Cooking for loved ones

Happy post, post Valentine's, everyone! It's a weekend and I'm hoping to get a lot done. 

A lot of sleeping, that is. I've been feeling a bit melancholy these past few days, and I kept thinking about Hobbes. I miss him. Ten days from now it will be 2 months since he passed and I still miss him. I've known him for so long sometimes I catch myself wondering how is it that he's really gone, but he is. 

About 3 years ago one of our dogs, George, got sick and died. During his treatment, we went to several doctors, went through bags of medications and struggled to feed him. Eventually, his kidneys failed and we had to let him go to end his suffering. I read a lot and learned a lot from articles during this time, about how to treat dogs with compromised kidneys, or other organs for that matter. I also stopped going to a particular overcharging vet. Since then, I've been careful about what I feed my dogs. Back then, we would've just bought regular old dog food at the grocery. The really generic brand of unknown origins. We didn't know better. But we got wiser and went on to more popular brands that assured us of quality through better ingredients and formulation-- until we read an article about those same brands being pulled because they were contaminated.


So now I try to make their food from meat and vegetables from the grocery. It's labor intensive sometimes, but I would like to think it's worth it. I have to admit though, we still give them a little kibble, which I think of as junk food.. so we "indulge" a bit, but their main meals are all healthy. Eventually, I hope we can make a complete shift because the benefits of a natural diet are great. Why? Because when I see a problem, I can do something about it. Like if they have a fungal infection, i know that rosemary and bayabas leaves help. If they have bad breath, parsley and mint are good additions to their diet. It makes me feel good to know i can monitor their diet and adjust it to their needs. All with supervision from our vet of course.

And there's no greater reward than to see their bowls licked clean after every meal!

How about you, do you have special recipes you like to make for your beloved pooch?