Gunny here. Many of you are aware I am an older guy. In fact, I came to my forever home after several years and several temporary stops. These temporary stops were ok but now I hit the jackpot.

What do I mean? The people weren’t bad. But they didn’t understand how to really make me feel good. They did their best but my new home – they get it.

What I’m talking about: I haven’t seen that crunchy dry cereal since I made it to this house! And I’ve never been better!

It used to be I’d eat that dry stuff. It wasn’t horrible when they first opened the bag, but by the end, damn! Stale potato chips would be better.

Some days I’d have to convince myself to eat the food. I would take a bite from the dish and bring it over the carpet and eat it there. I don’t know why, but sometimes eating on carpeting just creates a better mental space to eat.

Anyway.

So what do I get now? Well it looks the same as what my people eat! Sometimes they do fun things to their food, doctor it up, cook it or grill it and add sauces and flavors, sometimes I even get to try those! Sometimes I get awesome raw food. It all makes me feel good.

They do give me a few rules. They’ve told me I’m not supposed to eat onions. Honestly, when I’ve tasted raw onion it’s not been very good. I usually spit it out. Grapes and raisins I don’t understand but I trust my people to know that they’re not good for me.

Chocolate though! What allure! And the people eat it like it’s amazing. And it smells amazing. This one, it’s tough to avoid. But they keep it away from me. It must be for my own good. I’ve heard there’s some other foods that are a problem, but my people are health food fanatics so I don’t think they have those artificial sweeteners in the house that I’ve heard kill other dogs.

Back to food and treats. My life got good at this forever home! Because, except for those few things I just mentioned, I eat real food. And like I said, I’ve never been better for it!

It used to be my coat was really greasy. And you just look at me , you don’t really think about how it feels. When I was greasy on the outside, I had the heebie-jeebies all day and night on the inside. Every day. I was tired too. I used to scratch and dig. All the time. I’d get corrected for it. Sometimes I would even chew my skin so hard that I’d make it bleed. Oh it felt so good at the moment I was chewing! But then I paid the price because they’d take me to the vet who’d give me medicines that made my skin better but made my stomach feel worse. Back to the carpet with that dry dog food.

My hair was always coming out. My ears smelled and were icky and wet. Sometimes, I’d scratch the inside of my ear with my back toe and get a giant glob of goo on my toe nail. It was just a constant feeling of being “off.” And my stomach didn’t feel good. All the time.

But those days are gone. It’s almost a faded memory. Now, my coat is shiny. My skin feels great. My ears feel free. Open. It’s awesome.

And there are things I didn’t even think about anymore. Those aches and pains, stiff joints, slow to get up, hard to lay down days I used to have – I didn’t realize that would change! But sure enough, when I started eating real food, I started to feel phenomenal! Like a pup rejuvenated.

Sometimes people still trick me. Like, I’ll go out somewhere with my people or go in the car and go to the drive-through at the bank, and they give me treats. It’s nice of them to think of me. Some of those cookies just don’t even smell good anymore. And honestly, they make my stomach feel a little upset. But it’s every now and then. And after we drive away my mom tells me not to worry, the effects won’t be critical. And she takes me home and gives me some goat milk or a bite of apple and I know I have it made.

So, like I said, this house is a great landing point. I hope all my dog friends and family get to be so lucky as to eat real food, hopefully all the time.

See, I’m not always a crotchety old dog!