Dogs can be many things to many people: Companions…confidants…weight-loss coaches? That’s what Bob Kirkley of Brooklyn discovered when his terrier Buddy packed on the pounds.
The 6-foot retired EMT and his energetic pet, adopted in 2006 from the New Jersey rescue group Recycled Russells, had both always been buff. But a leg injury in 2008 restricted Kirkley’s activities, sidelining him from taking long dog-walks. Happily, Kirkley’s son and grandson helped out by relief-walking Buddy during his owner’s recovery, but the little dog didn’t get as much exercise as he was used to and put on weight, going from a svelte 17 pounds to a tubby 21.
Kirkley brought the dog to the vet, who prescribed a strict, slenderizing, portion- and calorie-controlled diet. “Boy, those pounds started coming off him,” Kirkley says. Soon enough, Buddy was back down to 17 pounds and is now “like a jet plane, running through the house at 50 mph!”
Kirkley, on the other hand, realized his weight had ballooned as well — gaining 60 excess pounds, to be precise — which is common after an orthopedic injury. “I was up there,” he recalls.
Helping Buddy lose weight, however, motivated Kirkley to shed his own. “Now I eat chicken and a lot of vegetables — collard greens, string beans, mustard greens — and not too much red meat,” he says. He also carefully avoids bread and pasta.
And although he doesn’t do laps in the house the way Buddy does, Kirkley does strap on his Nikes every other day to walk at a neighborhood track, with Buddy by his side for motivation. “He’s a lot of company,” he says.
The result? Kirkley lost all 60 pounds and now weighs in at a healthy 200. “I’m a 38 waist now, compared to a 42 before,” he says, “and instead of a 2X shirt, I wear an XL now.”
He may be 70, but he looks much younger, too, and he credits part of that youthful vigor to his four-footed best friend. “This dog is the best thing that ever happened to me,” Kirkley concludes. “At least once a week, he makes me laugh.”
And that just might be the best motivation of all.