Dogs Pounds

I read a lot of health magazines, blogs, news articles, scribbles on bathroom walls, etc.


I read somewhere once before that you can tell if you're out of shape easily if you have a pet. I doubt a hamster will do, but if you have a dog hypothetically you should be able to see if you're packing a little extra poundage if your dog has also gained weight. I guess the idea is that if your dog isn't working out you probably aren't either.

I don't know where I read this or what kind of science is behind it but of course I had to test it out.

This is my dog Julia Sugarbaker (aliases include Julie, Julie Girl, Juju, Lulu, Louis, Louie, Little Girl and "are you kidding me?!")

I talk about my dog a lot. Since I don't know many people here in California she is now my best friend as well as child. When we adopted her last January she weighed about 35 lbs and was just 9 months old.

We don't know really what she is but everyone has an opinion about it. This makes it hard to know what an ideal weight should be.

Here she is in her physical prime:

What an angel and admittedly she does photograph slim. 


Well I decided to see how much she's weighing these days. I weighed myself and then lifted her up and weighed us together. I should have known when I picked her up that she is not as light as she used to be!

At a little over a year and a half Julia weighs SIXTY ONE pounds.

Immediately my brain started spinning. WE ARE UNHEALTHY AND THE DOG KNOWS IT!


Not to mention yesterday we reordered some medicine for her and got judged for her being over 60 lbs. Hellllloooo! Muscle weighs more than fat! She might be big boned! She's retaining water!


My brain jumped to the first logical connection: Those massive overweight toddlers on Jenny Jones (tell me you remember her show. I hope she won an emmy or something for that because it was art!). 

Basically in my mind dog = child. Child = chunk-a-monk. Chunk-a-monk = Jenny Jones massive toddler mother. 


Is there a greater guilt? And don't worry about me fat shaming my dog on the internet. We talked about it. She's cool.


Needless to say, Julia is having longer walks these days. She's so lazy she immediately sits next to her water to drink it. You know, standing is hard y'all!

I would say this is a wake-up call but we already knew that we needed to change our habits. Now we know we really are in this together. Dog and all! I guess I'll start keeping track of her weight progress too. Sigh. 

If you do decide to go home and weigh your dog let me know how it goes. 

XO Andrea