This morning Asbjørn went into the vet’s office for a shot and came out with a weight loss plan.

Apparently I’ve been denial or something about his weight, and maybe I still am, a little, but he just doesn’t look that fat to me. Sure, he’s solid, but obese? I wouldn’t have said so myself, but the scales don’t lie and he’s tipping those babies at a hair over 40 kilos (that’s just this side of 90 pounds, boys and girls). According to the vet, he shouldn’t weigh more than 30 kilos (66 pounds) and ideally a little less, which means that he needs to lose a third of his body weight.

So, we signed him up for canine Weight Watchers and got a few pamphlets and whatnot, along with an outrageously expensive bag of “Satiety Support” diet dog food (hmm, special food? I guess it’s more like canine Jenny Craig) and strict instructions not to give him anything, anything, other than this food until he’s back at a normal weight (and probably not even then, come to think of it).

That’s going to be the hard bit, actually, partly because I like to give him treats, but mostly because we’ve got four kids who drop food all over the place and we’ve gotten used to having the “canine vac” at our disposal at all times. This will be an adjustment for all of us, I’m afraid. I hope we’re up to the task.