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As you all know, I’m a mommy to the most adorable puppy in the world, Charlie.

I am a firm believer that dogs should only eat foods that contain ingredients that are natural to them and should not contain any byproducts, antibiotics or hormones (I should preface this entire conversation by saying that Charlie eats FAR healthier than his father and I do!).  Charlie’s favorite treats are chicken strips, and we have always purchased the Vitality chicken strips made by Dogswell.

Recently, my mom and I were having a conversation about pet treats and food, and she let me know that Dogswell had switched to having their treads produced in China.  I was horrified.  There are all sorts of FDA warnings about dog foods and treats made in China (you can google to find lots of articles about this, here is one). I looked on the back of Charlie’s bag of chicken strips and, sure enough, there was a teeny-tiny-need-a-magnifying-glass-to-see-it “Made in China” at the bottom.  Into the trash they went and off on the hunt we went for a brand of chicken strips not made in China.  We found none.  Seriously.  Lots of treats made in the US, lots of ones he likes, but none that are his favorite kind of treat.

So we decided to take matters into our own hands.  We went to Bed Bath and Beyond for a food dehydrator and to Whole Foods for chicken breast pre-cut into tenders, and not only was it relatively inexpensive (around $40 for the dehydrator and $3-4 for a 1/2 pound of chicken) but Charlie L-O-V-E-S the dehydrated jerky.  As in, every time I open the fridge he goes nuts because he thinks he’s getting jerky.  :)  And, I know what I’m feeding him is completely natural and healthy and it’s really no trouble to make.  Simply bake the chicken as you would if you were eating it, then pop it into the dehydrator for about 6-8 hours until it’s hard enough to break in two.  Store in fridge.  Done.

So the moral of the story is, watch the products you are feeding your pup.  I felt insanely guilty when I realized I hadn’t been inspecting every single bag of treats that I purchased!

Any good healthy-treat recommendations for Charlie to supplement his jerky addiction?

This is Shadow (a happy and filthy Shadow, she loves to play and roll around in the dirt!).

Shadow is my mother’s dog and I love her dearly, she is almost 15 years old now and has just been diagnosed with kidney disease.  Kidney disease is not curable but it is treatable, and my mother is fully committed to giving Shadow all of the treatment options available.  I’d be so grateful to you and your furbabies could send good puppy juju Shadow’s way – she needs lots of it right now!

We’re sad but hopeful that we can relieve her pain and treat the disease.  I’d love to know if you have any experience with this too, we need to prepare for what we’re dealing with!

Today I’m interrupting your regularly scheduled foodie programming to tell you a story. A story about how a girl who hated dogs with all her might met a dog who hated people with all his might… and now they love each other more than either thought was possible.

All photos in this post are by me unless otherwise noted.

I was born into a family of women who are a bit… shall we say… prissy? about animals. Spanning at least 3 generations. Naturally, I adopted this worldview too at an early age, and as a child was especially terrified of dogs. As I transitioned to adulthood, my serious phobia lessened and became more of a discomfort than a fear. I just couldn’t wrap my head around why anyone would want a shedding, barking, jumping thing in their home.

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When my husband and I moved to Omaha and began making friends outside of the Air Force community, it just so happened that everyone we met had a house and a dog. At the time, we had neither and were jealous of doggie playdates they used to have with each other. As soon as we moved into our house we mace a bee-line for the Nebraska Humane Society to find our very own fur-baby. We adopted a 4-month-old Maltese-Poodle mix and named him Briscoe, after Jerry Orbach’s character, Detective Lenny Briscoe, on the original “Law & Order.”

It took a couple of weeks, but once Briscoe was potty-trained and understood a few basic commands, it was time to introduce him to our friends’ dogs. We couldn’t wait to see the dogs romp and play together. Upon meeting his friends Lola and Plato, he went wild. It was like he’d never seen another dog! You could actually tell that he was smiling. And because of all the excitement, he would have accidents in the homes of my friends.

