The Deal With Dog Food

I'll just be over here, waiting for more food to show up in my dish.

Hi all, Lily the Corgi here.  Here's hoping you've all been safe this past week despite the rash of tornadoes and hail storms that struck.  We lost a big limb in our front yard but other than that we are just fine.  Today, daddy was cutting and burning that limb and a few that we lost during the winter, so it smells like a camp out around our house.  Sadly, no one has yet roasted any hot dogs to share with me.  Sigh.

Last week, I mentioned to you that mama had gone crazy and not only changed our dog food brand, but also started feeding us healthier portions.  Then, this past week, some corgi parents on one of mama's Facebook groups had questions about her dogs' kibble.  So that got me thinking--what is the actual deal with dog food?  What's in it?  Where does it come from?  How do pet parents choose?  So, I sent mama off to do some research, and I tried to take a nap without being bothered by Canyon, the crazy foster dog.

Had to tackle Canyon to the ground and make her settle down.  This dog needs to learn who's boss around here!

Mama says when she was a kid growing up on a farm, their doggies ate scraps.  The leftovers from breakfast, dinner (which is really lunch), and supper (that means dinner) were dumped in a bucket.  Then they poured in any spoiled milk they had and made a soupy mess.  If there wasn't much of this mixture, mama's daddy would toss in a can full of some cheap dry dog food.  After that sat for a while and the dog food soaked up the liquid, it was tossed out on the ground for the dogs to eat.  This sounds horribly primitive and unpleasant to me, but mama says that's just the way it was done back then.  Her doggies were likely to find bones in their food mixture, and I'd surely like that, but the rest just sounds nasty.

Today, thankfully, mama has grown a bit as a pet parent and goes about choosing our food more carefully.  Mama says that first, she has to consider whether she'll feed us dry or wet food.  Around here, mama almost always feeds dry dog food, unless a doggy is sick or stressed or in case it is a holiday or special occassion.  Mama says dry food is easier to feed, cheaper to buy, and better for our teeth.  I like the crunch. My cousin Quincy the ancient wiener dog, who has maybe 3 or 4 teeth left, has to eat wet (canned) food because he can't chew the dry kind anymore.  Sometimes, my Aunt Cathy feeds him little bits of cooked chicken; that sounds wonderful, but I'd rather have my teeth.

Old Quincy has always been a lean, mean, barking machine.

Next, mama says she has to consider what the food is made from.  The ingredient list on our dog food bag is a foot long, so it is hard to know what is important and what isn't, but mama says it especially matters whether the main ingredient or 2 of the food is meat based (meat, meat meal, egg, etc...)  Folks, we are dogs.  We were born to be meat-eaters.  We need our protein.  Foods primarly made from grain products probably won't contain enough protein to keep us at our best.  Even if the food technically has enough protein in it, too much filler can cause the food to pass through our systems undigested so we don't get the full benefit of the protein that's there.

Be careful about where and how your dog foods are manufactured.  Keep abreast of any recalls that may have been issued concerning your brand; not only do ingredients matter but sometimes there can be contaminations at the plants where dog foods are made.  Just like human foods, dog foods can be hit by nasty little germies, like salmonella, or they might be accidently mixed in with some sort of foreign objects or mold-causing moisture.  And, rightly or not, my mama won't buy any dog food or snacks made in China.  She says they just don't have the controls needed to insure that her babies will be safe.  You can take that for what it's worth, but I like that mama is picky like that on my behalf!

Mama says her favorite source for dog food information comes from a website:  www.dogfoodadvisor.com   That site shows a review of many different kinds of dog foods and also explains what is good and what's not, so it helps to educate the consumer as well as inform.  I invite you to check out that site to see how your dog food brand measures up.  Also, get recommendations from your vet about the best diet for your dogs.  

 All pet parents want to give us the best they possibly can, because, well, look at us!  We are adorable!   Remember that next weekend is Easter weekend--doggies and those delicious chocolate bunnies should be kept apart, unfortunately.  That's all I've got for this week, everyone.  Til next time, take care of each other and keep reading those food labels!

Love ya,

Lily the Corgi

Flashback to last Easter:  my sister Lucy was pretty good at hunting eggs.

Research for this blog came from the following:

www.dogfoodadvisor.com

www.petmd.com

petco

petsmart

This New Kibble Is A Gas!

Did I hear something?  Do I smell something?

Hi all, Lily the Corgi here.  Spring has actually arrived here in western Arkansas and with it came birds, showers, pollen and allergies.  For my mama, the warmer weather has also brought some sort of obsession with healthy eating.  It seems mama got a bee in her bonnet recently about dog food... MY dog food.  Mama became concerned that the dog food brand she'd been feeding us was not the best for us, so she got on her computer and did a whole bunch of research and decided to change our diets.  At first mention, that doesn't sound so bad, but you have to understand this causes a big problem for me!

You see, years ago, when I came to live with my mama and daddy, I had some tummy issues.  They had to try several different types of dog foods before they found one that didn't upset my tummy.  Now, to show you that I'm not a total snob, the food that suited my delicate system best was a not-so-fancy brand of food that we knew wasn't the most nutritious kind on the market.  Mama and daddy figured, however, that it was better to feed not-so-great food than to watch me struggle with, ahem, gastric upsets.  Every once in a while, mama gets to feeling bad and tries to make us all eat better food, but my tummy always makes us go back to the lowly brand.  Not so this time!  (At least, so far.)

This time around, mama has found a better food that doesn't make me have horrible poopy issues.  And, I must say, the new stuff tastes pretty good.  None of us really has any complaints about the change EXCEPT that mama decided since she was changing the food, she might as well crack down on our serving sizes.  WHAT!?!  Mama, listening to that darned old vet I'm sure, has decided that we are all overweight and need to lose a few pounds.  I'm sure we're all going to just waste away with the tiny portions we're getting.  Pretty sure we have grounds for animal abuse charges here.

