Homemade Dog Food

For the last few weeks my dogs have been enjoying my version of homemade dog food. My inspiration to start making it for them was my friend Shari and her gorgeous dog Ben:



Ben is HUGE, yet buff. His fur is shiny and soft, his eyes are bright. He is sexy. So after watching him devour the homemade food that Shari makes for him, I decided to give it a try for my freak dogs. (Speaking of freak dogs, interesting to see the comments on my post about my Gypsy's crazy fear of hiccups.)

I considered taking pictures of each step of the process, but it's actually kind of gross. And the smell is pretty nasty too. I suppose that's why the dogs like it so much.

So based off of Shari's recipe and some that I found online, my basic recipe is:

• 5 lbs of ground beef (80/20, browned and drained.)
• 3 lbs of chicken livers (Cooked in a pot with just enough water to cover them, then mashed well with a potato masher. Definitely the most disgusting part.)
• 4 or 5 eggs (Shells included, blended in a blender then cooked in with half of the ground beef when it's nearly done.)
• Big bag of frozen mixed veggies (Cooked with a little water, then mashed well.)
• Brown rice

Once it's all cooked and mixed together well it looks pretty much like any other wet dog food:


To serve it we mix in a bit of bone meal, some water to moisten it, and then a few squirts of salmon oil over the top. I do intend to check with my vet soon to make sure she approves, but I think she will. They get 2 meals a day, breakfast and dinner. As fast as they devour it, it's amazing that they haven't choked yet. As soon as one of them empties their bowl, they immediately go to the other's to make sure nothing was left behind.

One of the goals of this is to get a few pounds off of 13 year old Gypsy. She's developed a fairly significant limp on her left front leg and besides possibly her arthritis, the vet has no idea why. Other than that, she's pretty healthy for an old lady. But she definitely could stand to drop some weight. I haven't weighed her since we started, but I think she might have lost a pound or two. This despite the fact that she is so fat and happy after she eats that the next few hours are spent passed out cold.


I should also mention that this has been made MUCH easier thanks to my Mom, who does the actual feeding of the girls every day. And the multiple walks she takes them on each day also are contributing to the bounce they both seem to have in their step lately.

Food, Inc

Wow.

Did My Package Come?

In recognition of the wildly popular National Blog Something From Draft Week 2009, which you probably know as NaBloSoFroDraWe, I decided to finally write this post. It's one of several in my drafts folder about my Dad, and I need to find the time to finish more of them. He has been on my mind a lot lately. First it was because of the one year anniversary of his death, but then it was the trips I took these last couple of weeks. So many of the summer vacations my 10-year old has had included my Dad, which I'm sure is why she brought him up to me multiple times a day while on vacation. (The fact that we saw a ridiculous amount of Coopers on the island was a factor as well. Seriously, they were everywhere. Every color and style.)

You know how some memories are impossible to date? This is one of those. Whenever my Dad came home from work, most days he would ask my Mom "Did my package come?" and she'd always casually say "No." When I was old enough to care, I asked what package he was talking about. Turns out there was no package. Ever.

When my Mom and Dad were first married, money was tight. I guess it was always kind of tight, but that's probably more because of my Mom's thrifty, saving nature. Those qualities were actual very critical, as they were needed to balance out my Dad's nature--to spend it as soon as he had it. So apparently, early in their marriage my Dad's way of dealing with this conflict was to create something that was designed solely to drive my Mom crazy. They were married in January and I was born in December (makes you think for a second, right? Dad loved that too, but that's another post...) so I imagine my Mom was really freaking out about money.

One day my he came home from work and asked her simply "Did my package come?" and she instantly panicked: "Package? What package? What did you order? We can't afford anything! What package is coming?" He just chuckled and said it was nothing to worry about and just let it go. She got really upset, but he remained calm. After doing this every day for a week, I'm sure my Mom was probably about to explode, thinking all week that he spent all this money that she knew nothing about and was sure they couldn't afford.

He finally confessed to her that there was no package; he had just been teasing her. I picture my Mom being absolutely furious at him for a solid 5 minutes, and then not being able to help smiling and just shaking her head. That was a reaction my Dad always got easily--he could always elicit a smile from you shortly after whatever frustration he first caused you. There were always lots of both around him.

