The Story of Tucker

A family who didn't have time for their puppy.
A hopeful tried to find him a new home.
One morning in a parking lot.
A young pup and a gentle man become a foster family.
A chance to learn how to be a real dog.
A breeder that didn't care enough.
An old lab goes to the Rainbow Bridge.
A man is looking for a new companion.
A village who loves canines gave...
Tucker a new forever home.

Annual Review

A few days ago I brought Sabrina and Riley to see the Kind Vet for their annual checkups. I used to do this with Riley every spring and fall ensure we were healthy going into tick season and that we were healthy coming out of tick season. But now I'm content to just test him once a year. We are going on 3 years without any type of flea/tick control, yay!

The vet did a blood panel on both kids and ran a Snap test on each too. The Snap test tests for heartworm, Lyme's, Ehrlichia, and something else I can't remember. Looked like a pregnancy test. Good thing they came out all negative considering we had a real mild winter where the temps stayed warm enough for the ticks to survive. I have been feeding the furkids minced garlic in their meals the past couple of weeks and will be running tick checks when they return from running in the woods. If it starts to get really bad I will have to dust them with DE to take care of any buggers in their coats.

On educating my allopathic Kind Vet:
Last week I brought Mei Mei and Little Li to see the Kind Vet for their annual checkups too. I was concerned about their teeth. Everything checked out A-OK with them except that Mei Mei had a case of tapeworms much to my surprise. Where did that come from? Well, apparently the type she had was from ingesting a flea. Perhaps a lone critter that came home on one of my dogs that jumped on her. Who knows. And while grooming, she accidentally ate it.

So the vet offered me two choices, an injection of stuff I've never heard of or two large pills she had to swallow twice a day. Uh...can you say no thank you and no thank you? So I told her I would call my holistic vet and I was sure there was a natural way to eliminate these worms. We aren't talking a life or death situation here so I opted to wait to hear from Holistic Vet. She was highly intrigued and wanted me to let her know what the outcome was.

In the back of my head, I was already thinking what I could use if it were my dogs (grated carrots and ground raw pumpkin seeds) but I wasn't so sure about cats and whether I could get her to eat carrots and pumpkin seeds!

It turns out I was right. I checked in my bible Dr. Pitcairn and Mei Mei's been treated. Now my vet wants a copy of this book so she knows more natural ways to treat animals. Isn't that just grand?! I'm so happy to have found a Kind Vet who doesn't think she knows everything and is willing to learn. It really doesn't get any better than this.

Sabrina's Midweek Mishap

Little Sabrina strikes again.

Yes, she ate something.

And yes, she stole it off the counter.

I came home the other day to find an empty bottle of Nordic Naturals fish oil capsules with the top chewed off on the floor. No one fessed up right away but there was no need. Sabrina REEKED of fishiness from nose to tail tip. And I mean REEKED like she went swimming in a pool of fish oil.

And apparently it was a brand new full bottle.

She didn't even act like anything was wrong. She went out to the park to play, she ate her dinner, she went to bed, got up the next day, totally fine (well aside from a few hershey squirts). But I honestly thought I would be up with her all night going out to potty or worse, having loose fishy messes in the house.

Nope. Just a very fishy smelling Flat Coat with a very shiny coat and very bright eyes. Maybe all those Omega 3s made her a bit smarter?

Making Waves

So the recent hype in the dog world is that this past week, Oprah had a whole show on dogs. She brought her vet who is a holistic vet to discuss what dogs should actually be eating. (drum roll please.....)

Guess what he recommended on public television to a viewing audience of ??!?!?!

That feeding raw is the best dog diet.

And cooked diet 2nd... good quality canned food 3rd, good quality grain free kibble 4th, good quality grain in kibble was 5th. And regular grocery store bought generic kibble is way way low on the list.

