Petey's Eating

Petey is a picky eater, as has already been discussed on this blog. John generally feeds him and goes to great lengths to entice him to eat. Once he starts eating, it takes very little to disturb him so much that he stops. Then there are times when he just won't eat. Sometimes we know why - see previous blog entry below. Sometimes, we have no idea. So, we have this mindset that we must some how, some way get the dog to eat.

Last night John was out at Petey's usual eating time, so it was my job to feed him. I don't often go to the extremes John does to get Petey to eat. Last night was no exception, as far as my plans went. But when I got out the pouch of food Petey appeared immediately and began prancing around his bowl in eager anticipation. I hardly got the pouch emptied before he dove in. I took note of the fact that this was unusual and went on about my business.

About a half an hour later Petey kept coming to me and walking to the laundry room, where is food is kept. He can be quite persistent when he really wants something. I finally figured out that he wanted some food. I didn't think he needed another pouch of food since his stomach had been upset earlier in the week, so I got a scoop of plain old dry dog food. I didn't think he'd eat it, but didn't care since I knew he'd eaten a whole pouch of food earlier. He dove in again like he hadn't eaten in a month. I began to look more closely at this dog to make sure it was actually Petey. It was.

He gobbled up all of that and asked for more. I put a little bit more dry food in his bowl. I decided he must be empty because of the aforementioned stomach issues during the week. He ate most, but not all of that then. During the night he ate the rest. I'd like to think that Petey is morphing in to a normal dog with regard to eating, but I think this is just another anomaly. We have a lot of those with him.

Petey's on a Hunger Strike

This afternoon I wrapped a birthday present which was not for Petey. Petey knows right where the wrapping paper is kept, and watches rather impatiently as gifts are wrapped. Knowing this, I tried to hurry and wrap the gift while he was outside. Alas, I was not fast enough. Petey busted me right in the middle of the process. He pranced around and prodded me with his paws the whole time I was working. I explained repeatedly that it was not his gift, but he didn't care. I tried to distract him with food. Real food, meat even, not his food or even a bacon treat. He would have nothing to do with it. John fixed him some of his food, which was a silly idea to begin with, further insulting the poor, pitiful, put upon, pooch. He's pouting on the couch now.

Happy Labor Day

Petey would wish everyone a happy Labor Day, but he isn't very happy. Most mammals, those are warm blooded creatures, are pleased when there is a little nip in the air this time of year, bringing a welcome reprieve from the summer heat & humidity. It really hasn't cooled off here, very much just yet, but there has been a bit of a break. Petey is most unhappy about all of this. The mercury in the thermometer has plummeted down below 70 on a couple of evenings, down right frigid for a Petey-dog. John has said more than once that Petey's perfect owner would live in Miami and never leave. We know that Petey loves (tolerates) us, but would love (tolerate) us more if we lived closer to the equator and retired. That is not possible, so we did the next best thing we got him a sweater. Briefly, he hated it.

The first sweater Petey got was actually a gift. It fit him nicely around his midsection but was too short. It barely came halfway down his back. He wore it some, and didn't seem to mind one way or the other if he had it on or not. He hadn't been living with us long and was doing a lot of shaking. He didn't have beds and blankets scattered throughout the house yet. We thought a sweater was a good solution.

One day in mid-January we were at a store looking through the leftover Christmas stuff for bargains and found a nice brown/tan plaid sweater. It was much longer than the first one, so we thought this would be just the thing. It was even a little masculine, which is hard to find with small dog clothes. It was only about $0.75 since it was with the Christmas stuff, so we made the investment and proudly presented the gift to Pete. It was not well received.

We put it on him and he immediately retreated to his perch on the couch atop the pillows, with his back to us. He shook terribly, and would look around periodically to make sure we knew he was upset. We took it off. We donated it to Goodwill, so some underprivileged dog could stay warm.