This story has nothing to do with zombies or writing or any of that, but I’m sharing it anyway, because I want to 🙂 This post is about my dog, Atreyu. We call him Tre for short, and Danica often refers to him as The Doge (hence the title for this post).
Tre is eleven years old, and his favourite thing in the whole wide world is going for walks. His second favourite thing used to be when I would eat baby carrots. Anytime I had carrots out he would hang out with me and I’d share them with him. I thought it was pretty cute, eating carrots with my pooch (probably because it was) 🙂
A few months ago Tre was diagnosed with the early stages of kidney disease (to go along with his Cushings *sigh*). That meant special food to decrease his protein consumption, which also meant no more dog treats.
Tre is a stubborn little booger sometimes and one of the ways that manifests is when he’s outside. Occasionally he wouldn’t want to come in when he was called and he would totally ignore me whenever he felt like it — sometimes until I would go outside to get him myself (and when it’s -40 out, that doesn’t make me happy). Other times he’ll decide he wants in now. And by now, I mean now. He’d bark at the door incessantly for however long it took for me to get there and let him in.
I’d started giving him a treat (half of one actually LoL) every time he came in the first time I called or only barked once and then waited for me to open the door to let him in. It is a system that worked quite well for us and he was consistently listening when I called and not turning into a barking machine on the back step, but now, with his special diet, the Milkbones are no longer an option.
So I started giving him a baby carrot instead.*
Tre doesn’t even miss the Milkbones but now we have a new problem. He really likes carrots. I mean, he really likes them. He’s started coming in to get his baby carrot, eating it and then asking to go out again right away. Once he’s out, he wants to come back in to, you guessed it, get another carrot.
#facepalm
So… now we’re going to have to work out some new guidelines LOL What a brat!
*His vet says this is fine
So sorry about his illnesses. He’s a cute little doggie! My dog doesn’t care for carrots. We tried. But she does love walks. Our neighborhood’s a little questionable, so I don’t get to take her for walks as often as I’d like. I try to wait until it isn’t quite so deserted (during the workday, lots of creepy guys walking around in hoodies for no reason whatsoever) to take her for walks. We definitely need to move!
Thank you.
Tre is awfully cute when he wants to be 😉
Though he’s getting older and time is catching up with him in the form of disease… he’s still actually doing quite well. He’s not on any daily medications and still turns into a freaking puppy as soon as I go near his leash, so I think he’s doing all right, all things considered 🙂
Also, I think we used to live in your neighbourhood. It was pretty scary. I’m SO glad we moved.
Awwww….I’ve gone the kidney disease route with a couple of cats. I wish they would have developed a taste for a healthy snack like carrots! Sorry about the condition in Trey, but LMAO at his ploy to up the carrot-ante! Wonder how he’d like a full-on salad with dressing…. hmmmmm…. 😉
Tre will eat anything. Seriously. He’s like a garbage disposal with legs 🙂
He’s a smart little pupper, eh? And a cute one too! Good luck controlling his kidney issue, I know what that’s like. That you caught it early is good. Give him a carrot for me. Actually you can give him the whole bag—that’s one vegie I’m not too fond of. lol!
He is definitely not dumb LoL
Thank you for the luck, we’ll take all we can get.