Tasha and Others

Posts Tagged ‘dog food’

I’m busy writing away upstairs. Last time I looked, it was 4:00 in the afternoon. Suddenly, I hear my dog Tasha get up off the floor next to me, she shakes, she moves in closer, and I can feel her expectant stare right on me. It’s 5:45, and the dinner routine is about to start–just 15 minutes from can-opening time, and somehow, she knows it. I might still be consumed with work, but at the witching hour, I have no choice but to pull myself away from the computer and out of my chair. I must trundle downstairs to attend to the needs of my dog.

I didn’t mean to train my dog to eat at such a specific time, but 6 o’clock it is–every night. On the dot. If I stay out late, I think Tasha sits beside her food bowl, waiting for me to come home and get on with it. She’s always right where she should be, sitting patiently (but not too patiently), and drooling to her heart’s content.

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I’ve tried not to give my dog people food–ever. No dog-food recipes, no table scraps, and no giving Tasha leftovers that would otherwise go into the garbage disposal. I do give her real bones, but in my mind it doesn’t count as people food.

Eating a dog bone

The other day I dropped a basket of strawberries on the kitchen floor. I thought I picked up all of them. That evening, Tasha came to me with something suspicious in her mouth. She was giving me the “I did something bad” look. At closer examination, I saw that she had a whole strawberry tucked away in the side of her cheek.

It wasn’t hard for me to pry open her mouth and see what was in there. She cooperated. I plucked out the strawberry intact, and told her again, as I have in the past, “No people food!” I think she understood. The stawberry was saved, and Tasha continued to eat only the dog food I put in front of her.