Thursday, February 05, 2009

Our Dog is a Cat...

From drawings


We've always suspected this, but yesterday had it confirmed. Several times throughout his 15 year lifetime, our heroic vet, Mette Tompkins, has had to snatch our dear Pooch from the Jaws of Death. The first time was when he bit off the pointy end of a corn cob, swallowed it, and couldn't pass it. He had major exploratory surgery to have it removed. And we moved the trash can to a closed closet. Who knew a 12 pound little dachshund could open a garbage can on his own?!?

A year later, our Foolish Boy swallowed the knuckle-end of his Nylabone. *sigh* I just KNEW I was taking him to see his Auntie Mette, the vet, the following day. Sure enough, she said we had to have the SAME surgery, they would even follow the previous incision. We told her to go ahead and install a zipper since we sensed a developing pattern!

Throughout the years, he's burned through what seemed to be the first eight of his Nine Lives. Then the worst news ever: 2 years ago, our Beloved Beast was diagnosed with liver failure. Hello Ninth Life. Defying all odds, he's lasted 2 years with this terminal condition, when the vet said he'd probably be done in 6 months. (We're convinced that he's decided to outlive us out of sheer cussedness!) It hasn't been easy.

This past week was a bad one. He stopped eating. Nada, Zip. No amount of doctoring of his prescribed dog food could convince him to eat. I was even trying to spoon feed him. His reaction upon facing the plate of chow was to physically recoil and he seemed to say "Ew, ew, ew EWWWWW!" Stress and Worry piled onto our shoulders - yesterday I was in serious need of Cupcakes, or Chocolate... or maybe both.

We took him back to Auntie Mette's office yesterday. She suggested we try cat food and opened up a can right there in the exam room. She, Marble Man and I, and the vet techs watched as the dog hoovered the stuff up. Success! Then he looked around with this look of suspicion on his face: "Wait a minute... when I come here, they don't usually put stuff in THIS end!"

Long story short, the little Monster is eating with gusto... for now. This just confirms our belief that he's a cat: Nine fully-lived lives, and he gobbles cat chow.

Feb 6, Update:
The honeymoon with the new food lasted exactly 24 hours. Crap! Now he's back to hovering over the dish, but refusing to eat. We've tried heating it up, adding tomato sauce, peanut butter, Parmesan cheese... to no avail.

Any ideas?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Kate,

Love it!

~ Gabriela ~

Anonymous said...

Hello again,

I love the post, great story.
Your dog is so cute!
Even with only the pic it was a great post! :o)

~ Gabriela ~

Anonymous said...

Oh my word...he is a cat!! What a story!! I am glad he is feeling better :)

lori vliegen said...

hee, hee! dog, cat or otherwise, he sure is a cutie! and i'm glad that he's having a better week. we have a beardie and just discovered that her kidneys are starting to fail...i understand the stress and worry.

p.s. sending you a hug...for now via paper airplane flying over the top of our brick wall! :)

lori vliegen said...

and....you did an awesome job on this drawing!! :)

Cecile/DreamCreateRepeat said...

Pets are so involving, annoying, wonderful, time-consuming, joyful....

Hope your pup continues to rally. (BTW, I had a cat once that was a dog: wagged his tail when he was happy, followed me around and didn't know how to purr properly. : )

T.Allen said...

Oh brother! Well, I'm glad your cat-dog is feeling better.

Isabel said...

Awww...I sincerely hope your "Nine Lives" continues doing better. Take that garbage can out of his sight :)

High Desert Diva said...

Awww....glad he's eating!

Cute little cat....errr....dog!

Faded Plains said...

So glad to hear he's doing better...and by golly...he does sound like a cat :o)

Linda . J said...

Hi Kate your pooch is so cute and so glad he is eating like a cat lol.
Hugs Linda

3rdEyeMuse said...

may he be blessed with nine more!

Snap said...

Kate,

Golly. If heating up the food doesn't help, I'm not sure what is next. Have you tried baby food? When my kitties turn up their noses at food when they aren't feeling well, I hit the grocery store for some baby food -- chicken mostly...heated up a little. Good luck!

Vera said...

Kate, dear, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog! I've been there, I know how you must feel... Hopefully, he will get better...