Tales of my dog - pb

We are terrible pet owners. We feed our dog people food.

But here's the thing, and I've written this many times, I didn't want a dog. Or a pet for that matter, especially after our fish committed hara-kiri (okay, he didn't disembowel himself, but he did jump out of his bowl to his death), and my kids never took care of the turtle. My point is that had I planned for a pet, I would've been prepared, studied up on pet ownership. I did not. Plus, my dad was from the farm. Dogs on the farm eat scraps from people's dinner. Hell, the chickens eat chicken scraps. There was no special pet food for farm animals in my father's day, and so when we had leftover bones and meat, he threw it out the back door for the neighborhood dogs.

Who lived healthy and long lives, FYI. Just sayin'.

My dog has his likes and dislikes of people food. He loves lettuce, preferably with a little dressing, but he won't eat a raw carrot. Green beans are a favorite, but pumpkin causes him to vomit. He is a dog who begs, but he will usually give up eventually if he doesn't get his way. If we are eating at a table. Which we rarely do.

This month I got bored with lunchmeat and salads, and so I switched things up with a little peanut butter on an English muffin. My dog loves peanut butter, and when Elliot heard the lid opening, he stood at my feet with his big, brown, soulful eyes. I let him lick what was left on my knife.

The next day I started to give him the knife and then thought how it probably wasn't a good idea for him to lick a knife even if it was just a table knife, and like all the knives in my house, not sharp at all. But I put a little dab of peanut butter on a paper plate, and he happily got some exercise chasing the plate all around the kitchen's tiled floor until he'd had his fill and walked away.

Since that worked out well, I did the paper plate technique again the next day, but he had also learned and knew to hold the plate with his paw so that he could avoid the exercise part of my trickery. Whatever. I had lunch to eat and writing to get back to, and I ate my lunch in peace. When I finished and stood up to wash my dishes, I found this on the floor behind me.

Apparently, he needed some fiber to go with that peanut butter.