Day 2692

I've never spent so much time focused on eating. It takes an entire day to feed Dot. She eats tiny amounts and then turns away. An hour or two later she'll eat a little more. I'll feed her whenever she shows any interest in food. Dash has become obsessed with Dot's food, but it makes him sick. Getting both dogs to eat is proving to be quite a challenge. Dot's appetite often returns while I'm eating breakfast or dinner, so my own meals are continually getting cold, or in the case of my morning smoothie, becoming warm. Dash is moody and often I have to trick him to eat. When he won't touch his breakfast, I transfer it to Dot's bowl. Oddly, this works sometimes, because Dash thinks he is stealing Dot's food.

Eating a relaxed meal used to be the favorite part of my day. Cleaning up poop during breakfast, or keeping a constant eye on Dash to make sure he doesn't wander off and vomit in the office has changed things though. There is nothing relaxing about mealtime. Typically, it has become one of the most stressful times of the day.

Dot must be feeling a little better, because she's starting to remember how much she hates taking pills. It's harder to get the pills down her throat, because she knows the routine. I try to find something she really likes to feed her after each pill, so she gets some positive reinforcement. You never know when she's going to be hungry, but amazingly she still has an appetite a couple of times a day. I really have to work on becoming more patient. Hand feeding a dog a couple of kibbles at a time can take forever.

It was a long day, but we're all still here. Dot has eaten about 3/4 of her daily quota and Dash finally ate his own food without throwing up. Hopefully, Dot will eat a little more when she takes her final set of pills at the end of the day. I never dreamed that eating could become so complicated. Often Dot will refuse to eat something she seemed to love the day before. We need to keep a wide variety of choices available for her. Today, she's back to eating dry food again. To reward her for taking her pills, I've been giving her little bits of sliced turkey today. Who knows if she'll like turkey tomorrow.

I need to rearrange the refrigerator. It is so full of options for Dot, that leftovers I need to eat myself often get misplaced.  I really need a shelf for each day of the week in the refrigerator. I would put the oldest food on the Monday shelf, so I would be sure to eat it first. I hate it when food goes bad simply because I've forgotten about it.

I wrote some friendly letters today to clients who have seemingly forgotten about me. If they don't reply to these messages, I will conclude that they actually have forgotten about me. I hope these folks aren't reading the blog and concluding that I'm too preoccupied to meet their deadlines. I still need the work. I never miss deadlines either.

I wish I had a better understanding of what is going on in Dot's body. She's not giving up, but these days have got to be tough on her. Her activity level changes from day to day. Last week I thought she was becoming nocturnal because she was still active when Janet and I were ready to go to bed. Today, she was active all morning and is sleeping soundly now. Some days I think she isn't going to eat at all, and then an hour later, she'll be hungry again. I think this is a learning experience for all of us.

Daisy is today's Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day