We're Back

Many more photos to come! We're finally getting out and about and remembering to take pictures. Below are some pictures of our latest foray into the snow and a beach walk with Okra where we moved in December. Our ski trip started out great with clear skies and great snow but ended with 40mph winds and a very tired puppy.

Spring has arrived!

...and things are happening in Oregon.  The only excuse I can think of for our blog hiatus is that we've had nothing noteworthy to blog about!  Small things happened over the winter, but it went by so fast that we're still trying to figure out what they were...

Well, whatever...we've been busy this month anyway.  Our garden is shooting up--this photo is from several weeks ago.  We started our first seeds in April, but had a frost just days afterward.  The peas and radishes seem to be stronger for it, but we had to replant the carrots and whatever else didn't sprout (note to self: must write notes when planting tiny seeds into random places in the garden).

 We harvested our first radishes last weekend.  They were small, but they were yummy.

 

Matt finished his chicken coop a few weeks ago and he picked up four laying hens.  We've named three of them "Red" (#1, 2, and 3) and the large cross "the bitch".  Okra loves them, I'm pretty sure he thinks they are his personal playthings.  "The bitch" protects the rest of the hens from Okra.  As far as I can tell, Okra's scared of her.

It's not quite finished yet, but looks pretty good.  I love the cedar shingles.

The bounty!  We get three to four eggs a day, and "the bitch" lays these gigantic eggs, the one in the upper left of this carton is her biggest so far...

Merry Christmas!

Raw Meaty Bones = Dog Heaven

I was raised with a heightened awareness of nutrition and my entire family is dedicated to eating high-quality, organic, whole foods. I remember complaining in elementary school to my mom that I wanted white bread like the other kids, and that I didn't want to eat any more "toe-food" (tofu). Matt's been a wandering vegan for several years now and has given a lot of thought to his food choices. The consequences of a well-balanced and thoughtful diet have remained an important topic in our lives. Not surprisingly, we couldn't help but get into detailed discussions about what we were going to feed our first puppy.

We initially fed Okra the Kirkland brand kibble he was being fed when we got him as a puppy.  We changed to a higher quality kibble within a few weeks, but he didn't do very well on it an we reverted back to the Kirkland.  Okra wasn't really interested in eating his kibble from the onset.  As I started looking into raw food as an option for Okra I found that there are several schools of thought on the raw food diet. Some people think you should not feed dogs vegetables, ever; others think it is imperative to do so. Some folk think that if you go raw, you should never combine raw meat meals with kibble, even in separate meals, or on separate days. I even heard of one family who fed their dog an exclusive diet of Chinese food leftovers! Regardless of the dogma, I felt like it was important to provide a variety of foods to my dog to ensure he had an array of vitamins and minerals and amino acids and all that stuff.

The one thing that was consistent throughout all the literature and websites I read was to NEVER feed your dog cooked bones! I think a lot of people are turned off from the raw-meaty-bones diet because they're terrified of giving bones to their dogs.  There are plenty of horror stories out there about expensive surgeries needed to remove splintered bones from a dogs' throat, or even dogs dying after splintered bones pierced their intestines. These fears were evident when I attempted to purchase chicken backs at a local store, and the butcher steered me towards the beef marrow bones, explaining that it was very dangerous to feed my dog chicken bones and asking if I had ever had a dog before!

After deciding that it was important to us to pursue a raw diet for Okra, we needed a plan that was cheap, nutritious, and practical. The pre-packaged frozen meals are great, but at $5/pound it is cost-prohibitive. I read somewhere that if you can keep your dog's meat to less than $1/pound it's actually cheaper to feed raw than to feed your dog top-of-the-line kibble! I had heard that he should be eating a lot of bone, and that chicken wings are a great way to start your dog off on the raw food diet. Since whole chickens are 3x less expensive than purchasing wings-only, I've settled into a groove of just picking up some chickens for Okra when I head to the grocery store.  This way it's not even difficult to keep our freezer stocked with meals for the pup.

At this point, Okra’s eating 70% chicken carcasses (breasts removed), 10% raw egg and/or pork ribs, 20% miscellaneous cooked vegetables and raw organ meat (chicken organs ,pumpkin, yams, parsley, spinach, or other green veggies tossed in a food processor. Sometimes I add cottage cheese or yogurt). I’ve found that the chicken and raw eggs are convenient, and try to make an organ meal whenever I get a chance, but I probably don’t do it as much as I should. When we travel, or run out of food for him, we feed him high-quality kibble, and he likes that too.


The best parts? Okra doesn't stink anymore! His breath smells like it did when he was a tiny puppy and his gas and stool no longer smell. His stool is small and firm, and he no longer has to strain to go. His system appears to be functioning like it is supposed to, very well!  AND he loves loves loves food! All of it. I think the variety keeps things interesting for him. It’s also fun to watch him take a new cut of meat and figure out how to eat it. It takes time to eat, sometimes up to ten minutes for a particularly puzzling or bony meat. You can see his little brain working on it.

Photos from our trip... more to come soon

The St. Louis Arch after a very pleasant trip through parts of Kentucky, Southern Indiana, and Southern Illinois.

An unknown crop in Kansas after spending the night in Lawrence. We wandered around Lawrence all morning looking for various essentials (internet, fedex, coffee, library, etc.). We had a good time in Lawrence.

Driving through the Colorado

Our beautiful campsite in central Colorado, Okra eating dirt

A very relaxing morning at the campsite in Colorado

Driving along the Colorado River on our way to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks

At this point in the drive, the temp was somewhere above 95ºF and we pulled over to swim in the Colorado River. The water was amazingly cool and refreshing. We talked about the water for the next three days...

Sunrise near the Island in the Sky section of Canyonlands National Park

The pack in silhouette at sunrise near Canyonlands National Park

One last photo before driving from Moab, Utah to central Oregon

Okra Update

I don't have an excuse for my summer blog hiatus. But due to popular demand I decided to break my blog-silence for a quick photo update of our fun with Okra.

Pudge and Okra have come to be good friends this summer

He's tall enough to check out what's on the table or counter. He hasn't learned to graze off them yet, but it's only a matter of time!

Okra loves Matt's neice Maeve, he tries to play with all her toys and I caught him here sleeping in her chair. So cute.

He's a retriever!
(That's Gonzo barking in the background, he loves to play fetch too)

Okra is starting to really get into trouble after learning to jump. He's found out how to jump onto the couch and climb up the back, then jump to this table where the cat food is kept. Pudge is seriously annoyed by this.

Okra found a dried fish carcass at the waters edge and carried it around proudly for about a week. It was super stinky, but he was so happy we couldn't take it away from him.

Oh, puppyhood is so much fun!