Ted’s Beans (How Ted lost his Groove)
Dogs and food. Foods they want. Foods they love. Foods that are good for them. Foods they won’t eat. It can make me crazy!Yesterday was my father’s birthday. The dogs thought that his plate of goodies was for THEM! Shaman actually made an impolite grab for some cake. River was game at first, but didn’t like the flames on the candles, so I had a hard time convincing her to stay in this photo.
This was Ted’s first experience with birthdays and birthday cake. Usually he is a very happy-go-lucky guy, and in this photo you can tell he expects good things. For his part, my poor Dad was just trying to guard his cake...he loves the dogs, but lives with one very polite cat and forgets what a bunch of dogs can be like gathered around your dish!
Fast forward to today. After a long day at work, I got into my PJs early today and spent some time putting a hook on my NEW TRACKING LINE! (More to come on that later). As usual, the dogs started to mill around. The clock in their tummies told them I should be making their dinners. That’s when I realized…
I FORGOT TO BUY DOGFOOD!I had to set all of my tracking gear aside and start scrounging through the fridge and cupboards. I just switched all of the dogs to Orijen, which is a great holistic food and meets my requirements with respect to cancer prevention feeding theories. This was after tons of research over the years, so I knew I could make something from what I had in the house.
I managed to cook them up a really good, gourmet meal:4 pork chops
Rice
6 eggs
Canola oil
Dried apricots
Green beans
Turmeric
Mustard
Ginger
Garlic
Coconut oil
Chicken broth
I tasted it before I dished it out. Yummy! And a beautiful yellow from the spices and egg yolks. It reminded me of the days when I made homemade food for my old boy, our German Shepherd Hawk. In his old age he had lots of aches and pains from sore joints and a sore back from Degenerative Myelopathy. I researched a diet of supplements for him, mostly from Dr. Richard Clemmons’s website dedicated to this condition in dogs.
I remembered that green beans were specifically recommended, and was patting myself on the back for my good memory and for my dedication – to whip this meal up for the dogs tonight! (Sidebar comment - what an exciting Friday night…I just realized that I am cooking for my dogs, and writing about it, while other people are going to the show and out for dinner!)
As I dished out this dinner, the dogs were literally dancing around with round eyes, excited that this food really was for them! As I cleaned the kitchen I heard the happy sounds of dogs eating.
But something was wrong. Usually, Ted inhales his food and runs to the kitchen within seconds to announce that he is finished!
What was wrong? Where was Ted?
I peeked around the counter to see a very unhappy Ted look up at me from his dish. On closer inspection, all that was left in his dish was a pile of green beans!
Ted, who inhales everything, doesn’t like beans!He TRIED to eat one, and spit it out. He TRIED another. Yuck. River came over to see what the hold-up was. Ted got desperate – could he let her have his beans? After posturing over them for a few seconds, he thought better of it and just turned his back on the beans and walked away.
River had eaten her whole dinner, beans and all. But without the yummy food to go with them, beans on their own lost their appeal. She tried to eat them, but couldn’t do it either. I called Ted back to his beans – and look at the look on his face. Compare it to the happy look in the birthday photo above!
Ted lost his groove over beans! This is the FIRST TIME since having Ted (9 months) that I have seen him walk away from food! I knew it had to be blogged.
No worries. I knew Shaman would eat them. If you knew what else Shaman ate, you would know that beans must seem like a great delicacy (enough said).
Good boy Shaman.
Category Article Border collie, Cancer, Commentary, River, Shaman, Ted
