Meanwhile, Riley has his own private traumas

Debbie the dogwalker has been busy in law school, so it had been a while since she'd seen the Boyz. She came by yesterday to give Riley a walk and some attention while Boscoe was at his all-day vet appointment, and she left the following note: "Is it my imagination, or is Riley starting to look pudgy? I noticed it right away ... "

I looked at him critically. By golly, I think she's right!  Riley, the Wild Boy, the leash puller, the zoomer-up-trees, the mighty squirrel chaser, has started to pack on a few.  (Doug says, huffily, "That's just his winter coat!" But we all know better.)

I think the problem is that the walks have gotten so slow these days, and so much shorter, because of Boscoe (here Boscoe interjects, Sure, blame the border collie!) that Riley's not burning off the calories. I know this is true for, ahem, myself, who continues to gain weight at the one and only time in my life when people are actually looking at me.

So we'll cut back on Riley's rations a bit and hope that does the trick.  We do try to give him longer walks on the weekends, but you know Riley--he is so damn bonded to Boscoe that he doesn't want to walk without him, and won't go very far.

When I got home from work last night, Riley was all alone in the house. He kind of crept up to me, tail tucked, and slunk out into the yard. Lonely boy Missed his brother. A few minutes later, he heard Doug's Jeep, and oh man did he perk up. Raced back into the house. Stood up at the front window, tail wagging like mad, watching Boscoe trundle up the steps. Ran at top speed out into the yard and sniffed and jumped and wagged and raced with happiness. And there is no happiness like the happiness of a happy dog.

Boscoe watched him, took a long pee, said with his eyes, Nice to see you, too, Kid.  And then I gave them their dinner. Heaping piles of food for trembly old one. Reduced rations for the little fat one.

ps: Another possible reason for Riley's weight gain: Too much time on the computer. He has a new blog entry.   I have no idea what it means. Very mysterious.