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The winds of happiness, comfort and companionship blew her into my life.
Having been abandoned by someone from somewhere, she came to me in a sea
of trauma. Her life was on the line, yet her demeanor was neither
obsequious nor needy. My heart opened up to her, and in an instant I
claimed her as my own. I named her Croskey, after the street on which
she was found.
I remember bringing her home after tying around her neck a rope which a
neighbor had given to me. I put her in the garden, and we stared at each
other. As we both struggled to regain our equilibrium, I wondered if
this was a good idea. I had never taken care of such a big dog. As this
thought was going through my mind, our eyes met. I realized that just as
I believe that spiritually we choose our own parents, so had this large
German shepherd dog chosen me. Destiny had thrown us together. This
happened almost ten years ago and somehow it seems like only a blink of
the eye.
Over the years I have enjoyed her enormously, but feeding her has been
challenging. I am always doing a fast step to try and keep my own diet
and that of my husband on track. Adding a one hundred pound dog to the
household required some special consideration.
My previous dog was a dachshund named Max. Max would eat anything that
he could get his little mouth on. Anything that would stand still, he
would eat! Croskey is a different story. She is a lady and very
particular, especially about her food. Whereas Max would grab food from
your hand like a piranha, Croskey takes a delicate sniff and then
decides is she is interested or not.
For several years I fed Croskey the same diet that I had fed to Max. I
purchased the best quality dry and canned dog food that I could find. I
studied the labels on all of the commercial brands which were available
and chose those which I deemed the lesser of the evils. If the
ingredients included big, unpronounceable words, I rejected those
brands. Who wants to feed their poor dog something that you cannot even
pronounce?
In addition, she was fed lots of macrobiotic leftovers. Every morning we
would each have our miso soup, and then I would mix the leftovers in
with her commercial food. During the day, I always left plenty of dry
food for her to eat whenever she felt like it. All in all, she seemed
happy and was doing well.
However, as the years went by, Croskey started to lose her vim and
vigor. She became a dog coach potato! She'd lounge on the sofa and look
at me in a bored and sleepy way when I would ask her how she was doing.
Dr. Norman Ralston, the author of Raising Healthy Pets, suggests that we
should not give our pets commercial food because many of the products
are saturated with preservatives, food dyes, sweeteners, salt, and
pesticides. He says that home cooked food is the way to insure that your
pet is properly nourished.
Good health is reflected in good energy, and the first sign of impending
health problems is a lack of stamina. I realized that the diet which I
had been feeding Croskey was not supporting her health. Her lethargy was
a sign that she was not thriving on her diet.
My decision to change her diet was a major one for two reasons. First of
all, I realized that I would now be required to cook her food. Secondly,
Dr. Ralston believes that a dog's diet should include some animal food.
This was upsetting to me, as buying and cooking meat was completely
self-contradictory. My giving up animal products, many years ago, was
triggered not by health problems but by ethical concerns.
Reflecting honestly, I had to admit that the inadequacies of Croskey's
former diet were manifold. Not only does commercial food contain lots of
additives and preservatives, it lacks freshness, which is an essential
element to good health. Also, for the most part, people tend to find one
brand which seems to agree with their animal and use it forever. This
deprives the animal of variety, which is another important aspect of
dietary health.
The dry food, I concluded, was a particular problem for Croskey. Just as
we should avoid baked hard food, so should animals. The hardness and the
dryness weaken the intestines and rob vitality from the body. Also,
allowing her to graze on her dry food all day long was a big mistake.
The digestive system needs time to rest between meals in order to
perform optimally.
So, although it was uncomfortable for me to do, I set off to a store to
buy some meat! Standing at the meat counter for the first time in many
years was an odd experience. As I watched the other people select their
various cuts of meat, I felt like shouting out "this meat is for my dog,
not for me"; however, I did manage to contain myself.
Dr. Ralston believes that some dogs can do well without having animal
protein in their diet. However, in the case of a dog who, like Croskey,
is manifesting lethargy and lack of stamina, the addition of meat to the
diet can prove to be helpful. On the other hand, if a dog is overactive
and rambunctious, a vegetarian diet might just be the antidote to calm
him down.
Croskey's new diet would consist of brown and white rice, barley, ground
beef and vegetables. This would be supplemented by miso soup, nori, and
leftovers from our food. Please remember that it is important to vary
the above ingredients on a regular basis. Rice can be fed to the dog
every day, but substitute the barley with other grains such as millet or
oats on a regular basis. Also, change the type of meat often. Use
chicken, lamb, or other types to add variety and interest to the diet.
Croskey really liked and seemed to appreciate her new diet. She enjoyed
lying on the kitchen floor and watching me cook, knowing that this was
all for her. She did miss her dog biscuits. She would also occasionally
stand by her dish and look at me as if to say, "where is my dry food?"
"where are my biscuits" "I want to have a little snack!"
It is important when cooking grains for a dog that you consider the
differences in their digestive systems. Unlike humans, their intestinal
tract is quite short. This means that their food digests more quickly
than ours. Therefore, grains must be cooked until they are very soft so
that they can be properly assimilated.
It would be ideal to cook fresh food for your pet every day. However, I
find this humanly impossible! So every week, I prepare a batch of food
and store some of it in the freezer. While freezing does take some of
the energy from the food, it is still miles better than feeding the dog
commercial food.
Croskey is doing very well on her new regime. It is remarkable to
observe what a transformation occurs when a more healthful diet is
introduced. After only ten days on her new victuals, my senior citizen
canine started to regain her old spark. Now when we go for a walk in the
park, she is full of energy. She even becomes overly flirtatious when
she sees a cute male dog. When I try to remind her that she is a bit
elderly for this romantic folly, she looks at me in a conspiratorial
way, knowing that because she is now well nourished she looks extremely
young for her age.
Originally published in Christina Cooks
Summer 1999
DOG FOOD RECIPE
2 cups short grain brown rice
2 cups hulled barley
2 cups white rice
2-inch piece of kombu
6 cups blanched vegetables
3 lbs. lean ground beef
Soak the brown rice and the barley for 1 to 3 hours. Add the kombu and
cook together in lots of water. When this has been cooking for 45
minutes add the white rice. Cook for another 45 minutes until all the
grains are soft. Blanch the chopped vegetables. Save the blanching water
and use it to cook the meat. Blend all of the ingredients together,
including the leftover cooking water. This will be enough food for one
to two weeks depending on the size and appetite of the dog.
Bon Appétit! Bon Chien.
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