Professional Dog Sitting for Otto: Medication, Care, and Comfort

This is Otto.

Otto is very cute.

Otto is also very fat.

(Sorry, Mom. He is. You said not to make fun of him… I’m not. Just stating facts. Though he may have acquired a few new size-related nicknames…)

Anyway, Otto is my mom’s dog, and they’re out of town for a few weeks. The poor guy has an eye injury that requires medication four times a day. And the cone.

Despite the eye issue, Otto is one of the easiest dogs in the world to dog sit. Second only to Cady. He’s laid back, easy going, friendly, playful, and–in typical Little Dog fashion–Velcro. He’s decided to adhere himself to John’s pantleg for this visit, trotting along behind him wherever John goes. Up to the office. Down to the coffee pot. Out to the garage. Back up to the office. Otto just prances behind John, waits wherever John sits/stops/settles, then prances behind him when he gets up again later.

In fact, as I type this, John had to leave to go to a meeting downtown, and Otto… well… he lost his pant leg.

Sorry, little one. It’s going to be a few hours…

The first night Otto came home with us, John weighed him: 24 pounds. He’s a very big little dog. We committed to dropping some of that weight off of him for the three weeks he’s here. Better portion control of his dog food. No people food sneaked under the table. More exercise.

That last piece–the exercise–has magnified beyond just walks and vigorous games with the rope toy because, who would’ve thought, Otto loves to chase Newt.

Poor Newt.

But here’s a funny side effect of Otto’s pursuit of the cat: She’s decided that Cooper is her defender. Today, he was chewing on an antler in the kitchen, and she was sitting behind him… because Otto was flinging his rope around. At night it’s more pronounced. As everyone settles in, she creeps closer and closer to Coop. {Sorry it’s blurry… I was trying to be stealthy and quiet so as not to disturb…}

And when Coop’s not around? Emmett’s the brother on deck!

And, yes, there’s been an awful lot of napping around here! I think throwing Otto into the mix has increased the amount of play among the troops 10 fold. Look at that pile of chew toys strewn about!

Of course, play hard… nap harder…

So, we’re going to stay focused on shedding some of his excess while preventing more Newt torment. He got here 10 days ago and weighed 24. Today he’s at 23. One pound doesn’t seem like much, but on a little guy, I’m chalking it up as progress. I think he goes home in roughly 10 days… think we can get another pound off of him?

With all this plus regular work and some other craziness, I’ve been distracted. I have a ton of really great stuff coming up, including an awesome book review and giveaway, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, I hope you’re having a wonderful week! Feel free to place bets in the comments on whether or not we can get Otto to drop at least another pound!!