Some time with Stinky

As you all probably know my Springer Spaniel Rudy has been staying with Sarah and her parents while I've been traveling this summer. I get periodic updates of his well being and when I was back home visiting I picked him up so we could hang out together for a couple weeks. For those of you that don't know Rudy he's a fat dog; he looks like a stuffed sausage.

Sarah took matters into her own hands though and got him his very own personal vet while he was staying in Northfield; and together they put him on a starvation diet. The result was that he lost about 12 pounds over the summer!! He looks like a totally different dog (kind of, he still looks dumb). He's got a lot more spring in his step now though and can actually jump high enough to do some good if need be.

The first day I got him back we went for a hike in our old stomping grounds, Fort Defiance state park. Of course Rudy just couldn't stay out of the water and he managed to find every burr in the park; just like old times! He was a disgusting mess by the time we got back to the car and it looked like that haircut he was due for would come sooner rather then later.

The first step in giving Rudy a haircut is to stop by the vet and get him some sleepy pills. Rudy is actually pretty good about getting shaved but he gets real twitchy when you get around his butt, and for both of our good it's usually better that he be a little sedated. Plus I really get a kick out of getting him all drugged up. His droopy eyes get even droopier and instead of constantly being in motion he finds it uncomfortable to stand for more then a few minutes so he lays down a lot. I imagine it's much what he'll be like when he's 15 years old...I can't wait! I can't imagine anything much uglier then Rudy all doped up on sleepy pills; I love it! I'm thinking of incorporating them directly into his diet.

I hid the pills in some small pieces of bread and coupled with the starvation diet that Sarah has him on he wasn't about to question what those hard things were in the bread like he normally does. He just wolfed them down and in about 45 minutes was really starting to feel the effects.

The trimming went without incident and after the hair cut he really did look like a totally different dog from the one I'd left that spring; his weight loss was much more apparent now. With a fresh hair cut I think he can almost pass for intelligent...almost....