Sammy Story 6: Drinking alone

In an effort to get the little guy to drink more, I placed three dishes of water on each floor, so he could be encouraged to drink.

He did.

But only at night.

No matter where he drank, it was seldom during the day. I even hooked a large birdie drinking dish onto the inside of his kennel. We would hear him vacuuming up the water during the night and in the morning, if I wasn’t quick enough to get him outside for a pee, we would have an accident.

Also, I was concerned that his licking himself might actually be him taking care of business, afraid to make a mess. M said he was used to eating his own feces when he was in the shelter he was rescued from. So we abandoned that idea.

Even though it broke my heart to see him nose around our shower at night looking for water, when he was in the bathroom with me, I had to train him to drink from one spot in the kitchen. I figured he would drink eventually, and he did—when The Ogre went to bed!

When we settled into watching TV at night, I would break off earlier and earlier to go upstairs so he could eat and drink, and that worked out okay. As long as I was with him, and The Ogre was not in sight, it was safe to eat and drink.