Our dog Casanova is succeeding in his crusade to get back to a normal sized mutt. At his highest weight, he was in the 106-108 area. After a couple of months, I'm happy to report that he is down around 90 pounds and is not far from his ideal weight of around 80-85 pounds. So he gets major kudos for his hard work (although some of the credit goes to the fancy diet food that he switched to recently). He's living proof that you can have a mid-life weight crisis and quickly fix the issue. He's a beacon of hope for all those struggling to lose weight after they turn 40 (in dog years).
The other day, I went through my usual routine of getting ready for work. After my shower, I put a used washcloth on the floor. I took Nova outside to let him do his business before I left for work. After that, I headed out the garage door to go to work. When I got to the car, I realized that I had forgot something. So I went into the apartment to get what I needed.
When I walked into the door, there was Nova standing in the hallway, holding the used washcloth in his mouth. I don't think he thought I was coming back in. As soon as he saw me walk into the door, he immediately dropped the washcloth, acting like he didn't know how it got there. I asked him what he thought he was doing. He immediately sat like he usually does in these situations, appealing to the side of me that wants to believe that my dog never misbehaves. I didn't chastise him in any way, because he didn't intend on doing anything wrong. He just wanted to take the washcloth somewhere and roll around on it because he likes the soap smell.
As I drove to work, I suddenly realized that this type of behavior may have been occurring for some time now and I just didn't realize it. In the past, I had often found towels or washcloths sitting on the bedroom floor. I usually attributed them to my somewhat messy wife, thinking that she had just been in a hurry and had dropped them wherever she was at the time. I never said anything to her because I didn't want it to seem like I was telling her what to do in any way. So I'd usually just pick them up and throw them in the dirty clothes hamper. I now know that Nova was the one that was spreading her towels all over the bedroom and bathroom. So it's a good thing I didn't get on my wife about the towels! Truly, this is a case where you actually CAN blame something on the dog.
