pet connection

I think I am genetically programmed to bake at this time of year. Even though I’m trying to cut back on sugar and carbs, I just can’t resist making cookies, cakes, brownies and eggnog during the holidays. I thought that baking for the dogs would help to limit some of the caloric intake, but these are actually pretty tasty. Jerry and I both like them. Oh well; at least they’re healthy and I know what’s in them. Loads of fiber, too! Here’s the recipe, if you want to make some for your own dogs and to leave for Santa’s Malamutes. It’s adapted from a recipe that appeared in the late Gourmet in December 2005. I ran it here last year, but I’ve made some modifications since then. Enjoy!

2 1/2 cups King Arthur white whole-wheat flour (or 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour and 1 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour)

1 1/4 cups cornmeal

1 1/4 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1/4 cup sprouted flax (optional)

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 stick cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces (don’t forget to save the wrapper to grease the cookie sheet)

1/4 cup bacon grease (this is optional; if you don’t have it, just add a half stick of butter to the stick called for above)

1 cup water

1/2 cup plain canned pumpkin

1/2 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (we had curly parsley and it worked fine)

1/2 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

1 egg

1 tbsp water

Note: I made this in my Cuisinart, but it really wasn’t big enough for this recipe and I came close to breaking it. I recommend using a stand mixer or a food processor that’s larger than 7 cups.

Pulse dry ingredients in food processor until combined.

Add pieces of butter/bacon grease and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal with pea-size butter lumps.

Add pumpkin, parsley, mint and 1 cup water. Pulse until a ball of dough forms.

Remove dough from food processor and divide in half.

Preheat oven to 350F and grease two large baking sheets.

On a well-floured surface, roll out one dough half to 1/3-inch thick. If dough is too soft to roll out well, chill until firm.

Cut out as many biscuits as possible and arrange about 1/4-inch apart on baking sheet. Gather scraps and re-roll, chilling first if necessary. Repeat with other ball of dough.

Whisk egg with 1 tbsp water. Brush biscuits with egg wash, then place cookie sheet in oven. Bake until golden-brown, about 35 minutes. Turn off oven and dry biscuits in it overnight. (We just started eating them and giving them to the dogs as soon as they were cool enough.)

I only baked a couple of sheets’ worth of biscuits tonight, using bone-, heart- and dog-shaped cutters. Tomorrow I’m going to mix in some grated cheese for a little variety.

Makes approximately 5 dozen dog biscuits. Store between sheets of wax paper or parchment in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 month.

It would be fair to call me the Greta Garbo of pet writers. I’m already in touch with the people I want to be in touch with, regrettable exceptions being Ralph Fiennes and Jeremy Irons. If I wanted to hear from people I went to high school or college with, I would sign up for Classmates.com or go to the reunions. And it’s my goal to be the last person on earth who’s not on Facebook. But apparently I’m missing out on things. When I suggested to Jerry that he call our friends Dwight and Aries to find out if their baby had been born yet, Dwight was surprised. “I put that up on Facebook a month ago.”

Sigh.

How to avoid another timesuck? I’m already on Twitter, which has become a fabulous procrastination tool. I really don’t need another one–I am an expert in that field already–but it would be nice to keep up with new babies and whatever else is going on in my far-flung friends’ lives. But I really don’t want to be on Facebook. Jerry wouldn’t make the sacrifice either.

So Harper did. Yes, my dog has her very own Facebook page, cute Christmas picture and all. She’s picked up more than a dozen friends since I signed her up yesterday–coincidentally, I’m friends with most of them, too. She’s happy to meet more, and I can remain somewhat behind the scenes. There’s just one thing…

Dwight, why haven’t you friended Harper yet?

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love to travel. If a dog or three can come along, so much the better. So when my friend Arden invited me to come check out yappy hour and help her celebrate her birthday and Chipper’s at Hotel Indigo in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter, I was there. And so was Harper. On the way, since neither one is much of a social butterfly, we dropped off Bella and Twyla with Terry Albert so I could relax with only one dog to wrangle. The hotel is only about a block from PetCo Park–how apropos!–so Harper and I walked down there after checking in. It seems to be a popular place for downtowners to walk their dogs; we saw quite a few then and the next morning.

Hotel Indigo bills itself as being dog-friendly, and I can attest to the truthfulness of that statement–and not just because they gave us a room at a media rate and comp’d our parking. They have a mascot, Sandie, adopted from the San Diego Humane Society; they don’t charge a fee for canine (and I presume feline) guests; they don’t limit the size of canine guests, and the rooms have easy-clean laminate flooring. We know it’s easy-clean because one of the visiting dogs in Arden’s room last night splashed water out of the stainless steel dishes–provided by the hotel–onto the floor. The only thing I might suggest is that they provide extra “dog towels” for wiping that kind of thing up so you don’t have to use your bath towel. Dogs are allowed everywhere in the hotel, including the lobby and bar area. That’s unusual. Most hotels that allow dogs don’t permit them to actually congregate in the lobby. We had five or six hanging out there while we debated what to order for a late dinner.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. We were there for the hotel’s weekly canine cocktails event, held on its safely enclosed ninth-floor deck. Every Tuesday, from September through December, dogs and their people are invited to enjoy drinks and the view from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Live music, comfortable seating and fire pits add to the ambience. Oh, and the pool for the dogs to splash in. I’m not actually sure that’s why it’s there, but certainly on Tuesday night that’s how it was used.