Dr. Marty Goldstein, author of The Nature of Animal Healing, is an expert on holistic pet medicine and the veterinarian caring for Oprah's dog Sophie, who is suffering from kidney failure. Based on Dr. Marty's advice, Oprah says she now feeds her dogs a mixed diet of chicken, beef, lamb, brown rice, potatoes and carrots.

Dr. Marty Goldstein on Oprah

Dr. Marty says most people feed their dogs diets that go against their animal nature. He says a dog that eats only dry food is like a person who eats nothing but carbs! Dr. Marty says the best thing for a dog to eat is raw meat. His own dog, Danny, ate this diet and lived to be 19! "Danny lived on fresh cooked meat and brown rice and carrots, peas, lamb, potatoes. You know, real food. What did they eat in nature? They ate real food."

To get Dr. Marty's advice on what to feed your pet, visit Dr. Marty Goldstein

Kitchen Helpers

Last night I started to make Riley and Agave's birthday cakes. I had a general idea of how I wanted the cake done but no real plan. I headed to the grocery store to pick up the ingredients:

3 lbs of ground beef
a bag of boiling potatoes
3 sweet potatoes
a small glass roasting pot

I already had parmesan cheese, ketchup, bread crumbs and fresh garlic in the refrigerator at home to add to the recipe. I call it the, "Slow Cooked Garlic Meat Loaf with sweet potato filling and mashed parmesan-potato frosting." Hmm....seems kinda long...

It was really quite simple. Here's the final product:


The sweet potato is layered inside the cake. I wish I had a side cut view to see what the inside looks like. The "frosted" lettering on top is done by blending a can of Merrick's Cowboy Cookout and squeezing it out of a makeshift pastry bag (ziploc bag with corner cut off).

This morning I finished the cakes. Riley and Sabrina were allowed in the kitchen to help of course.


Cleaning the "batter" bowl...


And afterwards posed with their new handsome personalized bandanas.


Riley almost couldn't stand looking at his cake. Sabrina wasn't trusted anywhere near the cake.


Sabrina shares her secret scheming plan to hijack the cake to a very innocent and oblivious Smiley Riley.


And the Birthday Boy seems to like the sound of her plan!


The party starts at 2pm. Where will YOU be?
More photos coming....

Running Thru Woods on a Rainy Day

Riley and Sabrina had a blast with their BFF (best fur friend), Jaxx, yesterday afternoon. Because both of us fur-mom's had the day off, we decided to take the dogs somewhere different to explore.


We went to Great Brook Farm. It has been raining for 4 days but it seemed to let up just long enough for us to enjoy the woods for awhile. Even so, we came prepared with rain gear and waterproof boots. The recent downpour of rain has left everything feeling clean and fresh. Huge water puddles collected all around and they were all filled with clean, clear water.

Riley happily stuck his snout up to the fresh, crisp air and ran with his tail held up high like a flag. Sabrina found a new best friend in Jaxxy. She is now almost as tall as him and could run with him side by side. They both enjoyed crashing into the big puddles, criss crossing the path, not wanting to miss any interesting smells on either side. Sabrina tried several times to engage Jaxx in a game of tug-a-war with a stick. However, stuffing a large tree branch at Jaxxy's face did not encourage him to play. Usually Sabrina is pestering Riley so it was very cute to see her try with Jaxxy too. They all ran and they ran and they ran. It was pure satisfaction for them as well as for us to watch our furkids enjoy their outing.

We stopped at a small pond to let the dogs swim. Jaxxy is a proficient swimmer. Not only does he love the water, but he will go out to swim just for the fun of swimming! The expression on his face is priceless. Sabrina was a bit adventurous and swam out to retrieve sticks that were thrown about 20 feet out from the bank. She looked very nervous while swimming; which made me nervous and ready to leap into the water to rescue her. I think she needs to take more lessons from Jaxxy so I won't need to be rescuing my retriever in the future. Riley found the entire activity disturbing and stood ankle deep at the shore barking and grunting his disapproval. Whenever Sabrina returned from a swim, he reprimanded her. Perhaps it made him nervous too!

