The Green Bean Diet and a Dog Named Turnup

Her name is Turnup, because she "turned up" at someone's house, many years ago, and they decided to let her stay. But I think her name should be Turnip, because that's what she looks like. Short and really, really round. And I mean round. She was given to me as a foster dog because I'm good at getting dogs to lose weight. I don't seem to be very good at getting myself to lose weight, but boy am I good at it with dogs.

It all started with Boomer, a beagle with a heart of gold, but that heart of his wasn't going to make it many more years if he didn't drop 15 pounds. Which I'm proud to say he did. Poor thing got turned in to us at our dog rescue 'cause his family's house went into foreclosure. My only guess is that if they were suffering financially, they must've stopped buying dogfood at some point, and started feeding him table scraps. HE WAS ROUND. When he first moved in with me, he could barely climb the stairs. He couldn't jump up on the sofa, much less the bed. And when we went to the dog park, he gave me a look that said, "are you crazy? You think I can run?"

But fortunately for Boomer, he liked green beans, and that's the best thing there is for rotund pooches, no pun intended. So he went on the famous green bean diet, and the pounds started to drop. It was so successful, I told Todd that maybe we should both start eating the green bean diet. And you know what? Boomer started bounding up the stairs in my house. He was able to jump on the sofa. And one day, he picked up a ball at the dog park, and brought it to me. And when I threw it, and he ran and fetched it, and brought it back to me, and ran again, I almost fell over. Boomer was ready.

Boomer found a loving family who takes him on walks all of the time and spoil him rotten. Just not with treats. So when a man called our dog rescue and said his momma had Dementia, and could we help with her dog, we said yes. And when we saw Turnup, we knew what had happened. Momma wasn't remembering she'd already fed Turnup, so she fed her again. And again. And again. And Turnup, being the gracious dog she is, wasn't going to "turn-up" her nose at any food given to her. So once again we've got the rotund pooch problem. Now it's back to the store to stock up on the green beans.