I Know She Didn't Mean To

Boy have I been busy, lately!
That damn squirrel has finally ventured into my backyard a time or two- boy does it make me crazy! I've taken up jumping as high as I can against the back fence. I've even made the claw marks to prove it. Dad had to go out last night and replace several boards that have badly warped due to unseasonable rains this summer because I've gotten good at digging under and around them and pulling them loose.
All of that in addition to patrolling the tree, pacing the fence, and stalking various corners of my property has really eaten into my time!

...and my energy supply.

I'm eating well, sleeping well and show no signs of illness or parasites, but I've lost 6lbs (that I didn't need to lose! My mommy has always been very good about keeping me at just the right size) in the past few weeks.

Mom feels horrible. She decided about 2 weeks ago that she was feeling more of my hip, back and rib bones than she'd like to, so she weighed me, saw the scale report "50lbs" instead of the usual 55lbs that I've maintained for the past 3 years. She upped my food servings a bit, but I have still lost another lb. as of last night.

Mom is freaking. I think she might cry. She feels terrible, like she's overlooked me somehow, since Leo's been around. Sure, chasing, tugging and wrestling with Leo keeps me more active than the two 45-minute walks per day I got as a lone apartment dog, but it didn't seem to be having any ill effects on me when he was smaller.

Dad says what we've failed to take into account is that, while Leo HAS made me more active and although he and I DON'T play any MORE OFTEN than we did when he was little, he has grown bigger, and thus, stronger and so it stands to reason that I now expend more energy playing the same games with him than I used to.

Ohhhh, so you mean it's really Leo's fault I'm suddenly too skinny and my mommy feels like I think she's been starving me?

Mom is really kicking herself for this.
I keep trying to show her I'm fine, happy, active, alert and healthy, but she's really coming down hard on herself.
She also is having a hard time wrapping her head around "why didn't she tell me if she was hungry?"
What can I say, she taught me well, I guess. I don't beg, I don't scavenge for food or take it from my brothers and sisters. I don't whine an hour before mealtimes (like Leo does) to make sure nobody forgets to feed me. I don't sit by the pantry where the food is kept and try to communicate via meaninful stares.

My food servings got upped again today and, if my nose is telling me the truth, I smell a batch of a special recipe (passed along to my mom from one of her friends, whose grama used to make it for her dogs) Mom made and fed to Leo for a while in the beginning to fatten him up. I'm betting it's for me this time.

I'm sure I'm fine and I know if I'm not they'll make me go to that icky place they call "vet". (Puh-leez. I'd rather have a bath.)

I know my mom loves me.
I know she takes good care of me.
She just didn't think to anticipate and account for changes in my activity level resulting in weight loss and a need for more food than I used to get. She was thinking we'd gotten into a perfect routine over the last almost 3 years and hadn't realized adding another dog would shift our balance.

I mean, heck, I'm always up for anything and ready to go, so...it wasn't until my naturally-somewhat-bony-anyway frame got overly bony that any of us realized something was off. I think the fact that my muzzle is bonier and not as padded and my eye sockets are a bit too prominent is what scares her the worst...
I mean, my brother, Jax, gets overfed for his activity level and is a bit on the heavy side...

The main thing is, I'm not an apartment dog who lies around sleeping anymore. I got a yard to watch, people!
And I got a brother to chase and wrestle with, and dang, he's almost as big as I am now, so it's not as easy as it used to be!