murphy ruth

we have a dog. since we've had him, ive always called him our "special dog." grant it, we only have one dog but still...he's pretty special. love the guy to death, but he definitely has his moments where i catch myself saying "why did we pay $500 for you again?"

Like most couples, when they first get together or get married they almost always want some sort of pet. I think its a way both sexes can "show off" their parenting styles. Maybe its more for the girl to do that and a good reason for the guy to get out of the house aka "i'm gonna take the dog for a walk/run." Either way, some way some how a dog always ends up in that first family christmas card. Dont get me wrong, i think getting a dog or any kind of pet is an excellent way to exercise what it would be like for when kids come along and i would even say its therapeutic for newlyweds. I mean you have to admit a puppy really is a lot like a toddler when it comes to potty training, playing & obeying. I think its safe to say if you end up arguing a lot about the dog, cat, hamster whatever the pet of choice is... most likely raising children together isnt going to be any easier.

I was really surprised with how well danny & i did with murphy. though we did have our moments on how to "discipline" him, overall murphy was a positive aspect to our marriage. The number one thing we would argue disagree about was when murphy did something that deserved some sort of punishment. I believed in spanking murphy on his hiney and telling him "no." Leaving murphy to run away from me with his tell between his legs. Danny believed in looking at murphy and saying, "Murphy, what are you doing, your the worst dog ever!"Leaving murphy to shoot his ears up and cock his head to the side as if he really knew how to answer danny. Leaving me to say "I'll tell you what he is doing, he's chewing up our comforter, the same one he pee'd on last night." I know, I know not my finest wife moment, but you have to understand the situation. The dog does not know how to answer questions, let alone respond to rhetorical questions.

Despite our differences in "punishing" murphy, we survived raising him and eventually grew to love him, even after he pee'd on my head in the middle of the night (yes, this really happened.) Murphy really is a great dog and he can be pretty cute too. He has such a funny personality and really really really loves his master aka danny. Due to our differences in punishing murphy, he clung to danny very quickly, knowing danny would never hit spank him. To this day, murphy growls at me at least once a day.  honestly, some days, it does hurt my feelings, but i mean what can i do now? I take him on walks, i play with him, i bring him home new toys, i dress him, i give him treats and still...i get no love in return.

Since Hudson has come along, murphy has seem to dislike everyone. He has started to growl at almost anyone who tries to pet him. I dont think murphy would ever bite anyone but then again i never thought he would even growl at our 3 year old niece either (sorry avery).

okay i kinda got off track (typical)...i really just wanted to write about murphys stressful weekend lol. So real quick let me recap the tragic events murphy had to go through last weekend. So if you have seen murphy recently or in the last few months you would know that he is in dying need of a hair cut. We should of been getting him groomed but he was due for his annual shots as well, so no one would groom him unless we got his shots. So instead of making and paying for 2 appointments, danny bought some $15 dollar clippers at walmart and went to town on the murph.  Murphy hated it to say the least. He even bit danny and scratched his whole arm up. He was so unhappy. And then the very next morning, I had let him out to go pee after putting Hudson down for his morning nap. He's outside for approximately 90 seconds and then he's ready to be back inside, can i say "high maintenance?" Anyway, so like I was saying, i put hudson down and then went back to the door to let murphy in. Well, while I was opening the door Hudson started crying, which is really unusual for him, he always goes straight to sleep, especially for his morning nap. So let murphy in, slammed the door real quick to go back to Hudson and heard the loudest dog "yelping" ive heard. Yup, I slammed murphys tail into the door. To make matters worse I kept pushing the door wondering why it wouldnt close. I think my brain was having a hard time differentiating between the babies cry and the dogs cry, because it wasnt registering why murphy was crying. Once I opened the door murphy took off to our room to danny who was still asleep in bed. I ran after him to apologize and he would not stop growling and snapping at me. I felt awful. A whole year of trying to get him to like me again... down the drain. Oh and what was wrong with Hudson? His puppy(stuffed animal snuggle buddy) had "stolen" his paci. thanks a lot hudson. ;)

poor murphy, im not sure what to do with him these days. i try really hard to give him attention and make him feel special but he just mopes around all day long looking out the window waiting for danny to come home.

Above & Below: Murphy before getting his hair cut

Murphy after getting groomed. Doesn't he look like he lost 10 pounds?

Danny has now decided to go into the dog grooming business. You can email him at...just kidding! But I   do think he did a pretty good job on Murphy. And FREE looks really handsome on murphy!