One night last week, I stopped to pickup a carryout order from Bob Evans. As I was waiting, I noticed their pumpkin bread was back for Fall and I got to talking to a manager about the canned pumpkin shortage. The manager explained that they had to switch to a Canadian supplier because of Libby's pumpkin crop failure last year. We talked a bit longer and before I left, I asked her if she could sell me any of her cans of pumpkin. She explained that they were #10 cans, but if that wasn't a problem for me she would be more than happy to sell them to me. The cans were huge, but I could certainly find a way to work around that. So, I left there with 3 huge cans of pumpkin. I was giddy for the rest of the night.
Before I cracked open any of the cans, I of course made the pugs pose with them. Ever since learning how to "give 5", Benjamin thinks that "giving 5" is his ticket to everything he wants in life. You don't even have to ask him. He just sits down and starts giving you his paw.
Henry and Luna seemed to be equally excited about the mystery, oversized can.
I gave Luna a small bite of cucumber and the video below shows what she thought of that. Also, my favorite part is how Ben swoops in at the end and eats the cucumber and then gives me a look that says, "What? That was a perfectly good piece of cucumber." I guess it falls under the 5 second rule for the floor, but it was in Luna's mouth for more than 5 seconds.
I was at the book store perusing the bargain aisle when I came across the Good Treats Cookbook for Dogs. I picked up the book and the first page I flipped to was a recipe for Pumpkin Twists. Needless to say, that recipe caught my attention. I continued to flip through the pages and found a lot of recipes that I thought the pugs would love. There were Banana Peanut Butter Biscuits, Apple Kissed Peanut Butter Treats and even some frozen treats that I thought would be perfect for the pugs after a walk in the hot FL evenings.
For my first dog treat baking experience I decided to try to make Chicken Ginger Biscuits. I was worried that the pugs weren't going to like them, but after they got their first taste Benny promptly scratched on the pantry door for more. Success!
Here is the recipe for the Chicken Ginger Bones if you would like to give it a shot.
Ingredients
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 cup chicken broth (I used low sodium)
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375°F.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, wheat germ, and ginger.
In a second bowl, combine the chicken broth, egg and oil. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well blended.
On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut into desired shapes. Combine dough scraps and repeat rolling and cutting into biscuits until all dough is used.
Place biscuits on a greased baking sheet and bake for 25 minutes.
Whenever one of the pugs does something funny or noteworthy, I jot down a little blurb in my blog idea book. Later, when I'm looking for something to blog about, I have a whole book of ideas. I have notes in my book that I never got a chance to blog about before Sol passed. I thought I would share one of those stories today.
When it came to food, Solsey had a pretty strict set of rules that she followed. One of those rules was never, ever eat any fruit.
We quickly became aware of Sol's "Eat No Fruit" rule when she turned down tiny bits of bananas or apples on a regular basis. But we didn't realize how serious Sol's distaste for fruit was until she got picky about her Cheerios.
Each morning plays out about the same around here. We start the day with a bowl of Cheerios and a banana. However, we are a two Cheerio flavor household. One of us eats Apple Cinnamon Cheerios and the other Honey Nut Cheerios.
We offer the pugs a tiny bite of banana each morning and of course Sol always turned hers down. So, we started offering Sol a Cheerio instead. If it was an Apple Cinnamon Cheerio, Sol would turn that down as well. If it was a Honey Nut Cheerio, she would woof it down and ask for another.
Mix a handful of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios with a handful of Honey Nut Cheerios, put the mix in a bowl and give it to Sol and when she was done eating you would have a bowl full of Apple Cinnamon Cheerios left.
As soon as we got to the car after picking Benny up from his brachycephalic surgery I knew he was going to be OK. In our excitement to go pick Benny up, we forgot to remove a small container of kibble that we brought with us to his pre-surgery visit the day before.
His pre-surgery appointment required fasting and we weren't expecting to leave him so we brought a small meal to give him after his visit. But, Benny ended up staying for his surgery so there was no need for the meal we brought with us.
When we picked Benny up to bring him home the next day, he sat on my lap on the passenger seat. After about a minute or two, he went to the back seat and immediately found the bag of kibble that we had previously brought.
He smelled and stared at the bag for a bit and then he started whining and barking at the bag. Except, his bark wasn't quite back so soon after his surgery. I have only a tiny clip of his barking, but it is enough to give you an idea.
Benny's little tantrum went on for about 60 miles and then finally we were back home. Once home, we followed doctor's orders and gave him a soft meal. He gobbled it up and then took a much needed nap.
I have talked about things I have learned from the pugs over the years (Henry, Benjamin and Luna), but I don't think I have talked much about things the pugs have learned from each other.
When Sol walked into our lives, Luna picked up one of Sol's personality traits very quickly - the act of saying no. Before Solsey arrived, I think Luna did a lot of things because the boys did them. She ate her piece of banana each morning because the boys seemed to love it. But, it was plain to see that Luna was not very fond of bananas.
The first time Luna watched Sol turn down a bite of banana a lightbulb went off in her head. Sol smelled her banana offering, gave a big huff, spraying snot all over the banana and everything else in close proximity and then looked up with her big brown eyes asking, "What else you got?" In a sign of solidarity, Luna turned down her bite of banana that morning too.
In the short 15 months that Sol was with us, Luna took pride in turning her nose up at many of our offerings. And without Sol, Luna continues to carry the torch. This morning, she didn't even bother to come to the breakfast table to turn down her banana. From the couch, she declared "Bananas, who needs stinkin' bananas!"
