day-to-day

Yesterday, we made trip #3 over to Oscar's house. Disco happened to visit at the same time, and the three of them altogether was a bit overwhelming. Once Disco left, however, Murray and Oscar had the best day to-date. I even chanced it and let Murray off his leash while they were in the house, and other than Murray making a running jump onto Mom's lap, everything went well.

Shame I didn't bring my camera on this visit, because Murray decided to lay down next to Oscar in the hole that Oscar's been digging in the back yard. Murray loved that hole and sticking his face in the dirt...grrrrrr.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures from the past couple days:

No, you can't have Puppy!

All worn out (he set up his crate the way he likes it)

On Guard (dogs kept walking by tonight...he wasn't pleased!)

rooooooooooooad trip

What a day today was!

Murray and I started out with another visit over Oscar's house (aka Mom's house). Each visit is getting better, but Murray still needed to stay on his leash. I didn't trust him around Oscar's neck :)

Then it was off to Christine and Disco's house for a quick stop before we headed out for a long drive in the country. Disco, who is about Murray's size, got on gangbusters with Murray, even more so when we stopped back after our drive.

After Christine got us some water and some bug spray (we've both been getting eaten up alive by the mosquitoes this year), we made tracks to farm country. Christine was enjoying herself in the back seat with Murray and taking lots of cute and goofy pictures of him (hopefully, she'll be sharing some of them).

Christine was in charge of whether we made a left, right, or went straight at intersections, and so we never knew quite where we were. Murray needing a pitstop was a good excuse for us to pull over at a small bridge that had a dam and a lake...and some bones just laying around nearby (uh-oh).

After exploring a bit, we drove on until we got to Mood's Farm Market on Rt. 77, 5 miles south of Mullica Hill, where we picked up some Peach Crushes...mmm mmm mmm. My, were they good!

We got back on the road and came across an abandoned train depot, which I've been to before, and I thought Christine and Murray would get a kick out of seeing. These are some pictures from there (click 'em to big 'em):

Now, that second picture shows a single hawk (or vulture), but in actuality, there were like seven circling above our heads. I made sure Murray stayed close by so that they didn't swoop down and carry him off.

On the way home, we were on Rt. 40 near Woodstown, and Christine and I got into a bit of mischief (leaving Murray in the safety of the car, with the window halfway down, of course):


I'm sure she wouldn't have thought to do anything like this on her own (wink wink), so I'll take full blame if a warrant is ever issued for our arrest.

After we got back to Christine's house, Murray and Disco spent about another 2 hours getting to know one another, and running around so much that by the time Murray and I finally made it back to our own home, he plopped down and slept the night away.

It was a wonderful way to spend the day!

"puppy" has seen better days

It hasn't even been a week yet, and this is what puppy looks like:


Ears long gone. Arm showing stuffing. Dirty as can be.

How long do you think it's gonna last at this rate?

it had to happen sometime

So, why not tonight?

A squirrel ran by. Murray took off after him. The leash flew out of my hand. I made a mad dash towards the front of the house, dreading the thought that Murray would run across the main road and get smushed :(

Lucky for me...and Murray...the squirrel made a left at Albuquerque and another left at Laguna Beach, and Murray wound up in the back yard staring into some bushes. My neighbor, who had been working on his truck in the driveway, heard something fly by him and then saw the dog and went to capture him. Guess I should stop thinking bad things about him (the neighbor) for how junky he keeps the place, huh?

i'm exhausted

Just got back from Murray's first visit to my Mom's house...and first introduction to her dog, Oscar, who, being a shepherd mix, is about 6 times Murray's size.

To say it was a raving success is an overstatement, and to say it was a dismal failure is as well. It was kinda in between. Murray was on the aggressive side, and Oscar kept going around in circles with Murray doing likewise, making me dizzy. By the end, they were worn out and huffing & puffing...and a lot more manageable. Still, I wasn't ready to let them both off their leashes at once. We'll aim for that the next time we visit...in the house.

101 dalmatians...and a schnauzer

Murray and I started off the day with a walk. It's great when he's tired out on the way back home, because he seems so much more cooperative in his obedience training then, almost as if he's actually learned something. Shame the beginning of our walks belie that...lol.

Tonight, we watched 101 Dalmatians together. Whenever the dogs or other animals became vocal in the movie, he sat and watched the screen attentively. I'm glad he couldn't really follow the plot line; it was hard enough for me to sit through the evilness of Cruella De Vil. I never could handle those types of movies, and yet that's the kind of thing that Disney is always putting out. I wonder who came up with the concept of scaring poor children half to death before getting to the happy ending.

murray visits the vet

Seven days after first getting him, Murray and I visited his veterinarian for the first time. I was referred to this vet by someone I know only online through another blog, but I've grown to trust his opinion so took a chance, especially since he's located only 10 minutes from home.

When we first entered, the tiny waiting room was not too conducive to cooperative interaction between canines. Murray went off on a Boston Terrier that was just finishing his visit. The owner was nice enough to take the dog out to his car before finishing his transaction. Unfortunately, he left his son behind, who ended up approaching Murray threateningly, which had him barking again. Dr. R came out of nowhere and told the kid, "You will sit down now!" Murray was fine after that...until the electric razor tried to attack his leg, that is...lol.

Murray weighed in at 15.6 pounds and had tests done for heartworms and parasites. He also got a shot for rabies and his stitches removed from his neutering. Add to that taking home heartworm and flea medication, and I'm broke...lol.

