GirlTalk

I think Mazie’s been with us three weeks now. Monday makes four weeks.

If it hadn’t been for the TV show, “It’s Me or the Dog,“ on Animal Planet, I don’t know what I would’ve done. Maybe instead of cutting my hair short, I would have shaved it. I don’t know. But I was getting frustrated.

Thankfully we haven’t had any other episodes of pooping in the house (yea!). With regular trips outside, we seem to have solved that problem. And we’re very careful now to guard the back door when coming in or out.

Our next problem is eating.
Mazie, for the most part, snubs her nose at her dog food. And we didn’t get just any old food. We made sure it had chicken in it and plenty of vegetables, foods we would like, if our teeth could constantly break down those little nuggets.

The first couple of days, she just humored us. Then it was back to intense staring while we sat down for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Oh, she isn’t terrible about it, not like other dogs that jump about basically demanding you either feed them or punt them across the room.

No, she’s definitely not THAT bad.

She’s a quiet and very sad looking starer. You can just feel her eyes boring through the back of your head as you bite into that juicy hamburger or piece of chicken that today takes hours of uninterrupted slaving away at the grindstone to pay for. And you just know she’s saying to herself, “Please can I have a bite, please? Pretty, pretty PLEASE!!!“

She’s pretty much gotten us wrapped around her finger, er toe (?). She just doesn’t eat it. And so we’ve gotten fearful she won’t eat ... until we put something on it.

So I called on Mrs. Dash to help out. Her friends, garlic and onion powder have also lent a hand from time to time. The hubby and I figure that her unseasoned dog food has got to be pretty bland. Even baked chicken and mixed veggies taste bland to us without some sort of condiment on them, so using our “superior” intellects, have gotten Mazie to eat her doggie chow.

We’ve tried to save gravies and sauces, meat scraps and basically anything else off our plates for when she does eat her food with little culinary assistance.
Not even employing the celebrity help of Rachel Ray worked (that was the food she came home with).

We didn’t realize just the prima donna our new family member was… or what a moper she is.

But we do think she’s meant to be an outside work dog, like a border collie or sheltie. She LOVES to go outside. Her whole demeanor changes when you ask her if she want to go outside.

I’ve never seen a dog jump up and down because it was excited, but Mazie leaps off her front paws, in a very quick up and down fashion. Almost looks like she’s on a pogo stick! And occasionally she’ll leave the floor with all four feet! But the funniest, is when she steps very quickly with her right and left feet alternating - like she’s marching doubletime!

So in the meantime, while we ponder on how we might get a group of sheep for her to herd, we take her out and let her romp in the leaves around the development, sniffing for all sorts of who knows what. Then when its time to go in, it’s Mopey Mazie time again, staring at us with that sad look that says, “You guys are no fun!“