I got home from work just over an hour ago. Kim and Jay are at his basketball game and Nick's on day two of his job at Ledo's. So, Kim had asked me to feed the dogs. They usually are fed around 5PM so I'm sure they were in a tizzy wondering what was going on and why they hadn't had their dinner yet.
In any event, before I even had my coat off, I got their food in their bowls. Here's what's happened in the one hour since then.
6PM: I put food in the dog bowls.
6PM - 6:05PM: Ginger hurriedly rushes back and forth between her dinner bowl and the kitchen, nervously peering over her shoulder at all times to ward off any potential threats to her dinner. Of course, she doesn't actually eat anything so I have to stand guard and make sure Wally doesn't steal her food while she's running around like the schizo dog that she is.
6:05PM - 6:06PM: I get tired of watching Ginger run back and forth and decide to put my lunch container in the dishwasher.
6:06PM - 6:07PM: Wally's all done and Ginger's food is now gone. I let them both outside.
6:07PM - 6:10PM: While the dogs run around outside, it hits me that Wally probably ate Ginger's food while I was at the dishwasher.
6:10PM - 6:15PM: Ginger comes back to the patio door and I let her in the house. She immediately runs back to the dinner bowls looking for more food. What is wrong with her? Does she really think that one of these times we're going to put more food in the bowls? I mean, has it ever happened before? Why would we start now? She licks her bowl and then runs over and licks Wally's, too. She repeats this several times, stopping every once in a while to whine at me.
6:15PM: OK, I'm now pretty sure that Wally ate Ginger's food. So, I give her a small handful of food just in case. Then I let Wally back in the house.
6:16PM - 6:30PM: I eat my dinner. Ginger stares at me the whole time with sad eyes while Wally lays in his bed looking awfully content.
6:30PM - 6:40PM: I have dessert, which consists of one-half of a 10 ounce bag of Utz ripple cut potato chips (that would be 5 servings and 750 calories -- thank God for high metabolism). Ginger stands 5 feet away the entire time with her head cocked to the side just hoping that a chip will fall to the floor. Wally continues to lay in his bed. He has no interest in my food whatsoever. I'm more convinced than ever that he ate Ginger's dinner.
6:40PM - 6:50PM: I check e-mail. I leave the study, walk back into the family room and see that Ginger is curled up on the couch. That dog is crazy. She sees me looking at her, jumps down, and skulks away.
6:50PM - 6:55PM: I go upstairs and get changed. Ginger and Wally both follow me. Ginger whines several times while I'm changing. I brush my teeth and think about how terrible it is that she's going to go to bed hungry tonight.
6:55PM - 7PM: I take Ginger downstairs, turn on the faucet so that Wally can't hear what I'm about to do, and poor some more food in Ginger's bowl. She devours it.
Now, I'm thinking that one of us is really smart. Maybe I'm able to communicate silently with dogs and understood that her sad eyes were saying "Help, Wally ate my dinner and I'm still hungry." Or, maybe she was thinking "This guy's a sucker. He never gives us our dinner. I bet I can pull a fast one on him." A betting man would probably be wise to put his money on Ginger.