Animal, Party of Four.... um, three?

[captainsblog]

The morning feeding routine has changed markedly in the past few weeks.  Until recently, all four furry forms would be in my face, with varying combinations of paws and tongues, beginning anywhere around 4:45 and reaching a complete feeding frenzy if I didn't get up and feed them by 6 a.m.  The pup de grace was, almost always, a black-and-red tongue-licking from Ebony, our Lab-sharpei mix who's the youngest and sweetest of the bunch.

For who knows what reason, though, that's changed since about a month ago. Most mornings, I have to call to her, once the other three have worked me over, to get her interested in coming to the kitchen for kibble. She never fails to eat, eventually, and the hardest part of it all is keeping the other three out of her bowl while she dawdles around, but this morning, I finally got into the rhythm of the whole business: feed other dog, take cat fud to cellar for those two, call Ebony, either let her out with Tasha (her usual preference) or feed her while the other dog goes out, check email and such while they're killing each other in the back yard, let one or both back in, lather, rinse, repeat.

Oddly, when Emily feeds her at dinnertime, she hasn't changed a bit, and in every other respect, she seems fine and her usual self. Maybe she's just bored by two servings a day of the same old stuff.

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Rumors of our returning winter turned out to have been greatly exaggerated. Since the weather here always seems to be a month behind, consider last night's post to be something of an April Fool. By me or on me, I'm not sure which.