Purrfect Bistro Tuna Niçoise: Kitty Agrees on the Purrrrrrrrfect!

Merrick Purrfect Bistro Tuna Nicoise

Winki the mini-kitty wasn’t having a good year. She and the new rescue hadn’t connected yet, which resulted in a lot of hissing fits between her, perched halfway up the spiral staircase to her lair in the attic, and the new boy, whining and snorting on the bottom step. She also slept less often in her favorite spot, tucked into Daddy’s armpit. Poor baby…

Aloha, bland food: here comes Tiki Cat Hookena Luau

Tiki Cat Hookena Luau Ahi Tuna and Chicken

Maybe it’s because she’s spoiled, and maybe it’s because she resents having to live in a house with two dogs, but my cat has little interest in pate-style foods. As a result, almost everything I buy her is either “flaked” or some variation on “chunks in gravy.” I generally avoid so-called supermarket cat foods, too, so you can almost always find me looking for sales on the high-end stuff. That’s probably why I picked up a few cans of  Tiki Cat not long ago, one of which was Hookena Luau Ahi Tuna and Chicken. To be blunt, kitty approves – a LOT.

Kitty Has a New Favorite Brand: Nulo

Nulo Medal Series Beef and Rainbow Trout Cat Food

One of kitty’s more interesting quirks is that she pretty much refuses to eat pate-style foods. That’s not really a problem, given the variety of “filets,” shreds, chunks, and flakes on the market. We do, however, try hard to avoid what some call “supermarket” cat foods while also not breaking the bank buying two-dollar cans. Since she only gets an ounce or so twice a day with her dry kibbles, though, a dollar or so a day seems acceptable.

Sorry, Tidy Cat: I'm going back to Scoop Away

Tidy Cats 24/7 Performance Clumping Cat Litter

You might think that all clumping kitty litters are alike. I used to think that, but no more. The last time we ran out of litter for Miss Kitty, I picked up whatever was on sale. For the past couple of years, we’ve used Scoop Away Complete because you can buy a ginormous box at Costco, cheap.  Since I was already buying food for the fur babies at the pet store, I picked up a tub of Tidy Cats 24/7 Performance Clumping litter at the same time. I was amazed at the difference.

Miss Kitty is tiny; about seven pounds, and decidedly “senior” at more than twelve years old. Nevertheless, she can produce a lot of waste in a short time. Unlike some people, we only scoop the box every other day – it’s in the basement, not in the bedroom, and we use a big covered box, so it’s not like anyone gets “stankface.” Or at least it wasn’t until we started using this Tidy Cat!

A Kosher Food for the Observant Pooch, but Be Prepared for Flatulence

Evanger Classic Recipe Cooked Chicken Canned Dog Food

There’s no way our blonde Lab is Jewish – she’s a native of Galveston, Texas, which suggests she’s most likely Baptist. As for our little boy, he’s a our rescue pooch who came without a history. So as to not offend his religious sensibilities, when Rosh Hashanah arrives we changed his once-a-day canned food treat to a nice Kosher chicken recipe. Just kidding: it was pure accident that there was a can of Evanger’s Classic Recipes Cooked Chicken in the pet food cabinet, but this recipe is Kosher for Passover, so I thought, “What the heck?”

Thanksgiving for Dogs - Merrick Makes Dogs Drool

Merrick’s Classic Grain Free Thanksgiving Day Dinner 

See it at Amazon

It Spoils the Dog – Again

Years ago we spoiled a previous dog by giving him canned dog food once a week and he knew it as “groceries” and oh how he loved the treat.  Until this past Thanksgiving Day our current pampered and spoiled dogs had never had any type of canned food. Their kibbles are high quality and they enjoy quite a few other treats but now I think they’d trade some of their treats for more canned food, especially if it was as good as Merrick’s Classic Grain-Free Thanksgiving Day Dinner.

Dog Owners Everywhere Secretly Wish for a Training Guru

Listening to Dogs: How to be Your Own Training Guru by  Jon Katz

Years ago trainers recommended establishing pack order when working with our dogs. A few went so far as to have the alpha family member mark boundaries with his/her urine. Later a friendlier form of training, positive behavior reinforcement seemed effective yet gentler. So many variations exist today that first-time dog owners become confused and clueless. Author Jon Katz offers a different perspective in his book, Listening to Dogs: How to be Your Own Training Guru. This isn’t exactly a dog training book, it’s not something I would recommend for a first-time dog owner, but he does provide something for reflection.

Katz and I have a love/hate relationship -- he doesn't know this.

My relationship with Katz’s books has been a love/hate bond. I read everything he writes including a few books I treasure and a couple I’d prefer to fling across the room in protest. In Listening to Dogs Katz doesn’t pretend to be a trainer or a guru, he claims he avoids questions on how he trains his dogs, he suggests that what works for his dogs on his farm probably won’t work for you and your dog in your house/yard/apartment. He suggests that trainers such as Cesar Millan know how to work with their dogs in given situations but when dog owners attempt his methods they frequently fail -- and then assume they’re incapable of training their dogs. Most of the books seem to have “little to do with the lives of most dog lovers and owners” – another reason they search for mystical dog-training gurus.

Generation one was a great dog, but...

Katz states that “dog training has been one of the most profound spiritual experiences of my life. It is not, for me, an exercise in authority, a matter of technique, a rigid theory that smothers thinking, individuality, and the very personal nature of our relationships with these animals.” It is my interpretation based upon reading this book and all of his previous books