Today is the third birthday of my goofball dog Murphy. (Technically, it is the second anniversary of his adoption, at the time of which he was considered to be a year old.) The Beast has become a part of me. His personality -- sometimes exuberant, sometimes comic, sometimes frustratingly stubborn -- enlivens my spirit. In honor of his third birthday, here are my three favorite things about Murphy.
1) He plays a mean game of fetch. Even in the 106-degree heat of a Texas summer evening, nothing pleases Murphy more than a trip to the dog park, where he will retrieve balls with vim and vigor. He finally understands the commend "drop." In fact, after chasing down a tennis ball, he will bound toward me and drop the ball about five feet away, so that the forward momentum of the ball will roll it, with pinpoint accuracy, to my toes. When the heat finally overwhelms Murphy, he brings the ball toward me, and instead of dropping the ball, he will sit on my right foot and survey the goings-on in the park, ball in mouth, drooling.
2) His persistent pursuit of The Evil Cat amuses me. Our across-the alley neighbor, Mary Charles, has a cat. Every eighth time we walk past her front door, The Evil Cat is on her stoop. Murphy goes ballistic when he sees her. Then, for the next seven times we pass Mary Charles' house, Murphy sneaks up on the imagined feline, erupting in an insane display of barking and hyperactivity on the front lawn, even when she fails to appear.
3) His expertise at identifying his toys by name is improving. Paul and I saw a TV show in which a very clever Australian shepherd could pick out any single toy by name from among hundreds of toys. We showed this segment to Murphy. We tried to get him to understand the challenge. He now has about a 75% success rate in picking out the correct toy when given a choice. Where's Mr. Bill? Where's Red Dog? Which one's Lambie? If only he could distinguish Monkey from Funky Chicken, I'd be so proud. They're not even the same species.
A belated happy birthday to Murphy! I'll be chuckling about your post all day.
Posted by: Dana@mid2mod | July 26, 2011 at 01:49 PM
Murphy hit the jackpot when he found you.
Posted by: Amy Rea | July 28, 2011 at 06:57 AM