Proud parents?
Our girl Gidget has been getting a bit pudgy lately. Like us. Since we adopted her almost a year ago, she's put on several pounds, which for her size, is, well, sizable.
So recently, we've cut back her kibble. Instead of 1 cup twice a day, she now gets about 2/3rds a cup twice a day, which is a pretty significant reduction. Hopefully she'll shrink a bit too.
As a result, she's more of a chow hound (and she always was a tremendous chow hound). She is constantly looking for food and is almost manic about it. She even paws her feeder to get more (yes, we have an automatic doggy feeder to give her dinner in case we're not home... and it was a present... which we originally scoffed at but have since grown to appreciate).
Well, today, our girl delivered a very distinct and demonstrable and shocking message that she wanted more to eat.
Today, she brought a dead rat into the family room. She put it down and sat over it quietly until we (that is, *I*) noticed her and it.
Eeeeuw.
When I saw it, I drew in my breath sharply, which woke up a snoozing SM. He started and said, "What, what?!" in confusion.
I had his full attention. I said, "Look."
He looked around. He didn't see anything. I tilted my head towards the dog. He looked again and said, "Oh" with an inflection that made it clear that he didn't have a clue what to do about it.
We sent Gidget to her crate, and he bagged up the critter carcass. I didn't watch. He said it was recently dead (no rigor mortis), but we don't know if she killed it.
Now everytime Gidget comes back in from outside through the doggy door, I cringe with worry that she'll deliver us another critter.
So we've decided to feed her more. I'd rather she was a little bit chubby than have her hunting for dinner.
(And of course, now I'm really worried about have rats in the backyard... because that's where she got it from. Shit.)
So recently, we've cut back her kibble. Instead of 1 cup twice a day, she now gets about 2/3rds a cup twice a day, which is a pretty significant reduction. Hopefully she'll shrink a bit too.
As a result, she's more of a chow hound (and she always was a tremendous chow hound). She is constantly looking for food and is almost manic about it. She even paws her feeder to get more (yes, we have an automatic doggy feeder to give her dinner in case we're not home... and it was a present... which we originally scoffed at but have since grown to appreciate).
Well, today, our girl delivered a very distinct and demonstrable and shocking message that she wanted more to eat.
Today, she brought a dead rat into the family room. She put it down and sat over it quietly until we (that is, *I*) noticed her and it.
Eeeeuw.
When I saw it, I drew in my breath sharply, which woke up a snoozing SM. He started and said, "What, what?!" in confusion.
I had his full attention. I said, "Look."
He looked around. He didn't see anything. I tilted my head towards the dog. He looked again and said, "Oh" with an inflection that made it clear that he didn't have a clue what to do about it.
We sent Gidget to her crate, and he bagged up the critter carcass. I didn't watch. He said it was recently dead (no rigor mortis), but we don't know if she killed it.
Now everytime Gidget comes back in from outside through the doggy door, I cringe with worry that she'll deliver us another critter.
So we've decided to feed her more. I'd rather she was a little bit chubby than have her hunting for dinner.
(And of course, now I'm really worried about have rats in the backyard... because that's where she got it from. Shit.)
Labels: Gidget, the great outdoors
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