By Suzi Jones –
I first want to say I have been giving thought to the web site Adam posted about feeding raw diat to dogs but the only thing that has been keeping me from doing it is the fact I have 2 dogs and the connivance of feeding a kibble is fast and clean.
Saturday started as any other day. Lot’s of rain so group class was canceled. Off to do some shopping at my favorite dog training store, Schweikerts, then off to the boxer club at 2 P.M to work. Due to the rain turn out by the boxer club was also small so we were finished with practice quite early compared to a normal day.
This was not a bad thing as it then gave me a chance to cook a normal warm dinner instead of the usual cold German sandwiches we eat for dinner on a practice days. Saturday’s dinner was supposed to be baked crispy chicken but alas I opened the package and the chicken to me smelled a little sour. Oh no I am not going to take any chances so into a paper bag for the bio (meaning veg matter and food stuffs) can.
We eat dinner watch a bit of Tele (got to love the British shows), Normal habit for us is to snuggle down on the sofa and while watching the evening programming drift off to a peaceful sleep until about 1:00 A.M in the morning. At which point we awake and stumble up to bed for the rest of the morning (I know this is a bad habit).
This is where the evening or early morning went wrong. I tell the dogs’ “come we go over to sleep” (this means up stairs to the bed room) Hella springs up and is ready to go to lie on her bed in the bedroom. Uly on the other hand does have a few bad habits of his own. I know he hears me but being a lazy boxer butt, he sometimes does not even lift his head to acknowledge me. This is where I give him a poke with my finger in his flanks so I know he is awake and hears me. Off for one last potty myself which would give Uly the extra time needed to stretch and get off the sofa and wait for me next to the baby gate blocking the ferrets into the livingrooom. I go back to the baby gate and look but there is no Uly waiting, I turn on the over head light but still Uly stays on the sofa (Bugger I know he is a wake). Fine, tough noogies, you are now going to stay in the living room to sleep alone while Hella and myself sleep upstairs.
I think I heard a few times a low woof woof coming from down stairs but after all he did not come up to bed when I said so good stay your butt in the living room! Well at 4 O’clock in the morning I hear the tell tale boxer lips licking and the loose skin flapping as he shakes and somewhere in the back of my still sleeping mind I think I know I left Uly to sleep in the living room! I spring out of bed as the next thoughts were of loose ferrets exploring forbidden rooms of the house. Down the stairs (No dogs following which is also unusual) Sure enough the baby gate was lying flat on the floor, O.k. check to see where ferrets are both are sound asleep next to the sofa in the cat house which is their bed but all over the carpet is what resembles pieces of paper bag! Oops check the counter! Sure enough Uly had by passed the open box of cookies I had left on the counter but the raw spoiled chicken did not make it through the morning. (My fault, as I did not secure the meat to a place that was out of reach) So gone was a whole cut up spoiled chicken! Not a bone, or piece of skin was to be found anywhere on the floor.
This just gives credibility to the fact that a dogs’ stomach can handle more bacteria then the human system, Uly had only a touch of softer poops the next day (of course thinking he had at some point in the morning gotten an extra portion of food (ie the chicken) that he only needed a small portion of dry food at his normal feeding.
I should add that since Saturday Uly now gets up and waits by the baby gate any time I get up and leave the living room even if I am just to take a quick pee. I guess he had learned his lesson for the moment and when I say I am going over to sleep this means get your saggy boxer butt off the sofa and come with us.