Minnie is back to herself, energetic and cheerful. This morning when she came in she was very excited, and I sat on the daybed with her for a little while and petted and praised her. Much of the time she appears to be walking normally; you have to look closely to see she’d favoring the injured leg. I am optimistic she will not need the surgery and soon she’ll be back to where she was before, or very close, and I’ll be able to take her on our regular, long, 3-mile walks. Although I’m enjoying them alone; without her I can do the walk in 100 minutes or so on good days.

Minnie gobbles treats and cheese and rotisserie chicken with gusto, but turns away from her regular kibble and canned food. She doesn’t even eat peanut butter, which she previously jumped for joy over. She is barely eating since Wednesday. I talked with the vet about Minnie not eating her kibble and canned food, and also got comments on Reddit and Facebook. My conclusion is that Minnie is playing mindgames with me, as she did when she was a puppy, and holding out for better food. So from now on I’m a tough guy; we are back to the normal routine, modified for current circumstances: Glucosamine treats and a cheese ball containing her anti-inflammatory pill in the morning, and kibble in the morning and evening. If she doesn’t eat the kibble, she doesn’t eat. We’ll give that a couple of days and see how it goes. 📓