I just realized that I hadn't posted anything other than recipes since February 22.
I've spent the last week taking care of my furbaby, Milo. I'm pretty sure my dog broke my cat (not on purpose, of course, and perhaps not directly). :P Bozley desperately wants to play with the cats and the cats just aren't interested in playing with him...especially since he got bigger than them. The cats will typically end up running from him. So I'm not sure if Boz pawed at him too harshly or if Milo hurt himself jumping over the baby gate to get away from Bozley...or if something else happened entirely. But, I noticed that Milo was having some trouble jumping over things that he had easily been clearing before...like the baby gate. Once he stopped jumping at all, I got concerned. He also made a very different noise when I'd pick him up (went from annoyance to sounding like he was in pain) and he'd pause before he'd start walking like it was hard for him. So last Friday I took him to the vet. Luckily the x-rays didn't show any broken bones, but he did hurt his back. So he's been on anti-inflammatory and pain meds since then. Well...he's only been on the prednisone since Monday because we were given liquid medication first. Apparently when cats don't like the taste of something...they'll foam at the mouth before vomiting. :P So on Monday I was able to pick up some pills instead and that's been going a lot better. For several days, Milo was mostly just laying on the floor in the office. I typically have their food on a desk (started doing that back when Bandit would get through the gate and eat their food), but I put his bowl on the floor so he wouldn't have to jump at all to eat. But...yesterday Milo was up at 5:30am rustling papers, opening cabinets, and jumped up on the bed to paw at my face so I'd get up and feed him breakfast. And last night he slept on my pillow like normal. So...seems like he's definitely feeling better!
We also got Bozley an e-collar to wear at times during the day. It has three separate functions: beep, vibrate, and static shock. We're mostly just using it for when he starts messing with the cats and when he jumps on people. When I tried it out on myself, I think the vibrate was stronger than the shock. And both the vibrate and the shock settings also beep, so usually I only have to use the beep to get his attention. So far it has been working out well. Usually the cats let him know when they want to be left alone, but if he doesn't listen to them I go ahead and press the button before there are any more problems. He's also been doing really well with his daily walks. He was still pulling a lot with the harness, so I switched to a prong collar and now he doesn't pull at all (unless he gets scared of something like bicycles or FedEx trucks) and the walks have been much more enjoyable.
Bozley has been getting more and more picky about his food. Trying to find a good-quality kibble that doesn't have chicken and isn't grain-free that he'll actually eat has been quite the task. Once we got rid of the kibble with chicken, he ate his kibble just fine. But in the last couple months, he'll leave plain kibble sit all day without eating it. We've tried adding multiple things that worked well for a short time (apples, blueberries, a little cheese, a little wet dog food, etc) but that has gradually stopped working, too. I've been doing a lot of research concerning dry food, raw and fresh food, dog food subscription services, and crunching numbers. And after all that, I've decided to start making some fresh (not raw) dog food to add to his kibble as a topper. Doing half kibble and half fresh food is a lot more cost effective than 2lbs of fresh food everyday. So tonight I prepped his "topper" meals and while I was at it, I made him some sweet potato treats in my PowerXL Air Fryer Grill Combo, too. Dinner was a huge success! He ate every single bit of his food without letting it just sit there. I used browned and drained ground beef; chopped raw green beans, carrots, apples, and spinach; pumpkin pure; brown rice; freeze-dried beef liver; sardine; and the multivitamin that he's been taking. Instead of mixing it all together, I prepared all 6 containers with each ingredient separately. So far it's working out well. I also used the bake function on my PowerXL Grill Air Fryer Combo to make some sweet potato treats for him, too. He's a spoiled puppy! :)
