Obsession / Draculilly

Nowadays, Lilly loves her food, but it wasn't always the case.  When we got her she had been fed on dry dog food, and was an occasional grazer, not really bothered about eating.  After heading to PATS, a trade show for all things pet related, and chatting to a vet there, we changed her pretty quickly over to a raw food diet - Top Dog's complete dinners.

She eats with gusto, and it could be said she is a tad food obsessed, but her raw meat and veg dinners aren't the only thing she's a bit obsessed about.

Her next obsession is probably pretty normal for a dog, and the reason for her new 'also know as' name above - blood.

I'm not talking about the animal blood that comes along with her raw meat, no I am talking about the kind that no vampire could resist, the red stuff running through human veins.

As I've mentioned in the past, I am clumsy, and because of that I end up with grazes and cuts. Sometimes they are so small that I don't know they are there........but Lilly does!

Oh yes, the moment fresh blood flows her snout heads in its direction. Sometimes the only way I know I've cut myself is that I suddenly get a random lick, and then a few more for good measure.  It's not just me either, Damian has had the rather tickly sensation happen to him too.

It doesn't even have to be fresh. Damian cut his finger, washed off the blood and still she zoned in on the cut and it's microscopic residue.  I have this image in my brain that if I fall and get knocked out, and have even the tiniest cut on my finger, that I'd wake up with a dog attached to my arm sucking the lifeblood out of me, or I'd end up missing a finger or two.  She's so adorable that I don't think I'd probably mind either.

Next up is her obsession with chewing gum. No, she hasn't found an appreciation for a bit of Hubba Bubba bubble blowing, but she does have a really icky habit of routing out any recently spit out chewy, and snaffling it up before either of us can stop her.

This probably wouldn't be an issue if we didn't walk her in a park where there is a 5-a-side football centre. For some unfathomable reason the players there seem unable to walk a couple of feet to deposit their sticky gum in either of the two bins they have just outside the entrance to the fields, and so they just gob it straight onto the ground.

If you are one of those type of people don't do it, just don't, it's disgusting!

Recently, she also has developed another obsession involving munching.

She discovered a mouse hole in the park one day, and using her pointy nose and sharp claws managed to catch one. It's head succumbed incredibly quickly to her strong, half-Staffy jaws before we caught up. Sensibly, the mice have since moved on, but Lilly hasn't caught on to that fact, and every day we have to stop in that exact spot just to see if she can find another free lunch.

Lastly, and this infatuation is saved mainly for Damian.  She likes to lick him.

Don't get me wrong, I'm tasty too, but I don't let her do it to me that much, but Damian, now he is much more of a pushover.

It all started after they began play fighting together.

When they play she grabs his hand sometimes with her paws, and sometimes in her mouth in the lightest way, and when Damian has had enough he lets her gum his hand, signalling to her that the rough stuff is over.

One time her dew claws scratched him drawing blood, and with the earlier-mentioned red stuff craving, she licked it to clean him (don't worry, he washed it straight after), so over time the gumming moved on to an arm lick.

In the evening, if she sits with us on the couch, and she is facing Damian's arm it will get a tongue-washing for no other reason than she wants to, but a couple of nights ago she upped her game.

First up, she usurped Damian's place on the couch, so he ended up sat on the floor leaning against the couch. She then shuffled around so that her head was resting on his shoulder. It was soooooo cute. The next moment, I looked round and Damian's follicly-challenged head was receiving a bath. She must have thought he tasted really good as she kept on going whilst me'n'him were in fits of laughter.

Scientists have looked into it, and dogs do get gratification out of licking humans.  They do it to show affection, and it calms and comforts them because it releases pleasurable endorphins.

So basically Damian is Lilly's version of chocolate!  Yum!

Toodles 'til next month.