Peoplefood for Dogs

One night, as I was up to my elbows in chicken grease, I had the idea that If I was cooking for my dogs, and I always had somebody in need of chicken and rice, so must many other people. Thinking about how much work it is to cook this, and then all that clean-up, I thought I might be on to something. What if I cooked and froze and then sold it to people?
The next day I found out about how to make everything legal and than started getting my licenses etc., and Peoplefood for Dogs was born.
Here is what I do:
The very friendly and helpful butcher at Vista Foods agreed to tag my order for bone-less, skin-less chickenthighs on to his own. This way I make sure the meat I use is meant for human consumption and not second grade. When I get the thighs home, I cook them. I drain the broth into seperate pots and put it in the freezer overnight. The meat is run through a grinder and stored in the fridge. Next morning all the fat that now is on top of the broth is thrown away. Then I cook either rice or oatmeal in the broth. Ready to make food!
I have a restaurant mixer and that is how I mix all the ingredients together. I refuse to sell you water, so there are only the ingredients - I do not add water for processing.
The mix is put in plastic cups, weighed and then frozen. Ready for you to buy and for your dog to enjoy!

Our Joy

After some of the eleven puppies I had found on the side of the road were adopted, we got word that 3(!) had gotten away from their new homes.
Our shelter is a county facility (that's why we are working so hard to have our own) and you can not always rely on the staff to know what breeds are there. So, Kevin stopped at the shelter every night on the way home to see for himself. He never did find one of our puppies, what he did find was Joy. He would come home and tell me about this little bitty black dog that would wag at him every time he went there. The note on the door said that she wasn't housebroken and that she would bite.
The day she was scheduled to die he brought her home. Joy had acute colitis and indeed messed in the house without any kind of warning. You would too if your tummy was in that much uproar! Poor thing was in pain and never knew when it was going to hit her! The vet check provided us with the needed answers and med's, as well as the recommendation to feed chicken and rice until she was better. That's what we did. Once her little body (she has maintained a weight of 14 lbs for the last 11 years) was all straightened out, I took her to the shop where I worked at the time to groom her.
This little old (already she was 9 years old) lady turned into a two-headed dragon! I was allowed to shave her back and throat but the rest of her was OFF LIMITS! She bit me, and my friend Annette and I wrestled with her like you would not believe. Finally we succeeded to get a pug muzzle on her and things became less dangerous, if not easier. From then on one of us would hold her and the other would sneak up on Joy from behind and slide the muzzle on her little face - but you had better get it right the first time!
Non of this made me love her any more. If I could have seen a way out of keeping her... That was not to be.
I started taking her places and lo and behold, she was a people person. Strangers could approach her and she would make up to them. She has always liked men of any age. This encouraged me to take her to a Nursing Home. The activity director had to test her first to see how she would respond. Well, maybe I couldn't touch her tail but this lady sure could!
That's how her career as visitor began. Up until a very short time ago, Joy went to a local Nursing Home every night and spread smiles and good feelings along the way.
She has done Hospice work and walked for all kinds of good causes. The only thing she never did, was work with children. In her life before here, somebodies children mistreated her fiercely, to the point of breaking a rib. When children would come to visit us, she would hide under the bed.
I will have you know that she has NEVER bitten anybody but her groomer (me) and the person holding (Annette or Kevin) her during grooming.
Now she is 20 years old, mostly blind and deaf but she still takes part in our daily life. She wants to be close to us and I have devised ways for her to safely do that. There is an ex-pen in my kitchen and a small blanket beside my chair in the living room. That's where she is to be found almost all the time. I have to protect her from the other dogs, who will run her over if I don't. They all act like she isn't even there!
I am glad Kevin brought her home all those years ago. Even if, at first, she wasn't my dream dog, she is now. Her friendly little spirit and fierce independence have taught me many a lesson!
I have been trying a new drug an her and it seems to make her more aware of the things around her (Denestra). I don't know that it has helped any of her other parts but it does seem to make a difference in her awareness.

