Hunger Strike

Maya seems to be on a little bit of a hunger strike lately.  When she hurt her leg, I couldn't get her to eat anything for 4 days.  Because I needed her to eat now so she could get well, I spoiled her with some wet dog food.  Since then, I've been mixing the wet food with her normal dry food, with a little less wet each day. 

Everything was going well until the snow storm hit.  I ran out of the wet food on Wednesday, so starting Thursday she only had her regular dry food, and she refused to eat it.  Throughout the day, she would go up to her bowl and smell her food, then walk away.  I figured she would eat it eventually; she just had to get hungry enough.  Apparently that didn't happen on Thursday.  Her hunger strike lasted until about 1:00 on Friday, when I guess she realized that she wasn't going to get anything else.  She cleaned out her bowl, but then was back on the hunger strike that night. 

The hunger strike continued until about 10:00 this morning, when I got in the shower.  I had left a sleeve of saltines on the coffee table which I incorrectly assumed she could not get to.  When I got out of the shower, the wrapper was in her mouth and there were cracker crumbs everywhere.  I don't think she actually ate too many of them, but she did eat enough for her to realize she was hungry.  She gave in and ate most of her food.

I was originally planning on phasing out the wet food over the next week or so, but it looks like she's back on her regular food, so I will not be buying any more of the wet food.  I'm sure she'll be disappointed, but she won't starve.  Plus, she's a dog -- she'll forget all about the good stuff in a day or two.

Snow Day 4

I finally decided to grab the camera and share a few pictures of Maya playing in the snow.  She spent most of the time with her face buried in the snow, and she had a really cute snow mask going, but she wouldn't look at me long enough for me to snap a picture.  But here's our little adventure.

First, she spent some time looking out longingly at the snow, almost as if she knows how much fun she could be having out there.

 

 Finally, she convinces me to take her outside.

 

Notice the shaved hind leg.  That's gotta be cold!!  Also notice how snow-free she is.  That doesn't last long.  Before you know it, she's attacking the innocent, snow-covered bushes.

 

It looks like the bushes got her back.

Our adventure didn't last very long.  Soon, she was cold and shivering, so I put her inside my coat as we walked back inside.  A quick shake of her coat and a warm towel on her paws and she was good as new, back at the window wanting to go back outside.

Snow

Maya got her first taste of snow today, literally.  We don't get too many snow days in Texas, so Maya hadn't seen any snow before now.  And she liked it!

I think she doesn't quite know what to make of it -- it's really cold on her paws, but it tastes so good!  It took us a while to get downstairs this morning, mainly because Maya kept stopping to eat the snow.  She had to taste it every so often, because maybe this pile tasted different than the last pile.  But after she did her business, she had had enough, and she kept jumping up on my leg until I picked her up.  Since her fur hasn't grown back yet after her surgery, her leg and bottom were exposed to the elements, and she was cold!  She didn't stop shaking until she had been under my coat for a few minutes. 

But she does like the snow in small quantities.  I've mentioned before that she has a bell on the door to let me know when she needs to go outside (her "potty bell").  This afternoon, she started ringing it non-stop.  I knew she didn't have to go out because we had come in about 10 minutes earlier, but I finally got tired of listening to the bell and got up.  I grabbed my shoes, my coat, my scarf.  I put her leash on, and then we headed out the door.  In the time it took me to lock the door, she had run to the edge of the snow, grabbed a mouthful, and had run back to the door, ready to go back inside. Guess she just wanted to make sure it was still there, and still oh-so-delicious.