Our July Newsletter is brief....summer is here, and we need to be out more with the dogs! There's just not enough time to do that and to sit at the keyboard. So, just a few quick reminders.....July 4th celebrations and fireworks can be frightening to your dog. Shelters are overrun with strays during the holiday, many of whom ran frantically away from the noise and confusion of the celebrations.....Don't leave your dog in a locked car even for a few minutes when the sun is strong and the temperature outside is high.....even with the windows cracked! Temperature inside a car sitting in the sun climbs into a fatal zone within minutes.

When the Senior Dogs Project adopted Jazzmine, she was almost eight years old and weighed a hefty 90 lbs. To see her walk, you would have taken her for a huge bowl of jello, shimmering and shaking with every step. We slimmed her down to a nice 75 lbs. within about three or four months, and she looked great. She had lots of energy and the "jello effect" was negligible.

Four years later, she was now 12 years old, and we began to notice that Jazzie was "slowing down" and having a harder time getting up the stairs. We attributed it mostly to aging. However, we also began to see the "jello effect" again. We hadn't weighed her in about six months, and she was due for a visit to the vet, and that was when we discovered she had gained almost 10 lbs.!! (It was the big brown eyes and a new nutrition program that did it.)

Jazzie has been back on a diet and is now approaching her trim 75 lb. "fighting" weight. Not only is there no more evidence of jello, but she is walking better, climbing the stairs more easily, and has lots more "get-up-and-go."

The moral of this story is: Keep track of your senior dog's weight and keep him trim. It will keep him younger longer, more mobile, more energetic, and happier.