And Speaking Of The Doctor...Here's Mr. Piggy

I had to take Shreve to his doctor last week to get a lesion checked out on his back. I was worried it was an engorged tick or something worse. But it just turned out to be a great big pimple. Ewww! The doc said it's always a good idea to get these things checked out to ensure they're not tumors.

I was shocked to find out that somehow Shreve has gained 3 pounds since I took him for his annual check-up in late May! How did that happen? I was really taken aback when I saw 51.4 pounds pop up on the scale. He needed to lose 5 pounds or so back in May. So, we have laid down the law for him this time. No more licking up the remnants from the morning cereal bowl or letting him lick clean the scrambled egg pan. He'd gotten so spoiled that we were actually giving him human food as a reward/bribe/incentive for eating his dry dog food.

The vet said that if we want to give him human food, then fresh mini carrots or apple slices would be much better than prepared human food. And they have even fewer calories than dog milkbones. We've been doing this (withholding the too-constant stream of "bad" bites), and Shreve has since been eating his dry dog food more eagerly. And he's loving his after-meal reward of yummy raw carrots!

It's not like we were giving Shreve big plate fulls of my home cooking, but between bites here and there and the children letting him get to the food they either drop or carelessly hold too close to the edge of the table, he's been really porking up. After sticking to our new diet plan, I want to get him weighed to make sure he's losing. I'm trying to take him on more walks, but Shreve's never been much of a good exercise companion. (He's more an explorer. A few steps then a stop to sniff. A few more steps, then a few more sniffs.)