Even though the joke was up after a week, the routine of him asking her when he got home from work "Did my package come?"continued for almost as long as I can remember, probably as long as he went to work every day. And after she answered "no" my Mom always just smiled and shook her head.

A Midsummers Recap

July 25th is probably technically right smack in the middle of summer, yet somehow it feels like we are in the home stretch. It's been a fairly busy couple of months. I don't have any brilliant ideas for a post, so I think I'll borrow the bulleted list idea--from a blog I really like.


--Heading to our 2nd Phillies game of the season this afternoon. The seats for our last game were directly up from 1st base. WAY up. As in the next to the top row. At least I got a nice shot of the Philly skyline that we were right next to:


philly from 415

--Just got back from a long weekend in Portland, Maine. Highlight of the trip was spending time with my best friends, but a close second was the Wilco show on Friday night. I took a ton of pictures all weekend, with a few shots that I really really like. I was hoping for better shots from the concert, but between my lack of experience with my camera, the crowd, the dark, and the Magic Hat, I didn't get many good shots.


Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band







Better shots from the next couple of days after the concert:


Display at the place we bought much lobster, one of my favorite pics. (I think it would make a great puzzle.)






Lake Harmony


--We're leaving on Monday for Martha's Vineyard for a week. The first thing anyone who has been there says when I say I'm going is "It's beautiful" followed immediately with something like "Bring a sweater!" So I have no high expectations for hot, sunny beach weather. But hopefully I will be able to continue to improve my photography skills and bring back some decent shots.

Vote Shane

Cast your vote for the flyin' Hawaiian to grab a spot in the All Star game!

Summer Concerts

For the first time in a long time, I have a few concerts coming up in my future.

The Decemberists with Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3 (Tomorrow, June 6, at the Tower Theatre in Philly. Based on some of the concert reviews I've read, I can't wait to see them. NPR has a recording of a recent concert here, but I'm waiting until after tomorrow to listen to it.)

Wilco (twice in July--first in Wilmington, DE and then in Portland, ME)


After purchasing the Wilco tickets, I started to think about all of the concerts I've been to in my lifetime. Turns out it's not very many. Here are all that I could think of off the top of my head, in approximate reverse chronological order:

Ben Folds (This was maybe 2 years ago at Muhlenberg College. Since my daughter LOVES him, decided to make it her first concert. Only time I regretted that was when he did his remake of a Dr Dre song. Sort of made me feel like a bad parent sitting next to my 8 year old during that. Otherwise, as she was singing along with the rest of the songs, it was good.)

Elvis Costello w/ Laura Cantrell
Wilco

Indigo Girls
DaDa
Sun60 (Twice, I think, first in Baltimore and then in Philly.)
Toad The Wet Sprocket (3 different times, I think, in the late 80's/early 90's. Once was with The Gin Blossoms.)

Robyn Hitchcock w/Mathew Sweet (This one is kind of fuzzy, I'm pretty sure they were together. I think it was for Girlfriend for Sweet and Eye for Robyn, in Washington DC. At least part of that is correct, I'm sure.)

The Pixies w/Love & Rockets (at Penn State)

The Beach Boys (at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, with the roof open. I remember the roof opening part being mentioned in every ad, so I guess it wasn't done very often. Do they still open the roof? I can't believe that place is still used, actually. It seemed way too old 25 years ago.)
Bryan Adams (also at the Civic Arena)
Bruce Springsteen (at 3 Rivers Stadium. My main memory of this show is when Bruce first came out on stage everyone jumped to their feet and the guy behind me dumped his entire beer down my back.)

And my 2 earliest concert memories, both at the Civic Arena with my Dad, when I was pretty little, so presumably in the 70's:

Tony Orlando & Dawn
John Denver


I think if I had to pick a favorite from all of these, it would have to be Tony. Mostly because it is just one of the most vivid memories of my childhood. Also it was just me and my Dad, so just like all memories of things that just the 2 of us did together, it is extra special. Plus, it was Tony in his prime, and I just LOVED him. How could you not? Look at that stache'!



What's your best concert memory? What's your summer concert schedule this year?

I think I have enough summer reading material

This is the stack of books currently on my nightstand, in my que if you will. They are in no particular order, except that I did start "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" and also Harry Potter #1 (with my daughter). I also may have started "Marley and Me" quite a while ago, I'm not sure. After I saw the trailer for the movie for the 113th time, I sort of lost interest.