You might think that only cocktail-size dogs would be at such an event, carried in the purses of their cocktail-swilling owners, but you would be wrong. Every size of dog was represented, from a Chihuahua to a Great Dane. There were several Labs, including one that was a service dog, a Golden, an Australian Shepherd, two Bernese Mountain Dogs, a couple of Pibbles (hi Ginger!), any number of miniature Poodles and various terrier-type dogs, including a cute little Cairn, as well as a Beagle, a Vizsla, a Pug, a Puggle, a Havanese, two Cavaliers and more. They all got along great, a testament to their owners’ socialization skills, although Harper, for whatever reason, seemed to take exception to one Bichon. Maybe she thought he was fresh. I asked one of the managers if they’d ever had any doggie dust-ups and he said no, this was pretty typical.

The dogs were definitely having a good time. Paper cones filled with treats were freely available, and all the dogs knew exactly what they were. They’d go up to anyone they saw holding a cone and produce a nice sit and a pleading look. I could see hotels preferring this crowd to, say, the Rolling Stones in their heyday. There were no cigarette burns on the tables or furniture thrown in the pool. People there for the first time said they would definitely come back.

Besides the birthday party factor, it was a fun way for me and Harper to have some one-on-one time. We practiced our elevator manners, not barking when room service knocked on the door, and staying for longer than two seconds. We’d go back, and we might even invite Jerry and the big girls to come with. Party on!

It’s a little scary when you drive up to the entrance gate of the park where you’re having your event and the guy at the gate doesn’t have your name on the reservation sheet. Even more so when you’ve already been dealing with a contrary park ranger who seems bent on throwing up every possible obstacle as you try to obtain permits beforehand. Fortunately, the woman who wields the wand of power and persuasion and dogged determination–my friend Tamela–drove up right behind us and all was quickly resolved.

The third annual Darcy FUNDay took place on Saturday, September 26, which happens to be my husband’s birthday and is close to the actual founding date of the Darcy Fund three years ago. For the past five years I’ve had a pretty good run of scheduling special events for Jerry’s birthday–think full moon hanging over Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, for instance–so I’m going to have to go all out next year to top making him work like a, well, dog moving tables and hauling boxes and taking pictures in the hot sun and just generally being my errand boy. He did get presented with a painting of Darcy by artist Betty Turner, though, so I guess it was a fair exchange.

The Gang of Four–Tamela Klisura, Rima Gerendas, Petra Tiber and I–have been planning this event for six or eight weeks. Tamela, aka the blonde tornado, is the general, assigning tasks and following up to make sure everything is on track. She’s not afraid to crack the whip if she thinks we’re slacking off. I think she was Eisenhower in a previous life. Rima and Petra are her incredibly able colonels, hustling up amazing gift baskets from Three Dog Bakery, White Lotus Day Spa, Dawgy Style, California Fine Wine Tasting, Pet Junction, Crown Valley Animal Care Center, Romantic Style, Wild’s Animal Supplies and more. They planned the color scheme, shopped for all the decorations, organized the sign-in and silent auction sheets, and wrapped all the donated items. Pam and Mike Becker and Suzie Cordes couldn’t come because of previous commitments, but they showed up early to help set up. Now those are real friends! Our husbands are the muscle and transportation. We couldn’t do without them.

Me? I write the songs, I mean the checks, kept track of the registrations, rounded up speakers, and did my share of acquiring prizes. They included  books and magazines from publishers TFH and Bowtie; decorative Cavalier items from our good friend and breeder of Bella and Harper Joanne Nash; signed copies from D. Caroline Coile, Ph.D, of her book Cavaliers: A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual (if I couldn’t write this book, I’m glad Caroline did); the gorgeous Cavaliers in Fact and Fancy by Barbara Garnett-Wilson, generously donated every year by Barbara and her husband Roy; a fancy Private Quarters dog bed, donated by Oklahoma dog lover Ann Campbell (yes, I hit up my relatives, too); and a really large and excellent donation of food and treat gift baskets as well as samples for everyone from The Honest Kitchen. Besides being dehydrated and thus the perfect travel food for our many road trips, HK is cool because the company is switching over its chicken-based foods to use only sustainably farmed, free-range chicken from Petaluma Poultry. When it comes to pet foods that are natural and environmentally responsible, they do their best to walk the walk.

