Murphy and Henry week

Henry and I have a house guest this week! Murphy's owner, Kate, had to go back to New York last minute so Henry's best friend gets to hang out with us this week. Besides being completely unaware of his 100 lbs, stocky black lab frame and "beaver tail", we hardly notice Murphy is here. He's a great dog and Henry just loves him. I like having another dog around being they entertain each other with various shenanigans of chase, tag, wrestling, and tug-o-war. They also enjoy waking me up at 6:30 am ready to start the day- and if I don't get up immediately, they entertain themselves by watching me sleep while breathing heavily. But most of the time they're snuggled up together napping in the sunshine.

Murphy is half black lab, half bloodhound - he doesn't do it often, but he has a fantastic howl

Their relationship: Henry howling his head off and Murphy being extremely tolerant

Sniffing things

I could not get them out of the baby pool for the life of me - this was by far their favorite part

Murphy hiding in the bushes

Sunbathing

Chris was gone for the weekend - Henry was happy to have him back home

Happy 1 Year, Henry Hound!

On Sunday we celebrated Sir Henry being with us for 1 year! We picked him up last year on Cinco de Mayo and brought him to his forever home. The past year he's brought us more laughs and more love than we could ever have imagined coming from a dog. He's exactly the dog I've always wanted - the one that is truly my best friend. I don't think I've ever adored an animal as much as I adore my Henry.
We spent the weekend in Zion camping, running, and exploring southern Utah. It was the first time Henry had ever been camping and slept in a tent - and after some confusion with the netting in the tent (he tried to walk through it several times) he was really good in the tent! He curled up in a tiny ball between me and Chris and only woke up twice to howl at what I assume to be animals.
On Saturday we brought him to the St. George half ironman and in typical Henry fashion he ignored most of the people and pulled us over to the most of the dogs. Later in the day after he got thirsty and exhausted his behavior went downhill and he started barking at dogs - I feel like we pushed him a little bit with being outside in the warm weather all day. As soon as we got back to the car he drank a camelback full of water and fell completely asleep until we got to Zion - at which point he amused himself with attempting to track and eat lizards in the parking lot. Fantastic.
We camped Saturday night in the desert and once again Henry was great - he fell asleep even faster than the night before (probably due to pure exhaustion). We woke up Sunday and went for a run in Dixie National Forest. Henry had a blast running the trails and jumping over falling logs. It was a breezy 50 or so degrees - perfect running weather!

We got home Sunday afternoon and made Henry a grass fed bison burger (complete with cheese, ketchup, and a bun) for his "birthday" dinner...He ate it so fast I don't even think he tasted it. Henry slept for literally 2 days straight after that...I feel like such a good dog owner when he's exhausted!

Zion!

Desert sunset

Henry really appreciates it when I snuggled him eeextra hard

'

Henry's first time in a tent....he handled it much better than expected (He looks dreadfully unhappy in this picture but I swear he had a great time!)

Dixie National Park - this is the trail we took Henry for a run on Sunday

Me and my sidekick on our morning trail run behind our apartment