All-in-all, Dr. R and his staff seemed pretty good and to have a real heart for the animals, so I think we'll continue using them for the time being.

as seen on tv

Christine kept persistently asking her mom Kathy when she'd get to see Murray. After all, she only got to see him for a couple minutes at the shelter and just couldn't wait to play with him for a bit. So, they stopped by Monday bearing a gift...one of those long, stuffed dogs that you might have seen on the PetSmart commercials (bulldog and dachshund).

This is a picture of Murray the following day. He just loves the dang thing:


He immediately picks it up whenever he sees it, and teases me with it until I chase after him. It may be just as long as him, but he can't get enough of it. I've taken to calling it puppy. "Murray, I'm gonna get the puppy. Give me the puppy, give me the puppy!"

God, he's got me well trained :(

first walk in the woods

This picture tells you just about everything you need to know about how our first walk in the woods went:


It started off with a drive to the local park and having a hard time finding a parking spot, because there were a group of men playing softball. Murray wasn't too happy about them either, as he wouldn't stop barking at them while we were still in the car, and so I got frustrated, and said "Forget it!"

I turned the car around and headed home. But I only made it a short distance when I said "No, we're gonna do this!" I drove a bit further down and pulled into a little alcove at the other end of the walking path. We only had about 15 more minutes for our walk, and really, that was quite enough, because he was driving me nuts...lol.

He needs training on walking on the leash...PRONTO!

murray, welcome to your new home

While at work today, I kept having nagging doubts about my new dog's name. I already had a name tag made up with Maxx typed on it, but really, even with the extra X it reminded me too much of the little scottish terrier I used to know, who went by Max and was my old dog's best buddy (after Rex, of course).

Anyway, it suddenly dawned on me that I should call him Murray. Mind you, that name didn't come out of thin air; I had previously jokingly called a cat statue in my house that on a family blog. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to suit the scruffy-looking miniature schnauzer I was gonna bring into my life.

I emailed my sister Patti, asking her what she thought of the name (we were both bored at work and had nothing better to do). She said she liked it but that I really needed to clear it through Christine, since she helped me find the dog and also choose the name Maxx. Oh, okay. Darn. What if she didn't like it? Well, luckily, she didn't give me a hard time about it, even though I had to pronounce it for her a couple times over the phone to get her to understand what I was saying...lol.


So, here I present to you Murray on his first day home...


How could you not love a face like that?

When I went to pick him up, the lady at the animal shelter said how much everyone there just loved him. She had me sign some papers, gave me information about everything he'd gotten while at the shelter, then handed him over to me :)

He was so good in the car on the way home. After I convinced him to get in the car, that is. He sat in the back seat, shaking a bit, and wondering where we were going, but otherwise not crying or anything.

We spent the rest of the night getting to know one another. It was a little bit of a rough-go at first. I was as nervous of him as he was of me. I thought I wasn't gonna get any sleep, because he wasn't taking to the crate too well, but luckily, I read online a suggestion to cover the crate with some fabric to make it feel more like a cave. That did the trick.

And so went our first day.

compatibility test

This is Maxx:


Christine, Disco, and I visited him at the shelter for a compatibility test. It was important to me that he get along well with other dogs, especially Disco and Oscar, since we spend so much time together. Maxx couldn't get enough of checking out Disco. Though, Disco didn't even give him the time of day, really.

No growling, barking, nipping, or hair raising, so Maxx passed with flying colors.

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By the time we went for the compatibility test three days after our first visit, the shelter had named him Rolf, due to his german heritage. Unfortunately, the name just didn't run off my tongue very easily, and besides, Christine, Kathy, and I had already come up with several possible names. The leader at first was General Fritz von Schmidt, or Fritz for short. Kathy couldn't stop cracking up at her creativeness, and neither could we.

In the end, though, Fritz just wasn't doing it for me. So, on the way home from our 2nd visit, Christine and I ran all the other names we came up with by Disco to see if he reacted to any of them. He wasn't any help. We ruled out the ones that sounded too girlish (I still like Skyler), and then ones that just didn't seem to fit his personality or would get annoying if you had to say them too much. Then we finally settled on Maxx, or Maxwell when he's being bad, or Maxie when he's done something cute.

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Not a great shot, but will give you an idea of his size.

Maxx will be getting neutered on Tuesday, and I'll get to take him home on Wednesday, August 15th. A couple weeks after that, I'll be taking him over to meet his doggie cousins. Wish us luck :)

Oh, shoot. I just did a search on dog names, and Max is the 2nd most popular. Darn, I really wanted something more original too...oh well. "The most popular dog name in North America is Sam, Sammie or Samantha (which means "listener"). The second most popular is Max, Maxie, Maxwell or Maxine (which means "the greatest" in Latin). Third is Lady, followed by Bear, Maggie, Buddy, Tasha, Chelsea (or Chelsie), Holly and Shasta. Other very popular names are Brandy, Ginger and Taffy."

in the beginning

After a couple months of searching around for one, I think I've found the perfect dog for me. Mom, Kathy, and especially Christine, were in on the hunt with me. Christine and I visited a couple shelters to check out prospective candidates, usually only to find out they were no longer there.

Finally, on Wednesday, August 8, 2007, we went to Almost Home, a shelter located in Pennsauken, to check out a little cocker spaniel-corgi mix named Tony. They had told me earlier in the day that he was still available, but when we got there, they said he already had a couple applications in on him.

They had another little dog, though, who was picked up as a stray a week before, and no one had come to claim him. He didn't even have a name yet. He's a 9-month-old miniature schnauzer. We ended up liking him even better than Tony. He seemed to have more energy and a personality that would fit in better with Oscar and Disco. So, I put in an application for him and was told the next day that I was approved, and that he was all mine :)