pet connection

There are some things a dog’s just gotta have — and treats off the grill at a summer barbecue is pretty  high on the list for the pooches of Almost Heaven Ranch.

My wife, Teresa, is an excellent cook any time of year, indoors or out. The other night she made marinated beef shish kabobs (sirloin steak). The tantalizing aroma coming off of the barbecue was so thick you could take a bite out of it.

But our son, Lex, and I weren’t the only ones wafting in on the fumes like Whimpy from Popeye. Quixote and Quora’s nostrils were pulsating like bellows as they raised their heads, eyes partially closed, dreams of bits of steak dancing in their heads.

If dogs could pray, they were on their knees pleading, “Dear God, please open the lid of that red smoking machine and drop some of those tasty morsels into my salivating pie hole.”

Unexpectedly, God answered their prayers. Well, okay, I answered them, but I’m pretty sure at that moment there wasn’t too much difference between the two for Quora and Quixote.

I took some steak off of the BBQ, let it cool, held it in my outstretched hands and got them amped up like a high school football coach at a pre-game talk on a Friday night in Texas. “You want some of this? YOU WANT SOME OF THIS? Then you’d better talk to me!”

And talk they did. They were barking, scrathching my legs, then spinning like whirling dervishes. Seems like when you want to create a category five “furricane,” you have to have the right fuel, and here, at least, that fuel comes off the grill.

Is barbecue the answer to your dogs’ prayers? Or some other special occasion food?

Photo: The Qs doing their “furricane” dance, taken by Lex Becker.