My Mom's Depressed Dog

I've been dog sitting for my parents since Thursday and I still have a couple more days to go.  I can't wait for it to be over.  Not for my sake but for my mom's dog.  He is ridiculously depressed and I don't think it is going to go away until my mom comes home.

When my parents pulled out of the driveway, Charlie (the dog BTW) was going nuts with his barking and whining.  He jumped on the furniture, ran to every window facing the driveway, and scratched at the door.  I wonder if he does this whenever my mom goes to work.  From what I can guess, he doesn't but maybe that is because my dad is here when she goes.  Anyways, the way he was freaking out, you'd think that he was being left behind forever.

Charlie isn't eating.  I've tried mixing some warmed up canned dog food with his dried dog food and he won't touch either.  He'll accept some scraps of my food but I want him to eat his own food.  I figured that he would have eaten his food by now, 3 days later but he still hasn't touched his bowl.  I gave in somewhat and cooked him up some bacon.  He still wasn't enthusiastic about it like he normally is.  If he could talk, I think he would say, "Meh, bacon?  Oh alright, I'll eat some of that."

Charlie also wasn't drinking until last night when I finally caught him sneaking in some gulps.  I've been changing the water in his bowl twice a day and I think it helped to put some ice cubes in there.  At least his drinking means I don't worry about him dying on me.

As I write this, he currently on the couch looking out toward the drive way.  He'll bark and growl whenever the neighbor dogs across the street become visible but mostly he just sits there and stares out.  Otherwise he is trying to get my attention and take him out for a piss.

There was one brief moment of excitement on Friday night when I took him outside at night, he took off toward the back shed.  I saw him disappear into the shadow and felt him strain at the end of the leash.  I heard a low hiss and I had the feeling he was sniffing out a cat.  I turned on the light from my phone and to my surprise, Charlie was about three feet away from a possum.  After yelling out some choice expletives, I pulled him away, leaving the possum to make a get away.  Good thing I didn't let him have more slack.