My dog is on a hunger strike.
We live in NJ and for the past week, it has rained. Every
day, ranging from some moisture to world-ending thunder and lightning.
Normally, my friends and I walk more than three miles a day each weekday
morning, but only in good weather. I don’t walk in the rain (or snow or cold or
heat or…). The dog is afraid of water and doesn’t like walking in the rain
either. However, apparently, she missed her friends.
We walk with two other dogs. Dogs that are more than three
times her size, but sufficiently cowed by her that they let her lead the way,
suffer through her random attempts to attack them and generally, let her do
whatever she wants. In return, when other dogs, garbage trucks or landscapers
scare them, she steps in front and growls to protect them. I guess it’s a fair
trade if you’re a dog.
Some days she’s happy to see them and runs up to them. Other
days she actually turns her head to the side and walks right past them. For
some reason, the other two dogs don’t hold that against her either. Must be
nice.
Anyway, we haven’t walked in a week and in dog years, that’s
apparently forever. My husband opened the front door to let my daughter outside
to go the bus and Midnight ran out and wouldn’t come back inside. She ran
between the door and the driveway, making her point clear. The only way he
could get her back inside was to run down the driveway and chase her back into
the house—wish I’d been there to see that.
I was in the shower before an early morning doctor’s
appointment, so I wasn’t walking her this morning. As punishment, she decided
not to eat.
Now, she’s not a food-motivated dog. Sure, she likes her
treats when she returns from being outside, and will try to go outside more
often to get a few more, but if we don’t give them to her, she still goes
outside and she eventually gives up on the treats. When we first adopted her,
she responded much quicker to praise and pets than she ever did to food. And
when we send her to stay with my parents while we go away, she spends the first
two to three days not eating. She doesn’t eat off the floor unless we tell her
she can and if you leave food unattended, it will still be there when you
remember it again, unless my kids (or dad) are around.
So food is not the be all and end all for her. However, she
knows it’s important to us and I think she might be Jewish. She comes running
over every time we sing the Shabbat or holiday prayers, jumps up and likes us
to hold her front paws as we sing. A bit weird, I know, but somehow, very cute.
And if we assume that she’s Jewish, she also knows the power of food for the
rest of us. I come from a family that will forgive you anything, as long as you
provide enough food. Run short, and they’ll sit shiva, never mentioning your name again. Thus, my reasoning for
making enough food for an army.
Midnight has obviously picked up on this. She knows that if I
see her not eating, I’ll change my behavior for her so that she won’t starve.
I just came back from walking the dog. Apparently, I need to
change her name from Midnight to Pavlov. Off to find a human-sized bell.
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