It might have added three months to his life, though in the end we did have to take him in for “The Shot,” crying all the way. The most awful thing about the chemo was that it not only made poor Bob’s beautiful hair fall out in fistfuls, it also made him gain weight like nobody’s business. Some of that was no doubt the drug effects themselves, but another part of it was that he was voraciously hungry all the time and we just didn’t have the heart to deny him. By the time he died he was at least 20 pounds overweight, which is a very considerable amount for a fine-lined dog such as a poodle.

It reminded me of a friend we had way back in the 1970s, who was sort of short and chunky even though he was a confirmed vegetarian. I figured it was just his particular frame and metabolism, because you’d have to eat a whole lot more carrots, spinach and rice than he ever did to put that much weight on. He had a dog named Fasha, a mostly white beagle-like mutt with serious attitude, who proved the adage that people and their dogs tend to look alike. Fasha was as chunky as our friend, but actually did eat enough to account for it.

I’ve been reading in the news about the worsening obesity crisis in America, where the ‘average’ person weighs nearly twice what most people in the rest of the world weigh. Just another symptom of our fondness for conspicuous consumption, as well as the shift in our food supply toward ever more processed foods that contain excessive amounts of high fructose corn syrup that does nothing so much as pack on the pounds. Our increasingly sedentary lifestyles don’t help, and now even our children are obese because they no longer spend lots of time outdoors playing at running and climbing games. And that’s a symptom of our increasingly estranged neighborhood arrangements and the dangers kids face these days that simply weren’t a big concern when I was growing up.

As we get fatter, so do our dogs and cats. As many as 30% of our dogs are overweight according to vet surveys, and the actual problem on the ground could be worse. Our lack of exercise translates to dogs not getting a lot of exercise either. And just as our extra poundage contributes to all sorts of health problems and early death, that is true for dogs as well (but, interestingly enough, apparently not for fat cats).

Poodle people are generally not too tolerant of fat poodles, as they spend inordinate amounts of time and money buying them the best foods, getting them meticulously groomed at the best salons, and generally showing them off for the gorgeous animals they truly are. A fat poodle isn’t particularly endearing, and you don’t see that many of them. Perhaps poodle people aren’t all that overweight either. Or, I haven’t known any fat poodle people – of the standard-imperial variety, though I have seen some chubby toys and minis.

If our dogs reflect our lifestyles as well as our very selves, perhaps their weight gain should alert owners that some real changes need making. The links below offer good information about the problem and advice from vets and pet food manufacturers on how to help your dogs lose weight and live longer. I’d like to hear some stories about poodle people out there who have dealt with an overweight beauty, and how this helped them become more conscious of their own lifestyle choices as well. Comment away!

Links:

The Overweight Standard Poodle

Overweight Dogs Are A Big Problem

Articles: Weight Loss In Dogs

Pedigree Weight Maintenance

Thanksgiving is a great holiday, always a major Big Deal here on the mountain. That all started decades ago when we lived in Oklahoma, and signed on as the communications directors for a grant-based hunger project called “The Whole World Family Supper” that was scheduled to be a Thanksgiving feast for everybody, everywhere.

All of a sudden our little family gatherings just weren’t enough anymore. By the time we’d moved to Florida and became full time performers – with a friends list that included circus folk, traveling medicine shows and all sorts of other itinerant musicians and crusty jugglers – Thanksgiving became an annual pilgrimage to a St. Augustine boatyard an ex-Air Force friend managed. Price of admission was at least one homeless person or otherwise destitute person, and it got bigger every year. By the time we moved to North Carolina the boatyard Thanksgiving feast (a pot-luck affair) offered 4 turkeys and two hams pit-cooked by our host, at least 60 people, and stretched out with leftovers for the entire 4-day holiday weekend.

Now that we’re here on the mountain it’s still a Big Deal. We average at least 24 people every year, which is a heck of a crowd to host in a 28′ square cabin complete with dogs. And we often have 7 or 8 dog guests too, friends of our poods and strays, part of our many friends and family’s families. They get Thanksgiving Dinner too. It is a family supper, after all, and dogs are family.

We usually have a couple of turkeys, sometimes three. Not everybody eats turkey – some here are certifiable vegetarians, others are vegetarians who make a special exception for holiday feasts. I usually cook one a day or two in advance, slice up nicely and pack into tupperware for seconds and thirds. That way I only have to cook one for presentation’s sake, whether the food table’s on the deck, out in the yard, or inside the cabin because it’s raining (or, God forbid, snowing). It can get really crowded when that happens, so we feed the dogs in the shed and quite a few guests will choose to consume their meal there too.

Now, dogs can’t eat everything I make for Thanksgiving. It takes some thought and preparation to concoct them a fine homemade dog feast. By cooking the extra turkey beforehand, I’ve the neck and giblets as well as juices and pickings that we don’t need to use for the dog meal. To that I can add the neck and giblets from the T-Day turkey too. I boil these good, pick off any meat from the neck, and discard the bones. I get an extra bag or two of bread stuffing mix (it’s cheap), sometimes go ahead and cook up a cake pan of cornbread the night before too. The bread and cornbread gets crumbled into a big tupperware container and I pour the giblets boiling water and roast drippings over it, mix it all up well.

Trick for the dogs is not to add any salt, any butter, any cooking oils, any chopped onions, celery or herbs that I use in preparing stuffing for humans. I add turkey skin to the giblet boiling water too, but this has to be removed from the mix because it’s hard for dogs to digest. Don’t make gravy out of this stuff, the dogs will like it just as it is. While making up the side dishes I usually put a scoop or two of mashed potatoes and some hopping john into the bucket to mix in well too. Chop those giblets up so they’re the size of the picked turkey meat.

I divvy this all up in old pie tins according to how many dogs are present. Feeding them down in the shed while we’re eating keeps them from being underfoot and begging food they shouldn’t have from the human diners. Dogs shouldn’t have anything sweet, fruity, highly salted or with large butter/oil parts. They should of course never have turkey bones either.

The links below offer useful information about what dogs can and can’t share of your Thanksgiving dinner. Plan ahead and your canine family members won’t have to be left out of the celebration.

Links:

Could Thanksgiving Dinner Kill Your Dog?

A Dog’s Thanksgiving Day

Include Fido In The Feast!