Monday, July 28, 2008

The Original Legal Schnauzer, Part II



Here is another in our series of posts about the Original Legal Schnauzer, our wonderful girl Murphy (1993-2004). She helped us survive the worst of our legal nightmare and serves as the inspiration for this blog.

As you can see, she was a ridiculously cute puppy. Little wonder we fell in love with her right off the bat.

This is one of the first pictures we took of Murphy, just a few days after we brought her home from her birthplace in Selma, Alabama (actually about 15 miles south of Selma, near a wide spot in the road called Sardis, Alabama).

My wife and I particularly love this picture because it shows that "schnauzer look" Murphy has in her eyes. The schnauzer has been called "the dog with a human brain." In a way, that's an insult to schnauzers because the human brain can be filled with all kinds of evil intent--as evidenced by the actions we've reported on this blog.

From having Murphy at the center of our lives for 11 years, we feel the schnauzer brain is filled with nothing but good stuff. Maybe the phrase should be revised to say "the dog with the good part of the human brain."

By "schnauzer look" I mean this riveting gaze where you feel like your dog is trying to read your mind. And she wouldn't just do it when she wanted something, like supper or a walk or a game of hide-and-seek. Certainly there were times when Murphy was trying to tell us something, something she needed or wanted. But to us, it seemed like she spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we needed.

Murphy would lock eyes with us, and you could almost hear the wheels spinning in her head: "What are they thinking?" "What do they need? "How can I help?"

Murphy's inquisitive nature, playful spirit, and desire to help only seemed to grow stronger as she got older. As cute and wonderful as she was in her puppy years, Murphy was even more cool as an adult dog.

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