My Murphster is 13… and in his 13 years, we’ve gone through 5 leashes, and only 2 collars… in typical the typical ‘puppy’ fashion, leash number 1, which was a red, 6′ nylon strap lead, was chewed to bits one time when I wrapped his lead around a bike rack while I chatted with a friend… I think the leash was probably only a dozen weeks old if that… Leash # 2 met the same fate… again, a red nylon strap lead…
I got smarter as he got a bit older… meaning, I didn’t tie him out with his lead…
I bought him a blue 6′ lead, again nylon strap… that I still have somewhere packed in a box here… it hasn’t been used since he was a year old… It got it’s most use when we were in puppy obedience class.. which warrants it’s own post some day… let’s just say Murphy was neither the valedictorian, nor salutatorian of his class.. he was more like the class clown… The reason I dumped (into a box) this lead was because I had begun running with him… and bought a nice Flexi retractable leash which I totally loved… it was the classic version, which had a tape portion, and cord portion. It extended to 26′ which was awesome for our runs in Acadia National Park… on the carriage trails. … and on the Canal Path and Genesee Valley Trail when we moved to Rochester from Maine… until that fateful day…
That’s the day when after a longish run Murphy saw a squirrel… which… really wasn’t anything new or out of the ordinary… the problem was… that we were on our way HOME from a LONGISH run… that means.. instead of him leading the way on the run.. he was trailing JUST behind me… so when he saw the squirrel… he paused… and then made a dash for it… and like I said.. it was a 26′ lead… I had NO idea he was running in the exact OPPOSITE direction as me… the end result was a nasty bruise on my bottom, and a 26′ NON-retractable lead. He broke the retracting mechanism. The big guy and I took that thing apart and tried to repair it with NO luck… so off I went to Petsmart.. to buy a new one… which was broken in the same manner (my poor bottom and embarrassed ego… people witnessed THIS fall)…
Finally… I grew a brain and bought a new Flexi… the Classic, All Belt (no cord), #3, which is designed for dogs up to 150 pounds… yes.. my 65 pound doggie, needed the BIG GUNS of flexi leads… plus.. my poor bottom needed it… We had to give up the 26′ length though for just 16′… it was worth the change though as we still have this lead. I bought it in 1996… it’s well worth the money!
Murphy really liked chasing his squirrels.. that’s for sure.. poor thing never caught one, and now… he just doesn’t have the spring in his step to get even CLOSE…
While on the topic of running with Murph and chasing squirrels.. the big guy and I once thought it would be fun to go roller blading with Murphy…
I said ONCE… picture a 6′5″ guy being yanked all through the park after squirrels… and you know what happens when roller blades go from pavement to grass right?? FACE PLANT.. 
oh…
and I mentioned earlier this morning… I had plans for today… here’s what it looks like:
I try to find new recipes to try each year… and this year I found this… and printed out a dozen recipes.. let’s see how many we can do…
