Translate

Friday, May 4, 2012

Murphy the Wonder dog is all wet

I was walking Murphy the Wonder Dog the other day when I became distracted by a shiny thing and stopped paying attention to the mutt for a few moments.
After I decided the shiny thing wasn’t all that interesting, I looked up to see my dog rolling on the grass. As all dog owners know, that is never a good thing. He had this goofy look on his face that made it clear he was really enjoying whatever it was he was rolling in.
I called his name and he came bounding over, still with the goofy dog grin plastered all over his face as if to say, “Wow, you will never guess what I found. It is half rotted and very stinky and I just had to roll in it. Isn’t that great?”
Yeah, great, now when I am done with the walk I have to give the beast a bath. That will get rid of that goofy look in a hurry.
Murph The Surf loves to run through the woods, fields and wherever else we can unhook the restraint of the leash. But, one thing he does not love, or even remotely like, is water. He hates the stuff. He hates having baths and will fight to get out of the tub every chance he gets.
A typical bath means Murphy will shake like you are dunking him in the Antarctic ocean, whine like he is being tortured and will generate Hulk-like feats of strength and ninja-like agility as he tries to escape from the fiberglass torture chamber knows as a bathtub.
He knows when he is about to get a bath too. Somehow he knows the tub is being filled for him and he often hides in the hallway closet.
Thing is, he usually only has his front half in the closet while the back half sticks out into the hallway. He is a smart dog, but he sucks at hiding. Murphy has never liked water. From the time he was a pup he did not like to even get his feet wet.
The closest he ever came to swimming was when he fell into a creek. He wanted desperately to play with our friend’s dog, who loved the water and was bounding in and out like some sort of aqua-dog. This got Murphy all hyped up and when he stepped off a large rock to get closer to his friend, he landed in a deep pool. The look of surprise on his face was hilarious. He spun around faster than I thought possible and began swimming for shore like a dog possessed. His already big, bulgy eyes tripled in size as panic gripped him.
The ordeal lasted a matter of seconds, but I must confess my laughter lasted much longer. Murphy was never in danger, he just got wet and he was not happy about it. He never did try to get to our friend’s dog again.
Choosing instead to stand on the shoreline and bark and whine. At least we know for sure he can swim, not that it is a skill he will use very often. I also know that for a little dog, he is very strong and wiggly when attempting to place him in water.
I am OK with Murphy not being a water dog. Every time we take our dogs for a walk and there is water nearby my friends have to deal with a wet, muddy mutt that they must towel off before allowing in the back of their SUV.
All we have to do is open the door and our dry little hound can just climb right in. But Murphy will have to interact with H2O whether he wants to or not, especially if he continues to roll in stuff he finds on the side of the trail.

No comments: