Ourgang True Love N Chaos : 2000 – 2010
– Litter 7 –
Murtle, aka. Murtle Turtle, Murt the Squirt, Squirty, Schmurtle, Murty Baby, Baby Doll. What can I say … Daddy’s Girl … as much as Maddy was my baby, Murt was Glenn’s, that is until Mad passed away and she decided she was mine, dumped him like a hot potato and followed me everywhere.
We were often asked if Murt was a miniature Stafford as she was only 13.5 inches, compact and built like a brick – a perfect statue Stafford in miniature. People tell me to start a new breed – miniatures, I just laugh, her father is a big boy and all her children tower over her.
Murtle was a reincarnation of her mother, she was a double up on Maddy with all of Maddy’s bad and lovable habits amplified. If Mad did something bad, Murt would always go that one step further. When she was young I ran on her sister, Polly, to decide which one I would keep. I already had my suspicions then that she would be small but I couldn’t resist her, the clincher being when speaking to my friend Stella who just plainly said to me “Who are you kidding, she is so like Mad you are never going to get rid of her” I thought to myself “she’s hit the nail on the head, that’s exactly right” so the Squirt stayed and Polly went to a great home with the White family.
Wicked, wicked, wicked and completely lovable was our baby Murt. She would happily smile and look you in the eyes lovingly as she ate that electric whipper snipper, crunch up her body and waggle her whole rear end in happiness as she destroyed that lounge. It doesn’t matter what she did, she always got away with it as she was the spoilt baby and she knew it & knew how to crook her little toe to get around us.
As a Stafford, Murtle was an improvement on her mother, a stronger head, beautiful black pigmentation, better topline, nice and compact, nice angulation but just not quite enough leg, those short little legs that didn’t grow were the bain of my life. People often said to me, if she’d just had another inch or two she’d have been a stunner. I agree, but unfortunately you cant put them on the rack and stretch those legs (as much as my friends have offered), have implants or any of those things to get the perfect dog so she was perfect Murtle just as she was.
Murtle often tricked other dogs into believing she is a sweet innocent little puppy, her favourite trick being to crawl up to another dog on her belly, waiting for them to get close enough, showing all the submissive signs then whammo – she scares the life out of them (and their owners) by turning into this whirling dervish who is telling them off. She hated being away from home and got really grumpy, the longer we are away the worse she got, being unbearable to the others.
Squirt had this nickname from two areas. 1) Her size 2) She Loved water – if you go anywhere near the hose there she was, waiting for the moment that the water shows at the end of that rubber pipe, leaping and whirling to stop that flow of never ending water. (If you’ve never seen a dog blow up like a balloon, then this is it).
She produced one beautiful litter for me (Litter 8) but I vowed to never to put her through that again as she was a little dog and carrying seven pups was way too much for her small frame with the last two weeks of her pregnancy causing real concern so she was desexed. She was a good mum and really looked after the pups when young but once they were older they harassed the stuffing out of her so she didn’t want to play with them. As soon as half the litter had left home the games began & those poor three pups left were played with non stop as she could handle three but not six.
She enjoyed staying at home with Dad or going to Bathurst (though she hated the trip there as she suffered from ear pressure problems going over the mountains). A real homebody with personality plus, she was one that you have to live with to get to know and appreciate. Not known for being quiet, she may be small but she knows how to gain attention if necessary, just ask Stella. She was my least sociable one but will accept other dogs after a while and loved her grand-daughter Jitty, she was happy once she has bitten them and established she thought she was boss.
She suffered from DPN, had cancer of the bladder and urethra which was extremely painful for her so we made the decision to put her down to end her suffering. She loved us until the end as we did her.
Cloe > Sprog > Rage > Maddy > Basty > Angel > Oprah > Freddie > Jitterbug