Jan 10: Good news among the sadness

This week has been full of sadness.  The CCI dogs went to the Rainbow Bridge and my church lost two strong, christian men.  Half of me is sad because there has been so much loss by so many but the other half is so happy.

Glamis, Oregon, Arri & Summer

Arri has had two very, very good days.  Since starting on the appetite stimulant, he has been eating very small amounts, non-stop.  He still loves the Old Mother Hubbard biscuits. Occasionally Eukenuba nuggets are good.  A bit of apple, some baby carrots, a little chicken but by far his favorite is the Doggy Meatloaf.  Thank you Anne for sending me the recipe.  It has ground beef, chopped celery, grated carrot, diced apple, egg, oatmeal, bread, wheat germ, and tomato paste in it.  I mixed up a pound of beef and the rest of the ingredients and split it into 3 small loaves.  Arri ate two over the course of the day yesterday.   He appeases me with 2 -3 slurps of canned dog food at the 'main meals'.  Every time I pass him, I offer him some chicken or cookies.  He even ate some fruit loops yesterday.  Yep anything goes. If he will eat it, he can have it.

 His energy level is up.  Even though he sleeps quite a bit, his tail wags and his eyes are bright.  He has been barking when someone comes to the front door.  He has not really done that in months.  I had commented to Tim on how Arri's doorbell wasn't working.  I assumed it was his hearing or his vision.  It is possible that it was one of the first subtle indicators that something wasn't quite right.

Yesterday we took a road trip to Grandma and Grandpas.  Some things don't change.  Enter the house and head to the workshop to see if there is any dog food on the floor and tissues in the trash.  Visiting  cousin dogs don't always finish their food.  Arri learned that long ago so he checks every visit, even if there are no other dogs in the house.  Next stop is the kitchen to the cabinet with the dog cookie jar.  There he waits until he is successful.  He had a good visit.  The rest of his day is spent mostly resting.  We have had very few coughing attacks.

Today I did not give Arri any appetite stimulant.  I wanted to see how he was doing without it.  he is fine.  He eats cookies whenever offered.  A whole meatloaf for breakfast and a 6 oz can of puppy mush for lunch.  I could not put off working in the bakery any longer.  Customers do expect their cakes still.  I left the baby gate down to see if Arri would come guard the door.  He did.  Going down stairs has never been the issue.  I was just glad he did not have a coughing attack after the trip.  Since we were now out of meatloaf, I made Arri a meat cake instead.

Meat cake anyone?

The only real problem I am having with giving Arri all these small meals is the 3 garbage disposals that follow me around.  They are getting pretty pushy and I have to protect Arri when he eats or someone will cause a distraction while another goes for the gold....er...meat.

Even the cat wants the meatloaf.