Food-wise From The Kitchen

Old dog Javi looks sad
as he watches us clean the kitchen.

It is as if he has lost something,
or is losing out on something.

Perhaps the dog thinks of the dirt,
that is being eliminated,
as his friend,

or maybe that dirt is something
that he is comfortable with,
and he hates to see it go;

or maybe he is looking sad
because with all the cleaning
getting done in the kitchen,
nothing has been tossed to him
for him to snack on.

Because their bellies are full

The dogs are quiet,
and so are the cats
and turtles;

it is too early for
them to be up,

they have had breakfast
and have now re-found
their beds.

I will go back to sleep
soon, also, and the animals
will not wake me because
their bellies are full.

Do what they do
By Mikel K

The cats stay outside
all night, but are waiting
at the door to come in,
as I am letting the dogs
out in the morning;

the cats know that morning is
feeding time, and they
look forward to me
cracking a can of
the wet cat food that
they love so much,

and dividing it between
the three of them.

Usually, I find them
in three different spots
around the house sleeping,
after their meal.

They sleep all day,
until it is time to
go outside, again,
and do what they do.

Cats are not stupid
By Mikel K

Cats are not stupid,
at least my cats are
not stupid.

My dog, Morisson,
crawled into the bed
with me,
late last night,
and, when I awoke,
this morning,
I realized why
he had done so;

it had thunder
and lightening-ed
all night long, and
was still doing it
this morning
as I watched all
three cats eating.

Normally, two of
the cats would be
outside waiting to
come in to breakfast,
at this time, but
they are not stupid,

they stayed inside
while the storm raged
outside.

Cats are not stupid,
at least my cats are
not stupid.

Love is in town

Love is in town, with her little dog, Dylan; that makes
five dogs and three cats who slept in this house last night,
with three adults, two turtles and two goldfish.

Feeding the animals, this morning, was a trip;
I have to figure out which animals to isolate
from which animals, so that said animals don't
eat other said animals food!

Bundy is the biggest criminal when it comes to quickly
eating his own food, and then venturing into the bowls
of the other dogs. Javi is no angel when it comes to
this, either. Morisson is squeamish and will not only lett
the other dogs steal his food, but he will move to
the side or back off from his breakfast, when one of the
cats stick their nose in his bowl.

The Cat Pai Mai on the path to recovery

I'm still not exactly sure of what is wrong
with my son's cat Pai Mai. The vet said
something about a possible abscess from
a fight that he had probably been in,
and sent us home with a syringe and this
white liquid antibiotic.

I didn't do so good, last night, the first
time that I tried to squirt the solution
in the cat's mouth. He resisted a bit, and
that caused me to shoot much of it inside
his mouth, and some all over his face. This
morning, I was more prepared and I held him
more firmly and made sure that the liquid
antibiotic went deep down his throat.

After I tried to medicate him, last night,
the cat moved from the comforter at the
foot of my bed to underneath my bed, and
that is where he is hanging out, now.

He has to stay inside for a week, until he
gets re-inspected by the vet. You know that
he is going to hate that; he is such an
indoor/outdoor cat, leaning way more towards
the outdoor.

His leg seems to be withdrawing from
under his belly. The Doc said that the
leg definitely wasn't broken; she didn't
even need to take x rays.

I NEED TO CLEAN MORE

I NEED TO CLEAN MORE
with four dogs
and three cats
in the house,

I should probably be
cleaning all the time,

but I'm not.

I'm drinking tea,
right now in a dirty house
and I feel fine.

Poor Pai Mai

Poor Pai Mai, the cat.
He is used to roaming
in and out of the house,
freely, doing, basically,
what he wants to do,
when he wants to do it,
and, right now, I have him
locked in Bundy's cage.

Pai Mai may have a broken
leg. His leg has been tucked
up under his belly for a bit,
and he has been walking on
three legs.

He really hates being in
that cage, as I can tell
by his loud meow meows, but
I am trying to keep him
a bit sedate until I get him
to the vet, hopefully later
today.

Keeping him in the cage means,
also, that I can find him,
when the time comes to get in
the car and drive to the vet's.

It is not a jail sentence

I put the dogs out in their new backyard kennel,
today, for about an hour. Three of the
four dogs went into the cage, willingly;

one wouldn't go in at all, and ran back
into the house.

Javi and Bundy lay down, and appeared
to be enjoying the sunshine that shone through
the fencing material that the kennel is made of.

Morisson stayed seated, the whole time,
that he was in the kennel, and
seemed more thatn somewhat apprehensive
that he was inside such a conglomeration.

Shawtie ran, immediately, for the bedroom
that she mostly lives in, and positioned
herself on the bedroom chair that she
mostly sits in, rather than share
the outdoor kennel experience
with the other dogs.

I think that the dogs will get used to
the kennel, and come to realize that it
represents outside time, and not imprisonment.

Jaggar The Black Cat

The kitty sits at my feet,
as if he wants affection,
but when I draw my hand to
him, he recoils.

This is not an affectionate
kitten; he is lucky to be
alive. The beginning of his
existence was brutal; he
witnessed his mother being
run over by a car, and was
nearly killed himself.

Someone handed him over to
the people at the veterinary
hospital where we take our
pets. He was super small;
they had to nurse him back
to life.

When he reached a certain
size, they asked us if we would like
to take him home with us.

He was such a pretty kitten
that we couldn't resist
the little black cat.

He has run out from under the
desk now, so this story is over.

Small Favors

The dogs have taken well
to the kennel that we erected
in the back yard. They pretty
much come to it when I call
to them from inside it.

Javi, the oldest dog, was
a bit slow in moving towards
it, this morning, but at
his age and with his demeanor,
Javi is a bit slow moving towards
just about everything.

The dogs are now lying down
inside the fence, instead of
sitting up, apprehensively, as
if they have been locked inside
a jail cell, and don't know
what the charges are.

Bundy barks a bit, after awhile,
but I am not going to reward his
bad behavior by running to him
and letting him out when he barks.

I brought Morisson's old cage,
home from Love's garage, for Bundy
to hang out in,and he took right to it.
Now, I don't have to worry, as much,
about Bundy climbing all over my furniture,
and William, my roomy, doesn't have to worry
about Bundy pissing in his bed.

Thank the Lord for such small favors,
indeed.

The dogs let me sleep until 10:30 a.m.,
except for Morisson who woke me in the
middle of the night to visit the facility.

