Razzle, seen here as you can usually find her during the day, has problems with food. These are not the usual problems owners have, like a dog eating too fast, or eating everything in sight, or counter surfing. No, Razzle only eats on her own terms, when she wants, and in our company.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!Monday Crimson Quillfeather
Tuesday ejoanna
Wednesday Pam from Calif
Thursday art ah zen
Friday FloridaSNMOM
Saturday Gwennedd
Sunday loggersbrat
This will sound like we are just spoiling her, enabling her bad behavior and I won’t argue the point. She has a very insistent voice that she uses exclusively for food requests. If she has not asked for food, regardless of the time of day or how long it has been since she ate last, she will not eat anything I put down. She will go for 2 days without eating anything other than a Milk Bone in the morning or she will eat 2 dinners in the same evening. She only eats when she asks for food. She does not eat breakfast as a rule but sometimes wants it. She is not motivated by treats and can not be trained or bribed with them. She might take one from you, but she will put it on her bed and leave it all day long. She also does not like to eat if one of us is not there. Its a problem when I go on road trips.
But this is the strangest thing about her food habits. She had some manners when we got her, she was 6 months old but we don’t know how she was treated. She expressed food protection towards us and our cats, snapping at us and growling if one of us came near her food bowl. But she frequently would only eat if she felt that her food was threatened. If no one paid any attention to her or her bowl, she stayed on her bed but was watchful. It got to be where Mr Zen had to “threaten” her food to get her to eat almost all the time. I hated it. We have been working on that, praising her when she eats on her own and standing by her while she eats but not looking at her bowl. She is growling less, only snapping for show, and eating a little better. I am sure she finds it stressful; I know i certainly do. Little improvements are on going. I find that she is less reactive to me than to Mr Zen, perhaps because he is large and hairy. But she won’t eat for me like she will for him.
They come here with their own stories, their own beings. It is the journey to discover how to be part of their destiny, to give them the chance to be themselves, what lesson they have brought to us. I wonder what lessons we teach them. Have a good day all.