Becoming a Dog Mom

Over the past twelve years, I have been becoming a dog mom. Prior to adopting Maya, I was not only not a dog person, but deathly afraid of large dogs. And then we went to Petco to get a fish and found our Maya girl. Maya has been the perfect puppy for us from day one. She’s sweet as can be and easy-going. Several years later, we added Athena our delightful Piggie, who has been a character from day one. She’s a complete sweetheart until you mess with her family member. The pack was completed last year with our foster-fail Anakin. He’s a bit special, but he sure loves his mama, his sisters, and his family.

Unfortunately, Maya has been on the decline over the past year. She’s a notoriously picky eater in contrast to her siblings, who will eat anything and everything that they see. As I wrote in my last blog, Maya had lost ten pounds over the past year. Unfortunately, she has had a tumor in her lung since 2019, but it hasn’t grown larger than when we first found it. Also, It is unrelated to the cancerous tumor she had removed last winter. Nonetheless, it’s been a struggle to get Maya to eat anything this past year.

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Last week, Maya and I both got sick with some sort of virus. I was laid up with back spasms, chills, and a low fever. Those were the only symptoms I had, but the back spasms knocked me on my butt. As for Maya, she started to get sick later in the week. She was extremely lethargic and by this Monday wasn’t eating at all. By Tuesday night, her breathing was way off. Honestly, I was scared she wasn’t going to make it through the night.

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Fortunately, our girl is resilient. I was able to get some prednisone and appetite stimulants from the vet to help relieve her symptoms and get her to eat. The medicine started to work slowly. Once it kicked in, I fed her everything I could find. She was starting to look extremely emaciated. By Thursday, her appetite was improving. I made her homemade dog food with rice, chicken, and carrots, which she loved. Thursday night, after we ate, I used the carcass of the butterflied chicken to make homemade chicken broth for her. She loved it! I’ve since made it two more times for her. It’s a great way to get her some nutrients and also to entice her to eat. We also give it to the younger dogs as well.

Here’s the recipe:

Homemade Chicken Broth for Dogs
1 chicken carcass and bones (A store-bought rotisserie chicken works really well.)
4-5 carrots
Enough water to cover the chicken and bones

Steps:
1: Add chicken bones and carrots to the pot and cover with water.
2: Bring broth to a boil
3: Simmer on low for at least 1 hour. I prefer to simmer the broth for at least 4-5 hours
4: Allow the broth to cool before preparing to store it. I’ve been storing the broth in a pitcher, so it’s easy to pour into her bowl.

I don’t add onions to the broth as they’re not good for dogs. If I was making it for the family, I’d add both onions and celery to the pot.

On that note, I have to go finish the incomplete batch of broth I started earlier today. Then I’ll pack up the latest batch of fresh chicken broth!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky

*Ran a mile and a half and walked a mile while watching Curb and listening to music. I was going to run two miles, but my knee was not having it.

* I made brownies, cooked dinner and cooked the dogs some fresh chicken broth. It was a productive day in the kitchen.

*I’m reminisced about becoming a dog mom today.

*I listened to my dogs’ bark with great urgency at the lizard outside our patio…. Sorry guys, they’re not a threat. Oh yes, becoming a dog mom has its moments.

*Today’s word of the day is patiently. I learned that part of becoming a dog mom was waiting patiently for them to finish their business.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies and mosquitos?