It's pumpkin time!

by pawlitico

You probably think that pumpkin time means we're celebrating the "pumpkin month" of October.


Yes, we love pumpkins. But what I mean by "pumpkin time" is our diet: My buddy Tilin Corgi and I started eating cooked pumpkin this past week 'cuz we've had a bit of . . . well, a touch of gastroenteritis — a nice big human term for the poopies.

I feel sheepish to admit that I swallowed some apricot pits. I know I warned everybuddy else not to do this in my piece "Confessions of a plum eater." But I lost track of what I was swallowing, and, oh howl, those pits carved their names all the way down my insides.

So one of our favorite veterinarians, Jona Jordan DVM, told us to eat 1/4 cup of cooked pumpkin and fast for 12 hours. Then we continued having pumpkin with our regular meals.

Before we could say "Corgis look great in Halloween costumes," our problem was solved. Now we're having pumpkin at practically every meal. Pumpkin is nutritious and has lots of fiber. Fiber helps push bad stuff out of the digestive tract and also makes a better stool.

Pumpkin is a funny word. According to "Pumpkins and More" at University of Illinois Extension, references to pumpkins go way back. The word pumpkin comes from the Greek word for "large melon," which is "pepon." The French turned it into "pompon." Then the English changed it to "pumpion." American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." Woof? I dunno why.

If you're in our area, I hope you'll get to visit Petaluma Pumpkin Patch. There are gazillions of big and little pumpkins. There's also a giant four-acre corn maze, which is redesigned every year by Farmer Jim and then cut down right after Halloween to turn the stalks into silage for cattle.

Confessions of a plum eater

By pawlitico

I've been finding fallen plums when I'm out in the yard. They're juicy Santa Rosa plums — one of the loveliest Nature-assisted Luther Burbank inventions.


At first I didn't much care about the plums, except they're fun to squeeze, like a ball. But plums are such juicy, fresh treats. And the pits are fun to spit out all over the yard. . . . I'm addicted.

Yesterday, dog-ma looked at me in a strange way. She got up close and felt my tummy. "Good grief, Jack," she exclaimed. "You've gained weight around your middle!"

Today, when dog-ma greeted me, she said, "I've been thinking about how you could've gained weight. You know, fruit has a LOT of fructose sugar — a ton of carbs, really. I bet you've been sneaking several plums a day, haven't you?"

I slunk down sheepishly. Yes, of course I have. Whenever nobuddy's looking, I eat as many juicy plums as I can. I'm not a vegan or fruitarian. I'm an omnivore. (By the way, as an omnivore, I don't eat any animal who didn't have a free life and a humane ending, 'cuz I'm a Humane California Dog.) It's just I can't resist plums.

Anybuddy who sez plums are bad fur a dog's health will have to explain to me why I'm feeling great. Plums have nutritional value fur dogs — such as vitamins and antioxidants.

But anybuddy who sez that eating lotsa plums and other fruits is bad fur the waistline, I'll have to agree with.

Before all you dogs start some kind of plum good diet fad, hear me on this one BIG CAVEAT: Plum pits can cause serious or life-threatening obstruction of the doggie digestive tract. There are a lot of inner doggie places to lose a pit.
Humans, if your dogs aren't the type who will spit out all the pits, you're asking for trouble to allow them to eat plums, peaches, and other stone fruits.

You've heard that the pits of many stone fruit contain the poison cyanide? This is true. But it would take quite a few pits to poison a mid-sized dog; there's so little of cyanide in each one.

If les fideaux insist on les fruits, pawleeze take les pits out before serving.

If some fideau happens to swallow a pit, watch her or him closely for signs of nausea or discomfort. Examine poo for pit. . . . No pit in poo? Call your vet!

The moral of the story: A pitted fruit in time saves nine — nine lives, nine hundred bucks, nine hundred trips to the ER, etc. You get the idea.

Music to a cat's ears

I've got cat stuff on the dogbrain 'cuz I've been dreamin' about cats.

My recent nights are restless. I keep wakin' up scratchin' an itch I can't reach. I itch 'cuz I roll in the dust every day. I'm addicted to summer rolling. Dog-ma's so annoyed she's gonna send me to doggy 12 steps.

Anyway, I dreamed I invented a cat toy. I howl a laugh at the thought. Why would I invent a cat toy? . . . My dogbrain works in funny ways.

Too bad I can't remember the dream clearly enough to make the toy. My young Ani Siamese would love to tear it apart and use the stuffing in one of her sculptures. Ani's a Neo-Synthesist artist working in sculpture and watercolor.

Artistic Ani sometimes dances with our dog-ma — who's obviously also cat-ma.

Ani discovered dancing serendipitously. She was cradled in dog-ma's right arm one evening, her paws in the palm of dog-ma's outstretched left hand. Dog-ma stood up and gently rocked Ani to the beat of a bluesy rockabilly tune. I was so surprised Ani didn't tell dog-ma she's crazy and make an escape. Nope. Ani liked it.

Who woulda thunk it? Music to a cat's ears.

Ani and dog-ma danced today to Carolyn Wonderland's "Miss Understood." Adolescent Ani identifies with the song title.

Another sound that's music to this Ani's ears is the whir of a blender. Ani does a solo dance on the counter when she hears it.


Dog-ma makes cat-a-licious smoothies. The combos vary. But they're always nutritious — based on a "prey model" diet, which include meat, bone, and offal in varying proportions.

Apawlogies to vegan humans, but we dogs and cats are still carnivorous.

If it were up to Ani, she'd eat raw liver by the pound, but dog-ma insists on "prey model" nutritional balance. It's great for dog-ma when she can use Primal Pet Foods raw frozen Chicken Grind 'cuz it's got bone, meat, and offal already ground up extra-fine — 3/16-inch grind — just purrfect for cat smoothies!

