Rescue Journal

comfort food

Carol · Dec 7, 2008

half pint is a total doll...and a wee bit clingy. good first night tho, she has the whole comfortable sleep thing with all of carol's blankets made into a nest, down to an art....she is better at it than the burrowing chi's!

star gets a not great glimmer in her eye with one tiny lone dog wandering in her space...she is good with the group and all of the big ones but i don't trust her in case she thinks maybe any little singular slow ones are excess and might not be missed. still figuring her out which is hard while she lives separate, but starved dogs are starved dogs...they don't need or want any competition for food. when we have stuffed enough into her to finally satisfy her, food will hopefully one day become a non issue.

i remember when darla came (she wasn't starved, she was just lean cuz her owner thought that was healthy)..that dog ate and puked and ate and puked for three solid days til finally she said...what the heck am i doing????! i don't need to do this, food around here never ends....darla died many months later....pleasantly plump, ancient and happy...without an "i am hungry" worry in her sweet little head.

folks get all bent out of shape over body weights...no animal should weigh so much that they can't move around, but no animal should worry about how much food they are going to get either. "ideal" body shapes for animals who crave feeling full sets up anxiety food issues...not just food guarding issues, but other emotional, physiological, and mental long term anxiety results too.

chyna is chunky now....good for her. she is a more balanced and nicer dog than when she arrived. when cleo's over all anxiety was causing her trouble, we added an extra daily canned feeding for her, poof and a happy emotionally stable cleo showed up ....never under estimate the far reaching effects of either actual or PERCEIVED feelings of hunger, or "not enough"...there is a real reason why it is called comfort food...cuz a full belly for any animal means safe.

most dogs eventually manage their weight absolutely fine (unless they are beagle or hound)...as long as they believe food is a non issue and sometimes it takes alot of food to convince a past hungry dog, that hunger is forever a thing of the past.

it might take star a bit longer than most, starving to death is a big hurdle to over come...and maybe like raymond she won't ever reach there. god damn the humans that starve dogs...it hurts them in every single cell of their being and it torments them forever sometimes too.

so for all you folks who ashamedly apologize to everyone else (like the vets and animal rescue) because your beloved is a bit tubby...stop saying you are sorry. if they get plenty of good exercise and are active and happy, who cares if there is a bit more of them to love.

Comments

lynne

i had my most beloved dalmation, kobe, wkho was overweight from being on drugs for epilepsy. it is really hard when peiple tell you your dog is fat and do not understand why. i remember i had him in the christmas parade 2 years ago and everyone made fun of him. that really hurts as you love your dog and do everything you can for him. he was so loved and so cared for and i would not have traded him for anything in the world. i now would not apologize for him being overweight after reading your comments but back then i was devastated. thank you for helping me see that i have done nothing wrong. i would rather have a chubby little dog than an emaciated one.

Heidi

Thanks Carol. My Lab Nina was a bit chunky too! but she was active and healthy but loved to eat. Trev is supposed to lose 5 lbs. I don't want him heavy due to his three legs but limiting food so they are looking for it and going to the cupboard is something I can't do. I wouldn't do that to myself so I won't do it to my dog/cat etc.

Deb

Funny, our Vet makes note of our dogs' weights, but he really doesn't make an issue of the fact that Maddie, Kirby and Piper are porkers. I'm not about to decrease Maddie or Kirby's food intake regardless of what anyone thinks, anyway. Maddie is 15, as long as she's fat and happy-ish, I'm fat and happy-ish. Taking food from Kirby would break his heart....not gonna happen. Pipes is young, and her weight fluctuates, she looks like a stovepipe, but she is full of energy.

I don't understand people who eat poorly themselves, or drink, smoke, get no exercise, carry excess weight, etc. who go all weird about their dogs' weights. If a dog gets a treat, it has to be subtracted from his daily food intake. WTF? How is that a treat? Why can humans have imperfect bodies, while their dogs have to be "slim" to the point of scrawny? There are people who think my MacKenzie is 5 lbs too heavy? Again, WTF? The dog is too damn skinny, and I try everything I can to convince her to eat more. She doesn't. She was a starved dog who learned over time that there would always be food, but she's also a resource guarder, so she has access to food where nobody else can touch it. It's not a big deal to her anymore.

When every human has a perfect BMI, then they can be critical of dogs whose weights are not "perfect".

Dawn

Thank you Carol, I am one of those who is constantly appoligising for my Lab Nelson's weight. He is definately on the chunky side. When I went back to Mission Animal Control last month to pick up Cruz, they remembered him and one lady did comment on his weight gain. My vet is on my back as well. Nelson is happy, healthy and active. We walk everyday with no exception. That's really all that matters after all, he is happy. It's better than going back where ever it was that he came from on the first place.