A Typical Day

At the risk of jinxing it, Katy had a pretty good week. There were some episodes (one early-morning), but nothing major. This is how a typical day--that is, one where we don't have to move the dogs to the living room in the middle of the night--goes in our house.

5:00am-5:30ish-- Get up, get the dogs outside. Usually, Katy is experiencing some acid reflux around this time, so I don't even get to hear the alarm clock go off. Katy is my new alarm clock.

5:30-5:45--The dogs come in from their PPP (Pee, Poop, Patrol) Mission in the backyard. Katy gets her morning Cisapride. Max goes back to sleep on the living room floor while Katy runs around the living room excitedly, looking for PJ.

6:00--I take the dogs' bowls to the kitchen to prepare their first breakfast. Max wakes up at the noise of the dog bowls clanking together.

6:15ish--Breakfast #1. Max scarfs down his food like he hasn't eaten in a week and then sits next to Katy, who is being fed her meatballs. If he gets too close, she snaps at him to back off. After she's finished and has licked the bowl, she lets Max lick the bowl for the crumbs she leaves him. (I'm serious, she does leave him a couple of crumbs every time they eat. I guess it's an alpha-dog thing.) Now Katy has to sit for at least 5 more minutes. Max bounces around, full of energy now that he's eaten and usually gets put outside on the atrium where he barks to come back inside. Without Max hopping all over the place, Katy, more manageable, sits like she is supposed to. After the 5 minutes, the two are reunited and act like they haven't seen each other in 5 years. Then it's off to their preferred napping spots.

6:30-6:45ish-- Off to work.

7:00-7:15ish-- Second breakfast with Other Mama, repeat of the first. Then it's time to go outside for morning PPP.

Noon-ish--Other Mama comes home for lunch. Max and Katy get short naps in the living room. At the end of lunch, "it's time to go to the other door" to get kenneled for the afternoon.

3:30-4:00ish--I come home and let them outside for afternoon PPP.

3:45ish-4:15ish-- Dogs come inside, all hyper and bouncing around. Max slurps a lot of water. Katy sneezes and hacks on her slobber from being excited.

4:30 (at the latest)-- Katy's calmed down now and gets her afternoon Cisapride. Max is sleeping again on the floor near the front door.

4:31--I prepare the food for dinner and breakfast tomorrow.

The big jar in the back is dry food with a scoop on top. The small jars in the front have the food that has been expanded by water (1 part dry food to 1-1/2 parts water). In front of the small jars is a cookie scoop, honey dipper, a really small spatula, and a teaspoon. The red/clear plastic thingy is for splitting and crushing pills. I don't have to crush pills anymore since the specialist changed Katy's antibiodic.

I use the honey dipper to mash up the wettened down food. It's the only thing we could find that would fit in the opening of the jar. All the regular food mashers we saw were too big to fit through the mouth. So, don't use the honey dipper at our house unless you want funny tasting honey.

Next, we add the canned dog food. I try to use something with chicken and rice. I read on a vet internet site that the chicken and rice combination is better for the animal with a sensitive stomach. Sometimes, though, I have to go with beef and rice if the chicken and rice is all sold out at the store, but I haven't had to do that too often. Katy likes poultry better than beef and lamb, anyway. Actually, she hates lamb and will eat it only begrudingly. She's ok with beef, but gets really excited when she gets chicken, duck, or turkey. So this concoction gets mixed together really well and then the lid goes back on and the jar goes back in the refrigerator. Remember I have to do this four times, one for each jar, every afternoon.

4:45ish--Start dinner for the Mamas (that's us humans).

5:15ish--Prepare dinner for the dogs.

I use the cookie scoop to make her meatballs. This is an extra-small scoop we found at a kitchen store in the mall. The scoops at the major stores made balls that were too big and had to be cut in half. This scoop makes it just the right size. If there's any food I can't reach with the scoop, I use the little spatula to scrape it out. Then I wash out the jar and scoop out some dry food and pour it in the jar along with some water. Then it goes in the fridge for tomorrow's routine.

5:30 (at the latest)-- First dinner. Very similar to the first breakfast, only it's not dark outside when Max is banished to the atrium.

6:00--An interim PPP while the Mamas eat dinner.

6:30 (at the latest)-- Second dinner. Same as the first.

7:00--Finally some down time. We all fight over who gets to lay out on the sofa.

8:15ish--Last PPP. Dogs "go to the other door."

8:30-- Max and Katy come inside where they will get into their kennels and bed down for the night. Max gets a Kong, and Katy gets a Pepcid and to sit on the bed for about ten minutes or until she gives up a really good burp. Then it's off into the kennel for her. If it's a good night, then we don't start over until 5:00 or so the next morning. A bad night ususally starts the day over around 2:00 or 3:00am.