Happy Hope Day!

Today is the observed birthday of our sweet and furry "daughter" Hope! We don't actually have any idea when Hope was born--neither the year nor month--but we celebrate on August 22 because it was two years ago today that she came home to be our foster dog (you can read the long story on how that came to pass here). At the time, the shelter staff guessed her to be 5-7 years old, but after we got to know her a little more we decided she was closer to five, which means that this year we're celebrating her 7th birthday, even though she really could be anywhere from 6 to 10 years old!

When we brought Fresco home, Hope initially acted much younger than her 7 or so years, because she was SOOOO into wrestling and playing with him. The fact that she wears out fairly quickly definitely makes her seem older--that and the fact that recently she's put on a TON of weight! We had increased her food intake back March when she dropped so much weight during her chemotherapy, and just in the last few weeks we noticed that she was starting to get some love handles. We reduced her food back to the pre-chemo amount, but it certainly hasn't helped at all--in fact, in the last couple of weeks she's been looking downright obese! We can't decide if it's just because we're comparing her to the super skinny Fresco or if she really is continuing to put on weight. When I took her (and the other dogs) out to Chad's softball game last night, several people even commented that she was a hefty girl! I'm thinking maybe it's the new glucosamine tablets that I've been giving her and Celtic that might be adding the extra calories to her diet, so I'm going to cut those out and see if she (and Celtic) don't drop a few pounds. Either way, our chunky girl's definitely not getting any extra snacks for her birthday! :)