Rush Fan?

Not so long ago, I mentioned that my canine companion was depressed. The changes in her behavior had come about gradually, but they had finally reached the point where they demanded notice. Despite being fed less than every guide said a dog her size should eat, she was still gaining weight. She was sad. She needed help to crawl up into the floorboard of the Jeep. She had no real interest in walks. A run was out of the question--she couldn't keep up for a hundred yards; whereas, she once drug me along for a mile or two. We'd had her on thyroid medication for a very short while a few years back, but my not-canine companion's verdict was that it made her crazy (the dog, mostly), so we stopped administering it. It was now clear though, that something had to be done.

So, last week I took her (the dog) back to the vet, confirmed that she did have a low thyroid condition, and decided to try again with the medication, but at half the dose of last time.

Wow. She's been on the meds for a week. Already she has more energy and less mass and seems to be converting one to the other at about the rate of a controlled nuclear reaction. She is still big for her breed, but every day she looks a little more like Dwayne Johnson and less like Chris Farley. You could have knocked me over with a feather the other day when I opened the door to the Jeep and instead of needing to help her in, she leapt from the ground to the seat. And on walks now, she's back to leading the way.

She's a little more hungry though. She's begun to show an interest in every Chihuahua and squirrel that she sees, but I realized this morning there could be another explanation for that. When I leave for work each day, I turn on the radio to give her the sound of human voices during the day. For a while it was NPR, then classic rock, then country. But a few weeks ago, I changed her daily radio diet to an FM talk station here in town. Now she gets a steady flow of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, some guy named Schnitt, etc.

This morning it hit me. She may not see those small animals as food after all--maybe she just thinks they're all illegals and tree huggers.