As we drove home, three dogs slept peacefully in the back.

Alas, I apologize for not bringing a camera to capture these precious moments. You will have to use your imagination to picture the wide, happy grins on their faces as they ran carefree, as happy as canines could be.

Extra Credit Reading

Warning, this article is long. I just found it browsing around. But it comments on a lot of the common concerns, questions, and doubts from non-raw believers. I'll just post it for you to read. What you decide to do with it is entirely up to you.

Raw Feeders in SF Story

This is Just the Beginning

Just in case anyone feeds this: Natural Balance expanded its recall, and melamine has been found in a rice protein concentrate. Natural Balance Recall

Can you see what is happening? The commercial pet food industry is beginning to crumble. Company after company is recalling their products. First it's the cheap wheat gluten, now it's the rice protein. What's next? These are all cheap fillers that pet food companies have been depending on for decades to keep their production costs low and their profits high. Cheap Filler

The only good that may come out of this is that maybe now, FINALLY, the pet food industry will be scrutinized and regulated.

Oh, didn't you know that?

Up to this point, the pet food industry has not had to follow any regulations besides labeling what they put into their food. And if you really looked into the ingredient list and researched what Chicken "Meal" or Beef "By-Products" are, you would not be feeding this to your dog unless you didn't care about their health. They are not responsible for testing the actual nutritional value after the food is processed into kibble. They are not responsible for studying long term health.

Also, do you know what happens in rendering plants? Do you really think they will throw out any pieces of meat that are from dead, diseased, and dying animals? Hell no! Do you think they really care where "meat by product" or "meat meal" came from? Or even worse, what kind of meat it is? Is it road kill? Are they from farm animals? Are they from domestic animals? Are they from shelters? If you don't believe this, I understand. It's hard to swallow (literally). But at least believe this.
THIS INDUSTRY IS NOT REGULATED.

Now the FDA has stepped in and is supposedly checking to make sure retailers have pulled all recalled items off their shelves. Even they admit, some of it is still out there. FDA Report This is YOUR responsibility to your pet. Don't expect or assume that the pet food industry, retailers or the FDA is going to fix this problem any time soon.

High profit industry that is not regulated. Hmmmmm.......If that doesn't send a clear message, I dunno what will.

New Favorite Dog Treat

We braved the rain of the NorEaster yesterday to go see the Holistic Vet.

Riley and Sabrina were both due for a checkup. Riley received a wonderful compliment for being in great shape. The vet just suspected a little mild tummy trouble (probably from our big beef meal the other day) and said his left knee will continue to be a chronic issue. I have already e-mailed HARE TODAY to figure out what was in the beef trim. If there were pieces of organ meat, then that will explain the hershey squirts. Organ is very rich and difficult for a sensitive stomach to handle.

Sabrina's recent gassiness apparently was due to some digestive issues as well. She is on a stricter meal plan now and we hope the gassies will subside. Good thing. It's soooooo unlady-like. :P

On our way out, I glanced at the snack shelf and spotted something new. Dried sweet potato treats. I opened up the bag and took a whiff-YUMMY! They smelled good enough to eat and I'm sure I could have. The packaging said, "Tested on Humans." Haha.


Snook's Treats

These treats are the BOMB! Finally something healthy I can give my dogs that doesn't disappear in 0 seconds, that isn't a large messy bone, isn't filled of junk, and they totally love. Any of you out there that feed those disgusting pig ears - THROW THEM OUT AND GET THESE! They are very hard and crunchy and my dogs LOVE them.

I really want to try THESE OUT!

Happy Birthday to Mei Mei

Yesterday was Mei Mei's birthday...here's a cute picture of her with baby Sabrina.

She is also also known lovingly as "Tank" and "Butterball."


I could go into a nice background story as to why she has earned these nicknames, but out of respect for her on her birthday, I will refrain. I think the picture is self explanatory.

Mei Mei is 6 years old.

