Eat!

Day 30 or 31 of SOLC!  We are almost at the end of March.  Seems hard to believe.  We still have plenty of snow here in Maine.  It is supposed to rain today, so that may be the end of it...hopefully.  But it always snows sometime in April - often when the daffodils are up.  I've seen snow in June, too; but that is less likely to happen.

But what was I talking about?  Oh, yes.  My grandson.  Who cares about spring?

It was his job to feed the dog.  He would pick up the dog's bowl, bring it to the closet where the food was stored to set it on the floor.  Then he'd unzip the bag of dogfood and scoop out food.  This was a bit tricky, as he couldn't get a full scoop, so I had to watch and see what fraction of a scoop it looked like, so I could tell how many were needed.  It was usually 3, sometimes 4.  After he'd put about the right amount in the dog's bowl, he'd zip the bag, close the door and bring the bowl over to the dog's eating area again.

Then would come the difficult part.  Getting the dog, who is on pins and needles waiting for the command to eat, to eat.
He would go across the room and say, "Food!"
That would be great if that were the command to get the dog to eat.  But the command was "Eat!"
So I'd whisper to him ( so the dog wouldn't take it as a command), say "Eat".
And he'd whisper, "Eat."
"No, say it loud."
"Eat the food!" he'd whisper.
"Say it louder,"  I'd encourage.  " Say "Eat!"" I said, just a bit louder.
Now the dog thinks I just gave the command, and I had to pull her back.
"Eat the food!" he says just a bit louder.
I released the dog to the food.  It was too much for her.

By the last day, he got the idea.
"Eat the food!"  he yelled.
I'm so happy for the dog.