Story 69: Olympic Eater

What was the cause of Laika's endless amounts of gas? I asked a magic 8-ball if it was due to the speed at which she ate her food. The answer was, "All signs point to yes." So, there you have it. Science at its most scientific. But, in all seriousness, saying that Laika "ate" is not really the proper verb, because that would have meant that she took the time to chew, which wasn't always the case!

So, Laika inhaled her food. As a puppy, she would wait by her bowl with eyes wide and tail flailing in anticipation of her meal. As soon as the bowl touched-town, she would fly into a legitimate feeding frenzy! In less than 20 seconds, every last morsel of the dry food would be gone and she proceed to lick the bowl until it fell on the ground (more on this tomorrow).

One of my friends came over to visit shortly after I started taking care of Laika and he could not believe the rate at which she consumed her meals. After she was done, it honestly looked as if there had not been food in the bowl. Given that she was eating dry food, she was most likely ingesting a lot of air as well. This was definitely the cause for her massive amount of exhaust from both ends, which she proudly released at will!

In order to curtail any type of damage to her system, I started elevating her bowl and moistening her food with water in later years to slow her down. Still, even after surgeries and at times when I thought she was down for the count with treatments, she continued her gluttonous ways by consistently pushing Olympic-level times for speedy consumption.

For Laika, eating was life. And, therefore, gas was life, too! If there had been an eating competition for pups, I have no doubt that she would have won. In fact, sometimes she ate so quickly that I forgot if I had fed her. Worrying that she would be starving, I would inevitably feed her again. Obviously, this was not a problem for her and she would eat round 2 with the same gusto! I secretly believe that she tried to get this bonus meal more times than not!

Laika was, therefore, a true Olympic eater. But her skill of cleaning her own bowl would have also wowed the international judges...

I like this photo a lot. I have no photos of Laika eating, which is not so weird. According to my parents, there was no camera fast enough to capture it!