Feeding the Beast

People often remark that Béla is too skinny. I'm not talking strangers, coming up to me on the sidewalk - but close friends and family. "She's too thin!," they exclaim - as if their weighing in on the matter will make me feed her more.

She's not too thin; I think we are just used to seeing a lot of fat dogs. She looks like a fine-tuned athlete. She is the Jillian Michaels of dogs.

When we adopted her, she was apparently 'heavy'. I thought she looked great; but both the adoption center and the vet recommended weight loss. She was at 42 lbs. and she was to lose 'a couple'. After fixing her new food regimen and adding excercise to her daily routine, she did start losing. We realized she had gone too far in the other direction when she stepped on the scale and came up at 34 lbs. So then we upped the food and added even more treats, none of which displeased her in the least.

When she eats, she does seem a little savage. She eats in 30 seconds or less, each and every time. She barely comes up for breath. The proponents of her gaining more say this, too, is an example of her being starved. Nah. She likes food. I can take down a 6-inch sub in like 2 minutes, so I think we're on par. It's exciting to eat; that's that.

The holiday season proved very fruitful this year. She ate her regular meals, along with a plethora of 'special treats for a special day'. She also managed to steal cat food from 3 seperate houses, and a couple lbs. of dog food from a friend's back porch. She had a bit of ham on Christmas Day, and then rounded things out by eating a plastic candy-cane tube filled with foil-covered rolos on New Year's Eve. Her poop has been glittering red and green ever since.

I too, overate - sugar cookies thrown down the hatch so quickly I often couldn't remember if I'd eaten two...or seven?.. But the holidays are over. No more of this one pig ear per night. No more string cheese appetizers. No more entire dog biscuits. (I usually break them in half...hell, sometimes, even into thirds!)

The good news is that she hasn't tipped the scales. She's still at her healthy 37-lb. weight and loving life.