11.02.2018

November 2, 2018

White Dog came in before Steve and told Nilla who was resting in my arms, "Don't worry, sister, I helped dad solve the problem."

It was pill time. Nilla is usually pretty tolerant of the process but earlier in the week decided she no longer cared for liver sausage, previously an irresistible cover for meds. I suspect she accidently bit into the pill hidden in the ground liver and the bitter taste has soured her love of it.

Cream cheese works about half of the time to mask the pills but we were out of the creamy whipped spread. Nilla is not a huge fan of peanut butter and she "mince" chews pills stuck in pieces of hot dog to sort out the caplet.

It was WD who stood in the open refrigerator door with Steve as they pondered options. And it was she who pulled the wedge of brie from the cheese drawer.

"Dad!" she excitedly exclaimed. "This is the perfect answer. It is rich and creamy and soft...and who can resist BRIE...even if it is only a DOUBLE crème!" Steve looked at her doubtfully. "Remember Sweet One, Nilla does not have your refined tastes." "Trust me, dad! This will work and she will be licking her lips after!"

Since Steve saw no better choice and needed to get to work, he buried the two pills in little balls of brie. He approached Nilla apologetically. "Nils, I hope you like this..."

He did not even finish his thought because Nilla sniffed, stretched her neck and snatched, albeit gently, the morsel from his fingers. And she DID lick her lips as she reached out again for the second pill.

Her normal followup reward are three small pieces of duck jerky...Nilla so loved the brie that she almost pushed the jerky aside.

White Dog was pleased with herself. "Told you so," she told Steve. "I hope we have not created another cheese snob," I told them. "We are going need to make a weekly purchase of five- pound wheels if the entire WDA decides to receive their meds in this fashion."