Up. Down. And all around.

Howdy blogaroos. Squirmy here for another Monday update. And the news is… not great.

The Coyote had a fabulous Friday – playing find the bunny with enthusiasm and energy. He ate a bit – but most importantly, seemed to be feeling pretty good. That all came crashing down at 3 AM Saturday morning, as the Tropical storm was starting, and he vomited what little he had eaten. Saturday he ate nothing. Maybe one biscuit. And his excitement about playing find the bunny was completely flat.

On Sunday morning, the Warden who was awake at 2AM, 4AM and 5AM when she finally got up, was seriously thinking about taking him back to the hospital. The storm was pretty much past us – except the winds were still blowing like crazy. The Coyote went for a short walk and would have been content to stand in the gale force winds for the rest of the day. The Warden let him take in all the amazing smells and then coaxed him back down the driveway and into the house.

When he came in, she called him for blueberry distribution- expecting that he would refuse – as he didn’t participate for the previous three days. But in typical unpredictable Coyote behavior, he wanted blueberries. AND bread. Go figure. Mid morning, he ate a little bit of chicken – which he hadn’t wanted in days. So the Warden’s hopes rose again.

Mid-afternoon, she decided to try something new – a bully stick. He took one sniff, grabbed it and ran out onto the deck to enjoy it in private.

The Warden ordered a pizza for supper – largely because she knows we ALL love pizza crust. Not so much the Coyote yesterday. He took a sniff and walked away. He ate nothing else during the day- despite her attempts to offer more bits of chicken, raw beef, dried liver, plain Greek yogurt (he DID take a single lick of that) and a variety of treats at different times throughout the day. The chicken hearts that were like candy the other day were like poison yesterday. The Warden tries different techniques to get him to eat – from patting him and cajoling him, to placing the food in front of him and not saying a word, to calling him and offering food- and nothing is working . IF she sees him looking for food (which doesn’t happen often), she nonchalantly offers the tastiest thing that is close. If she looks at ALL excited, he refuses the offer. I am not kidding about this.

Meanwhile we PONs are usually sequestered if there is any food being offered because he isn’t fond of our drooling. Not to mention we would attempt to steal anything he doesn’t want – and he doesn’t care. We are his clean up crew.

He is booked for bloodwork tomorrow at our old vet. We’ll see what happens from there.

The Warden grasps onto every little tiny bit of positivity – just as we are sure you do as well. For now, his behavior is stable – but he can’t really afford to lose much more weight. We’ll keep fighting the fight – and following his lead. He needs a double dose of positive energy and healing wishes and prayers. Right now he is ok… but we worry that at some point, ok will not be good enough. He needs to eat….

But before we close, we do have to add that although he is a bit more subdued, he IS acting like himself – he does go out and wander in the yard just as he always did, he joined in the chorus and sounded like Cujo when the Amazon delivery guy came last night, and he pulled and jumped into the car when offered the chance to “go for a car ride” to pick up the pizza. He IS still being HIM – and that’s really what we are wanting. But the “Picky Picard” (which we know is more than pickiness) really needs to change. Keep the prayers coming.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe. JBJ