Linda and Murphy's Blog (39)

Finn's mom shared some more photos of Finn. He really does swim!  His dad is (among other things) a diver with National Geographic.…

I finally got some photos of Finn in his new home. I have to admit I am more than a little jealous. I think he is living my dream life.

Finn's to the right

Dinghy Dog…

Just before Christmas, with Finn 8 months old and on my last nerve, my neighbor's daughter came to visit. (Her dad is in Baton Rouge, very ill, and she was here to spend a month or so taking care of him. Her dog died in May and I had actually sent her a photo of Finn, but the timing wasn't right.)  Without any intent on my part, Jeanne met Finn and fell in love. Her husband wasn't here, so she wasn't sure of his response. Also, she has a 10 year old Maine Coon that had to weigh in. I…

Its been a very long week here. We had 2 dog visitors and someone is severely lacking in southern hospitality.

First, my sister's female field spaniel spent the week with us. Casey is a little grumpy and Finn decided he was in love with her.  He spent every free minute trying to win her affection. It was exhausting. Her growl sounds like she's possessed. I don't know if there are exorcists for dogs, but we sure could have used one.

#2 DS and his girlfriend and…

Murphy and I are heading to the LSU vet school tomorrow for his radiation treatment.  Since he will be sedated, I hope they can staple his leg back together. He has made such a mess of it.

Will let everyone know tomorrow.

It's been an interesting week, to say the least. Murphy's biopsy came back positive for melanoma, confirmed by the vet school, and he will have radiation in the near future. He had surgery to remove what I hope is a hemangioma on his ankle Wednesday. We are waiting on those results.I am having trouble with him chewing the sutures out. Any suggestions appreciated.

The DSs and girlfriends flew in on Friday. By Saturday morning, we were flooded in with the water rising. (Quite a…

Murphy's biopsy results are in and it is melanoma.

We are headed to LSU Vet School tomorrow to meet with the oncologist.

I pray that it is localized. I don't know how I could have found it any sooner.

Murphy had surgery yesterday to remove the bump on his nose. She took a biopsy and we are waiting on results.

I am so proud of the boy.  The vet was able to do it under local! The vet tech, one of our favorite people, held his head while he was in a sitting position (this is Murphy...so that head was about 40 inches off the floor). They deadened his nose with lidocaine and waited to see if she needed to sedate him with anything else. She said the only issue they had was with…

Being a sun worshiper with reddish hair and blue eyes, I am very familiar with skin cancer. I have had umpteen removed, some even by MOH's surgery. I am pretty good at identifying it in humans.

I noticed a bump on Murphy's nose last week. It was black and flat, not deep. I thought it might just be a dirty face. Being like Joanne, I picked at it. It bled profusely but stopped. Yesterday, I checked it again. It felt a bit larger, and deeper. My vet is open on Saturday and, for…

Saturday Murphy (100 lbs) and I made our second visit to a local nursing home.  This time we went on the Alzheimer Unit.

It was a scheduled visit, so they were expecting us, about 12 gathered in one room.  I was relieved not to see any walkers with tennis balls.  We began making our rounds. 3 ladies were very dog focused and told us about their dogs at home. We kept rotating around the room. Other than continually telling everyone his name and that he was a doodle, it was much better…

This morning Murphy and I went on our first local nursing home visit. The founder of our St. Tammany Love on a Leash group emailed me yesterday and asked if we could join her and her Great Dane. It was a good visit and great day...well except for the lady with the tennis balls on her walker. Thank goodness she was such a dog person. She knew exactly what Murphy was doing.

Sandy said that one of the local stations contacted her and want to do a story on the group. This is the summer…

My sister threatened to take away my first born if he were a girl, simply saying that I can't fix hair, can't tie a proper bow, know nothing about manicures or pedicures, fashion or ballet. I had to admit that all of that was true. I prefer to do my shopping from catalogues like LLBean, Orvis or Lands End, think short hair is much more time efficient, love football, think that it is more important to know how to throw a proper curve ball and bait a hook than do ballet. It is very difficult…

Since no one appropriate has applied to adopt him, Finnegan is still enjoying his time with Murphy, me and Blair 

Witch Cat, who does very well with him. Finn has figured out that she doesn't have claws so he just takes the nose boxing and keeps coming.

The back deck now has stairs so our lives are much easier.  Finn still has a few accidents in the house (on Murphy's bed unfortunately) but as long as he goes out frequently enough, he does great.

He is now 14 lbs and ~10-11…

My friend (I think that is still the proper term) picked up a "free puppy" at WalMart Monday, saying she couldn't resist and was afraid of what might happen to him. Her husband was furious because she is terminally rescuing something. She brought the little guy in and asked me to keep it to "save her marriage". Much to my amazement, he looked like a "solid black Murphy".  Took him to the vet, got his first shots, worming etc. With the web feet, her guess was a labradoodle or a Newfie and 8…

My engineer DS suprised me on Mother's Day by coming home.  But he had to fly to Houston that afternoon.  So...would I keep Kona (the 6 month old, 60 lb Weimaraner) until he got back on Thursday night (for my graduation).

Did I mention he didn't bring a crate for Devil Dog?  Murphy has a soft sided crate that she immediately ripped through. She spent yesterday at daycare but didn't seem tired at all when she got home. She devours her meals in about 30 seconds.

She…

DS says today is Murphy's "Golden Birthday". He is five years old on May 5th.

Murphy's asked for a swimming party. Yay!!   I hope he has a great day.

Big hugs to my wonderful Dood....all 99 pounds of him!…

Hi everyone,

Murphy here.  I had such a wonderful day on Sunday.  I wish you all could have been here.  It was our Mardi Paws parade.  (Mom says it’s a fund raiser for the Humane Society.)

Every year before I was in the parade.  (One year we even won..I got dog supplies and a free bath and some grooming stuff and Mom and the Krewe got $50! She said that made me the best son ever and that I bought drinks for everyone! ) This year we just watched. We got there early and I met…

My DS and his beautiful 4 month old Weimaranar pup have been visiting the last 2 weeks while he works in New Orleans.

Kona had what appeared to be a minor scrape on her hip when he got here...said he noticed it when he picked her up from daycare the last day. Today it was still the same so he took her to the vet. Diagnosis: demodectic mange, a genetic condition.  The vet said that she cannot be bred (not a problem) and that at least one of the parents had the condition and should not…

The New Orleans Jazz Fest line up was released today. Jimmy Buffett will play Saturday May 7th! Unfortunately, no doodles are allowed at Jazz Fest.   Don't know about Margaritaville. lol

FYI:  In the past when JB played Jazz Fest, he also played at Margaritaville under some made up name on the Thursday or Friday before.

 …

It was 20 degrees here last week...really cold for us. Today it began to warm up so Murphy and I headed for the lakefront for a walk.   I took a few photos with my phone.      

It was 59 degrees!…