A Life Without Cheeses

The past two weeks, while Mr. Wild Dingo has been on travel, I, Evil Momma, have led Juno off her spiritual Path of Cheeses. This is what we call a “necessary evil” to lose a few pounds. No matter how much she prayed at the sacred altar of Mount Kitchen Island and proclaimed her faith, Cheeses has not appeared before her offering salvation and everlasting joy. Naturally, she’s begun to question her faith. Tomorrow night, Mr. Wild Dingo, the virtuous dairy minister, will be home to preach the glory of Cheeses and Juno’s faith will be restored. Hang on little girl! Your righteous cries have been heard. Cheeses is coming and you will be saved from a life without the divine! We can find other ways to balance your diet so you never have to sacrifice a life without Cheeses again. (Until the next business trip.) Hallelujah!

I am the Anti-Cheeses! Boo wa ha ha ha!

Seriously Internet, Juicy needs to lose a few pounds because of her hip problems. Her weight plus her desire to go off trail down steep slopes and climb back up impossible hillsides all contribute to pinched nerves and knotted muscles in her hips.  Because of her hip dysplasia, she doesn't use the proper muscles to move properly, especially in challenging situations. Plus carrying extra weight contributes to that improper movement.  She gets regular physical therapy 2-3 times per month to release the knots. But I've also implemented a strict on-leash-walks-only policy, especially around steep areas so she won't keep pulling muscles or pinching nerves. After two weeks of strict diet and staying leashed she's not in much pain and limping is way down. In fact, she's much more playful and interested in getting up to join me in the garden in the afternoons, which she stopped doing when she's in pain.

UPDATE: We had a visit with the dogtor today for PT and found that Juno lost 2 lbs in just these past two weeks! And she's much more playful and moves so much easily. She has at least 2 more to go for reasonable weight. She was best at 58, but I'd be fine with her at 60 lbs too.

Now I have to train Mr. Wild Dingo to restrict her snacks and use a leash on our property walks, where she tends to hurt herself the most on the steep trails. He's not going to like it, but I can remind him how much spinal injury will cost ( Loki's TPLO surgery cost is nothing compared to spine surgery) and that may motivate him. Internet, he's harder to train the doggies. Maybe I can put a shock collar on him.