Poop and Pumpkin

Ok. This is a dog post involving poop (very poop oriented) so if you'd rather not... you've been warned. Plus this hasn't been proof-read...

Anyway, for a while now Roscoe has been on one kind of dog food. This stuff called Eagle Pack. As a puppy, Roscoe had diarrhea alot so it took me a while to figure out what diet worked best for him. I learned he can't really handle beefy chews nor certain kinds of rawhide. He can't have any canned food ever because that leads to diarrhea city.  To keep his food interesting I'll doctor up the dry food with different stuff. Egg. Cottage cheese. Yogurt. Grated cheese. Peanut butter. Whatever. His stomach is usually pretty good but I always gotta be careful.

When you live in the city and have to physically pick up every friggin poop you simply get involved with his day to day doody situation. I know Roscoe's routine is usually three poops in the morning. One regular. One stacky. Then one sort of loose Carvel. I don't know if he has different processing compartments in there or what but that's the way it goes.

Anyway, the other day I was in the pet store and I decided to switch his food. Not sure why. Impulse buy. I just figured I'd try something new to mix it up. I bought this stuff California Natural and mixed it in over a week with his Eagle Pack. And I noticed his poops were getting better! No more Carvel style! Easier to pick up! Like regular firm doody! I was like, 'Whoa! This might have been a good change!' So eventually I took him off the Eagle Pack and gave him just California Natural.

Then one day I noticed he only made one poop in the morning and it wasn't alot. I sort of whatevered it. No poop that night. The next day he pooped but it wasn't anything substantial and they were pretty hard logs. I wondered what was going on. Then the next day like no poop! I was like, 'Ugh! That California Natural stuff is making him constipated!' I immediately took him off the California Natural and went back to the Eagle Pack. I should have known just the word 'Natural' in the brand name couldn't be a good thing poopwise.

Anyway, on Thursday I started getting concerned that he was all blocked up. No poop! On top of it, I had plans to go away for the weekend and didn't like the idea of taking off while Roscoe's having an issue. My landlord, (who likes Roscoe alot), had offered to take care of Roscoe while I was away. And that was the plan-- but I wanted to fix him before I left town.

So I found out from some random website that 'canned pumpkin' is good for unconstipating constipated dogs. Laxative style. So late-night on Thursday, I headed down the street to the supermarket get some canned pumpkin. That was all I was buying. The cashier lady gave me a look like, 'That's it?' She gave me a look like I was nuts. (Who needs a can of pumpkin at night?) On top of it I had no money on me so I gave her a credit card. Yes, I was that guy... the guy who goes to the supermarket at night and buys a two-dollar can of canned pumpkin at 11PM with a credit card.

I get home and mix it up in Roscoe's food with some cottage cheese. He eats it and we go to sleep. The next morning I take him for a walk. I prayed for poop! No poop! Poop snubbed! And I was leaving town! What was I supposed to say to my landlord? "Hey! Thanks for taking care of my dog this weekend! By the way, he hasn't pooped in days and I just gave him a laxative... have fun with that! See ya!"

Turned out that my trip away got cancelled last minute so I could do a freelance thing-- so everything worked out ok. I've been able to hang around with my newly unclogged dog and follow him around hoping for good poop. Fortunately there's been plenty...

ok bye!

tOdd

PS. Yes, he's now on Eagle Pack for life...