I'm having to keep Morisson on leash,
when I let him out to do his thing,
because he is running off with greater
frequency. The last time that he split,
he did so right in front of me, with me
calling his name out repeatedly, and
with greater intensity, and volume to
no avail. He must really like this
neighborhood. There is a dog in almost
every house; maybe that has something
to do with it.

Shake
By Mikel K

I tried to teach Bundy
how to "shake," tonight,

but when I said, "shake,"
he would lay down, and
not understand why the
other two dogs got treats
for shaking, and he didn't.

Bundy is not a dumb dog;
he will catch on, and
probably be out-treating
all of them, soon.

My New Plan To Not Overeat
By Mikel K

So that I wouldn't overeat,
I just handed off nearly
half a sandwich to Javi,
who shouldn't overeat,either,
but he was the closest dog
to me, when I decided not
to overeat, though Morisson
did come ambling over when
he saw the half of a sandwich
hanging out of Javi's mouth.

Morrison slipped out of the backyard, last night, around midnight,when I let all the dogs out to use the facility. I scoured the neighborhood to no avail. He had disappeared into thin air and become part of tne night. I dropped off, dead tired, around two a.m. I left the back door cracked wide enough for him to get in. Around five thiry, I woke up, and went and checked the back, and Morisson was not there. I checked the front door, and he slipped in, looking real guilty. At seven, this morning, he was dead asleep. Whatever he had done, last night had worn him out. I'm going to have to watch Morisson closer, as he is proving to be untrustworthy.

Where does it go?
By Mikel K

I don't think
that the turtles
drink the water
that they live in,

but that water
is always diminishing,
still, the same.

December 11, 2007

My blood sugar is 168, this morning, December 11, 2007, which is not bad, considering that I ate six or eight swiss rolls, last night, and had four or five of those marshmallow treat things, and a 16 oz. coke right before bedtime. I need to not keep this sugar shit in the house, because it is always lurking in the back, and worse, in the front of my mind that it is nearby, and available, and eventually I will head to the pantry, pull it out of the box, and eat it; this is not a good thing for a guy with diabetes to do.

Anyway, someone said to me yesterday that we have to have our joys in life, and sugar, in the form of these cheap packs of one or two for a dollar nine yummies, is one of my joys, a passion really.

Fuck it, eh. What I ate last night, I can't un-eat, and we must just march on, trying to do better today.

Jaggar, the cat, and Bundy the dog, woke me at 7:15am, this morning. Bundy wanted to to outside to take care of business, and Jaggar was working on this square look out window that he has carved into the blinds in my bedroom. It's amazing how pure this cat's work is in getting it to where he can stand or lay on one of the pillows on my bed and look out at the world.

Kobain was just perched on the same pillow, but he wasn't just looking out at the world; he was whining loudly and trying to paw open the window that I leave cracked just a bit.

I said to my big, grey, long-haired cat, "you don't have to whine; I'll let you out," and he followed me to the front door, and went out into his beloved outdoors, regal tail of his pointed happily straight up to the heavens.

I dreamt of Kobain, most of last night, and what would be best for him, in regards to this move to LA in March. All summer, he seemed happy as an indoor cat, at Love's place, but last week when I took him back there for a few days, he went crazy because he could not get outside. We don't let him outside when he is at Love's house, because there is a very busy street right in front of Love's house, where people drive at fantastic and dangerous speeds.

Kobain loves living in this house where we are at, now. I don't mind letting him stay outside, like 80 percent of the time, which is the amount of time that he chooses to stay outside, because we live on a very slow, traffic-wise, street, and there is a big empty lot across the street that he seems to spend a lot of his outdoor time in.

I don't know what the living situation will be in Los Angeles, but the cat better get used to the idea that he will be living on the West Coast come March 1st!

Something that we have in common
By Mikel K

Dogs follow me about,
hoping for crumbs to
fall from my plate onto
the floor;

the beasts love peanut
butter and raspberry jam
as much as I do.

Dec. 8, 2007

Javi's leg seems to have shrunk back to almost normal size. He slept on the floor next to me, last night, in front of the larger space heater. The dog is no fool. He knows how to obtain food, and he knows how to stay warm. I was laughing last night, with William, about how Javi has developed this technique of hanging just far enought away from you, when you are preparing food in the kitchen, where he won't be accused of being a mooch and told to head on. He lays on all four legs and shoots you that soulful brown eyed look of want that only Javi Lopez can shoot you. Occaisonly, I will still throw him a scrap, and he knows that, and that is what he lives for. The dog certainly lives to eat, and doesn't so much eat to live.

Morisson came in, when I sat down at my desk with my coffee, to do some writing and stuck his nose on my leg in search of nose scratches and head rubs,which he got. Bundy came in, almost immediately and put his nose between my hand and Morisson's head, pulling my hand off Morisson. Morisson will, often, to the same thing when I am actually typing; he will put his nose between my hand and the computer mouse, separating me from the work at hand, and freeing me to start rubbing and scratching on him. It really cracks me up how each dog has such an instinct to demand affection from you. They are such loving beasts; I am blessed to have them in my existence.

Bundy is my son's dog. He is still a puppty, some sort of a doberman/lab mix, I think. When I first got to this house, to live with my son, William, this dog was such a mess. He would pee on the floor whenever he got excited, he would eat the cats' food by putting his front legs up on the clothes washer, where I always put my cats' food to keep it out of my dogs' reach. He would force his way to the front of the other dogs and stand directly in front of the backdoor, when it was time to go out, making it hard to open the door; puppy things, things that he is not so bad about doing.

Morisson has always been a needy dog; in need of love and almost constant attention, at times, especially in his youth, and Bundy is much like that. It is funny that Morisson is sort of being paid back, by having to endure the same type of behavior that he once exhibited. Karma will kick your ass, even a dog's ass, it seems!

My dogs are spoiled. They are both laying on comforters, one at the foot of my bed, and the other at the head of my bed, and each on has a space heater on the floor in front of them blowing hot air in their direction on this cold night.

Animal Farm by Mikel K

My dogs love me.
My kids love me.
I must be alright.

1.

The dog that ran away to me has run away from me.

My dog, Morisson, has run off. He has been gone for awhile,
now. My fear is that someone has grabbed him and will throw
him in a cage to train pit bulls to kill, and he will be
killed or seriously maimed in the process.

I'm trying to see the good in this bad situation, but
it is hard. Say a prayer for Morisson, will you?

