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Storm Anxiety

With all the recent stormy weather, we have learned that Murphy has storm anxiety. He gets anxious and pants heavily. Getting him up on the bed with us and with Miss Moo seems to calm him down a lot. But when the lightning sounds like its right on top of us, even Miss Moo jumps at every crack. Hopefully Murphy will outgrow this problem. We worry when it's stormy and we cannot be at home with him.

Don't Eat the Daisies

I forgot that another trait that I wanted in our new dog is that he understands about staying out of the flower bed. This is something we are going to have to work on with Murphy.

Every afternoon when we get home from work, we go out in the backyard to throw the ball around. Murphy loves to retrieve the ball and bring it back to you. He places it right between your feet and waits for you to pick it up and throw it for him to chase again. We always tire of this game long before Murphy does.

Double Takes

Yesterday afternoon, we went out for our first walk with Murphy. Several of the people we usually greet along the way did double takes, then realized he was our new dog and stopped to meet and pet him. Murphy has made a lot of new friends in our neighborhood already. Everyone thinks he is such a good boy and so handsome. He especially likes to go by the house where a pretty yellow lab named "Baby Girl" lives with three little boys who came running out to see Murphy the minute they saw him coming.

The storm was not nearly as bad as the weatherman predicted it to be. Murphy did just fine and did not seem to be too anxious about it. He had to go out in the rain to do his business and loved being dried off and rubbed down with the towel when he came back in.

He spent most of the night sleeping on his pad next to Guy's side of the bed. He came over and wanted to talk to me about 4:30 in the morning. I thought he wanted to go out, but it turns out all he wanted was his head scratched and a belly rub.

Murphy and Miss Moo are getting along very well. They have had a few discussions about food and toys, but are working this out. We are learning what he likes and what he wants. We figured out that we needed to move Miss Moo's food dish away from Murphy's toy basket. And we needed to move Murphy's food bowl away from the water dish. Other than these two issues, they have had fun frolicking in the backyard and going on walks. Murphy got to go to the grocery store with Guy today and that was a real treat for both of them.

Murphy is such a sweet, lovable fellow. We could not have asked for a better dog.

We Say Hello and They Say Goodbye

Miss Moo went wild when she saw Murphy in the house. I think she might have thought he was Tabasco. As for the 'inspection,' we passed muster -- but I felt so bad. Murphy's foster Mom cried and cried when she said goodbye to him. I left her pink lipstick kiss on his nose until it wore off. Murphy has taken to us and to the house like he's been there all along. I'm not sure if he misses his old family or not -- but I am sure he is happy here.

Sniffing Out the Easter Bunny

Meet Murphy!

We met Murphy at a meet and greet last weekend. We really liked him. Murphy is a very handsome 7-year-old boy. He is tall and lean with sweet eyes, a beautiful red coat and a confident, happy-go-lucky personality. He and Miss Moo have a date this Saturday. If all goes well, we may have a new dog for Easter. Murphy's foster parents want to make sure he is going to a good home. We've been getting ready for their visit by doing some heavy duty spring cleaning. I know everything will go well, but I cannot help but worry. "What if we don't pass muster?"

Breeds

What is your favorite breed of dog?

Oh my gosh! I have always been a big dog person, but this week I fell in love with a friend's 'toy' size dog, a Papillon named Lola. She is tiny! And she's absolutely the cutest thing I've ever seen. Big feathery ears and a tail like a squirrel's. Lola gathered acorns and took them to her bed. She tried to climb a tree. She pulled the ivy off of the tree. She pounced on bugs. Busy, busy, busy. Ithought I'd found our new dog, but my husband would not hear of having a toy-sized dog. He reminded me that our Greyhound is a former racer who had been trained on live bait. She may be old, but she's still fast. He's right of course. How terrible it would be for this little toy dog to be our Greyhound's toy!

Meeting Approval

We are planning to get another Golden Retriever -- our 13-year-old Greyhound, Miss Moo, will have the final say in our choice of her new companion. She is very active for her age. What are your experiences in bringing a new canine family member into the household with another dog already in residence?

Starting the Search

How will we know when we meet the right dog?
We started our search for a new dog by filling out an online application and looking at the pictures of available dogs on the Golden Retriever Rescue of North Texas site. The dog we were interested in was already going through the adoption process, but the president of the organization thought that Dakota (pictured) would be a good match. We made arrangements with Dakota's foster mom to meet at a nearby dog park. We loaded up Miss Moo for the big date. Dakota was a nice looking fellow, smart and good and all, but he was not very interested in us or Miss Moo. There just wasn't any chemistry or connection between us. It wasn't a bad experience, but it was disappointing. I know we will never find another Tabasco -- and we're not trying to. This encounter had me questioning if we were really ready yet. It also had me wondering how we will know when the right dog comes along.

Adopting

Have you ever adopted or rescued a dog?

Miss Moo, our Greyhound who looks like a Jersey cow, is a retired racer and was rescued by the Greyhound Adoption League of Texas when she was about five years old. She actually chose my husband, Guy, for adoption -- she leapt with joy the first time she saw him.

We adopted Tabasco from Stanley Marcus' former home, where his Golden Retriever playfulness had gotten to be too much for the 3-year-old boy of the family now living there. Tabasco was definitely a high-spirited, one-year-old puppy in a BIG body. We changed his name from Duke (after John Wayne) to Tabasco which seemed to fit his personality a lot better. However, for McKinney's Krewe of Barkus Mardi Gras parade in 2006, we dressed him up as John Wayne and he won the grand prize for the dog looking the most like the movie star he portrayed. With a little training, Tabasco turned into the best dog in the whole world.