Why It Takes Me So Long To Start My Day
10:10 AM: I get up, finally roused by the hour and a half of crying and whining from Stanley, as well as by the loud sniffing noises coming from underneath the bedroom door. Is he trying to tell by smell whether someone is still in the bedroom? I don’t know. But I get up.
10:15 AM: After changing into sweatpants, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt, I head downstairs and check what dog food we have opened in the refrigerator.
10:17 AM: I give Stanley and Paco some Artemis canned food. I give Mina her choice of the leftover Artemis that she couldn’t finish yesterday, or the new Evanger’s Turkey Stew. She gazes into both bowls and then looks at me like she can’t quite believe the slop I’ve offered her.
10:20 AM: Stanley has finished his breakfast. Mina is sitting on the bunny chair a foot away from her food, and Stanley tries to look at her food. I yell at him. He backs off, then approaches again. Clearly, he is interested only in the new food, as he’s stretched out carefully with his nose pointing at the bowl of new food. His back legs are far behind him, as if he is trying to trick me into thinking he isn’t really about to snatch some of Mina’s food. I yell at him anyway, and empty the dishwasher while I wait for Mina to decide if she’s going to eat this morning or not.
10:25 AM: I have finished emptying the dishwasher, and have now put all the dirty dishes away. Mina leaves the food and walks up her ramp to sit in a sunny place on the couch. I take this as a sign that she is uninterested in food, and I call all the dogs to go outside.
10:30 AM: The dogs have successfully done their business, and I have successfully scooped up their dog area without getting any of the poop on my hands. We go back inside, where Stanley beats all of us running up the stairs, and consequently manages to grab a chunk of Mina’s canned food. By the time I see him, he’s already swallowed the food. Mina looks at her bowls again.
10:32 AM: Reluctantly, I open the cupboard and bring out the last can of Hill’s Prescription Diet food that the vet gave me. I am against Hill’s food, partly because if the can doesn’t say human-grade ingredients, then they probably aren’t, and partly because of the vet industry getting all their nutrition information from Hill’s during vet school, and getting kickbacks for selling Hill’s or free Hill’s food for their own animals. Also, I don’t want to open another can of dog food if I don’t have. I decide that if Mina walks away from her bowl one more time, I will open the Hill’s food and see if she wants that instead.
10:34 AM: Mina walks away from her food. I open the can of Hill’s, and Mina comes back to her bowl and begins eating the Evanger’s Turkey Stew. Damn the dog!
10:35 AM: I give Stanley the bowl of leftover Artemis, which he gobbles down as if he is afraid I will take it away from him any second. Because I’ve already opened up the Hill’s, I make a bowl of it anyway and put it next to Mina’s bowl of Evanger’s. Mina ignores the Hill’s.
10:37 AM: I disinfect the humidifier while I wait for Mina to finish, and put my own breakfast together.
10:40 AM: Mina is nearly finished. I have three opened cans of dog food in my refrigerator. For anyone else, this would not be a problem. For someone who has three chihuahuas, this is a problem because the food will go bad faster than the dogs can eat it, even if I give them canned food for every meal for the next four days. Damn the dog!
Posted by: ssjane | January 29, 2007 | 11:21 am
Posted in: Dogs