Archive for November, 2009
It’s vacation time!
Friday, November 27th, 2009 | Random Stuff | No Comments
It’s finally time for vacation! We’ll be gone for a little bit enjoying sun and surf. Please come back after 12/7!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thursday, November 26th, 2009 | Gryffindor, Indigo | No Comments
One of the things I am most thankful for is the unconditional love from my dogs. Without it, life would not be nearly as happy as it is now.
To celebrate, Dan and I took the Swissies to the Bonfield Express 5k race and walk that starts about .75 miles from our house. I usually run it, but to get the others involved, I walked. I think between the “race” and distance to and from, the dogs got about 4 miles in this morning. Indy is almost calm now!
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Photoshoot and Silliness
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009 | Beowulf, Dogs, Gryffindor, Indigo | No Comments
Sunday was gorgeous, so we decided it was the day to get pictures for our annual holiday card. I took pictures indoors and outside, plus random pics of dogs playing and being. Too bad I forgot to switch my camera mode over to get some of the crazy shots…
Here are some we considered for the card.
We loved the wide open Swiss mouths here.
Everyone looks cute here.
The only outdoors shot…
I wish Beowulf would have given us a smile in one picture, but he was not pleased with the whole process. Too bad I don’t have mad Photoshop skillz.
Then we let them have fun in the yard.
I find this picture of the old guy rather amusing.
Gryffin never fails to give me a good picture. How is this dog so darn photogenic?
And Indy is always quite pretty.
The only way I could describe the Swissies is Nucking Futs.
That’s all for now! Things here are quite busy leading into Thanksgiving. And then the humans leave for vacation, leaving the dogs at home with their favorite sitter.
Disappointment
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | Random Stuff | 1 Comment
I will admit, I’m very disappointed in the folks over at Taste of the Wild right now. I contacted them (by phone even) on Monday, hoping to get someone in marketing who was interested in making a comment about the Ethoxyquin article. I thought it would be great if one of them to comment on the blog, or better yet, write an article. Sadly, they wouldn’t even let me speak to someone on the phone. I was told to email someone instead.
Well, I did. And here we are, 48 hours later, and I’ve heard nothing back at all. No “we’ll consider it” or “sorry, we’re not interested.”
Nada. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Zip.
I know I’m not a big deal. I have what, 7 readers now? Maybe 8? Ok, maybe a bit more than that. But to be excused and avoided like that really chaps my hide. The intent of my inquiry was to give them a chance to tell you why you should still consider their products, not to speak poorly of their brand. But in their lack of communication, I feel they’ve done that themselves.
Swissy hangin’ with celebs?
Monday, November 16th, 2009 | Random Stuff | No Comments
Not mine, of course.
Apparently, one of our Swissy friends, Bosley, is a bit on the connected side. He happens to live, along with his human, in the same building as Jillian Harris and Ed Swiderski from a recent season of the Bachelorette.
Now, I’ve not really watched the show more than once or twice, but I think Bosley was a lucky boy this past weekend. He got to attend the Fur Ball at the Drake Hotel in Chicago with Jillian and Ed. Or maybe they were the lucky ones getting to share their evening with Bosley. Yup, it’s probably the latter, but I’m partial.
The Fur Ball is an annual pet-friendly black-tie gala for PAWS Chicago. They are the city’s largest No Kill humane organization, focusing on ridding Chicago of the pet homelessness problem.
Bosley’s human was really hoping he’d behave himself, especially since he outweighs Jillian by about 20 pounds. Apparently, he was an angel. He received massages, a gourmet dinner and had his nails done. I hope his human escorts were as lucky and well-behaved.
I hope Bosley will still hang out with us now that his social standing has improved.
Swissy-ness
Friday, November 13th, 2009 | Indigo | No Comments
We’ve been experiencing some fun Swissy behavior from Indy lately, so I must share.
Last week, someone decided we should buy a Roomba. It means less dog hair tumbleweeds on the first floor-at least until it dies from all the fur. At first, Indy was freaked out. She ran away, barked, growled, etc. It actually out smarted her and had her trapped under the stairs in a corner unable to move last Friday. But things change, you see. Now she is used to it, but has decided she wants to get it to play with her. It’s rather amusing to see her play bow to it.
This week was something new. We are lucky enough (go us!) to have a broken boiler, so we have no heat right now. Until it’s replaced, we have a few electric radiators sitting around the house. It doesn’t make it extremely warm, but it takes the edge off. But radiators are different, so of course we need the Swissy warning. They weren’t there before. Indy stood her ground, barked and growled at it, and would not come within a foot of it. It was rather amusing.
That’s all for now. Please hope it doesn’t get too cold by us before the new boiler arrives!
Ethoxyquin Follow Up…
Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I’ve received a few private, non-posted comments about the Ethoxyquin article written by Dana last week, so I’m going to make a few comments.
Dana’s article is based off of research, but is one person’s opinion. Dana has never provided bad information to me or people that I know, but it is her opinion. You don’t have to agree, and I understand that there is conflicting evidence out there. The point of asking Dana to write about it was to provide you with information that you may not have been familiar with otherwise. I mentioned that I personally would have a hard choice to make if I was told that the Fromm kibble I feed Beowulf contained ethoxyquin because he does so well on it, as did Indy before she went raw.
The only ingredients that we are aware of that contain ethoxyquin are those with fish meal. Some companies have many formulas, but only those with fish meal are of concern. However, there are a few companies that use fish meal in all of their products, regardless of whether the main ingredient in that food is fish.
Some people seem to think that the FDA and/or the US Coast Guard require ethoxyquin to be used as the preservative in the fish meal. I have not been able to confirm or deny this as of yet. My initial research makes me believe that they require a preservative, but it does not have to be ethoxyquin. I hope to be able to get a decisive answer next week, or at least work on getting down that path.
Whatever you decide to do, I hope the information was able to help you make a decision that is good for you and your dog(s).
Sometimes, I’m very happy to be a mostly-raw feeder. Silly, picky Basset.
Thanks to the Veterans
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 | Gryffindor | No Comments
Gryffin and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Veterans out there. Without you, we are positive things would be much different than they are now.
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