I LOVE Nutella. I blame my friend Allison's husband Scott for turning me onto Nutella on the Saltine...even better than straight off the spoon. It's the perfect mix of sweet and salty. I was hooked right from the first crunch. For a while I kept a jar in my car along with a Lexan butter knife. The empties were beginning to pile up. One time I had gotten the big jar on sale...you know the one, its twice the size of the little one and twice as naughty.
Naughty? Yeah it's full of sugar but disguised and marketed as healthy. Well, since they say its healthy it's ok to eat a ton of it, right? Sssuuuuurrrrreeee...you tell yourself that you naughty person you. Good one. Anyway, one day I had failed to adequately clean my butter knife and it fell on the floor of my van. Still being all Nutella-ey and sticky, it acquired all sorts of who knows what on it when it hit the floor...dirt, dog hair, spilled coffee, bits of Cool Ranch Dorito residue... what have you. So, with my knife dirty and me the one who hates doing dishes, it never got washed and the half-eaten jar of Nutella got forgotten. So did the knife. They both got buried underneath empty envelopes and discarded mail, more dog hair and more Cool Ranch Dorito residue. It lived there for months and since it should not be refrigerated I was OK with that. One of these days I'd dig it up for a snack if I ever had a clean knife.
In my ages-long struggle to help my dog sleep at night and keep him from pacing and panting, I've tried lots of things. I am pretty broke financially most of the time so going to the vet is kind of out of the question. My back-up plan? Facebook. Lots of folks suggested that panting might mean he was in pain. Some swear by aspirin for pain, others say NO aspirin NO WAY and suggest Rimadyl. I can't afford Rimadyl because that will inevitably bring with it a bunch of tests and x-rays and an enormous vet bill. What to do? My sleep was seriously becoming affected as Jake would pant and pace for hours usually between 2 and 6am. He'd flop himself down on the floor and three seconds later he'd be up to find a new spot. Sometimes it would be right next to my head and he'd pant loudly in my ear. All. Night. Long. I was beginning to go crazy and I was willing to try anything. A good friend had had a cookout for her birthday and invited another friend whom I had never met before. He and I got to talking about ourselves and our lives and with it being at the forefront of my mind at the time, I brought up my pacing dog. I told him how I suspected he may be in some arthritic pain or something. He mentioned that he had recently helped an elderly dog of his with cancer sleep soundly at night with the use of liquid cannabis extract. My ears perked up and they turned to listen. The more he talked the more my eyes lit up with hope and I leaned in, "Do you think it would work for Jake?" He said one tiny drop and the dog would sleep all night long. Sold! He said he still had some left and would be happy to sell it to me in hopes of helping my 12 1/2 year old Jake. I was eager to try it and followed him to his house after the gathering to make the purchase. Just before bed, I got the dropper ready and squirted one...maybe two little drops into his mouth. Turning his head away, he didn't seem especially thrilled with the taste...here, have a biscuit to wash it down. Wouldn't you know...that dog of mine slept ALL. NIGHT. LONG. and I was ecstatic! Not one pant. Not one flop. Not one tiny little pace! In the morning we got up all refreshed and bouncy and headed first to the dog park and then to my residential life at Starbucks. Being a chilly day, I left Jake in the van where he is most comfortable and I went inside to read and use the Internet, instead of grabbing our usual dog-friendly spot on the patio. A couple of hours later I went out to check on him and he was passed out cold with a big goofy grin on his face. His head barely twitched when I opened the sliding door. There on his bed tucked between his arms like a snuggly Teddy Bear was that damn jar of Nutella! He had unearthed it from the depths of its months-long home on the Third Level, a term used to describe the state of my bedroom as a teenager. The lid was broken off in two pieces and the sides of the jar licked crystal clear. The only part that wasn't licked clean was a thin layer at the very bottom just out of tongue's reach. Coincidence? I think not...damn dog had the munchies!! Well...I guess I couldn't really blame him...I mean...who doesn't love Nutella? I can just imagine him jonesing for a snack and finally finding something at the bottom of the pile, popping the lid off with one snap of the jaw. Later I discovered he had also eaten an entire sleeve of saltines that he found on the front seat...I guess he likes sweet and salty too. With it being dirty though, I don't think he used the butter knife. Damn dog. Well...he's my damn dog and I can't help but love him, munchies and all. I seem to have accidentally deleted the pics taken from that day but here's a similar one.
We tried several more times with the drops but they never worked again like they did that first night. And then it occurred to me...they hadn't worked then either. That had been the first night he was back with me after a week spent at At Play With Sparky...our favorite kennel/daycare (and the Best in Asheville) while I spent a week in Florida. He was simply worn out and slept like he always does after being At Play With Sparky. All the drops did was give him a raging case of The Munchies and deplete my Nutella supply. :)
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