At first they chalked it up to Briscoe just being a puppy. He didn’t know better. But now, a year later, he’s still peeing and pooping in other people’s houses. He knows better than to do that sort of thing in our house, but, sadly, he has made a name for himself as a VBD–a very bad dog. A couple of months ago I actually caught him lifting his leg and marking my friend’s new living room chair. And last month, when the same friends watched him for one night, he peed twice–once on their carpet and once on the bottom of their curtains. I was mortified and, of course, volunteered to pay to have them cleaned.

In two weeks I’m heading up to Chicago for the Renegade Holiday Craft Fair, and I think I’m going to have to board him at an overnight doggie daycare center. I wish I could leave him with friends instead of shelling out the cash, but I don’t want to burden them with the responsibility of watching Briscoe 24-7 to make sure he doesn’t mark his territory indoors. I hate to think that they don’t like Briscoe as much as they like other dogs, but I’m afraid that’s the case. It breaks my heart because I love my dog terribly–even when he is being a VBD. I can’t help but take it personally!

Do you have a well-behaved pooch or a VBD? How do you handle it when your friends don’t like your pet… or am I the only one?!

(author’s own photos)

In case you need some last minute Halloween costume ideas for those raging parties this weekend, allow me to display years worth of somewhat clever and always hilarious outfits. Let’s step into the Halloween time machine for a second, shall we?

#1 1999. Our freshman year of college. I believe my best friend and I are ‘Julia Goolia Spice’ and ‘Hannah Banana Spice’. We are possibly related to the Spice Girls in some way, but mostly we fell prey to they common sport of dressing inappropriately just because it’s Halloween. Shameful, really.

#2 2000. Our sophomore year in college. As you can read in my caption, we are a ‘Pure Angel’ and ‘Evil Angel.’ I had to edit this one a bit but I cannot help but chuckle. The hooker boots are key, my friends.

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Each year, Charlie’s favorite shop, Tails in the City, has a Halloween parade and costume contest.   As you can imagine, this is one of my favorite events of the fall!

This year Charlie was a lion – and a very ferocious one at that!  It’s definitely the cutest costume he’s ever worn – it matches his fur perfectly.

I think the side view is the most adorable.  When he wagged his tail, the lion tail wagged too.

And here he is with his new friend Brady, who dressed up as a lobster.

What’s your most favorite fall activity?  And you dog-lovers out there, what is your pet going to dress up as for Halloween?

E.

Like many newlywed couples, Nick and I are looking to expand our family. No, no, we are not expecting nor trying to conceive. We’re trying to decide on a dog–and whoa boy–is it a hard decision.

I have wanted a dog since we moved to Mississippi two years ago. Most of our friends had pets (some of them multiple) and we really enjoyed our role as dogsitters/Aunt Allison and Uncle Nick to their pets. At the time, I freelanced from home, and I desperately wanted a dog to hang out with during the day and to motivate me to get out and walk. I couldn’t sit and veg on the sofa knowing I had a sweet pet relying on me for exercise. However, we decided financially and logistically we couldn’t get a dog until we settled in our next location. So here we are… I’m working from home full-time and available for a pet, we’re settled (somewhat) in Las Vegas with our own home and no issues in our way, but one – we cannot decide what kind of dog to get.

We have some guidelines: smaller than 45 lbs*, low-maintenance coat, somewhat easy to train, medium energy, and other pet and child friendly. (*Because we know in a few years we’ll be moving around quite a bit, it is best that we get a dog that’s size is acceptable at many hotels so we can avoid kenneling our pup.) At some point we agreed on a Beagle because of experiences with a friend’s dog and a neighbor dog in Mississippi. I’ve heard a bit about Beagles and their howling can be annoying and sometimes they are difficult to train, so I’m not so sure. I thought I would see a shelter dog here and absolutely fall in love, but most of the ones we’ve seen here are too big or too small. We’re like the Goldilocks of future dog owners, looking for a dog that is “just right.”