Polly and the rain

It is bath day today. It is also raining. When the sun shines, Polly loves to take her bath. I take all toys, bowls and whatnots out of the cage, put towels all around it and then she gets a shower with a spray bottle. Of course, the vacuumcleaner is essential. Without it running, there is no bath time. I have talked to lots of bird care givers and we all agree, the vacuum cleaner is a signal for fun times. Polly will sing and hoot and holler, she will strut along the top of the cage with her wings outstrecht and sometimes cover her face with them - as if to hide from the water. She will hang up-side down from the cage and just have a great time. When she is tired, my real work begins. I wipe the entire cage down, she gets clean towels and blankies around it and new toys and stuff. This is when I layer enough newspaper in the drawer to last me the week.
Alas, it is raining. No fun day today. She did rouse a little bit and whistled once or twice but that was the most she would do. After only half a bottle of water she let me know that I could stick it. I still have to do all the work, mind you, but she gets to sit on the corner and kind of look dazed. Her feathers are fluffed and it almost looks like she has her head pulled inbetween her shoulders. And her eyes are almost closed - leave me alone, will you? Ah well, had to be done no matter what

Rashes on hands and feet

I am a nurse and as such I wash my hands a million times a day. I have always been very careful about carrying a little jar of handcream with me. After I dry my hands, out comes the handcream. It has become such a habit that I don't even think about it anymore.
For a very long time (over 20 years) I have had this re-curing rash on the palms of my hands. I always thought it came from the gloves we have (and want to) wear. So I would mix up Neutrogena handcream and Cortisone cream and carry this mix with me wherever I went. Last year I suddenly had the same rash on my foot. I don't wear gloves on my foot, so the cause must be something different.
Seeing my MD for another reason, I did ask her about the rash. She gave me some prescription cream and that was that. It did help for a little while but then became as useless as anything else I had tried.
The wonderful ladies at Fresh Air Natural Foods (434-385-9252) in Lynchburg (organic and natural foods and their ingredients, herbs, teas, supplements etc) told me to try Calendula ceam. I did - and it made the rash go away. I have tried several brands and the one that works best for me is NatureWorks. If you have a similar problem - you have nothing to loose and everything to gain! Try this cream! Anymore I use it as my regular handcream, thus the effect never wears off and I don't have those painful little blisters on my hands anymore!

Pain and the dog

My Dibbs is now 12 years old. She is a Chow-Collie mix and has been foster mom to many , many puppies. She has been my constant companion for all this time minus 6 months - that's how old she was when I found her. This beautiful puppy was directing traffic on the road in front of my house. This is a busy road, through traffic and all that. Cars were stopped coming and going and every now and then a horn would honk. Like that's gonna make the puppy know what to do next! I was in the front yard with my resident dogs as we were watching this drama unfold. Long story short, she has been with me ever since.
This wonderful dog has never met a stranger. She has worked with children at libraries to show them how to approach a strange dog. She has visited Nursing homes and Hospice patients. She has been in 13 Christmas parades and walked for Hospice, Diabetes, MS, any cause that excited me at the time. She was always game.
Dibbs has never growled at another dog unless that dog growled at her first. She has never attacked a dog, though she will defend herself. She does not bark a lot and when she does, I go and look why. She has been my best Buddy for such a long time.
Over the last two months I noticed that she seemed to have trouble getting up. She is getting on in years, a bit of arthritis perhaps? All my dogs get Glucosamine every day with their food, as much to prevent pain as to help treat it. So I didn't really see that this would be bad. HA! The vet check up showed nothing but low thyroid levels. OK. This did not explain why she suddenly refused to eat her dinner. We started on some thyroid meds and will check again in a month.
One week after her check up Dibbs could not let her left hind leg touch the ground. It was kind of dangling there. She had a lot of pain as evidenced by all the panting and the refusal to get up and go outside. Of to the vet we go! X-rays showed major arthritic changes in her spine, hips and knees. There is a loose ligament in the left knee, that's why she can't put weight on it. More meds - this is the second day on some major pain meds. She is alert and cares about what goes on around her but it takes a major effort for her to get up and go someplace. And she does not want to take the meds! I have tried cream cheese (no), Braunschweiger (no), came up with liver pudding (will see for how long). Problem is that I just started giving her Denestra - this needs to be given 1 hour before everything else. The Thyroid med needs to be given 1 hour before other things as well. I e-mailed the contact on the Denestra package but they haven't responded, this is 4 days later. Can I give the two together? Until I know better, I am giving meds every hour on the hour! After the last single med has been given I can feed her something and make her take her pain meds. Right now all she wants to eat is Peoplefood for Dogs - Chicken, Sweet Potato and Oatmeal. Fine with me!
Today seems a little better, she isn't quite as reluctant to get up. Maybe the pain meds are accumulating in her system and working better? I hope so.
We were going to walk in the Christmas parade this noon but it was canceled because of the lousy weather. I am glad. I don't think I could have gone there without her.

