Dogs Trust Leeds seeks special home for Murphy the Mastiff pup

Update: I've just heard that Murphy found his home on Saturday after a family saw his video on our Leeds centre's web page and came to visit! We're all keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly and he's found his home for life.

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I was lucky enough to have a day at our Leeds centre recently, popping in to talk websites with the lovely Supporter Relations Officer Sarah.

Sarah sadly ended up getting only 99% of my attention, after she introduced me to her gorgeous pal, a 16-month-old Neapolitan Mastiff called Murphy. This is him with one of his favourite canine carers, Joy:



This is also him, dozing in the office shared by Sarah and some other colleagues, where he's lucky enough to spend some time hanging out (he's not the biggest fan of kennels):



Murphy is a very, very friendly - and drooly! - soul and good with other dogs, too. He has had a home briefly but due to unforeseen circumstances had to come back to Dogs Trust. I've noticed that he appears to be reserved on the website, so there's a possibility a home might be on offer for him, but he's still worth enquiring about as not every rehoming is successful.

So why hasn't he found a home yet? Well, Murphy is a bit of a special case. As a youngster, he broke a leg (back right hand side), which took some time to heal. As a result, he overused his left leg to compensate, and now that has some ligament damage. He's incredibly bouncy, but has to be carefully monitored to make sure he doesn't jump too much or overuse his weakened legs. For this reason, he'll probably need to be an only pet as playing too much can put undue strain on his legs.

Unfortunately for Murphy, it's possible his life might be quite considerably shortened by his condition, as it's not clear how long he'll be able to continue without his legs giving way. The centre staff can tell you more about this if you're interested in offering him a home, but I was told that he's on the 'full foster' scheme, which means Dogs Trust will take care of the vet bills related to his condition for life.

To find out more about Murphy, call Dogs Trust Leeds on 0113 2814920.