Blue Buffalo canned food

Originally starting as an occasional special treat, we now routinely give Samantha some canned dog food each morning for breakfast. Most recently, we’ve been feeding her the canned food made by Blue Buffalo, as it looks to consist of reasonably natural, healthy ingredients. Samantha has enjoyed the chicken, lamb, and turkey day feast varieties, but not the turkey meatloaf.

In the morning I gave her about half of a can of turkey meatloaf, and she smelled it, but didn’t eat it. By lunch time, she still hadn’t eaten it. By late afternoon, she was continuing to not eat it. I threw away the food I gave her originally, and scooped out the second half of the can, thinking that maybe now she would enjoy it if it was fresh. Still nothing. Maybe she wasn’t feeling well? Upset stomach?

I opened up a new can of Blue Buffalo lamb food and gave Samantha half of it. She ate it immediately. I was surprised to see her exhibit such discerning taste, but based on this experience, we will avoid buying the turkey meatloaf food for her in the future…

Warming Up to the Idea of a Dog

written by Jennifer Rothwell

As I look over the past year, I wonder how I got here. How is it that I’m surrounded by toys strewn about and I hear the sound of pitter-pattering feet across the living room floor? I always prided myself it being a refined, well mannered, neat and tidy person. Now, I find myself cleaning crusted sleepers out of my baby’s eyes and allowing this same dirty smelly baby to take up residence in the same bed my husband and I share. What has happened to me!! It was the winter of 2010 when my husband and I began talking about expanding our family. We had been married for 2 years and we both had a “itch” to bring a new life into our family. We had agreed, it was time for a pet! Now, I was actually ready for a real, human child, but in order to give him more time and for him to get used to the idea of carrying for a baby, I agreed to allow an animal to join our happy home.

Let’s make one thing clear, I am a CAT PERSON. I have always been a cat person and figured I would be until the day I left this earth. So, of course, I met, fell in love with and married a DOG PERSON! To be fair, he is actually allergic to cats, but so what if he had to live on Benadryl for the rest of his life? At least I would be able to be happy owning a loving, adorable, beautiful feline…maybe even 2 or 3. No, I wasn’t on my way to being the next Ripley’s Believe It or Not Cat-Lady, but I did always envision myself owning cats. However, once I came to my senses, I realized that would be no life for my husband. So, I agreed to allow a dog to enter our family. I did make it clear from the beginning, that all responsibilities (ie: feeding, walking, letting it out at lunchtime, and getting up with it at night) would be his responsibility! He was the one that wanted a dog, and he was going to be the one to care for it!

To fast forward a bit and make a long story short, on May 20th, 2011, we welcomed Samantha to our family. She was a cute little brown and white Border Collie. I couldn’t believe it, within only two days I was showing people pictures of her on my phone. Every time we went to the store, I was walking down the animal isles looking for something to take back home to her. Whenever we were away from home, we would spend our time talking about her.  At work, while my co-workers were talking about their children and all the cute things they were doing, I was talking about our puppy. I had become one of those people!!! I was one of those people that I would make fun of, who put outfits on their dogs and enrolled them in daycare and agility classes. I had turned into a DOG PERSON! So, for those of you that don’t think it can happen to you, just know that if you let one of these little ones into your home, you’re in for a surprise…you’ll fall in love with them, I know I did!

Growing Up

We stopped putting training pads down for Samantha in August or so, after it became evident that she was more inclined to shred them to bits rather than use them for their intended purpose.

She continued to have “accidents” in the house for a while, but it was diminishing. When she first moved in with us, we were in the midst of refinishing the basement floor with bamboo floorboards. Once that project was done, Samantha was allowed to go downstairs, and would routinely relieve herself on the floor.

Over the past month, I’ve noticed that she almost never has an accident in the house any more; perhaps once a week, and that when she has been left alone without the ability to go outside. Her first few months required frequent cleanups, but at reaching about nine months of age, she has come to realize that she should go outside to relieve herself.

Likewise, she has significantly reduced her chewing on random objects throughout the house. Not quite down to no undesired chewing yet, but her progress is evident.

It makes me a little sad to know she is growing up out of her puppy ways, but the amount of work involved in cleaning up after her has gone down significantly, and ultimately that is a good thing.