Milestones: My dog, my car, and 6 years of living meat-free
My dog Sheldon has been going through underwater treadmill therapy since November, because his muscles atrophied after separate surgeries on both cruciate ligaments last year. In other words, his legs are fixed, but he’s too weak to hold his weight for more than a couple of minutes. (In fact, by the time he was supposed to walk after the second surgery, he couldn’t stand up at all, except in the water tank.) But by the time I posted this, he is definitely getting stronger, and does real well on the treadmill. He can walk a little on his own, and can run if motivated. For example, he ran twice to the exit when the therapist (pictured in the link above) came to meet us. And this past weekend, he ran from the front of the house to the garage, after some cat(?) that was ready to pick a fight with mine. He probably ran 90 feet down the driveway! (But he doesn’t know he can do that. And I try not to call it to his attention by saying something distracting like “Look at that!”) These two pictures are of him walking a stretch of about 17 feet on his own.
He has also lost a lot of weight on his “green bean diet”, at the therapist’s suggestion. Since he wasn’t burning many calories for a few months, they wanted me to limit him to a 1/2 cup of dog food (of my own choice — especially post-recall) along with as many green beans, or carrots, as he wants. When I’m cooking his beans, I have to hold some out, to break into pieces for him to try to catch. I think it’s pretty funny that he likes his beans!
He’s less than a pound away from his goal weight, but could afford to lose a little more.
Today, my odometer reached 100,000 miles. I didn’t have to worry too much about trying to get a picture, while driving down the tollway, because I pretty much sit in gridlock.
I think today is another milestone. I think it was on 5/6/2001 that I went vegetarian, and soon after, vegan. So today marks the next year of living proof that a person doesn’t need meat, or other animal products, to be healthy-enough to continue for the rest of my life. (I’d be healthier, if I’d make it a point to get more sleep, drop a bad habit, and generally take better care of myself. But that has nothing to do with diet.)
In all fairness, I thought I should post a picture of my cat, Emmanuel, too — partly because he has “more stripes than any cat deserves”. Look at those “chicken legs”!