In an effort to narrow our decision down, I’ve taken every what-dog-breed-is-perfect-for-your-family quiz (try this one at Animal Planet) and these breeds keep appearing (to learn more from Animal Planet, click on the breed name beneath the photo):

Beagle

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So this summer our neighbours (and good friends) went to France for a month with their kids. Husband and I therefore became the proud pseudo parents of two cats: an elderly black one we call Pushkin & a skittish, skinny ginger one we call Harry-Cat (maybe he reminds us of a certain member of the Royal family?) Pushkin came to live with us; we put food outside for Harry-Cat because his home situation is a little more complicated. Let’s just say that he wants to live with our neighbours but technically belongs somewhere else.

We have learnt some new skills this summer, not least that we are not ready financially or otherwise to become parents. Other new found talents include ignoring a batting to the shoulder every few minutes from 5am; cleaning up vomit; persuading something to eat when it really doesn’t want to; catching kitties who don’t want to take their medicine & administering 3 separate tablets with the aid of a tool which looks suspiciously like a pea shooter. We have also learnt that emergency trips to the vets in a taxi with a cat cost more than a normal trip, despite what our neighbours told us; that an ill cat usually but not always has the decency to get off the sofa before he is sick but will not make it outside & will favour the same part of the hallway each time; that raw chicken is yummed up every time & food in jelly is preferable to that in gravy.

We have also realised how much we enjoy the company of a cat & how working at home is less lonely with a furry friend curled up beside me on the sofa (although working is harder if he insists on poking me until I let him sit on my lap & then refuses to remove his tail from my keyboard).

His owners return home at the end of this week: summer is over & the children are returning to school. Our summer of pseudo parenthood is coming to a close, and we shall miss him when he leaves us.

Top photos: in bed.

Bottom photos: Preventing me from working & then preventing Husband from eating his yoghurt (please excuse the mess in the background: my sister was staying & that chair became a dumping ground. On top is the bear Husband won by guessing that his name was Trevor. We don’t know what to do with him now though, and he is bigger than the cat).

{All photos by me & Husband. Please excuse the quality as they were snapped on our BlackBerrys}

Dottie tries to stowaway {from Author’s Personal Collection}

We are the owners of a large dog. Dottie is 70lbs to be exact. There are many restrictions for flying with large dogs, such as they are only flown when the outside temperatures are between 45 degrees and 85 degrees. When they are flown, they are placed in the cargo hold with the luggage. It’s a special section of the cargo hold, but it’s the cargo hold nonetheless. The thought of her being handled like luggage doesn’t sit well with us. So, we have been kenneling her or leaving her with friends while we are away.  It’s not our favorite solution. Whenever I see people toting their little dogs in carriers at airport terminals, I am envious.

We are in the midst of planning a trip to visit family on the East Coast and are entertaining the idea of bringing Dottie with us. She’s a member of our family and we really hate leaving for long periods of time. Since we prefer not to fly with her in cargo, our only option would be to drive to our destination. Driving cross-country is not always as fun nor as exciting as it sounds. The biggest downside to driving cross-country is the amount of time it requires. We would spend most of our vacation on the road and have limited time to spend with our family.

Recently, I was told about Pet Airways. I’m looking into it as a possible solution to our dilemma.

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For those of you that read my personal blog, Make Mine a Mojito, I have stated several times before that Mr. Mojito and I only plan on having furbabies in our family.

Wellllllllllll, the time for our first puppy to arrive is quickly approaching (as in, late August to be exact).

These cute little Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies were born over Memorial Day Weekend this past May. These are the most recent pictures I have of them. We are still not sure if we are getting a boy or a girl. If we get a girl we plan on naming her Ginger. If we get a boy his name will be Oliver, but we will call him Oli for short.

How cute are these puppies?!?

So, on to my question dear readers and advice givers, for those of you with puppies running around your house, what types of things do you do to prevent your house from getting completely demolished and dirty?

Do you prevent your puppy from going in certain areas of the house? Do you clean your floors daily?

Help!