For the Dogs

One time at Fairway I asked for three Mackerels, the cheapest fish they had. The old Brooklyn guy behind the counter asked me how I wanted them. Gutted, fileted, whatever. I was like, "uhhhhh...."

"What're you gonna do with em?"

"Uhhhhhh...." A little hesitant to spill the beans, but I did. "It's for my dog, actually. She's gonna eat it raw."

I told him a little about raw food for dogs, how it's better for them, they're good with raw meat, they shouldn't eat so much grain, refined carbohydrates are bad for dogs, too, etc... I braced myself for an eye-rolling, but he surprised me.

"Yeah, my dog never ate dog food," the guy says. "My wife always gave him whatever we were having. She made an extra plate for him every day. The dog lived to be 17. Never once ate dog food. "

Nice.

I'm not a total convert to homemade and/or raw food for my pets, but not for lack of belief. More because I'm too lazy, busy, and cheap. But I can't help wondering: Are dogs supposed to eat ground corn and sorghum? What about caramel and choline chloride? These are some of the around 15,000 ingredients in the fancy dog food I buy. And why do domestic dogs have to brush their teeth? Plus, why does a dog need all those added vitamins? Doesn't food have vitamins in it? And why do I feed animals who lived a miserable life on a factory farm to my beloved pets? Don't I care about all animals?

Whew, so much to think about. Anyway, here's what I'll make for Cleo once in a while:

Get some meat, either a cheap cut of red meat, or leftover meat. After I make a chicken stock, I take the meat off the bones and use that. Then I raid the produce drawer for wilted greens I'm probably never going to use. Wobbly zucchini or celery, kale, chard, etc. Squash and roasted squash skin are really good, too. My mom's and my dogs will eat squash right out of our hands, like it's candy.

Put the greens (and meat if it's in big pieces) in the food processor. Mix the pureed greens with the meat.




Form into patties, and freeze. You can give them frozen to the dog. Just like the polar bears at the zoo, they like to work it out, chew on it, gnaw it to death.

Am I a dog nutritionist? No.
Do I know that this is the best thing to do? No.
Do I know that all that kale and broccoli is not going to give my dog terrible gas? No.
I do this because my mom does it, and she knows a lot about dogs .
Also, its fun.

And eco! It's eco, too!
No, seriously, it is.