Approximately 60 people gathered for our games, speakers and potluck picnic. We’re not a typical breed club. We call ourselves the South Orange County Cavalier Companions, and we’re pet owners who started meeting informally at a Mission Viejo park about 10 years ago. Through word of mouth, we’ve grown to approximately 250, although not everyone comes to every meeting.People have moved or live an hour or more away, but usually you can find 20 or 30 of us at one of the regular meetings and 40 or more at a Darcy FUNDay. There are always a few who have been there since the beginning and knew the Darcinator in person, but everyone seems enthusiastic about the cause, or at least the good time that we have.

We don’t discriminate. Along with all the Cavaliers were a Boston Terrier, a Tibetan Spaniel, a Cocker Spaniel and a pretty little mix who might have been a Lhasapoo or a Cavachon. Someone with a Bernese Mountain Dog walked by our site. Tamela’s husband, Mike, laughed. “Look, a giant tricolor.” The more typically sized tricolor to the right is clearly in, uh, hunting mode. Also seen were a ladybug, a cheerleader and a firefighter.

Pet edu-tainer and my cocktail buddy Arden Moore made her second appearance at the event, sharing tips on petiquette in public. If Tamela was a general in a previous life, I think Arden was a bouncer in a biker bar. How else could she give such great advice on breaking up fights in dog parks and, even better, preventing them in the first place? “If you see dogs starting to look tense, use a happy voice to distract and divert them,” she says. “Change the mood by making yourself the object of attention or getting them to chase a ball.” Arden travels with her dogs even more than I do, so she also had good tips on hotel stays, dining at cafes (hint: don’t let your dog sit in a chair or lick your plate) and air travel.

On a more serious note, veterinary cardiologist Sarah Jane Miller addressed the basics of mitral valve disease, including signs and treatment, and new medications such as pimobendan (Vetmedin) and took questions from the audience about diet, exercise and lifespan. I can’t say enough good things about veterinarians like Dr. Miller who are willing to give up their Saturday morning to help educate pet owners or participate in health clinics so that people who might not otherwise have a chance to take their dogs to a specialist can have the opportunity to learn more or to get a baseline report on their dog’s condition. We hope she’ll come back sometime. I spent a lot of time worrying about Bella, concerned that she would be stressed by all the people, dogs and activity, not to mention the heat, even though the pen was in a shaded, breezy area, but she was a trooper and did just fine. I was still glad a cardiologist was there, though.

I always feel bad for my dogs during this event. I don’t think they’ve ever gotten to participate in any of the games or contests. No “fastest biscuit eater” or “race to owner” or “longest ears” or “oldest dog” or “cutest costume” for them. They’re stuck in the Cavalier corral, begging for attention from strangers while I make the rounds to ensure that all is going well or make announcements or answer questions. (I think they’re grateful that they’re not in the costume contest, though.)  Tamela’s dogs didn’t get to come, either. The English Toys stayed home, and Farley, a handsome ruby boy, was in the hospital with pneumonia, fighting for his life. Tamela had planned to bring him home yesterday afternoon, but when she got to the hospital he had taken a turn for the worse. We’re all pulling for him. He’s a sweet dog and a poster boy for Cavaliers: 9 years old and murmur-free. I just got the good news that Tamela is picking him up from the veterinary hospital. That makes me happy. He and Darcy were special friends, as seen in the photo above, and I’d hate to see anything happen to him.

Arden did a brief video of the event, so if these photos leave you wanting more, here is where to see it. We haven’t totaled the amount brought in yet, but it’s well over $1,600 so far.

When I started the Darcy Fund three years ago, I wasn’t really sure how exactly we would raise funds for it, but Tamela gave me the first FUNDay as a birthday present, and we’ve continued them ever since. I can’t thank her enough for coming up with the idea. These events have been more fun than I ever imagined, and I have been surrounded by wonderful people  who are really the ones who make it happen every year. My goal now is to see Darcy FUNDays spread to other Cavalier groups around the country or to inspire people in other breeds to start their own fund. Together we can make a difference in all our dogs’ lives.

Two years after multiple food recalls, including the massive pet food recall, brought the safety– or lack thereof — of the U.S. food supply to people’s attention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has launched an electronic food registry that will permit speedier reports by companies of potential food-borne illnesses. A story in today’s Wall Street Journal says food facilities must alert the FDA within 24 hours of finding that a product contains a contaminant that could severely sicken or kill people or animals. All food and animal feed companies must send the reports.

What I want to know? How could it possibly take this long to implement such a thing? Read the rest here.

And now, a plug for a project I’ve been working on: If you’ll be in the White Plains, New York, area on Friday, November 20, you may want to come hear food-safety expert Marion Nestle. She’ll be speaking at the Cat Writers Association conference on the pet food recall and its implications for general food safety. Registration is open to the public.