Murphy's Here!

 

Have you guys stocked up for the impending apocalypse yet?  Hopefully you have plenty of distilled water, flashlights with many batteries to spare, canned food to last you for an extended duration of time, etc.  I'm not really sure how else to explain it other than the fact that it must be a sign of the world ending soon:  I am now a dog owner.  

Even one of my very best friends said she wouldn't believe it until I brought him home.  She said I might have photo-shopped him into our first picture together as a family.  Well, it happened.  I officially brought Murphy home to live here on Thursday night.  My pick-up time for Murph kept alternating between Thursday night and Friday morning.  I thought I had plenty of time and had adequately prepared everything for him.  When I got the message that he was ready early on Thursday, I went into a major panic.  What did I get myself into?????  Not being the parent of a human, I can only imagine that this is similar to the panic that people experience before having a child.  Seventy-two hours later, I still feel completely lost about everything.  I've been keeping a mental list of all the things I wanted to write about the experience.  As a whole, it's been more a learning experience than anything else, so I'm breaking my thoughts into three distinct categories. 


(This is Murphy and his nine brothers at three weeks old)

Things I've Learned About Myself

1.  I have a heart.   I know, I know.  But for most of my life, any time I've confessed to people that I'm not much of an animal person (to put it mildly), I've received dumbfounded looks and accusations of being heartless.  Murphy spent most of the day at the vet on Thursday before I picked him up, so he was pretty worn out by the time he got to my house.  I literally sat on my kitchen floor and watched him struggle to stay awake until he ultimately passed out underneath a chair.  Who am I?  Watching an animal sleep?  

It happened.

2.  I'm incredibly selfish.  I want things to be as convenient as possible for me all of the time.  When I'm trying to train him, I expect Murphy to give me his full attention.  I expect him to understand things immediately, and I become annoyed when I have to repeat myself.

3.  I'm primarily a verbal communicator.  I've been setting an alarm for every hour during the day to take Murphy outside as he becomes housetrained.  I would have zero problem (as long as it's convenient for me - see point 2 above) taking him out in between those times... if I knew he needed to go out.  If he would bark or cry at the door to communicate to me that he needs a pee break, I'd give him a pee break.  It hasn't worked out that way so far.  Instead, he's much more a body language communicator.  We're going to have to work on these language barriers.

Things I've Learned That Murphy & I have In Common

1.  We both enjoy naps.  I can fall asleep almost anywhere.  If my brain is not actively engaged in something, it is quite difficult to prevent me from nodding off.  Murphy, too, is not limited by time of day, audience, or environment when it comes to finding a suitable nap time.

2.  We both like to stay inside on triple digit days.  It's July in Texas.  Things are bound to get hot.  Yesterday, it was like pulling teeth just to have him follow me outside.  As soon as he does his business, he runs back to the door to return to the air conditioning.

3.  We both go to the bathroom somewhere around 47 times per day.  If only he could channel those times to correlate with the 47 times per day that I bring him outside.

Things I've Learned About Murphy

1.  His teeth are going to fall out!!  Okay, that's true of all dogs, but I didn't know it until yesterday!  Those sharp puppy teeth fall out just like baby teeth to be replaced with blunter adult teeth.  This makes complete sense.  Having never owned a dog before, though, I never gave it any thought.  Thank goodness my friend casually mentioned it because I would have gone BONKERS in a few months and thought I broke my dog had I not known it was supposed to happen.

2.  He's sophisticated.  I started putting music on to help him calm down when I put him in his crate.  The first few times, I just turned on the radio and played the country station that I always listen to.  It wasn't helping him at all.  I switched to classical music, and he calmed down immediately.

3.  He's smart.  He already knows the "sit" command.  I have a witness to prove it!  He can also shake hands already, too, but we're still working on not ending the handshake by biting the human involved. 

  
   

(Alright, so I typed all of that up last night, but it wouldn't let me load any pictures so I went to bed.  The internet is hating me right now, and I still can't get the pictures up, so I'm posting this without any visuals of my super cute puppy.  I will, however, share with you the most recent lesson I learned:  If you're ever trying to get your puppy to settle down and go to sleep early so you, too, can go to sleep early in order to wake up before the sun rises to play with him before work... well that would not be the right time to try putting him on a leash for the first time.  Especially not if it's storming, dark, and you're trying to juggle waste bags, his treats, an umbrella, and a 5 lb flashlight.  He will not take well to this new restriction.  He will in fact go bonkers and wrap the leash around everything in  your backyard, knocking down the tomato cage in the process and then attacking the tomato cage in an erratic act of self defense.  Consider this a friendly little PSA for all you future puppy owners.  I hope this helps.)  Yay for internet cooperation!  Enjoy the pics!


Love,

Murphy & Me