Molly had hip surgery, my first on-line order

In the beginning of February my Molly had an accident in the backyard and her right hip popped out of its socket. We had it put back in and kept her away from the other dogs for several weeks. She wasn't allowed to walk steps, so we had to carry her up and down the three steps to the backdoor. She had to be leashwalked - we had to be careful so she wouldn't tear that fragile tissue again. 2 months and 5 days later, coming up the backsteps, her hip popped out again. My world just about exploded! She was screaming in pain and - of course - it was after hours! Thank Goodness, I had an injectable sedative I could give her. The next morning went to the vet and Molly had hipsurgery. I just checked on her and she is doing fine. I hope nothing like this ever happens again!

But, there is always good along with the bad. I had my very first on-line order yesterday. It seems there are more 19 year old dogs out there then any of us know. This one doesn't want to eat, so a friend gave the owners some of my Peoplefood to try. The dog loved it and they placed an order. I went into overdrive and got to the post office 5 min. after closing time. Thankfully, the man who works there is also a fan of the food. So he stayed longer and processed my shipment so it would get onto that evenings truck. The people got it within 16 hours of placing that order. How is that for customer service? I am so very happy and excited. Let this be the start of something big!

This morning I had a very interesting and informative conversation with Anora from www.clearsightpublication.com . She is a very smart lady and gave me some good tips on how to get the business going. If I can follow through with everything we talked about, I should do great. She offered to publish an article about my business on some sites I hadn't heard of and I gladly took her up on it. I am learning that I can't do everything by myself and if there is a willing hand - grab it!

Frozen world

Thursday morning - my first time out with the dogs (yes, 6:30 am) - the world is frozen! The dogs hurried back in and so did I. Now for coffee and geting warm! When the sun came up, it was brilliant. didn't warm up anything but was brilliant.
I have 3 large bird baths on the ground and two small ones on top of feeders. I went and got warm water and filled them all up. Minutes later dozens of birds of all kinds of species were drinking. It was as if they had been waiting for me. Makes sense when you think about it, all the water is frozen, we don't have a stream nearby, so maybe they were waiting for me! The ground around the feeding stations was constantly moving. Doves, Junkos, Sparrows, Finches, Cardinals, Blue Jays, my red headed woodpecker, titmice, nuthatches, you name it, they were here. I have lived here for 15 years and started feeding the birds soon after moving in. I guess it does make a difference. When I open the backdoor and the dogs are with me, Junior runs barking at the top of his lungs to the fence where the feeding station is. He chases all the birds away, at least for the time being. Beyond the fence is a very old rambling rose, the bush is old and impenetratable. It is taller then I am and all the little birds go in ther for cover. Even if he could get out of the fencing, he would be sorry quickly - those thorns are sharp and he has basically no hair! But I think it is all in good fun, he has never made a real attempt to catch anything. I think he just enjoys making all the birds fly. And sometimes there are as many as 50 birds taking wing. It is rather impressive to see and hear. All those wings make a pretty loud noise.
I feed two feral cats in the garage and the little female (yes, I trapped them and had them fixed and their shots given) loves to catch birds. She also loves to drink from the birdbath, not the big one, but the large round one on the ground. I can see her from the kitchen window. She is a torty and really very pretty. All 3 of her siblings have died one way or another and on day I found her mother dead in the field. No sign of injury, no blood. That little mother was so beautiful, steel grey, sleek, and smart. I never could trap her, no matter what I tried. And try I did! I call the little Torty Smudges and the other cat is Oscar. He is a yellow tiger and shows all the signs of having been a house cat at one time. He is way relaxed around people. Just when you think that you can finally touch him, he gets up ever so slow and walks away just in the nick of time. I seldom see him hunting, he is getting on in years and he had an accident 2 years ago that left him with a limp. He was already neutered when I trapped him. People do strange things. Not that that was the first or only time I ever found an already spayed or neutered animal. That's for another day, though.

