Welcome

Greetings, I started this blog, whether it is read by anyone but me as a means of keeping my sanity as we go thru the first year with our chocolate Lab Retreiver named  Murphy or to the AKC People. . . Murchadh donn, cù a' chuan (Scots Gaelic for Murphy brown dog of the sea, except a comma got put in the wrong place and his name reads Murphy brown, dog of the sea- maybe  this was an omen of things to come).  

Anyway three years ago when we put down my eight year old 145 pound Newfoundland, Maggie after a day of seizures I swore that was it, No MORE DOGS.  After 33 years of marriage and five dogs I thought enough was enough. Though I was rasied in a household that always had dogs ( a collie, numerous mix breed dogs, an English Setter, an Irish Setter and a couple of Labrador Retrievers) it seemed only natural to have a dog around when we were raising our kids.  But both kids had left the nest now and without a dog to worry about I could now go with my husband on his business trips and not worry. And with both kids off creating new lives soon there should be some grandkids I could lavish my excess love on. 

Well three years later, having not gone on a single business trip with my husband, and there appeared to be no grandkids in sight; one child too involved in golf to even consider a significant other and the other persuing her dreams that included  a year in Italy before seeking her Phd, I thought maybe I wanted another dog. What was I thinking... 

As much as I wanted another Newfoundland, remembering the slobber clean up and the hairballs the size of a small dog that seemed to occur twice a year, I knew that I couldn't do that all over again. But I like big dogs. I looked  at maybe a Scottish Deerhound or an Irish Wolfhound but reading their health issues it looked like reading my own health issues. Remembering my dad's last Labrador Retreiver, Ding and being around my brother's Labrador,  Moose, I thought of looking for a "Lab" breeder locally. I came upon a breeder here  in Wisconsin who was cross breeding ( whatever the correct word is) an American line of Labs with an English Lab  line, which created smaller, huskier Labs with less hyper disposisitons. But what drew me to this breeder the most was her breeding sire DP's Running on Faith (DP).  DP is an English Labrador who has the head of  a Newfoundland but the clean lines (hopefully less shedding) of a Labrador Retriever.  I had found my breeder, who I quickly  contacted to find that they were expecting a litter sired by DP and their American/English Lab female  "Symphony". I was thrilled and hoped there would be a male in the liter. That day came December 18, 2008, my husband's 57th birthday and there was only one male in a small litter of five puppies.  

I had dropped numerous hints to my husband that I would like a dog for my Christmas present and showed him the website earlier before the pups were born. He wasn't too thrilled but when I suggested that the dog would be a good companion for me while he was golfing all summer long, I'm sure he thought if I had a dog I might just stop pestering him about how much time he spent golfing. Come Christmas morning I had a number of small packages under the tree. I opened the first to find a cookie cutter in the shape of a dog, the next was a calendar of all chocolate Lab puppies and last was a box that held confirmation that in fact the breeder was holding the only male puppy from DP and Tank's litter in my name. Of course as the puppy was only a week old at the time I wouldn't be able to pick him up until February 14th, of which my husband had ammeded on the gift announcement that this was really a Christmas/Valentines gift. Had to chuckle because after 36 years of marriage I could count on one hand that number of times he remembered Valentines Day. But I was happy that we would have another dog in our home, he was happy I wouldn't nag about the golf. As if that was going to stop me. 

So this blog of Mutterings on Murphy is my mental health therapy to get me thru the first year with Murphy who is often referred to as the little brown terrorist who often holds us hostage to his commands. Though he has been with us now five months now I have a bit of catching up to do to introduce you to Murphy but I hope you will enjoy my slip into madness as I become the "human littermate" of Murphy.  Come back when you can, can't always promise you  a laugh but at least my life with Murphy might make yours seem a lot less crazy. 

Jody and Murphy