ARE YOU SMARTER THAN...

There's a quiz show on TV, "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" I'm sure I'm not.

At our house this week we're creating a new game show, "Are You Smarter Than Your Dog?"

The larger of our 2 inside dogs has had some sort of intestinal disturbance for the past 4 days. First two days brought lovely, SMELLY diarrhea in the middle of the night...on the carpet. Dear sweet hubby (dshubby) cleaned it up both times without even awakening me. Needless to say, that triggered a visit to the friendly local vet on Monday!!!

First Cathye and dshubby explained the situation to the vet. Next the vet said it didn't sound good because of the color of the ... ummmm ... deposits. So he prescribed 4 pills for Sable (the 20 pound patient). 4 pills is not a problem; 4 pills, 3 of which are the size of a pill for a horse, are!!!

For years Sable has taken her morning pills in a bit of bread, so that should work. I carefully wrapped the pills in little pieces of bread. First couple of pieces went down fine. But no such luck with the last 2 pieces. The bread went into the mouth...the bread came out. Ah ha thinks I. If I crush them, she will scarf it right down. YEAH, RIGHT! We did finally manage to get enough down for it to be acceptable.

To make a long story short (you're welcome!), since bread failed on Monday night, on Tuesday morning I called the vet. Try lunch meat. Sable loved the bologna...hated the pills. By crushing them we once again got enough down to be acceptable.

I dreaded the nighttime round. But...I made little bologna sandwiches for her (so I could "hide" the pills in the bread), and she was happy as a lark.

Ah ha... JOY...I have found the secret. Wednesday morning. Bread & bologna in...pills out on the floor. Another call to the vet. Try peanut butter; try crushing them. Ahhhhhhhh...why didn't I think of that!!!! Crush pills...mix with peanut butter...first two bites are great...last one is spit on the floor. Again...enough to be acceptable in my humble opinion. But now she's "on to" my peanut butter trick.

I'm out of options (except, of course, cramming it down her throat and holding her mouth shut); I'm NOT out of pills. So here I sit already dreading the evening doses.

Am I smarter than my dog? Uhhhh...that would be a negative.