Cats I Have Met Lately

It's funny how once you write a book about something, how it sticks in your head.  While writing My Fat Dog, I learned about a study that explored whether you could improve a dog's smarts by feeding him better food and giving him small, structured challenges.  The results were good, even among the dogs who started out as, um, below average.  Feed a beagle antioxidant rich food and make him strain his brain, and he'll respond just like the Tin Man receiving his Doctor of Thinkology.

We're good about the first part.  Every morning Jeff gets up and delights our dog with a different melange of dry food, fruits, veggies, omega 3-rich fish, complete with snappy patter and dramatic pauses.  I swear he has a cooking show in him.  And I'm kind of good about the second part.  I love to train Faith, especially on the street.  It is, I admit, for her good, and also to show people that AmStaff mixes can be, often are, the best dogs in the world.

But her walks, lately, had gotten kind of rote, because of the heat:  3 blocks to the closest park, some squirrel sniffing, and 3 blocks back.  But I felt a little lax. I don't want my dog's brain to shrink, and I haven't taught her how to do crossword puzzles. 

So this week, with the fall air crisp and sunny, we headed down to Pier A, which borders the glorious Hudson River. It's big and grassy and breezy: one of the true rewards of living in Hoboken. I do urban agilty with Faith down there, having her squeeze through empty bike racks, and wiggle through some wacky statues.   Faith was most interested, however, in a homeless woman sleeping on a bench.  She kept heading towards the woman, which surprised me. Faith's usually very respectful of people in that situation, and gives them their space...so I was curious.  So I let her lead me there.

And then I saw it: a lovely white cat sitting in the duffel bag next to the woman, with a bowl of food, sitting untouched in front of her.   The white cat didn't even LOOK at Faith.  Her eyes were all for her sleeping mistress.

To be continued....   

 

Comments

[Martha Garvey]

Many thanks!

[Lea Go]

Greetings,

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field. well, you made just did a great job..more power!

sincerely,
Lea Go
Dog Containment Systems