2.
I just crawled into bed. One of my cats, the older one, Kobain, followed me onto the sheets. I never sleep under covers, and Kobain always follows me to bed, these days, which is amazing, because when he first came to me, he mostly stayed away from me. In fact, he ran away a bunch of times.

He didn't run far, though; in fact, now that I think about it, I don't think that he really ran away at all, I think that he probably just got lost. I found him laying on a towel in a cardboard box, next to a bowl of food, and a bowl of water out front of the apartment, at the end of the apartment complex, that we were living in, at the time. I carried him home scratching and screaming a whole bunch of times, from that cardboard box, before he decided to stay with us in our home.

Kobain came to us from a cage in the vet's office. He had been dropped off by someone, in the middle of the night, on the front lawn of the vet's home, and the vet had been hanging on to him, waiting to find him a good home, so maybe King Kobain, as we sometimes call him, because he is such a regal cat, came to us with issues.

I have two dogs. The oldest dog, Javi, just woke me up because he had to go to the bathroom. I let him out, and now I am sitting here at the dining room table staring at my yahoo friend's list thinking how it is easier to lend people money than to get it back. I'm reading this book that is supposed to change all that; change the bad feelings that I have about things into good ones. I'm always looking for that book, that will help me change the bad things into good things, and I will let you know when I have found it.

Until then, breath in and breath out a lot.

I have a new car. I was late to an art opening, the other night and I threw my beautiful, almost brand new vehicle in reverse, and plunged into one of my son's cars; that was parked in front of our house, the broken down one that needs to be towed away, and turned into scrap metal. I tried to blame the accident on my son for having the car parked there, still, and he told me that he was "lucky, that if the broken down junk car hadn't been parked there, his good car might have been."

You can't argue with the logic of your children. The art opening that I was going to was that of my nineteen year old son's. Boy, they grow up fast, don't they. Harry Chapin sure hit it one the head in his song, "Cat's in the Cradle."

One of the cats just took a 2:55 in the morning dump in the laundry room, where the cats' litter box is. I can smell it out here. It was Jaggar, our younger kitty.

Jagger was found crying, with a caved in chest, at a Mc Donald's, somewhere. Near him was his dead mother, who had been run over by a car and killed. No wonder Jaggar doesn't show much affection. He was nursed back to life by the vet that we go to, and, when they felt that he was strong enough to head out to a loving home, they would bring him out and show him to us, every time we brought in one of our dogs or our cat. We knew from the first time that we saw that tiny black cat, with the piercing yellow eyes, that we were going to hold him in our arms, one day, and not hand him back to the people at the vet's office, and I'm pretty sure that the people at the vet's office knew that too. We are loving people, and our huge vet bills are always paid, on time!

Morisson is our other dog. He was a runaway. He ran away to the same apartment complex where my youngest son and I were living, at the time. A neighbor walked him down to me and asked me if I wanted him. I already had two dogs at the time, Javi, who I have told you about, and Shawtie, the most neurotic dog on the planet, who now resides with my oldest boy, the young man who should not have had his junk car parked where I could run my new car into it.

The neighbor knew that I would take this runaway dog into my home, and into my heart, and I did, but my bonding with Morisson was not immediate. Morisson, like Kobain, ran off quite a bit, in the beginning of his life with us. One time, he even jumped out of the window of my car as I was driving down the street. Once he settled down, though, Morisson became the most loving dog that I have ever been around. He craves affection, and he gives affection greatly.

This past summer, I lived in sin with my Love, but right now I now reside with my oldest boy,again. He has another dog named, Bundy, so all together we have four dogs and three cats, in this house that my son and I are living in, right now, because my son has a cat named Pai Mai.

I also have two turtles, and two goldfish, who used to live with the turtles until they got too big. The turtles are named Prynce and Rue Paul. Rue is the girl turtle.
She is much bigger than Prynce. I get endless hours of pleasure watching these two march, and swim about their 20 gallon tank, and climb onto, and jump off of their fake rock that sits under a hot light in the day time. The fish are named Jack Cash and Sid Vicious. We had another goldfish, named Johnny Rotten, but I gave him back to the pet store, when he got too large to run with the turtles. He was starting to overrun them.

I'm not having any fish take over in my turtle tank; it's just not going to happen. We bought Sid and Jack their own little aquarium. Yesterday, I bought these psychedelic pink stones for the bottom of their box, and this wild pink coral reef looking plastic thing. They are going to be disco fish.


Speaking of fish, we are running out of water, here in Georgia. Supposedly, we only have enough water on hand to last us another 60 or 90 days. There are small signs posted everywhere around this small N. Georgia town that my Love lives in that say, "If you are caught showering, you will be paraded naked in front of your neighbor. Water your plants and we're going to make you sleep in an asbestos infected blanket."

My love just acquired a dog, so really that makes five dogs in our little extended family tree. At first, she named her dog

I'm going to sleep, now, but, first, I want to tell you about my Love. She is an angel, surely heaven sent. That said, I will tell you that she is also a Gemini, like myself, so there is half of her that can be hell, just like there is half of me that can be hell. We have been dating for almost two years. Actually, we will have been dating for two years come April 19 of next year. We plan to get married on that day. We plan to get married in Ireland, where my parents came from.

Love spends a great deal of her time care taking her 76 year old mother, so we are not with each other day in day out like some couples. This is probably good for a couple of Geminis who have hooked up!!

Love came in the door to her house, where I am at, for a few days, from her mother's house, earlier this morning. She wasn't feeling well. She was sweet to let me sleep in, as I had woken up at 2:30 and spent two hours at this computer typing on this keyboard.

I'm a poet. I'm also a recovering music writer. I wrote briefly for The Biggest Paper in the Southeast; very briefly, but I was writing for them before I went back to school and got a degree in writing, which I think is significant, somehow.

I went to college two times, for four years each; once to drink,it turned out, and once to get the degree that I wanted, that I had failed to get because I was drinking so much the first time out. Let's hear it for fraternity and sorority parties, beat the clock nights, two for one afternoons, keg parties, and all that that is such an intricate part of matriculating, or, at least, was for me the first time out.

I had the strangest dream, last night. I was late for my therapy appointment, and in the dream, I kept trying to call my therapist, and tell her that I was running late, but I could never get through to her. I wonder if this means anything. I'm not going to tell you, yet, what I am in therapy for. I'm saving some of the good parts for later; suffice to say that I take a handful of pills before I go to bed and have another handful for breakfast.