Sometimes dog-ma adds Ani's favorite veggies and herbs, too. I recall that Ani likes parsley.

Of course, the best cat herb is also the all-time best cat toy: The mint family herb Nepeta cataria: catnip!


Catnip is a most exciting cat toy. You don't need to put it in a smoothie. Just sprinkle some nice, organic, locally-grown catnip on an old cat toy or on the floor. The whole floor will turn into a toy!

Why spend a lot of money on a cat toy that's fancier than a cat can appreciate? You humans can't beat the return on investment in catnip. Save your money for highest-quality pet foods. . . . Now, that's music to dog-ma's ears.

Being frank

The 4th of July holiday isn't over for this dog. I need more picnics and food. I need hot dogs — not the kind that the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says Americans eat 150 million of every July 4th. I need Franktitude salmon dogs on whole-grain buns. Dog-ma can have the pickles.

Dream on. I can't have Franktitude dogs from Florida. I'm into the local food thing. I'm a REGIONAVORE.

Not a locavore. Locavorism, started in San Francisco, is about drawing the line at 100 miles food-wise — eating only foods grown or harvested within a 100 mile radius of San Francisco. This means you can mostly forget wild salmon. And no more Rogue or Deschutes ales, you guys. Why do locavores think that the San Francisco Bay Area is an economically sustainable bioregion? . . .

In Sonoma County, we have an upscale green grocer who's advertising "Eat 150." Just nudge the locavore line and resize our map. Woof? I already eat local farm market veggies, local cage-free eggs, and local poultry. My dog-ma eats other local stuff, too, like local honey and Redwood Hill Farm goat milk yogurt and cheese.

But let's not be loca-loco. Would you disregard our interdependence with all dogs and humans and other living creatures — including fish and trees — in the greater Pacific Bioregion? You know it's 650 miles to Portland, another 175 to Seattle, and yet another 1,100 miles to Ketchikan. You try telling folks in Alaska they'd better relocate down here 'cuz you don't support trade with them anymore. And tell your friends in, say, Seattle or Portland that you don't support their food entrepreneurialism either. . . . So the heck with the fishing industry, the heck with regional trade altogether?

I'm not going to take my paw and redraw the line again here. Being frank, I'm just going to mention a reasonable regional framework for green food trade. Think of our eating community as a socioeconomic bioregion. Think of it as an adaptation of a natural bioregion extending from Baja to Alaska and including coastal lands and rivers and off-shore waters of the Pacific. This is a concept akin to Salmon Nation: our boundaries defined as "anywhere Pacific salmon have ever run."


Quoting from Salmon Nation: "In search of a regional icon — or of a single indicator by which to measure regional health — one could hardly do better. Not only do 137 species depend on salmon as part of their diets, the landscape itself is nourished by them. 'The forest raises the salmon,' writes Richard Manning in his essay The Forests that Fish Built, 'but the salmon also raise the forest. This mutual dependence is the very definition of community, and in the end, the heart of the matter.'"

The heart of the matter. Supporting low-carbon footprint trade without leaving the regional little guys out in the cold. Pass the locally-grown mustard for my nutritious Wild Salmon Club sandwich. Hot diggity dog.

The lean years

by winecountrydog

East Idaho pets got a free medical checkup (AP news 6/29/08) at an event held at Bannock Animal Medical Center near Pocatello — an "innovative" cat and dog health center with a big waiting area, fresh-brewed coffee (for humans?), filtered water for pets, a fish tank (for cats?), a play area for children, an exercise area for dogs, and a consultation room with a view into the operating room. Yikes!

The free event was intended to help owners of older pets better support their pets' health needs. Clinic owner Walter Rowntree, DVM, said they saw about 300 dogs and cats. While problems in older pets include dental disease, back pain, and obesity, the rate of obesity reported by Dr. Rowntree was off the charts: Only five of the 200 dogs examined were at a normal weight.

No wonder that about 30 percent of the older dogs seen at the Idaho event suffer from some form of back pain, and that 15 of them have sciatica. And the cats, who made up about 10 percent of the clients, suffer from many of the same problems as the dogs.

Obesity is a big culprit in amplifying spinal and other health problems. Dogs and cats are carrying the weight of the commercial pet food industry on their backs! It's not "normal aging" for Fideau and Fluff to be fatties. People who talk about canine spine degeneration and other problems being the result of a "natural" aging process and poor genetics better check with ol' Mother Hubbard. What's in your doggie cupboard?

I think we ought to be able to describe a dog's older years as "the lean years": the years of our lives when we maintain normal weight through good nutrition!

If I sound strident, it's because being lean and fit helped save my life. Lucky me that I'd started eating differently long before my back went out. I'd lost unnecessary body fat and actually gotten back my puppy waistline and puppy energy. I'm a 10-1/2-year-old corgi, you know, and I'd been slowly gaining weight over the past three years. If I hadn't made radical diet changes, I wouldn't be recovering from spinal cord damage due to disc injuries. . . . Would I even have been a candidate for surgery? Not to brag, but even though my back legs are stiff, I walk with the youthful spring of a deer fawn. I barely touch the floor as I trot along, and my long corgi back is relieved of stress.

Oh howl, I could go on and on. But I'm more interested in asking whether you're taking advantage of healthful new alternatives to fattening old pet foods. Have you tried Primal? What about recipes for homemade meals?

Are you due for your semi-annual veterinary checkup?
Make sure your vet and guardian/owner get cookin' on
nutritious food alternatives.

See the photo. That's me, Tilin corgi, a few days after life-saving surgery. How about that 9-inch surgical incision on my back!

Paws ups for health!