Murray

My friend’s second dog, Murray, is a real sweetheart. He is male, but I think of him as a girl because he is so affectionate and gentle. Murray follows me around the house everywhere I go, pushing his nose into the crack in the bathroom door so he won’t be left out. He goes nuts when he sees me grab my purse and head for the door because he wants very badly to go along. Going nuts, for Murray, means yowling and bouncing on his front feet as he turns in circles. It makes me feel very bad if I am unable to take him with me.

When I am dog-sitting I don’t leave the house much, but each morning I pile the spaniels into the car with me to go to my friend’s house to feed her horses and cat. They are thrilled to be taken somewhere and this is an opportunity for them to run in their own yard, but they tend to hang close to where they last saw me and howl when I go out of sight. It makes me feel very important.

Murray is tolerant of his brother’s barking habit and doesn’t often join in. However, periodically in the middle of the night he will wake up and start yowling like a child in pain. It worried me at first and I’d run to check on him, till I figured out that if I wait for a couple minutes he would go back to sleep and forget all about it. He probably woke up from a bad dream and forgot where he was.

I think what happens is that we get used to our own dogs’ unusual habits and we work around them, but experiencing a visiting dog’s peculiarities is surprising and strange. I really enjoy getting to know each little personality and loving them for who they are.