The Dog That Is Hungry!!!!

by Jace Oneglia

On July 29, 2011, Raven the Belgian Malinois was born. He was born at a

vet in Des Moines, Iowa. He was born in a litter of 7 Belgian Malinois puppies. At

the point where Raven was one week old, he really liked to eat, but if he ate too

much food, he could die. Raven had six siblings. Four of them were boys, and two

of them were girls. The theme of the puppies names were birds because the dog’s

owner had a passion for dogs and birds throughout his life. The puppies names are

Grouse, Goose, Macaw, Raven, (the boys) Swan, and Falcon (the girls). The

puppies grew up in a town called Urbandale Iowa. Raven’s main goal as a puppy

was to eat! Raven loved to eat as a puppy, though only Goose other then Raven

liked to eat. The puppies would eat about half of a bowl of dog food per day at six

months old, but Raven would eat nearly two bowls of dog food per day! Once

Raven was 10 months old, he was quite big. He was taller than a full grown

Belgian Malinois would normally grow to! Once Raven was a year old, he was

over the size of a full grown labrador retriever! He would just keep on eating and

he got bigger and bigger! His owner brought him to vet quite a couple times and

the vet told him to give Raven less food than a regular Belgian Malinois would eat
so he wouldn’t gain so much weight. Raven’s owner gave him less food and it

worked, but Belgian Malinois’ are very keen, and Raven could keep getting in the

dog food when his owner wasn’t looking. He still kept on getting bigger and his

owner didn’t realize that he was getting into the dog food. He told the vet he was

doing what the vet told him to do and the vet said that there wasn’t much to do but

keep the food as far away from his as possible or he is going to die pretty quickly!

Once Raven’s owner came to the vet the next time, the vet took x-rays on Ravens

body and found a growth disorder in his body which would make him grow over

ten times as fast as a normal dog! After a while, Raven’s owner was worried Raven

was going to die! A friend of Raven’s owner’s brother named Benny was willing to

try to help with Raven’s problem. Benny at the time was 15 years old, and grew up

a few towns away from where Raven lived. Benny had a good method for hiding

Raven’s food and Raven couldn’t seem to find the food. When Benny was just

starting to help, Raven was 7 feet tall and weighed about 250 pounds.At times,

Raven didn’t eat for nearly a week! Weirdly, Raven tried to bite his owner and

Benny many times and it seemed as if he wanted to eat them. They got him to stop

and he didn’t do that again. Once Raven was two and a half years old, he had lost

over 175 pounds as he weighed up to 250 pounds at one point. Thankfully, at the

age of 3, Raven had shrunk to the normal size of a Belgian Malinois and was
happy again. He still loved to eat, but since it was taken away from him for a while

during that process, he didn’t like dog food as much. He ended up doing fine with

his owner, Benny, and his siblings.