The Kate Moss of Bulldogges

As dogs are wont to do, Dorothy has several quirks:  for example, she hates plastic dinosaurs, she is incapable of dropping a frisbee once it is grasped in her jaws, and if you give her a table scrap, she has to let it touch every tooth before swallowing.  But the thing that I find strangest about Dorothy is that she does not care that much about food.  Since my pug, Tulip, lived to eat, I find Dorothy’s kibble nonchalance quite odd.  She’ll walk by her full food bowl many a time before deciding to eat a bit from it, and she will rarely eat more than half of her bowl ever.

Now she has a healthy appreciation for meaty foodstuffs that come from our table, so perhaps it is just that we have never found the right kibble for her?  The vet thought she might have food allergies at one point, and since we knew one of her biological sisters was allergic to fish, we cut that out of her diet.  As recommended, we gave her venison kibble (first Science Diet and now Natural Balance) and whereas she liked it at first, after a month she had had enough.  We switched to duck, which she really liked, but it made her start licking her paws.  And the other day we switched to a mix of Natural Balance venison and Natural Balance lamb.  The addition of the lamb kibble piqued her interest…but only for a week or so.  Now she is back to not eating much of it.  We’ve tried adding some Natural Balance wet food to the dry, but she will really only eat that when it is warm and fresh from the can; she doesn’t like it after it has been refrigerated.

And thus, she is skinny!  Looking at her I’m reminded of a quote from “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” when Mrs. Santa scolds Santa for not being plump, saying, “Who wants to see a skinny Santa?”  Exactly!  And who wants to see a skinny bulldogge!  It’s not right.  Here is Dorothy looking not unlike Kate Moss:

Dorothy thinking, Like Kate said, 

“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.”

I asked the vet about Dorothy’s weight at our last visit, and she thought Dorothy’s weight was ideal, but to be honest, I’m not quite sure that our vet – excellent though I think she is – really understands that Dorothy is not a pitbull mix but a pedigreed Olde English Bulldogge.

So I’m not sure what to do.  Should I continue serving her a kibble she only eats about a third of?  Should we try different foods?  Does it matter if she is ribsy?

Dorothy says:  my mom is just jealous of my hourglass figure.