We actually don't really know for sure her real birthdate. This is just the date the Boston MSPCA estimated when she was surrendered by someone who found her but couldn't keep her. We got her when she was 6 months old. We went to the MSPCA, the DogFather (who was only the CatFather back then) saw her and asked to see her, and she crawled up in his lap and curled up to go to sleep. We went home with her that day. And since then, he's always had a huge soft spot for her. His office is also her lair, her sanctuary from all the other animals in the house.

You wonder what Mei Mei got for her birthday? I roasted some chicken strips in the oven for her. And tomorrow she will get a nice bath. She won't like the bath part but she really needs it!

Week 4 of Sabrina Obedience

Yesterday was Sabrina's fourth class in Graduate Puppy Obedience. I confess that being the first day of April vacation, my body was exhausted and my mind was elsewhere. I think it reflected poorly on Sabrina's performance. Regardless, we still received a much appreciated praise from the trainer.

Graduate Puppy Obedience is nothing like Puppy Kindergarten. Puppy Kindergarten was so easy and fun. This class is serious business. We have to work our dogs...HARD. We work at keeping out dogs' attention with the constant distraction of all the other dogs.

Our dogs start out having to sit in a heel position and then have to stay with attention completely on us for up to 15 seconds. You try staring at something or someone for 15 seconds. It is a long time!

Then we have to put them in a sit stay 4 feet from another dog and handler, walk a few feet out to create a triangular formation and call the dog to us. Our dog is expected to come to us and ignore the other dog sitting 4 feet away.

And there is the long down stay. A few minutes....off leash.

And then there is the meet and greet. VERY HARD. You have to walk up to another dog and their handler, put them in a sit stay (the dogs that is), and begin light-hearted chatter with the other person. All the while, your dog remains in sit stay and may not get up to say hello. Like I said, VERY HARD.

But I can see how it can be very useful. If I am walking my dog and see someone I know, whether they have a dog or not, nothing is more difficult than to carry on a conversation while your dog is wiggling around, tangling up his/leash and being a great distraction. These interactions almost always have to end abruptly with the person with the dog dragging their dog away.

I don't want my dog to be rude or a nuisance when I am trying to talk to someone. But then again, this seems like high expectataions. Really really high.

And did I forget to mention that all of this training happens at the beginning of class, when all the dogs are excited to see each other and are not allowed to interact or play?! Play comes later and play must remain calm and fair. The second any dog gets too rowdy or gets those "crazies" the trainer will spray them with a water bottle. In the middle of play without much warning, the trainer asks us to get our dogs into a sit stay or down stay for a minute or two. It is supposed to be a way to get your dog calm and maintain your control. Sabrina, luckily, is fantastic at this. Whenever I have a treat in my hand that is!

The other thing I learned is how to keep a dog from stripping the skin off your fingers while trying to take a treat out of your hand. For 4 years I have been working with Riley on this and all this time I just thought it was a lost cause. I thought I was doing everything the way I have been told to. When the dog nips your fingers, you yelp and turn away from them. I try to tell my dogs, "easy" before I hand them a treat but they go to grab with their teeth every time. I refuse to offer a treat in my palm and get completely slimmed. And so I resort to tossing treats, which is not a good method either. I am terrible at tossing and both of my dogs have very poor mouth-eye coordination (could still be because I am terrible at tossing though).

So I FINALLY learn the right way. Apparently, if your dog nips you and you draw your hand away, it will only make them want to "chase" that treat more the next time it comes near in fear that it will be taken away again. And "chasing" a treat will probably entail some nipping from the choppers. So the trick is to tell them, "easy", offer them the treat, and if they come after it with their teeth, you bop them on their nose. I tried it once with each dog, and sure enough that bop was enough to keep their teeth off my fingers and out came a lovely soft tongue to take the treat. It was like magic! I've only been doing it wrong for 4 years now. URGH.

