The vets call it “the dread Megaesophagus,” and Maria and I and Gus are learning to adapt to it.

The basic problem is that Gus’s esophagus is swollen, and is blocking the passage of food to his stomach. That causes chronic regurgitation, and can lead to starvation, pneumonia, and other serious side effects.

There are chairs called “Bailey Chairs” that force the dog to eat standing upright so that the food moves down through the digestive system, but we haven’t gotten to that stage yet. The things we are trying are working, at least for these past several days.

I’d like to avoid special chairs if possible.

One of the things I am doing is teaching Gus how to eat his food standing up, like the Circus Dog he is. Gus loves to eat, and loves to do tricks, unlike the border collies, who just love to work.

First, as suggested by the specialists (I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Megaesophagus), I take Gus’s new wet canned food and break it into small “meatballs” by handI sprinkle a touch of bread crumbs to give it some body, and roll up the meatballs. I give  Gus one at a time, holding them waist high and giving the command “jump.”

Gus caught onto this quickly, he loves this game, and he loves to eat, so why not?

Frankly, I get a kick out of it too.

I hold up the food, he stands up and i drop it into his open mouth and he swallows it standing, just like the vets want. This enlists the help of gravity in the digestive process. Even the dread Megaesophagus can sometimes be fun, if you get creative about it.

I see my life with dogs as a kind of never-ending chess, they make a move, I make a move.

I wait five to ten seconds before offering each ball of food. I give him about three quarters of his food that way, and put the rest down in his bowl on the stack of art books where I put the bowl, so he has to reach up to eat it, not down.

I get a kick out of improvising – there are thousands of dollars of special chairs and stools and platforms to buy for people who want to do that – this is more fun and so far, it’s working.

In the past two-and-a-half days, Gus has spit up some food once, and that was soon after we switched food. In the previous three days, he spit up food eight or none times a day.

Gagging on his food is no longer a regular and frequent occurrence and I can tell from his stools that he is digesting the food, it is not all sitting up in his esophagus.

And if it were, he would be regurgitating it, as the vets say.

It’s only been a couple of days, but we are making real progress, I think. More later. Circus dogs are agile and bright and adaptable. Good reason for  hope.