Cassie is fat...again

It's no secret to anyone that Cassie is fat. We even met a couple in PetSmart the other day who had a border collie also and they said theirs looked just like Cassie and was also fat. Maybe it's Cassie's brother or sister.

But she's now gained back the 10 pounds we worked so hard for her to lose this past year. And it's my fault. I cracked a rib in mid-December and was out for the count for months. I just started walking the girls again regularly recently and couldn't even think about running with them until about two weeks ago.

But now I'm back to full speed, and Cassie is trying, poor thing.

Ironically, I received my very first marthastewart.com "Pet Happy" newsletter today in my inbox, and one of the articles is about "Fat Pets." The article says it's easy to tell if your dog is overweight:

"It's simple to determine if your pet needs to lose some weight. You should be able to feel the backbone and palpate the ribs in an animal of healthy weight. If you can't feel the ribs without pressing, there's too much fat. Also, you should see a noticeable "waist" between the back of the rib cage and the hips when looking at your pet from above. From the side, there should be a "tuck" in the tummy -- the abdomen should go up from the bottom of the rib cage to inside the thighs."

Well, Martha's reporters pretty much described what we're looking at with Cassie. Can't feel the ribs. No waist, she goes straight from back to hips. I'm not really sure about the "tuck" in the tummy, cause she has so much long hair under her belly, but I would suspect, it's not there.

There are other tips in the article, but it's nothing we didn't know before. We need to be more diligent with her diet dog food, and amp up the exercise. We did it before and she lost 10 pounds. And we'll do it again.