Murphenherder DoooooogerDo

It was four years ago today that this little ball of fuzzy cuteness came into my world.

My best friend’s niece asked me if I wanted her dog, Duke and instantly I said yes and gave her the money she wanted.  We (my ex and I) had him for about a year before I realized I wanted another Duke.  Duke is a Havanese and that was the breed I was going to get.
Duke was…well is…my furry soulmate.  My heart is absolutely broken over not being able to take him with me when I left, but my ex said I wasn’t allowed to take him. I would only get Murphy.
Murphy is my whole heart and soul and I would have burned down the world before I left him.   Anyway, this isn’t about Duke or my ex or my broken heart…it’s about Murphy’s Gotcha Day.

I wanted another Havanese so I started looking at rescues, calling around, putting in applications.  The phone interviews went like this:
“Do you have a pool?”
me: “Yes I do.”
“Do you have a fence around it?”
me: “no.”
DENIED.

“Do you have a full time job?”
me: “yes.”
“Who will watch the dog while you’re at work?”
me: “well, they can be at home while I am at work right?”
DENIED.

It felt like no matter what I said I was being denied.  It didn’t matter that we owned our own home and had 3 other dogs, they were sure to make me feel like complete shit for not making sure our dogs had full time day care and didn’t fall into a pool.   (i fucking taught a wiener dog to dive to the bottom of the pool to get a toy, but GOD FORBID we don’t fence it!)
Anyway…i gave up the hunt and started looking for a breeder.
I saw this furry face on the website and decided that he would be mine.
I had planned a trip that was cancelled and I had the money to get him and so I did.
People get all pissy that I went through a breeder and didn’t rescue, but I  tried and I knew what I wanted.   All my other dogs have been rescues of some sort.  Do I regret dropping as much money as I did on this fur ball? Nope. I would pay it again and again.

There are days when he looks at me during our long conversations about the James Webb telescope and the beginning of the universe that my heart explodes.  He gets me.  The other day we were watching “Drain the Oceans” and it got to this part about the damage to the oceans the wars have caused and he sighed the biggest sigh I have ever heard from a dog.  He didn’t have to tell me how he felt, I knew.  The weight of the knowledge is sometimes too much to carry.
Last night during our walk he told me that sometimes he wishes he would have gone into Forensic Botany.  He’s a smart dog and I am sure he could have done big things in that field.

Murphy is my world and I need nothing but his company and a whiskey neat.