Dog Days

So, in my family, it isn’t just me who gained some unwanted weight from the pandemic experience. It turns out that our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, desperately needs to go on a diet, according to our veterinarian. She decided to make that very clear to me, by printing out and showing me his weight gain graph chart, over the years. When I showed it to my husband, he said, “Well, if that was one of our stocks, I would be ecstatic.”

Ralphie, currently 100 pounds, needs to lose 20-25 pounds. We bought the diet food, the diet treats, and we got the “official” plastic Dixie cup to measure out the measly morsels of diet food. Ralphie is a world champion eater. Ralphie is a world champion beggar. Ralphie is our second Roomba. This experience is going to be interesting and challenging, to the say the least. And just like Weight Watchers, we have to take Ralphie into the vet’s office, for regular “weigh ins.”

I said to my veterinarian, “I don’t understand. Ralphie exercises a lot. He swims all of the time. We take him on long walks daily.”

She answered, “He’s like me. I exercise all of the time, too. When I am not here at the office, you’ll find me at the gym. There’s only one thing that I like more than exercise, and that is food.” And then she patted her cute little tummy for emphasis.

I guess the good thing is that Ralphie is at the mercy of what we feed him. I thought to myself, if I can control what Ralphie eats, I should be able to do the same thing for myself. (in theory) Honestly, I plan (or at least I am giving it serious consideration) to be Ralphie’s “Diet Buddy.” Ralphie and I are typically “happy go lucky” family members, but with both of us watching what we are eating, things could get ugly, really quick. I’ll just ask for your forgiveness in advance, if things get a bit stingy on the blog.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.