Let me illustrate something. Love and I were just fixing our morning coffee.
In the two years that I have known her, Love has ALWAYS taken her coffee black. I know because, mostly I fix it for her, and I can never understand how she, or anyone else for that matter, can drink coffee black. I put stevia in mine, and either half n half, or non-dairy creamer. I'm diabetic. I need to lose weight. I need to do a lot of things, and I have done a lot of things, such as kick a daily booze problem.

Anyway, this morning, Love asks me if we have any milk.

"Milk?" I say, "are you going to put milk in your coffee?"

"Yes," she says, and I say, "You NEVER put milk in your coffee," and she says, "Yes, I do," and I say, "Well, you have NEVER put milk in your coffee in the near two years that we have been together," and she says, "YES, I HAVE."

I head to the garage, and busy myself getting the dog and cats' bowls of food ready for feeding them. This is a nice segue and one that I would not have pursued early
in the relationship. Early in the relationship, I would have stayed in the kitchen and argued with Love about milk. I mean how fucking stupid. How much fucking time do we spend arguing with the ones that we love over trivial things that in the grand scheme of life and love do not really matter?

My dad made me feel like shit for most of the eighteen years that I lived under him.
Notice that I said, "under," and not with. I don't much feel sexy within. Do you?
I'm looking forward to communicating with you in this column. May we all grow together. The planet needs us, and her people need us. Let's get it together. Let's get it together, now.

2.

My second kittie, Jaggar, enjoys watching me do laundry and do the dishes, but for some reason he has an intense fascination with watching me sweep up the animal hairs that inhabit the hardwood floors that inhabit this house; it is almost as if Jaggar feels an ownership of all the hairs that are being swept up, though there are two other cats and four dogs involved in creating what is to me a mess. Sometime, if I walk away from the pile of hair that I have just swept up, when I come back I find Jaggar pawing the pile, sort of playfully, sort of with some sort of intent that I can not quite place; it's sort of like he is at a funeral, saying goodbye to an old friend.

3.

When I wake in the middle of
the night, I'm not much good
in the morning, and the old
dog had woken me around 3:30 a.m.
He needed to visit nature.

At 7:30 a.m.,the very punctual beast
woke me, again, this time because he
wanted to be fed. He always wants to
be fed somewhere around 7 a.m.,
so, I guess, that he had let me
sleep in late, this morning.

4.
The old dog is sluggish this morning.

At first, when Love pointed that fact
out to me, I said, "Well, maybe he
ate something bad," but we both came
to agree that the cold has probably
gotten to Javi's arthritis, and is
causing him to slow down.

I pulled up one of the blinds
on one of the French doors in Love's
kitchen, and Javi almost immediately
lay down in the huge spot of sunshine
that was now splashing onto the floor.

Seeing this, I went out into the garage
and got the small space heater that I
carry with me everywhere, year round
(it has a fan setting in it, also) and
set it up near my dog.

The old dog got up for a minute, confused,
as to what was going on, but when he felt
the heat start to blow out from the
small machine, he lay right back down.

5.

Dog Tails
By Mikel K

First thing, this morning, I have to clean out
the cat/kitty litter box that I said that I was
going to clean out yesterday.

"Your life sounds like mine, when it comes to animals."

Both of my dogs just had a nice bath. Msy girlfriend treats them to this, once a month, at this sweet little dog wash down the street. The dynamic duo gets the hot oil treatment, and they get the oatmeal rinse, as well as the regular shampoo and conditioner. The dogs come home smelling like I imagine Zsa Zsa Gabor and her sister do; or at least did, in the day.

Younger Dog Morisson underwent a painful and weird experience, last night. I bought a new candle and when I was done with it for the night, I reached over to grab it and pull it towards me, but, instead, the candle fell off the table, upside down, and just as the candle was falling, Morisson came walking over towards me, and the candle landed on his back. My daughter,Scout, immediately grabbed Morisson and took him into the kitchen, where she doused him with water.

Morisson's fur was matted with hardened wax, and he had a burn mark on his butt. The whole event didn't really phase the dog, though. In minutes, he was once again his own starved for attention self, seeking biscuits and love, wherever and whenever possible within the household.

The dog wash place did a great job of getting the wax out of Mr. Morisson's fur, and I can no longer see a burn mark on him. It just goes to show that an accident can happen in the household out of the blue, and it is not always the humans who are home who so at risk.
……

The dogs know that when I put on my sandals, the ones that I leave by the back door, that we are soon headed out the back door, and down the small path to the deck. The dogs get very excited when I put my sandals on. They love going out the back door and heading towards the deck. They love hanging out on and around the deck. For the greater parts of the past eight years, my two dogs have lived in the city in a very cramped, small apartment. Now, they live very close to the country in a house that has a very nice backyard, and very nice deck in that back yard. My dogs now get to stare at squirrels and listen to birds. They are very happy.

.......

A little dog just walked up from somewhere down the street. He stopped and looked at my two dogs and I for a minute or so, probably trying to figure out what our dog Morisson was going to do. Morisson didn't seem interested in doing anything.

I was wasting my time telling Morisson "no."

The little dog continued down the street. He seemed to have purpose, seemed to know exactly where he was going. He stayed to the side of the street, much like a human on a bicycle or a person walking down the street alone or with his or her dog might do. I would never let my dogs get out of my sight to do such a thing, and I wondered about the person or persons who would.

The street in front of our house is not a highway, but the few cars that do travel on it, daily, seem to think that they are running in a Nascar race; I mean they haul ass. I wish the little dog well; may he get where he is going safely.
…….

When I was a kid, my dad let me buy a turtle. I loved that turtle. That turtle was like a turtle to me. I fed it. I changed its water. I petted its shell. I stared at it for hours.

We went to the beach for a week, one summer, and my dad made me let my turtle go. He said that I wasn't taking care of it. I think that he was full of shit. I think that he just started feeling sorry for that turtle stuck there in a bowl in my bedroom.

Anyway, I have always missed my turtle. Today, I saw two cool turtles at this neat little homegrown store, out here in the near-country. My heart fluttered and skipped a beat or two.

Love and I took Javi to the vet, today, for a follow up look at his ears. The Vet said that his ears were looking way better, today, than they had two and four weeks ago, when we first visited her. She gave me a new bottle of medicine to squeeze in his ears, with a slightly different application schedule. She said that we were trying to get the old dog up to a maintenance level, where we would only have to treat his ears once or twice a week.

