I have noticed over the last week that my Sweet, Sweet Juno is ravenous when I greet her on my way to the garage. She's overly excited about getting a handful of cat kibble. Such a good girl, my Juno. Her only transgressions are poking her nose on the lip area of my water cup as I walk down the steps, and that time she jammed her rubbery nose into my mouth.
Juno is looking shiny and sleek these days. Farmer H used to accuse her of being his egg-stealer when we had chickens, but Juno is just naturally shiny when her matted fur falls off at the end of the summer. However, she's been looking THIN! I can see her backbone. Rather than being sturdy, she looks frail for a dog her size.
Oh, she still frolics with Jack if Copper Jack is tied up. Like he was all weekend, due to deer season, and his resemblance to a deer. Or perhaps his penchant for following his human dad down into the woods. Anyhoo...Juno seems to feel fine. She just looks slim to me.
In fact, I've taken to giving her cat kibble every time I walk by her on the side porch, coming and going. Jack is looking more rotund than normal. So I have to watch it with his portions. Juno even tries to get his before he's done.
Now I think I've solved THIS mystery. I had some leftover spaghetti saved for their treat on Wednesday. I'd separated it into two portions, intending to carry the plate around to their food pans, rather than dump spaghetti on Farmer H's stained porch boards.
Both dogs were excited, and followed me gleefully. Copper Jack was back, but he stayed behind Juno's house like a proper uninvited guest. When I reached the food pans, I saw that it was now a food PAN. Only one! Sitting beside the metal self-feeder that Farmer H had brought over from Marley's pen. [We won't be discussing Marley today!]
I scraped half the spaghetti into the metal food pan, and for lack of another dish, I scraped the rest into the bottom of the self-feeder. It had been in the refrigerator, and was pretty much two solid hunks of cold spaghetti.
Stupid, stupid Jack took a sniff, and followed me back around the porch to the kitchen door, where I was planning to throw Copper Jack a roll. That dumb Jack! Of course Juno pulled her wad of spaghetti out of the bottom of that feeder, onto the porch boards in front of it, and then stepped to the pan to eat Jack's portion. Then back to hers.
For his ignoramusosity, Jack got half a roll.
I'm pretty sure Juno is leery of that self-feeder, and has been going without much dog food.
I think the self-feeder needs to have a fatal accident and get replaced with another pan. Poor Juno.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteThe self-feeder was fine when he put it in Marley's pen. [We are NOT talking about Marley at thus juncture!] Then when Marley was allowed to run free, Farmer H brought over the self-feeder. He says the pan is around the corner of the porch. Why in the NOT-HEAVEN would he move it? Like a flat round pan was hurting anything on the back porch, where no one walks, where no one sees. Compared to all the junk he has on the side porch, or front.
The squirrels can eat out of the self-feeder as easily as they eat out of the pans. He's not getting rid of the squirrels. I might put some food in the flat pan, and see if Juno is still as ravenous. I can do it after Farmer H leaves in the morning. It will probably all be gone by the next morning, by squirrel or dog.
Poor Juno. She is the Princess of the group. She needs to have some special treatment.
ReplyDeleteSioux,
ReplyDeleteMaybe I can arrange a spa day for us at the shop of the groomer who lives across the road...
Is that the same groomer who groomed Marley?
ReplyDeleteIf so, I'd pass. (Unless it was just a bad photo.)
Sioux,
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I'm not sure she actually groomed Marley herself. And he IS like a ferret on crack when he's unpenned. But yes, that's the same one. Marley still looked better with a few bald spots than he did before his shearing. Besides, it was FREE.