Follow in my Footsteps by Murphy Doodle

BAD MURPHY. . . BAD MURPHY 

that is me, Murphy Doodle, dog, writer, fly boy, comedian, goof ball, puppy, k-oss, all disk-guysed like a sheepdog

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a few days ago i was pretending to fly in the house, i love to run and jump then leap off the blue furniture and fly through the air, i never knock over any thing big so i don't know why flying is bad

now i can't fly anymore around the soft blue furniture because a few days ago letty moved the soft cushion couches away from open space, blocking me from jumping over it and scaring people when they come to visit, 

instead she moved her chair to the open space and i thought it was just for me, it wasn't

when i ran and jumped on her chair it moved sideways and i fell instead of flying and bumped my chin, i almost whimpered, next thing i knew she was beside me rubbing my head, i like that part of falling 

after i pulled myself up walked around the house looking for a new approach, i decided to run and jump from the other room, that didn't work either because her chair moved again and this time she chased me and scolded me about being bad, how can having fun be bad? i do not understand her and i do not like to hear that yellow can RATTLE next to me, it scares me

the morning after it rained and kept me inside, i spent the hole afternoon with jack the yard builder, he said i was like a cheerleader that i made lots of noise, jumped up and down all afternoon while he put stones down on the ground, i don't know why he covered up ground because i like to run thru the dirt and the flowers so i can listen to them crunch under my feet and sleep on a new green bed 

 

letty said that Jack's stone work looked mag nicent, big words confuse me

i wanted to help Jack all afternoon but he would not let me dig,  he said NO NO NO so many times that i finally went to the porch to lay down and howl

letty finally let me in the house with her so i would not get in trouble any more outside with jack

last night they went out of the house somewhere, i know because letty smelled different than normal and i was out after dark

i had the most funnest night of my life, it rained and i was left alone in the big back yard, i chased squirrels alone the fence until they were gone and i mean gone, no more ugly squirrel talk, sometimes they are mean and throw things at me from up above where i can not jump high enough to bite a tail

after i drank a lot of water and chewed on the plastic bowl,  i ate a hole in the soft cushion that i like to lay on, but i knew i was in trouble when the wind began to blow and all of the soft white fluffy stuff blew in whirling circles around the yard, now there is a hole in my bed and i am sorta sorry that i did that

when it stopped raining i had to go check the fence line and make sure the yard was safe for my family, that is when i found the new hole where a bush once lived, jack must have left it for me to play in

it was a circle of beautiful glossy slicky sticky mud where there used to be a bush, i am glad the bush is gone because now i can chase the squirrels all the way down the fence without running around the bush

i thought i was so lucky to feel the fresh sticky licky mud, i dug and dug and buried my nose in it, i don't know why i bury my nose in the mud because it sticks to me and i do not like a sticky nose, the mud even stuck to my ears and on my tail, i felt icky all over, but i could not clean it off, i rolled in the grass over and over trying to clean myself, it did not work

i was happy when they came home but not for long

jack opened the back door like a the gentle doggie dad that
he is and let me in, suddenly he grabbed me and yelled, HELP

i thought that was strange, i did not need any help

letty came running and screamed my name out loud

i think she even laughed, but i am not sure

 

the picture of shame

 

jack carried me to the shower and closed the door, after grumbling and putting on her bathing suit, letty stepped in the shower and gave me a bath, at first she mumbled words like THIS IS A WASTE OF TWO GOOD MOSCOW MULES, hear why she confuses me, we do not have mules here and i am not a mule, whatever is a moscow mule? 

anyway, i did exactly what she said and let her scrub me all over, mainly it felt good to be wet and clean, and she was nice to me, she held me and said GOOD MURPHY, GOODY MURPHY

she even laughed and said AT LEAST YOU DON'T SMELL LIKE SKUNK

hum, skunk, i do not know what that is, guess i will just have to learn that word

just before bedtime she cornered me with the blow dryer, but i was tired of being in trouble and she had treats, so i let her blow hot air on me until i was sorta dry 

this morning i found out that i am GROUNDED,

i thought that was good because i love to feel the ground, the dirt, the mud, and the wet green grass but i do not think this is the same ground because i have been in the house all day long

jack said that i can not go outside without adult super vision, neither of them have super vision if you ask me

i do not understand them sometimes

The End   

i think i will go eat some dinner

The crime scene filled in by Jack, the yard builder, the next day

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The Happy Story of Murphy Doodle

As all great stories begin, "Once upon a time there was a great woman...Her name was Murphy Doodle." Two little girls met this colorful red-headed woman when they were only youngsters. She laughed louder than the other women, she smoked longer cigarettes than the other women, she wore higher heels and carried a large leather purse. In her heels she stood above the crowd, or so the two little perceived. People noticed this woman. When her friends wore hats to lunch at Inness's Department Store in downtown Wichita, Kansas, Murph, as her friends called her, wore a daring or unique hat.

Irene B, Mother, and Murphy Doodle playing pool after working all week at Boeing. c1942

Our father said that Murph had more freckles than any woman he'd ever seen, and with a pool stick could find a sucker to beat in a game of 8 Ball.  We thought she was the finest example of who we wanted to be someday. She gave her nickname, Murphy Doodle, to us, and we felt special. Where did she get the nickname, I'll never known, but I think perhaps her father teased her with that name. 

The obituary called her Marie Murphy, and stated that she was a secretary at Boeing, and then for a law office. She and her sister, Inez, lived their lives together as old maids. How sad the two grown girls, my sister and I, felt, that she hadn't been given credit for being the life in a crowd, for saving enough money to buy and restore an old home on Riverside Dr. in Wichita, for caring for her sister, and for dearly loving those two little girls.

Mother, Murphy Doodle, and a friend

After fifty years of storing this wonderful character in our hearts, we have given life to her name once again. 

Before we met our dog that Saturday in May, I named him Happy, because he made us happy just thinking about the joy and excitement that would be living with us. 

His playful moves in between our legs, the circles he raced chasing his tail, and the moment he discovered he could bark kept us in constant laughter the first week. 

 During that time we began to experiment with other names like;

Tippy, because he would run fast in the yard, stop and then tip over his head because he couldn't figure out how to stop his movement. The tip on the tail added more reason to this name. 

Sleepy from Disney's Seven Dwarfs because puppies can fall fast asleep anywhere in any position. Of course, we name ourselves Sneezy, Grumpy, Happy, and sometimes Dopey, so Happy or Sleepy would fit right in.

Caddy and Calloway were options, but I already knew friends who named their dogs after golf.

Now Wattson had possibility. I thought it was unique, but Jack didn't agree, even though he grinned at the name.  

A week into the name game, my sister said, "Letty you have to name him Murphy Doodle because he is part Doodle, or Poodle, which is it?"

Immediately, my heart when back to a time when I played on the ground with dogs, cats, baby rabbits, injured birds, toys, trains, dolls, lady bugs and four leaf clovers. Just then I laughed as loud as I could at this silly Happy puppy who tried to jump into the bird bath only to have it tip over and spray the water all over his face. He shook but his body didn't quite know how to shake from front to back. His shook so much he fell over. 

Instantly, I knew my sister had chosen the perfect name. Murphy Doodle may not laugh or act like the real Marie Murphy Doodle, but he makes everyone around him laugh and giggle like we are children, like a lady who laughed her way into my heart seventy years ago.

For more stories about dogs and adventures click on my links below:

Postcards from the Wild: Skagway, Alaska  

  Lucy Goosey      

Lucy 

For other dog stories by Literally Letty please click on the links below:

Ticky

Puppy Dog Love