Jack and the Cats

It’s been some time since my last lengthy post about our dog, Jack. That’s because since then, Jack has remained the same wonderful little guy and we haven’t experienced any new adventures.

Jack is so quiet, the only time he barks is when he hears a door bell (even on TV) or when he senses certain other dogs walking near him. Not all dogs, just some dogs. I’m not sure what he senses about certain dogs that make him excited. Other dogs, he just wants to sniff and meet.

He will also dart to try and catch a squirrel or rabbit when they catch his attention.

We volunteered (like in the Army) to sit for a couple of cats for a week. Luckily, my daughter was visiting and has had experience as a cat owner. Penny and Lilly (the cats) would be upstairs with my daughter behind a closed door while Jack was downstairs.

Would sensing these visitors turn on an urge to start barking all day? That was our fear.

Both of these cats (really kittens) were very sweet. Penny was over a year old with the softest fur. She is outgoing and very social. Lilly is still a kitten, I think. She is very shy and hid most of the time I went upstairs to visit. She was very comfortable with my daughter.

I would have been very happy if Jack and the cats never met. I wasn’t at all curious to find out what would happen if they got together. My daughter, on the other hand, likes to see what would happen so she brought them together. One day, she put Jack on his leash and brought him upstairs. Another day, she carried Penny downstairs to see Jack. What did Jack do? He sat and looked but never barked. 

Jack was very curious once he new they were in the house. He parked himself on the stairs hoping for an encounter. Boldly, without a leash, Jack was let into the upstairs and a couple of times, when my daughter opened the door to come downstairs, Penny would quickly sneak out and beat her down the stair. Jack never barked. At times, they sniffed each other. At times, they just sat near each other but Jack never barked. 

Several times, my wife (very allergic to many cats) went upstairs to play with our guests. She never barked - I mean sneezed. A couple of times, I went upstairs too to witness their encounters. I was so surprised to see them just either ignore or tease each other. Lilly hissed at Jack a couple of times, but over the course of the week, she too was a bit less shy...not to the point where she and Jack were buddies like Jack and Penny.

Catching up

It's been like forever since I wrote a lengthy post on this blog, so it's time to catch up with life with Jackson. In fact the last real post was telling you about how, with Jack's help, I was going to get myself into decent condition by taking frequent long brisk walks. I set a personal goal of losing nearly 50 pounds by my birthday.

Somehow, throughout the horrible winter, I was able to accomplish my goal. On my birthday in early April, my weight was exactly 140.0 lbs. I had not reached that weight at any time during the 8 and half months since I started towards my goal. I had not weighted that little since I was in my 20s (a few score ago). But with Jack's desire to take these long walks (plus help from my wonderful wife, encouragement from our kids, iPhone apps, a health monitor and some personal will power), I reached this goal.

Unfortunately, without realizing it, my son (now living in his own apartment) came to visit us and thought Jackson had gain a bit of weight. It was like I was transferring my weight loss to his weight gain.

A little background about Jack's eating habits;
in the year since we adopted him, we struggled to find the right food for him. He'd eat one kind for a little while then leave most of his food. Since both my wife's and my heritage is "more food = good parenting", we were concerned that Jack was not eating enough. So we tended to feed him things we knew he would eat. Some of those things were cheese and treats. We finally found a combinations of dry and canned foods (health dog foods) that Jackson would gobble up. But perhaps, we were giving him too much overall.

When my son saw him and my daughter noticed via photos that Jack had gained weight (I think they called him "Fat Doggie"-siblings can be cruel), I weighted him. A year ago, he weighted 16 pound. Now he was over 21 lbs. When you weigh 150, 5 or so pounds isn't a huge weight difference, but it's significant when you're supposed to be 16.

Our vet confirmed the weight gain and described Jackson as fat, not obese. He recommended we cut out most treats and cut back on the overall amount we were feeding him.

Our training shifted focus from me to Jackson.  Our walks became more intense. In the 2 month's since his vet visit, he has lost maybe 1/2 a pound. We still have a ways to go.

Next post: Jack Attack, part 1

Happy Halloween from Captain Jack Sparrow