2 February 2024, Issue 1195
Big is beautiful Meet Murphy of Pāpāmoa – a ‘Berner’ to aficionados, a Bernese Mountain Dog to the rest of us laypeople. Murphy is strikingly handsome, aloof, loveable and floppy-eared – a soft, giant-sized dog, that The Weekend Sun met and fell in love with.
He weighs about 50kg and is 70cm tall. That’s a big presence – he commands a fair space in the house. Murphy has a mind, has his likes and dislikes – and he doesn’t like his owners Caitlin and Jamie Burns playing Mario Kart – he stands right in
front of the TV and launches into his from-deep-in-the-belly bark! He sheds; sheds heaps – you don’t have to mind dog hair on your clothes and furniture or even in your foods sometimes. Murphy’s also needy; he needs love, lots of it, and he gives plenty of love in return.
And his breed doesn’t live long but the Swiss have an expression: “Three years a puppy, three years a good dog, three years an old dog. All else is a gift from God”. Today on pages 16-17, meet “a gift from God”, a special kind of dog called Murphy. Photo: John Borren.