February 28 - "This is Starting to be Fun"
28th February 2019
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
-Lao Tzu
Most everyone reading this, I'll bet, has set and achieved a major life goal. Earn a college degree, save up for a car or vacation, whatever. Earlier this year, Blue and I, with the help of my doctor, his veterinarian, and the staff and volunteers at the Humane Society of Summit County, set one of those for ourselves: drop 20% of our body weights, raise $5000 for the shelter, and find Blue a forever home, all before the end of the year.
Now that our first month is in the history books, how did we do?
The human - that would be yours truly - is down about 2%. That was a little disappointing considering all the miles Blue and I have walked and all the bad habits I left behind back in January. On the other hand, as my doctor told me, "Do that for 50 months, and you'll disappear completely. So just keep it up."
Funny guy.
Blue, on the other hand, stayed where he was. Being a dog, he didn't know enough to be discouraged. All he cared about was that he had taken some amazing Sunday morning hikes in 3 beautiful Summit Metro Parks: Deep Lock Quarry in Peninsula, Wood Hollow in Hudson, and Liberty Park in Twinsburg. In total, Blue and his human had put in nearly 10 miles and had climbed a total of close to 1000 feet.
More importantly, Blue had gone from, "Thanks, but I think I'd rather stay right here in the transport van. Have fun on your walk", to, "This is starting to be fun, as long as we go slow and you let me rest and sniff around as much as I want." (As you may remember, Blue weighs in at over 100 pounds. After some tough negotiating, I made a deal with him to let him do whatever he wanted on our walks.)
Now, if you hike regularly with your own dog, as I do, those numbers aren't especially impressive. On the other hand, for any shelter dog, much less a former couch-potato like Blue, getting more active is progress all by itself and has many benefits besides weight loss. Check our first blog post for more about that.
So, with all these changes, why didn't Blue lose any weight? The plain truth is, we don't know. But with help from Dr. Melisa Kauffman, HSSC's Shelter Veterinarian, and Kristin Branagan, Director of Animal Operations, we're going to spend the next 30 days figuring that out. Maybe we need to change Blue's diet. Maybe we need to reward good behavior differently. Maybe it's more volunteers getting involved in this project. Or, maybe it's something nobody's thought of yet.
Whatever it turns out to be, we'll update you right here in 2 weeks, and again at the end of March. Stay tuned.
Of course, what would help Blue more than all of this combined would be to find his forever home. As much as every HSSC employee and volunteer is on Blue's team, that can't compare with him being on yours, especially if you like being in the outdoors as much as Blue is starting to. If you want to learn more about that, give the shelter a call.
If that's not in the cards, let's not forget this is a fundraiser. Click the "Donate!" button if you want to help. Because even though Blue is eating healthier, he still eats a lot.
Thanks for following along, and see you in 2 weeks!
Ted
