The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

One of my favorite comics features a genial mutt named Satchel. A recurring theme involves his housemate and nemesis, an arrogant siamese cat named Bucky, who encourages Satchel to eat (or at least swallow) anything conveniently at hand, from roadkill to small electronic appliances. The joke is that Satchel, and by extension all dogs, will give it a try, whatever the consequences.

As is often the case with Cookie, her dietary choices are much more sophisticated than that. There are only a few things that we know are out of the question because they are flat out dangerous for dogs. That don’t-even-think-about-eating-this list includes chocolate, avocadoes, macadamia nuts, grapes and raisins, onions, garlic and chives, bread dough, alcohol, caffeine, and anything with artificial sweeteners.

That leaves a lot of options open. A quick stroll down the pet food aisle of your local grocery store will give you an idea of what the dog food industry thinks your dog would like to eat. For detailed and current market-savvy statistics, an outfit called Sundale Research will sell you a ‘State of the Industry: Dog Food in the U.S.” publication for $179. It takes a deep dive into such topics as what is driving industry growth, changing demographics [seriously?], organic pet food sales, dry vs. wet food, and on and on. That stuff is of no interest to Cookie.

She does her market research the old-fashioned way. It starts with the classic sniff test. Any time there is food preparation underway, she will be underfoot. Once we sit down to eat, whether it’s mealtime, snack time, or grab-a-handful-of-this-because-it’s-sitting-out-on-the-counter time, she will politely station herself on the floor nearby and lock eyes on the food. She won’t steal it, and she won’t get too close to it, but she can sniff it from a reasonable distance, and that generally leads to phase two, which is trying a bite.

This is where it gets interesting. With fruit, for example, she has very specific likes and dislikes. Apples are out. Blueberries, not so much. Melon is a hit. If there’s a breakfast pastry in the offing, she’s all over it, but we have to pick the fruit out first. She especially likes the crunchy crust of any scone, muffin, or slice of pie that enters her orbit.

Lunch is perhaps her favorite snack time. She’s an equal opportunity diner on almost anything I’m likely to fix as long as it contains meat and cheese. Chips fall into the always a hit crunchy/salty food group. That said, she turns down flavored chips, spicy or peppery chips, and (god forbid!) vinegar chips. Just give me crunchy and salty, nothing else, please.

All of this is just the preamble to the more important question, which is, what does she actually eat for her own supper? We’re going through some big changes at the moment on that score.

Being devoted to routine and possessing an amazing ability to demand that prescribed activities occur on time, at the same time, all the time, any change in Cookie’s dining habits must be carefully planned. For years her habit has been to wait until we have finished our supper, then wait some more until Mr. B has been tucked away in his drawer, and then (pretty much when all hope for further treats is abandoned) does she attack her kibble.

This is not your ordinary kibble. It’s vet-approved kibble designed to help clean her teeth, which have been an ongoing concern as they have a disheartening habit of falling out. But that’s another story. The kibble she’s been eating is not a favorite. She takes one piece (is that a kiblet?) at a time out of her bowl, walks it over to the dining room floor mat, and drops it there. Might eat it, might not. Ground kibble is now part of our dining room decor.

Recently Mrs. G found a home delivery option for custom-made dog food featuring real meats and vegetables. We’ve started adding it to the kibble and serving it well ahead of our dinner. This accomplishes a number of goals. It sets mealtime early enough that there’s less chance of a two o’clock in the morning wake up call to do her business because dinner was eaten right before going to bed. It also makes her much happier about the kibble part of supper because the kibble seems to absorb some of the meat’s flavors while she’s devouring it.

Fortunately, Cookie doesn’t drag the meat to the dining room, although she has pushed her bowl in that direction in a frantic effort to lick up every scrap of this new food. So far, we’ve had excellent success with beef. Next up: turkey!