Stop Eating Poop

Ferris is a great dog. He’s definitely making things more interesting around the household in more ways than one. One way I wish were a little less interesting was the way he keeps making us take trips to the vet. We’ve had three vet visits (of the non-scheduled variety) in the two months he’s been with us, and he’s been on two rounds of drugs to solve various issues he’s had. Issues that really, when you get down to it, stem from one basic habit of his:

He likes to eat poop.

I know this isn’t unique to Ferris. That in fact, most dogs think poop is the bee’s knees and would eat it much more often if they could. That still doesn’t make me less frustrated when we have to shell out another hundred on pills that could have been avoided if he’d just lay off the brown stuff. It seems so clear to me. Why can’t he just follow that one obvious rule?

Of course, then I was eating some of Denisa’s apple cobbler she made last night, and a bit of it fell on the floor. Without thinking twice about it, I picked it up and ate it. After I was already chewing, it occurred to me that my floor is far from a sanitary surface. That Ferris literally walks through poop all the time, and that he walks all over that kitchen. That there’s no telling what germs I’d just popped into my mouth.

As soon as I’d made that connection, many other connections snapped together in my mind. Things I do and say (and eat) that I really shouldn’t, even though I know better.

Why is it so hard for us to stop doing the things that hurt ourselves, even when we know those things are hurtful? Over my staycation, I took a break from my diet. Because of that, I felt sick to my stomach most of the staycation. Yes, I got to eat a whole bunch of delicious food, but I ate too much of that delicious food. Denisa told me not to do it. I did it anyway.

I’m getting better in some areas. I don’t stay up as late. I get regular amounts of sleep. I exercise. But there are still definitely areas where I keep eating poop, no matter how many times everyone reminds me that poop is bad for me and will lead to long term problems.

I know this is just a variation on a theme I’ve written about many many times before, but that’s probably because it’s a lesson I (clearly) need to keep learning to master. What is the poop you’re currently eating? The first step to stopping is acknowledging that it’s poop, and not really anything of value. Once you can recognize that, you’ll be much closer to giving that particular type of poop up . . .

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