Sleeping Arrangements

Junior, Sparky and Daisy sleep in the bed, under the covers, with me. Lissa jumps on or off as she pleases. Sheria sleeps with her Daddy in the other room. Dibbs has always slept beside me on the floor on the right side of the bed. Now that Molly has moved into the actual living space of the house, somehow, Dibbs has been pushed to the foot end of the bed. So I thought that wasn't fair, she has always had her little blanket (not really little) by the side of the bed and Molly done took it over. I found a nice, fluffy comforter and put it (in my way) at the foot end of the bed on the floor for her. All dogs tried it out through the day and everyone approved. When I got up this morning Dibbs was laying on it. After I was awake enough it was time to go outside. The little dogs all were racing to the door and yet, I kept hearing these strange scrabbling sounds. Upon investigation I found Dibbs UNDER the bed trying her darndest to get out - no way. In her sleep, laying on her side she had slid under there, but now, sitting up, she could not fit. Supermom to the rescue! Of course I can lift a queen sized bed 10 minutes after I woke up - who couldn't? So I lifted and a very relieved Dibbs came out of there as fast as her aging bones would let her. I have seen her on the comforter several times through the day, but she hasn't been kidnapped by the bed again!
I forgot to mention that 19 year old Joy sleeps in a baby-bed. She has always hated being in a crate, but the baby-bed is big enough and soft enough and she looks like she feels secure in it. She settles right down once put in there. It makes my life much easier because I don't have to worry about the other dogs running her over or growling at her. So I sleep better and so does she!

Dibbs's story

11 years ago - a long time ago, come to think of it. I was in the front yard with Collie Buddy and Shaggy-Dog. Suddenly I heard all this honking going on. Looked out on the road and there she was, a little puppy in the middle of the road. The drivers would honk their horns and she would turn one way and then another. "You twits, like the puppy would know what the horns mean?"was my thought. I ran out and the puppy came right to me. All sorts of drivers were smiling at me. The second vehicle was a sheriffs car. As I passed him, I motioned to him and told him to let animal control know, "this is not my puppy." I never heard from them, I guess I wasn't too believable. My dogs were very friendly and took the little stranger right in. Dibbs had "Dibbs" on everything. Most of all me. But the other dogs made the best of it and Shaggy-Dog proved to be a very patient foster mom. Dibbs would pester her and pester her, Shaggy would growl at her, but she never did anything.
The puppy was advertised etc, several people came to look at her, but nobody ever wanted her for themselves. So, of course, she stayed here - and a good thing it is!

Monday morning, how was my weekend?