When we walked into the vet's office, one of the girls who works there came walking up with this precious little black kitten in her arms, and laid that precious black kitten in the arms of Love. The ladies at the office havc been trying to get us to become a good home for this little kitty, for weeks. I could tell, that with this little kitten in her arms, Love was smitten and we would become parents for the first time in our relationship. I had nicknamed the cat, Jaggar, two weeks ago and told the vet girls that if we took the kitten, that Jaggar would be his name.

Jagger is hiding in our house, somewhere, right now. He took a nap with Love, and when Love split to go hang out with her mother, Jaggar hung out with me in the office for about an hour and then went into hiding. He didn't get the warmest hello from Kobain, our other cat. Kobain sniffed Jaggar a bit and then hissed at him and stalked off, like he owned the place. At the vet's office, when we introduced Javi to Jagger, Javi snapped at him, which was cause for alarm for Love.

Morisson stalks the kitty, following him everywhere, when he is visible. Only in this household could a Jaggar and a Morisson get it together.

My cat thinks that I'm a fool

My cat
thinks
that I'm
a fool.

I can't take the trash out
because he is hiding near
the garage door, waiting
for me to open it, so that
he can get outside and be
run over by a huge truck
exceeding the speed limit,
greatly, or by a speeding
car.

My cat thinks that he is
clever and that I don't
see him.

What he doesn't know, is
that I'm really not in all
that great of a hurry to
take the trash out; I'd
rather be laying down
somewhere, like he is.



The Dogs Don't Care
By Mikel K

The dogs don't care
if it is raining,

when they are chasing
the tennis ball,

through rain,
and snow,
and even sleet.

Mikel:

well, that last one..my dogs hates rain...I have to drag them out to pee-pee..they hate to get their feet wet..now if it is a bath, that is ok...but rain and snow, they hate..especially snow..infact I had one Rott to get mad and her hair stood up on her back because of the snow....when she went out....
Becky

My dog was almost killed
By Mikel K

My dog Morisson
could have been
killed this morning.

There was a cat
halfway down the
driveway, sitting there
minding his own business,
and the minute that I
opened the door
to let the dogs out
to do their morning
thing, Morisson tore
down the hill and across
the street and into
the woods, chasing
the poor cat.

I stepped to the edge
of the woods and called
and called to my dog,
but he didn't come back,
right away,
like he usually does.
I figured that he had
fallen off a cliff, or
been eaten by a snake.

It was seven a.m.
and cars were driving
by at a hundred miles
an hour. If one of them
had been driving by
when Morisson and the
cat had rushed across
the street, Morisson
would be dead.

Morisson has lost
some serious freedom
due to his behavior
this morning. I have
hung a leash by the
front door and I will
strap it on him
everytime that I take
him out that door.



June 12, 2007

I took Shitski, uh errr, Jaggar the kitty to the vet, today. Jaggar has added a whole pound to his dinky frame in just two weeks, which had the ladies in the vet's office applauding him like he had just found the solution to our woes in Iraq. Jaggar got two shots, today. What a trooper he was. The vet and the vet tech tried to distract him with food, so that when he grows up, he will not associate shots with pain caused by the vet and try to claw aforementioned vet in the face in lieu of shots. Jaggar won't eat wet cat food, though, so he got his shots straight up. Funny thing is, about this kitten, though, he will eat Morisson's wet dog food.
.......
This lady who works at the vet's office, told me this story of how she has three litter boxes for her three cats, and how one of the cats will use the other two cats' boxes, but not his own. And he won't let either of the other two cats use his box, either. His box has to stay clean!

This lady is the one who cared for Jaggar for the first six weeks of his kitty life. She related to me that Jaggar was found near a Mc Donald's. His mother was out in the road. She had been run over by a car, and was dead. Jaggar had sat in one spot for so long, that they were scared that his little chest might never recover from it.

I'm happy to report that little Jaggar, now ten weeks old, is at my feet playing a weird game of hide and seek with the power cord to my computer. Jaggar is healthy, happy, frisky and fun.

Yeaaaaah.



Kitty steals dog's food while elderly man ponders the outcome of bombing Iran
By Mikel K

It is hard for me to tell
when The Beach Boys
sing

"Barbara ann ba ba
Ba barbara ann,"

if they are singing,

"Barbara ann ba ba
Ba barbara ann,"

or
"Bomb Iran."

What a sad thing
to be thinking about.

Do you think that
those bombs will
get The President
of Iran and The Ayotallahs,

or will they just kill
a bunch of innocent
Iranian kids who are
wearing Nikes and Levis
and want to watch mtv?

I mean, mtv sucks,
but it's not a reason
to bomb anyone.

This world is sick and
sad and scary sometimes.

And to think I can sit here
and write about how bad
it is while I have it so good.

The worst thing that has
happened here, this morning,
is that Morisson finally snapped
at kitty Jaggar for bumping into
him and stealing his wet dog food.


There are certain things that I know about my kitten
By Mikel K

There are certain things that I know about my kitten,
like that he would play around in the pile of cat and dog hair
that I had amassed on the living room floor, with a broom,
while I was gone, for a minute, getting a dust pan to pick
the mess up with.

And I knew that when I threw my socks in a pile on the chair,
behind me, that, eventually, my kitty would be playing in
those socks, and throwing some of them to the floor.

That kitten probably thinks that I'm stupid, but I'm not.

The dogs will wake from a slumber when I start moving things about in the kitchen. The cats will stay asleep.

Listening To Him Lick His Feet
By Mikel K

The spray stuff worked
this morning, the old dog
quit licking his paws
ferociously, like he does,
when I sprayed it on his
feet. It can be quite distracting
listening to him lick his feet.

Waiting To Sprint To Freedom
By Mikel K

Kobain, our older cat, got out
of the house, last night. Love
was freaking out, because she
couldn't find him, and earlier
in the night, the cat had bit into
one of my pills, an anti- depressant
that was sitting on the kitchen
table, waiting to be swallowed
for breakfast.

I figured that the cat was curled up
in the garage, with a big smile
on his face; no worries, but when
I went to let the dog out, in the
middle of the night, to relieve
himself, the cat came strolling
in like he owned both sides of
the door.

When we lived in the city, Mr. Cat
had a window that allowed him to
go in and out, at will. He regularly
came home with mice and snakes.

Out here in the country, there are
some dense woods across the fairly
busy street in front of the house,
and we figure that both the woods
and the street could be a risk to
Kobain's well being.

