I watched in horror when a film popped up on my computer showing dogs mutilated by fighting or being used as bait dogs. How could anyone in their right mind ever do such a thing to animals?
Killing Our Pets With Love
Buddy, our mixed breed dog, waddled over to me and flipped onto his back for his belly rub and a treat. Afterward he struggled to roll back onto his stomach and stand because he is so rotund it has become dangerous to his health. It suddenly hit me that, although I never thought to make my dogs fight, Buddy was being killed and hurt just as surely as any bait dog. My tool – Love.
Remembering back over the last vet visit, I heard the vet telling me that Buddy was considerably overweight and my other mixed pup, Girl Friend, was on her way to catching up with him. “Stop the wet food and give them dry. At their normal sizes, each should have 1/3 cup of dry food twice a day,” she said. We complied, sort of.
We did get rid of the wet food. Well, the dogs did. They ate it up and I refused to buy any more. Exactly one-third cup of dry food is put in each dish twice a day and they look so miserable, I slip them a slice of bacon, or a bit of chicken or some other people food item, which isn’t quite what the doc had in mind.
Snacking Them To Death
Watching television at night, we sometimes have a snack and laugh at the furry faces staring us down and licking their chops. They know each of us will slip them a bite or two of our snacks. However, when it comes to doggy snacks, we give them only one, as per the orders from their vet. Somewhere along the way, we fooled ourselves into believing if we stopped the wet dog food and cut down on dog snacks, our dogs will now be healthy. We convinced ourselves food from our table or from our snacks does not count. And that, as the saying goes, is the rub.
Buddy is no slimmer; in fact, he may have put on a pound or two. Girl Friend gained nothing. However, neither did she lose even one ounce. We have two other dogs. One is old and blind and losing weight on his own. He has no illness. His appetite has lessened over the last few months while his sleep time increases. The last is a young fellow, Tucker. He is a two-year old that is waking up the seniors and daring them to get some much needed exercise.
Excuses Do No Good
That was another failing on our parts. Girl Friend developed arthritis in her right front paw. And, dear Buddy, can’t get to the end of the driveway without overheating from his weight. So, like so many pet owners, we made excuses. She can’t walk with that arthritis. He’ll have a stroke with that weight.
Exercise is Good.
Today we began a new regimen, one that will actually help the dogs and us, as well. We started walking. We aren’t going far at first since neither we nor the dogs wish to fall over from over exertion the first few days of exercise. Buddy made it to the end of the drive. Girl Friend got all the way to the end of our street and back. I wanted to go back when she did, but determination set in and I walked to the end of our street and back four times.
Each day we add a bit to every person and dog schedule and hopefully, we will all win from it. Snacks are off the table (okay, maybe just one tiny Werther’s caramel?) for us and the pups. The senior dogs are figuring out, from Tucker’s example, how to chase toys again. I get more exercise because they still do not bring the toys back, so I get to fetch.
Look seriously at your pets. Are you killing them with love and kindness or maybe just pure laziness? Don’t they deserve better. As seniors ourselves, we know how hard it is to get up and exercise sometimes. These joints refuse to stop the snap, crackle and popping. We now refuse to let that guide us and lower the standard of living for us and our pets.