Travis, our dog with a fused jaw, eats a special blended liquid diet that he slurps up. Now, as you can imagine, Travis leaves one heck of a mess behind. The food is everywhere — in his crate, on his bedding, on the crate door, even on the floor outside the crate.

We have the antidote to the mess: Libby, our clean-up crew. She is one of our original Seattle dogs, who moved to Montana with us in 2000. Libby had been the victim of two separate animal cruelty cases back in Washington. Animal control officers in Shelton, Washington, rescued her from the first situation when she was a puppy, but their shelter inadvertently adopted her out to another family that did the same thing to her. Libby was nearly lifeless when they found her again. Both cases were prosecuted. Not wanting to adopt out Libby locally again, the shelter asked if we would take her.
As you can see from her ample waistline, Libby hasn’t missed a meal since. She is on a strict diet and she does get plenty of exercise, but plump seems to be her ‘natural’ weight. (Or so we tell ourselves.)

Libby does love to eat, of course, and one of her treats is to clean up after Travis has finished eating. By the time she gets done, the entire mess is gone. She’s also very detail-oriented (this is important if you’re the clean-up crew), so she makes sure she gets the tough spots, too, like the corners of the crate door.
Nice job, Libby!
(Click on photos for larger image.)
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