dry him - we had to hose him down when we got home - take a look! (how happy does he look now?)

like cat and dog.....

it's impossible to work out the relationship between a cat and a dog, or at least the ones who reside with us! You think it's simple. Dog chases cat. Right? But what about the one everyone who has both will tell you - the cat rules the roost?

Gizzy once followed Murphy and Richard - in the pitch black and at a distance of 10 feet - right through the woods one night. Every time R stopped she stopped, so he couldn't hear her bell til they got moving again. He was quite unnerved. Right at the end of the walk Murphy chased her - so far into the woods I had to go up 3 hours later and call her til she came out. (the cheeky beggar came with me and every time I called sat and listened carefully for her with his head on one side, then looked at me as if to say "nope, I can't hear her, shall we move on a bit?" - like it was nothing to do with him!)

So out of doors he rules, then - but wait, that's not always true either. I've watched him rolling around on the lawn and Gizzy creep up, gather herself (the way cats do) and suddenly leap on him, front paws raised, land on him with both paws and then streak away, ears flattened - leaving him a bit dazed, looking round giving it "who? wha'?"

- or there's the times she waits behind gateposts for him on the return leg of his walk and then leaps out and smacks him one and runs away...

But other times he'll suddenly decide it's time to assert his man/doghood and will chase her over the garden, or under the car.

And if she comes screaming in the catflap with her tail all abush, he always gets up to stick his head out and see what's bothering her. If it's another cat he leaves them in no doubt as to whose garden this is! (the hedgehog episode is for another day)

- and she has been known to wash his face for him if he's daft enough (or brave enough) not to move it from her vicinity when she's in a good mood.

and sometimes they ignore each other and sometimes they compete for our attention - if one's getting it the other one pops up - "I'm here too!"

maybe they're just human after all...