Since he has gotten out, Kobain, now,
hovers near the doors, waiting to
sprint to what he perceives as
freedom.

Animals are funny
By Mikel K

Morisson
would not
touch
his food,
this morning.

I believe
that he was
registering
protest
that
there was
not enough
wet dog food
in it.

I have started
sharing
a bit of
his wet dog food
with the kitten.

The kitten
ate all the
wet dog food
in his bowl
and then
bellied up
to Morisson's
bowl
as if
he was
then
going to eat
all the wet
food
in it, also.
Animals
are funny.

I'm going
to go out
and watch
the birds
feed
now.

Animals are funny
By Mikel K

Morisson
would not
touch
his food,
this morning.

I believe
that he was
registering
protest
that
there was
not enough
wet dog food
in it.

I have started
sharing
a bit of
his wet dog food
with the kitten.

The kitten
ate all the
wet dog food
in his bowl
and then
bellied up
to Morisson's
bowl
as if
he was
then
going to eat
all the wet
food
in it, also.

Animals
are funny.

I'm going
to go out
and watch
the birds
feed
now.

I'm joking
By Mikel K

I slept
very lightly
last night
because
the old dog
planted himself
at the foot
of our bed
and licked
his foot
all night.

Do you think
that I should
cut his foot
off?

Blanket Guilt
By Mikel K

The animals are restless
this morning, making
much more noise than
usual.

It is the cats' fault,
but the dogs will
catch some blame
too.

Grab Him By The Tail
By Mikel K

Someone ran over a squirrel,
about a foot from the foot of
our driveway.

I told you that they drive fast
down the road in front of our
house.

Love is going to
call the government,
and tell them that we need
speed bumps at this end of
the street like they have at
the other end.

I asked Love if she wanted me
to throw the dead squirrel
into the woods.

She said, "yes,"
and I did, hands covered
in grocery bags.

"Grab him by the tail,"
said Love,

which made sense
as I stood there
looking at him.

I don't like
the squirrels
stealing
our bird seed,
but I don't want
to see them run
over by cars,
either.
(Could have been one of our dogs or cats. Aren't squirrels faster than both dogs and cats?)



Older Dog Update
By Mikel K

My older dog
and I
have started
a new process.

I lock him out
of the bedroom
at night, so that
he can not wake
me three or four
times during the
night
to pee.

Also,
I now give him
cups of water
at a time, instead
of keeping a big
bucket full all day
for him to drink
out of.

The results have
been excellent.
I can now sleep until
seven a.m. when he
wakes me to feed him.

Harder Stools When He Poops
By Mikel K

All four animals assemble
in the morning when I start
to get the animal food ready.

Little Jaggar, the kitty has caught
on to what's up. As far as wet animal
food goes, though, he will still
only eat Morisson's dog food.

Even Kobain is showing a propensity
for dog food over cat food. He
sneaks into Jaggar's bowl, after
he is done slurping in his own
wet cat food laden bowl.

Javi, is on a new food. It is a
prescription dog food, that is
supposedly good for his joints.
I am mixing this new food half
and halfwith his old junk food,
breaking him into it slowly.

I also add uncooked oatmeal
to his food. Someone told me
that that will help him have
harder stools, when he poops.

Morisson always leaves a little
bit of dry food in his bowl, when
he is done eating.


He Usually Runs To Me
By Mikel K

Our cat, Kobain, got out of
the house, yesterday. I'm
still not sure how he pulled
his great escape, but the next
thing that I knew, after I saw
him hoofing it out of the garage,
was that he was under the
neighbor's storage shed hiding
from me as I shook the little
plastic bottle of cat food treats
that he usually runs to.

bird see bird do
by mikel k

I actually saw a bird take a bath
in our birdbath, today, not just
sit at the edge of the water and
stare at it, or take a small drink
and fly off.


And you know what?

The minute that that bird finished
taking a bath, another bird landed
in the water and took a bath, too.

I'm not going to reward you for waking me up
By Mikel K

It is five nineteen am
and the cats are meowing.

Usually, it is the dogs
who make the early morning
noise, specifically the older
dog, Javi.

Javi woke me to let him out
around four, a habit of his
that I am working on breaking.

Javi wanted a biscuit after
he took care of business,
but I said to him that I am
not going to reward you
for waking me up.

He looked at me with those
big soulful eyes of his, but
realized that I was telling it
like it is and went off to
lick his paw somewhere.

I can hear him in the background.

Doggie Wants A Pill
By Mikel K

Since I've been taking these pain pills
for my gums, since I had surgery on
them, last week, the dogs have been
coming to me when I open the container
that contains my pills. This is because
they associate my pill container and
the way I shake it, with the older dog's
pill container and the way that I shake
it when I am getting ready to give the
old dog his pills.

Him and only him
By Mikel K

It's about ten degrees cooler
today than it was last week,

I'm still sweating,
but I'm not as scared to take
the dog with me as I drive about.

I took the older dog with me,
today; Javi. You should have seen
all the attention that the staff
here at the hotel gave the old dog.

The hotel's Assistant Manager
kept calling him cute, as the
desk clerk and the maintenance
guy showered attention on him.

It must have been weird for Javi
to not have my other dog, Morisson,
steal into the attention. I told
the hotel people that if Morisson
was here, he would be sticking his
head between Javi and their hands,
wanting them to rub him and only
him.

. Bundy The Wonder Dog(I wonder if he will drive me crazy?!!)
By Mikel K

The dogs woke me up way later than they usually do,
this morning; at least I think that they woke me. Maybe
I woke them! Usually, the beasts wake me no later than
seven am, and, sometimes, as early as five thirty or
six.

Bundy was all excited. Bundy gets all excited anytime
that we head towards the back door, because he knows that
he is going to get to go outside. Bundy is my son's dog,
and since I am now living with my son four days a week,
Bundy is also my dog for that period of time.

I remember when my dog, Morisson, was completely unmanageable,
like Bundy is. I remember thinking that I cannot handle this
dog(Morisson) that he is completely unhandleable and that I
would have to give him away. I remember asking several people
if they wanted Morisson, and, thankfully, they said "no."

Morisson has turned out to be the most loyal, loving and obedient
dog on the planet. Morisson makes my world special. Morisson is
the dog who I take everywhere with me. When I first got him,
Morisson, once, jumped out the window of my running car and
disappeared. Morisson was always running off, just like he had
run away from someone to come to me.

