My Fat Dog: The Book

Happy Stop Canine Obesity Month!

As usual, Faith has put on her winter two or three, and Jeff and I are working to get them off her. The tools are simple:  a measuring cup and a longer walk.  Now that she's nine, it's even more important that she not be carrying any extra weight.  We want her to feel good moving, and feel good living.

Meanwhile, an estimated 17 million dogs in the U.S. are overweight, and it's...not cute.   So the AKC has put some special oomph into lessening the number of pudgy pooches.  They offer a terrific, easy, self-assessment (dog assessment) quiz here, at their Stop Canine Obesity site.

As I've mentioned before, when we adopted Faith, she was overweight, and we didn't do such a great job getting the weight off--which led directly to some painful, expensive orthopedic problems.    The good news was that Faith was a young dog, and while we were middle-aged, we could learn new tricks--like measuring her food, and swimming her on a regular basis, and walking hard.   And she has never had a recurrence of those problems.  You're extending your dog's life and her comfort by helping her lose weight. And isn't that what you want?

Pet Food Recall Grows--Here's a Place To Keep Track

As you probably know--as you should know--an enormous number of wet pet food brands must be recalled, following the suspicious deaths of both dogs and cats from kidney failure.  According to the Pet Connection, who are keeping an informal, self-reported database, to date, their readers report over 500 pet deaths.  This is a grim situation, likely to become more grim before things improve.  My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a pet thanks to this disaster.

More here: Pet Connection Blog � Pet-food recall: Our latest numbers.

If you have a loss to report, or are coping with the understandably rising panic even if your pet is healthy, please turn to Pet Connection. They are filled with good sense and compassion.

My First Dog Blog Post

Welcome to the blog of "My Fat Dog," a book for lovers of dogs of all sizes, especially the chubby ones.  If you have a dog you'd like to slim down, I'd like to hear from you.