Since I have the week off I promised Sabrina to work with her in the back yard. We need to work on our heeling, sitting in heel when I stop, sit stay outdoors, down stay outdoors, and something which is called "finishing." I have chosen to use the term, "side". It's supposed to be the easiest way to tell your dog to get out of the way and return to your side, in a heel sit. haha...I kinda have to laugh cuz it's ridiculously hard, though I have seen dogs that compete in Obedience to do beautiful finishes. We can dream can't we? I'll try to remember to report to you how it goes.

My Pets' Pet Names

When you have an adorable being in your presence that never fails to make you smile all over, you inevitably begin to spew forth pet names. Even though the adorable being is already a pet and already has a name.

So Riley is the Smiley Riley
or sometimes the Riley Smiley
and also the Bernerbuddy
and the Berner Bobos
but most of all, he is my Bernerboy.
(this is of course in addition to My Sweet Boy and My Good Boy)

Sabrina has a few of her own
We call her the Moose (and when she scampers around the house we call out, "the moose in on the loose!")
And when she's sweet we call her Petunia
Her Auntie calls her Sabrinee Beanie Butts (when you see her scamper around with that wiggly bum you'll understand why)
And of course she's a Sweetheart
and a Sweetie Pie.

My dogs respond to all of the above.

Sensitive Stomach Boy

Yesterday the Hare-Today order arrived. Lots of lovely cuts of beef and mutton for the dogs and chicken for the cats. I left Riley and Sabrina a hearty meal to enjoy: large beef bones with beef trim. The last time I ordered, the beef bones were all cut marrow bones with extra inches of meat on each side. The beef trim was quite marbled with fat, but cut into nice squares.

This time, I guess depending on what part of the cow I got, the large beef bones are gi-normous and oddly shaped. The beef trim looks more like random pieces of trim from different parts of the cow. A bit messier than I anticipated this time around. But it only took me 10 minutes to throw the pre-packed/separated meals in the freezer and separate out a nice meal for the two of them. It probably came out to about a pound an a half each, maybe a little more. A large meal so that I can fast them all day tomorrow.

The meal was probably a bit rich (high in fat and meat) which was great for my healthy lil Sabrina girl. (raw fat=pure energy for a puppy). But for my Riley boy with the sensitive stomach. He had to ask to go out three times throughout the night. Yeah, we got the Hershey-squirts. That's just the body that he got. I suppose he will always display symptoms of chronic disease and Sabrina will always be the healthier/heartier one. Good breeding, careful vaccination protocol, and good nutrition truely play a large role in overall health.

This is pretty much how my entire journey into raw/natural feeding began. Riley was 4 months old and we had a horrible time figuring out why his digestive tract was so out of whack. We did what most everyone else does-we kept trying to change his food to find something he could tolerate. Finally, I found some knowledgeable people to steer me in the right direction. And lemme tell you- it wasn't the vet! Over the course of several months to a year, we worked on improving Riley's immune system. I learned that everything is related to your natural defense system. When that is awry, you're bound to experience other systems going awry. We stuck to one type of protein (beef) and slowly coaxed his immune system to calm down. With a mixture of chiropractice care, homeopathy, and diet elimination (eliminating everything processed, with preservatives, food coloring, grains, etc), Riley was back to eating a variety of proteins in 4 months. If I had never found the right people, we would still be thinking it was the food. I see dog food companies constantly try to come up with the next hypo-allergenic food: first it's fish and potatoes, next is quail and rice, then it's venison and quinoa. It's never ending. And that's because it isn't about the food. It's all about how the organism is responding to the food.

Well, I'm done with my lesson for the day. It's not an easy lesson to understand. It's taken me awhile to really learn about health and nutrition for my furkids. But aren't they worth it?

Sponsor Us!

To my Friends, Family, Collegues, and Internet Blogging Family,

I wanted to let you all know about my annual fundraising walk for the March of Dimes. I need your help to reach my goal of $700 this year. This is $200 more than last year but I think we can do it! Riley has been my trusty walking partner every year. This year, lil Sabrina will be joining us too. If you are in Boston that day, please come walk with us! It is a beautiful walk around the Charles River Esplanade.