Bundy will be fine with time and love.
That would really be something
By Mikel K

One of the dogs puked in the doorway
to my bedroom. I think that it was
Morisson, because the half digested
food looks like his.

Somebody took a piss in the back room
of the house, and that would be Bundy,
or else Pai Mai brought home a rat or
some other vermin and hid it behind
the large mattress that is leaning on
the wall in that room. I will have to
investigate, later.

Morisson is, now, eating his own puke,
which is good, because that means that
I won't have to clean it up.

If only Bundy would clean up
his own piss, or Pai Mai carry
his dead rat back outside; that
would really be something.

The continuing adventures of Bundy, Morisson, Javi, Jaggar, Kobain, Prynce, Rue Paul and Mikel K

Bundy is still a trip; a little bit better, but still a trip. He goes wacko when he knows that you are heading out the door. At the
back door he starts whimpering and yowling and blocks the door,
almost so that you can't get it open. I guess that he is excited that
he is going out to pee, and or to hang out in the long grass.

Tonight, Bundy has started laying down at the foot of my chair, when I am not at my desk. I think that he is doing this because I have a fan pointed at my feet. You know you have a problematic fan when you can't tell which side of the fan is blowing air; good deals are not always good deals, but Bundy seems to be happy laying in front of it.

I took all four dogs on the walk, tonight. I put Morisson and Bundy on leash, and I started out with Shawtie and Javi off leash. I would
have put a leash on Shawtie and walked those three dogs, but Shawtie didn't have a collar. Javi mostly kept up, stopping occasionally to sniff or water something. Bundy has really come a long way on leash.

I did one block around the hood, figuring that was enough with all four of these fine furred friends of mine in tow.

The dogs are rather

I woke much earlier
than I normally do
to find a dog on each
couch in the living
room.

Both of them are either
rather clever or rather
sneaky.

Update
By K

Kitty Jaggar has a new habit: he gets up on
the dining table and knocks a grape off of
the dish and onto the floor, and then he
chases it around the house.

What more can you expect from a dog named "Bundy?"
By Mikel K

The dogs get excited,
when I put my shoes on,
especially Bundy, who
doesn't just get excited;
he goes fucking nuts.

You'd think that the poor
damn dog had never gone on
a leashed walk before, or
been let out the back door
to piss.

Who the hell named him "Bundy,"
anyway? What were they thinking;
goon on a sitcome, or serial
killer?

What a sad thing to saddle
a dog with, such a silly and
or sick name. No wonder the dog
has personality problems.

I know that he's only a pup,
but I'm scared that Bundy is
really flawed. Maybe we should
change his name. Maybe that would
help some.

What do you think?

These dogs love pizza as much as I do
By Mikel K

William, my roommate, my son,
my stepson, my friend, my
adviser brought me home a pizza
from work last night. He makes
pies for a living, and, on occasion,
he brings me a medium FOC.

FOC is our code name for Feta,
Onions and Chicken. Sometimes,
the pie is still warn, like it
was recently cooked, and, sometimes,
it is cold like, well, like it
wasn't recently cooked.

Last night, the pies, was cold,
but, you know, there is this thing
called a microwave.

Often, I am asleep when my boy comes
home from work with this pie, but
I will wake up, and eat a slice or
two, like I did last night, and
then put the box in the refrigerator
to have another slice or two
in the morning, like I did, this
morning, after letting the dogs outside,
to do their thing and then feeding them.

I don't usually do this, but
this morning, I threw half a slice
to Morisson, and a crust to Javi.

These dogs love pizza as much as I do.

-----------
How are Javi and Kobain now that they are back home?
I was worried about Javi this morning; he just seemed
so out of it.

Kobain is out and about. He came in for a quick bite
and I haven't seen him since. He ll either come when
I send kisses to the stars, before bedtime, or he'll
be on the front or back doorstep in the a.m. waiting
for his breakfast.

Javi is kicked back in my room on his blanket in front of
our space heater. He is happy; asleep actually!
-----------
The First Day of a New Month

I was groggy this morning
when the dogs woke me.

When I opened the back door
to let the dogs out to pee,
Morisson started to run off
after something.

It was probably a cat.
It was probably our cat.

sometimes Pai Mai has to think
real fast on her feet.

Javi looked at his food
as if it wasn't his, like
he was waiting for permission
to eat.

I get my elbow looked at
this morning. I bet that
they will say that it is
arthritic.

Scout was given a reprieve
from her in-house incarceration;
I'm not sure what is up with that,
but I am glad for her.
-----------
There's a dog sitting in some high grass
right in front of me; he's enjoying the
sun. He doesn't care where he is, as long
as he's with me.
---------------
december 6, 2007

Jaggar in Shawtie's food
Kobain in sunshine of the street

Javi is in real bad shape this morning. He could hardly climb back up the small steps that take him from the backyard onto the porch, which leads him into the house. I feel so sorry for him. He didn't even finish all of his food this morning, which I had to follow him into the kitchen to give him. He is usually out in the back room, tail pounding furiously, ready to immediately dive into his special, and expensive, diet dog food, that I always top with a cup or so of oatmeal. Javi got real fat, awhile back, and it was my fault. I was always giving him treats, throwing him table scraps, and never measured out how much food I put in his bowl, at least twice a day. Add to this, that Javi is a thief, and you have one fat dog. Javi will steal leftover food from the other dogs, and cats', bowls; and I learned that if you leave some leftovers on your plate, and turn your head, or fall into a nap, that Javi will be right there to take the scrap off of your plate. I have worked real hard to get the excess weight off of my old dog. I thought that I was doing him a favor by letting him eat just about all the he wanted to eat, but I wasn't. Javi's stomach is an endless pit, and his appetite is infinite. He will live longer, if he lives thinner, as is so true for you and me.

Kobain spent the night out, as he usually does, and he was waiting at the front door as he so often does, this morning, and headed straight for his food bowls that are perched on top of the clothes washer, so that the dogs will not eat it. After a quick bite, Kobain went to the back door, and turned his head over his shoulder and stared at me in the impatient manner that he does that lets me know that he is ready to go outside, again. I just say him out front of the house, laying in the middle of the road, basking in the warmth of the sunlight that was hitting the pavement.

