Mom on Monday

Before another day goes by, we have to show you all the cards we have gotten in the snail mail - look at them!!!!

And they keep coming in every day. AND then there are all the beautiful e-cards and smilebox cards that we have also received. We think the last count was over 30 of those in addition to the ones shown above!!! We wish there were an easy way to share them with all of you. All we can say is a very big THANK YOU to everyone for the wonderful holiday cards. And we also have to thank Frankie Furter, The Feisty Three, and Sprinkles for organizing the holiday card exchange. It is the first time we have participated, and we are very glad that we did.

The Momster here today. I wanted to thank all of you so much for all the suggestions and ideas for getting Phantom to eat. I have been calling him Picky Boy for a while now, but it is probably a misnomer. He just plain doesn't want to eat. Some days I think he has an eating disorder. I did want to clear up a few things. Phantom is not on a diet of plain kibble. I have tried to feed him everything you can possibly think of. He does NOT like his food mixed with anything, so forget adding broth. I have tried sprinkling cheese, garlic, and small bits of tuna on his food. He won't touch it. If he is going to eat, the food has to be separated from anything else. One day he might eat chicken, another day he walks away from it. Same with any kind of meat I cook for him. For a while this fall he was doing pretty well with some raw organic chicken patties by Nature's Variety, and I really thought we had hit the jackpot. But now he will only eat a very small amount of it once in a while. We have tried probiotics and pepcid, but if it is IN or ON his food, he won't eat . If I try to give it to him as medicine, I have to put it down his throat and wait for him to swallow it, then he retreats to his crate because he gets so upset by it.

We have done tuna, sardines, liverwurst, rice, pasta, baby food, hot dogs, chicken, turkey, beef, cheese, yogurt, peanut butter, broth (he hates his food wet) . He won't eat potatoes. We have a buster cube, but forget that, he won't even try.

He really is a mystery. Most of you will look at his photos and say he looks great, but if you could touch him, you would probably report me for abuse. It is not very easy for me to touch him as he is just like a skeleton. Some days I can get him to eat treats, but I don't want him to live on treats. The vet tells me to give him whatever he wants to get him to eat. Ha - easier said than done.

He is scheduled for his annual physical in early January at which time the vet will most likely run another senior panel on him and check his numbers. In the meantime, I just keep trying to get him to eat. With his two malignant lumps, I can't help but wonder . . .

One other suggestion from a reader was more walks for him alone with just me. He and I walk together almost every day - he does LOVE his walks.

Today he was treated to a day at the spa. TD and Ciara go tomorrow. He came home looking pretty spiffy. What do you think?






The groomer is so good to him, treats him very gently and got him done by noon so he didn't have to stay all day. Let's hope he is hungry tonight.

The OP Pack Momster