If you have a moment, please click on the link below to read more about this event. No donation amount is too little. I appreciate all of your generosity and wish you a very happy Spring!


MARCH OF DIMES - WALK AMERICA

Saved by the Kong

Long work days and mismatched schedules sometimes leaves our furkids too idle at home for their own good. Well, that really only refers to Sabrina. Although they both get to stretch their legs every morning at the park, they unfortunately sometimes have to miss an afternoon romp. I usually have time to stop home before I have to go back out so they least get a potty break and I can check to make sure nothing terribly important has been destroyed (not that it would matter by then anyways). Otherwise between the DogFather and I, we organize our schedules so that one of us has the furkids.
But sometimes, it just doesn't work out and that is when we are saved by the Kong. These are kongs:

Tough, hollow, rubbery "things".

I mix up a batch of favorite tasty treats:

Here we have a can of Merrick's Rocky Mountain Rainbows with shredded garlic, powdered sea kelp, chopped carrots, chopped almonds, organic yogurt, apple cider vinegar, organic peanut butter, and chopped mozzerella cheese. I basically searched my kitchen for anything they furkids might like that would freeze well. And we fill the kongs.

Stick em in the freezer and they're ready to entertain on a rainy day.

Happy Easter!

Though Riley and Sabrina both enjoy soft boiled eggs like me, it's quicker and more fun to give them their eggs raw. Sabrina is a natural at cracking open the eggs. Riley is just too gentlemanly to sink his tusks into the shell and kindly allows Sabrina do all the work. This is when I wish we had a yard. We could have had our own easter egg hunt. How fun would that be?!


Happy Egg Hunting!

That was lip smacking good, YUP!

It's a Party! Come one come all!

RILEY AND AGAVE WILL BE CELEBRATING THEIR 4th BIRTHDAY TOGETHER

WHERE: Beaverbrook Community Park
WHEN: April 21st @ 2pm
WHO: YOU! That's who! We want dogs, dog lovers, dog companions, whomever wants to watch a field of dogs have a grand ole time!

Come and celebrate with us!

More bad food

The tainted food list continues to grow. First it was only canned food. Then dry food was recalled. Now dog treats too. Pet Food Recall To be on the safe side, it seems everyone should steer clear of anything that has wheat in it, if you haven't already. In fact, you may want to steer clear of all commercial dog treats.
Here is a list of the voluntary recall of dog biscuits:
Dog Biscuits

There are so many great natural alternative dog treats that you can find in your regular grocery store. Some things I like to use are:

almonds
walnuts
pistachios
rice chex
string cheese
carrots
apple chips

Get creative and think outside the box..pun intended!

The Shipment is Coming!

I've mentioned HARE TODAY in a previous posting. I have to rave about them some more. Their bones are just the best!

We have been running dangerously low on raw meats in this house. My big freezer down in the basement is actually EMPTY! Can you believe that?! I have been able to grab some pre-ground BRAVO stuff from the pet store every week but we are desperate for some raw meaty bones.

I gave in and bought some beef ribs at SHAWS supermarket the other day. It's grain fed beef but there are worst things I could feed them. I let Riley and Sabrina have a big bowl of 8 ribs and let them go to town. It was really just a recreational activity more than a meal. The kitties, Mei Mei and Ming, even wanted in on the ribs. Ming was brave enough to grab a rib and drag it away. Everyone got a good teeth cleaning at least.

I recently joined a co-op for ordering Hare-Today products. We will be ordering every couple of months together. With a $1000 order together, we get free shipping. So I put in an order for those yummy beef bones, mutton bones, and a few new things I wanted to try-like chicken feet, fertile egg cubes, tripe, and dried liver. Since my two don't do so well on poultry or pork, it kinda limits what I can order for them. Too bad. The goat and the pork last time looked great but gave both Riley and Sabrina some bad gas. Oye.

Can't wait til our shipment comes. It will be a great feast!