For the past couple of days, Kobain has been incredibly mean and miserable. I took him with me, and Jagger, and Morisson, and Javi to my finace's house. Kobain was not happy about this at all. He had lived there all summer, and we had not let him out, even once, because there was a busy road in front of the house, and I think that Kobain realized where he was, and how he was once again confined to the bowels of a building. Kobain like to roam. He loves the outdoors. I am moving to Los Angeles in Februaray, and I do not know what awaits me and my cat out there. I can only pray that Kobain will adapt to our new environment.

I just saw Jagger eating out of Shawtie's food bowl. I give the dogs a touch of wet dry food in their dry dog food, as a treat, and as an incentive to eat up. It cracks me up to see a cat with their nose in a dog food bowl. It is amazing how close two separate species of animals can and will get, given the opportunity. Just the other day, my Love was pointing out, "what a great picture it would make," to get a shot of Jagger curled up in the fetal position, inside of Javi's legs, with Morrison curled up on the floor hugging Javi's back.

.............

I inspected Javi's leg this morning and found that his front left leg was swollen to three and a half times its normal size. There was, also, some blood dripping from the old age spot that is located on his left knee. At first, I thought that he had broken his leg getting out of the car, or maybe climbing the back steps to go out into the back yard and do his thing, but when I felt the leg, I could feel no breaks. Maybe he sprained it, I thought, and I called the vet. They said that I could drop him off, which I thought was cool, because other vets have often been booked, and do not have a drop off policy for dogs in bad shape.

Javi was not hesitant to go off with the vet tech, which I thought was a good sign. Maybe he knew that he was in a good place, a place where he could get help with a leg, that he obviously knew was ailing him

The Dog Doctor called me in about an hour, and told me that Javi's swelling might be due to a spider or a tick bight. This lady was a fast talker, so I did not fully get what she was saying on the telephone. The jist of it was that I could try some antibiotics and see how the leg looked in a few days, or I could pay a hundred and fifty bucks for blood work and two hundred and fifty dollars for xrays.

The visit, which included an ear exam, for Javi's constantly infected ears, and two antibiotics for his ears cost me one hundred and ninety eight dollars. I had to stop there. I am wondering how much I can afford to put into this dog who I love so much as he ages.

My fiance told me a story of how, as one of her dogs got near the end, some vet wanted her to do some procedure, removal of an organ, I think, that would cost five thousand dollars and said to her, "Well, no one has ever not done it, before," when she asked him what would happen if she did not do the procedure.

Some vets are like some funeral homes, the veterinary clinics playing on your love for your animal, and using a guilt invoking, sympathy approach to try to hustle money out of you and ring up a huge bill.

A very close friend of mine, once said to me, "a dog is a dog, after all, at some point." It will be hard for me to know where this point is.
------------

The gas pilot that heats my bedroom and the living room has gone out. Javi has moved himself into my room, knowing that I have two space heaters in here, and I have moved Javi's comforter in here also, and have set one of the space heaters up on the floor in front of Javi's comforter. Javi seems to have placed his enlarged leg in front of the heater. It is funny, well, not funny, but interesting to note that Javi can get around on the foot, almost as well as if it was normal size. We went to the chiropractor's office this morning, and then out for coffee at our favorite coffee shop, and Javi had no problem, climbing down the stairs from the house, to get to the car, and no problem with climbing his ramp to get into the vehicle.

I don't know if I told you or not, but awhile back, I bought this foldable ramp that fits onto the back of the Nitro, so that I do not have to lift Javi onto the back of the vehicle. One, or both of us, would have suffered back injuries, if that practice had continued. Javi's arthritis is such that it does not allow him to climb or jump into the back of the suv, like Morisson does. Javi loves to travel. He especially likes to make the one hour and fifteen minutes drive from Atlanta to Demorest. I have brought Javi with me on thousands of trips over the years that we have been together.

It is hard to watch Javi age, and, sometimes, think about how, one day, he will no longer be with us. Javi has been such a great part of our lives for so long. He came to us on my son's eighth birtday, and my son is eighteen, now, so Javi has been loving us for a decade. He was a pound dog. That means that my son's mother found him in the pound. He is named after the former Brave's catcher, Javi Lopez, because our Javi can catch a tennis ball as well as the baseball player, Javi, can catch a baseball.

Our Javi is a tennis ball addict. He has always loved to play catch, and to run down tennis balls thrown over his head into the distance. When he was younger, Javi would doe this for hours, days, weeks, months, years, really; he is that much of an addict!
His arthritis has slowed him down a bit, in the ball catching and chasing department, but, awhile back, he was put on the drug RRRRR, and this drug breathed a new light into his ball playing life. No longer did he have a bad limp. Right around the time that Javi went on RRRRR, I started getting strict with his diet, and put him on a prescription diet dog food that the vet suggested, and prior to this front leg flareup, Javi has been getting around real well, once again able to run, run, run after tennis balls thrown at him or over his head.
...............
Stinker poo Morisson, my dog, ran off, yesterday, for about two hours. It freaked me out. The whole Michael Vick thing had me convinced, in my worried brain, that my dog had been scooped up
by a mean pit bull trainer and had been thrown into a cage for some vicious pit to practice on.

It turned out that my worries were just sick fantasy when Morisson came into the back yard, tired, but wagging his tail, about two and a half hours later.

Speaking of pit bulls, Morisson and I met the nicest pit bull, yesterday, outside the coffee shop. This pit was so mellow. I think that he is the first pit bull that Morisson has ever met. Morisson acted the same to this dog as he does to all dogs that he meets, sniffing the pit up and down, and neurotically trying to become his friend.

The pit bull just stood there and smiled. His owner told me that his dog was an off breed of pit. What a beautiful dog. I mostly fear pits, and probably would not have let Morisson get so close to this dog, but Morisson was off leash for a minute, after we had had our coffee, and had jogged over to say hello to the dog.
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Unless they are already small, I break my dog's biscuits into halves or quarters, depending on the nature and composition of the dog treat. I started doing this after my oldest dog, Javi, got FAAAAAAAAAAAAT. The dogs seem just as happy with less of a treat; and they seem to think that they are getting more treats, when I break them down, which is not the case.

I just split a dog biscuit in two for Javi and Morisson. Bundy was waiting for his half and out of the blue, I threw him a whole biscuit. He almost gagged. Just kidding. Bundy is still a pup, and he is skinny as hell, especially compared to Javi. Morisson needs to drop a pound or two, also. I learned, the hard way, that you are not being a friend to your dogs by overfeeding them. In this, dogs are like humans; obesity will lead to shit health.

Remember this when you are feeding the dogs you love.