Hi, it is Tuesday now and I never got around to write something yesterday. Too busy trying to find a job. Right now, things are pretty bad all over and not even the big companies are hirering if they don't absolutely have to. I will survive and find a job sooner or later. Or the food will start taking off like it is supposed to.
Saturday morning I was caught in the backyard by my own dogs and could not go anywhere. The front yard girls had tried to make a break for it and Micky actually got out - not such a good thing - I live on a major road! I was outside the backdoor shaving Lissa. I heard Scooter nag and nag and then it was suddenly quiet and out of the corner of my eye I saw a big black dog disappear into the garage. Poor Lissa never knew what struck her, she was in the house so quick!
I ran back out and (thank God) Micky came right to me. But this meant I had to let the other two into the backyard as well. Now I was stuck there. It is fenced in, but the fencing is old and if one of them pushed against it too hard, it will break. Eventually I worked up the guts to go in to the house and get the phone. Called Kevin (isn't it always like that, stuff happens and you're alone on the property?), told him not to go to Lowe's first, come home! So he did and we worked on stringing the electric wire over top the fence and installing the box in the rain and cold. Both of us were freezing by the time (several hours later) we were done. At one point I had confined the house dogs inside the house and took the front yard dogs on the back porch, I just had to warm up. They like it in the house! So much excitement, so much sniffing and wagging and exploring. It was fun letting them explore. But I can't imagine how I can keep them there for good. Not if I have to work again. In a way I think it's mighty unfair, they are good dogs an should have had a chance to share somebodies life. But nobody ever wanted to adopt them, and they are used to being with each other. I had always thought I would like to take them into the house one at a time, but there was always another foster dog and then another and then another, it just never worked out. So we make do, we are good at that.
Sunday was "Bathe the Polly" day. I wished I could give her a bath and tape it at the same time, she is such a little actress. You have to vacuum when you want to bathe her. I take all the loose things out of her cage, put towels all around it and then use a spraybottle to make it rain. We whistle, sing and generally make a lot of noise and she stretches her wings and tries to hide her face under them and then hangs upside down from the cage and just has herself a good time. I have to do all the work - of course. She gets all new toys after I dry the cage and clean up the mess we made. Sometimes a new perch, but not very often. She is an old lady and likes her routine.

Pip's story

The backyard had not been fenced in yet and all the housedogs had to be leashwalked, one last time, before the humans could go to bed. So, we are out there at 10:30 at night with a bunch of dogs, waiting for them to do their business. I hear this NOISE. What is that? After a few more times I identified the noise as animal speech. And not happy. Take the dogs in the house, give out treats, find the flashlights, back out we go. Kevin to one side, I the other. Did not take long, I followed my ears and found a tiny black kitten in a neighbors drainpipe under the driveway. The kitten came right to me, he was cold and hungry. In the house we go, the dogs go crazy, the kitten hides in my hands - food!Food! Upstairs we go, find kitten food, introduce the kitten to the adult cats, no problem. They don't care, the little thing is barely moving, just looking for food. He ate like he was starving, then went in the litterbox, after that found a warm place and went to sleep.

The next morning he already acted like he had never been anywhere Else. I found several harnesses, most of them small. None fit the tiny kitten. I had to use a make-your-own-holes-leash to create a harness for him. That made him the kitten on a string. The dogs got used to him quickly. Dibbs, herself just found two weeks ago, loved the kitten. She would lick him and he would play with her tail - dogs and cats are not enemies!

My first Blog!!!!

Hi everybody,

I have been playing with this idea for a while and I'm going to try - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

It is a crisp, sunny day in Virginia, I have already done my out-side chores. The three girls in the front yard have been fed, petted and their blankets straightened. I do a round of pick-up-poop every morning. I think it gross if you don't dispose of the waste - with 11 dogs, I guess it would be - in just a little while.

You must understand, I own 11 dogs, 6 cats and 1 bird. Not so much by choice - yeah - I know - "crazy cat lady, hoarder" etc. - not really. I used to foster for the Humane Society and when an animals doesn't get adopted, I feel strongly that it still has value and deserves love and care. I will write about some of my sob stories here, at a later date. Anyway, having this many pets means being organized, cleaning and moving all the time. I don't want my house to smell bad, I don't want my yard to be a total wreck (OK, so it's nothing special, but at least it's clean). So, I clean, weed, cut - what ever it takes.

Right now I need to go and let poor Pip out of solitary confinement. Pip is an 11 year old cat with diabetes. I lock him up for a few hours in the morning and evening, so the other cats can eat regular cat food. His special food for diabetic cats is left out all the time, but they don't like it much. Also, after we first found out, I tried to feed only the special food . HA! Over half of the cats had (you guessed it) the poops like there was no tomorrow. What fun I had! So, we resort to making Pip a prisoner twice a day and giving real food to the others.

He is doing very well and doesn't run from me when he sees me coming with the syringe. I would never have guessed he would be so good, he can really get you with those extra sharp claws he has. But he doesn't, how lucky am I?