A Mysterious Ailment

I, Gussie, have had a mysterious ailment for the past two days. It has rendered me unpleasant to be around (strictly in an olfactory sense, you understand.) It has made my tummy uncomfortable, so that I moan in my sleep. It has forced me to get up in the early hours of the morning and ..... In the living room, which is as far from the big bed as I can get. It has made it difficult, dear readers, to maintain my usual blogging brilliance, because I am unable to sit upright to type.

For two days I have not eaten my dog food! Teka came over last night and ate it for me, which was kind of her and greatly appreciated. I have been searching my brain for the possible cause of this ailment, and have made muzzer frantically search the veterinary sites for information.

We have come up with three possible suspects.


1. The new dog food in the bowl in the kitchen. On Sunday muzzer bought a different brand of dog food. She read on the terrier hotline that Beneful, which I love, is perhaps not the most enlightened and nourishing food for the active terrier. So, she got me this stuff in the red bag, and has mixed it with my old favorite. I think it tasted OK, but maybe it is too rich for my delicate stomach. I remember having this brand in Virginia, but think it came in an Orange bag. Perhaps I am allergic to dog food which is packaged in red. Mmm. Probably not. I think I am supposed to be color blind anyway.


2. This new and unusual toy that muzzer brought home is a suspicious character. It is one of the weirdest she has ever come up with. She says it is called a Bullwinkle, and it is usually accompanied by a "Rocky." Do you think that in my eagerness to tear into this toy I may have eaten the "Rocky" instead. I don't remember it, but I know that I am not supposed to eat rocks or gravel. Mmmm. It may be a possibility. Or perhaps I am sensitive to Bullwinkles. Anyway, I have abandoned it on the living room floor, and am once again terrorizing Elmo. I have unzipped his velcro more times than I can count, and he still manages to put himself back together.

3. Muzzer thinks that perhaps I ate something bad in the back yard. She has found many pecan shells scattered in the living room and in Dad's office recently. I do think they are delicious, and I must confess that I do not always discriminate carefully between the pecans (which are yummy) and the shells (which are probably as bad for me a gravel, almost.) Dad tends to discount this theory, since their previous dogs did not have any problems with the extra dietary fiber. But hey, Terriers are much more sensitive than Springer Spaniels, so I cannot dismiss this out of hand.

Anyway, I have been getting really hungry, despite the fact that I've not wanted to eat my dry food. So, this morning, muzzer took pity on me. She cooked some white rice, and when it had cooled, she mashed it up with a banana and put it in a people bowl next to my food bowl. Well, I thought that was pretty good, as you can see from the photo on the left. She kept some of the rice, and we took it to the store today for lunch, then when we came home at dinner time, she mashed up a little poached salmon in another bowl of rice. I am thinking this is pretty good stuff. She says I can have it for another twenty four hours, and then we will see how I am doing. Tomorrow I can have some applesauce in it for breakfast. I am waiting eagerly to see what treat she comes up with for lunch and dinner. Did I mention she is a pretty good cook? Wonder if she has any of that marinara sauce stuff left. Or maybe there are some leftover carnitas with green chile sauce. Probably not, huh? Oh well, we will just have to wait and see. Meanwhile, I am practicing looking pitiful and wistful to see if I can stretch this diet out a bit longer.

By the way, she feels so sorry for me that she is typing this at my dictation so I don't have to struggle with the keyboard. So I will apologize for any spelling errors she has made, and hope that you will bear with me during my recovery.

Your Pal
Gussie