Just look; last night I was so weak I couldn't even make it up on the bed properly.

But, I digress from the point of today's post.  It seems that with the new type of food, we have had a big increase in the amount of, uh, gas expulsion in our home.  Dogs tend naturally to be a fairly gassy type of being, but a lot of issues can cause that gas to expand to a stinky, noisy degree.  For instance, my neurotic sister Sadie, who is afraid of everything, is afraid that someone will steal her food if she doesn't eat it at the speed of sound.  Sadie has always eaten fast, but now with the new, smaller portions being offered, Sadie is just bolting down the food like she's starving.  Mama says this causes Sadie to swallow air which in turns causes air bubbles in Sadie's gut.  These air bubbles tend to escape as little farts.  Since these are pretty much just air bubble farts, they aren't too stinky, but they can be pretty loud.  AND, since Sadie is afraid of everything...well, you can probably figure out the rest.  Yes, Sadie is being terrorized by her own rear end.  The other day in a new, undignified low, Sadie actually barked at her own fart.  I was embarrassed for her.

As you can well imagine, since I've been plagued with tummy issues in the past, I do tend to get a little gassy.  Mama says I have the farts of death; she will hide her nose under the collar of her shirt and make gagging noises in a completely melodramatic display that I do NOT find amusing.  With the introduction of this new food, mama is getting paid back for her antics...on this new dog food, our foster dog Canyon has the worst dog gas ever experienced.  I don't really care for Canyon much; she's a nippy, yippy puppy who drives me to distraction, but I must say that I highly approve of her response to the dog food debacle we've experienced.  She's just a little girl, but she can fart like a full grown Great Dane who ate a bag of broccoli.  She just has mad gas skills.

Just look at that innocent face; you'd never guess there lurks the gassiest girl in the universe!

So, now mama has to decide what to do.  Should she keep on with this new healthy eating thing and continue the nicer kibble, despite the fact Canyon may kill us all in our sleep?  Should she feed larger portions so Sadie will slow down her eating before she blows up like a Macy's parade balloon?  Should she begin giving us each a nice serving of yogurt each day since this is said to be helpful in preventing the formation of gas?  I'd be all for the yogurt suggestion--especially if she gave us some nice flavored yogurt and not just that plain stuff.  With maybe a little cheese to go with it.  Or bacon.  Or...wait, I got lost for a moment.  What has been your experience with gassy doggies?  Mama swears I woke her up one night last week with the intensity of my fart smell.  I think mama needs to join a drama club.  It was probably Canyon, anyway.

Til next time, everyone, take care of yourselves and I hope you have happy tummies with a minimum of gaseous clouds!

Love ya

Lily the Corgi

Sometimes I nap by the door; it's easier than listening to mama carry on about my farts!

Celebrating Celtic

Check out my very lovely fairy harness, or fairy saddle as some call it.

Hi all, Lily the Corgi here; how has life been going for all of you? Things here have been pretty good and we are preparing for a nice time to come.  In a couple of days, my humans will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day.  Since my mama's ancestors are Irish, she takes her Irish heritage seriously and treats this day as a time to honor all that is Irish.  I myself have the lovely Irish middle name Roisin (pronounced like Ro-sheen).  My mama wanted me to have a good Welsh name, but my daddy wasn't going for it, so they compromised on Irish.  

You see, the history of all the countries of the British isles are intertwined and interrelated and, frankly, just mixed up.  As peoples were conquered and enslaved and forcibly resettled from place to place, it became harder and harder for even these people themselves to keep things straight. Today, people still honor their Irish or Scottish or Welsh backgrounds, but also lump themselves into a larger category of "Celtic."  It is in that spirirt of Celtic unity that I am taking the opportunity of St Patrick's day to pass on a little knowledge about Welsh things...because, after all, I am a WELSH corgi!

Wales is a small country on the same island that houses Great Britian.  Wales is a part of the United Kingdom, but retains its own national identity.  About 20% of the people in Wales still speak the native Welsh language--and wow, what a language it is!  All of the Celtic languages are difficult to learn and master; Welsh is just a linguistic wonder!  My mama had a professor in college who did some of his studies in Wales; he told my mama once that he could no more pronounce Welsh words when he left school than the first day he went.  

Back in the 12 century or so, the people of Wales were introduced to a wonderful breed of little herding dogs who came with Flemish immigrants. These amazing dogs were short and stocky and funny and brave and you might have guessed, these were corgis.  The name of the breed comes from 2 Welsh words --cor meaning dwarf and ci meaning dog.  The Cardigan Welsh Corgi comes from the region of Cardiganshire (now renamed) and we Pems come from the region of Pembrokeshire, just south of the Cardigans.  

Just behind my shoulders, you can again see my fairy harness. 

While those are the official origins of the corgi, this time of year makes us think of the more romantic, more adventurous, and more popular story of our beginnings.  The myth tells the story of the fairy people, claimed by the Irish and the Welsh, who rode corgis, because they were too small to handle horses.  According to legend, the fairies eventually left a few corgi puppies at the edge of the woods as a gift to the humans who inhabited their land.  While corgis no longer haul around fairies, many of us DO still have a distinct marking across our backs or shoulders that some swear look like saddles or harnesses.  Check out my pictures above...my markings are a bit small for a saddle; I think I have the imprint of a fairy harness (certainly hope that doesn't mean I am descended from some sort of common draft corgis!)

I think our legend is quite lovely, so to celebrate I'll try to hang around the kitchen this week and see if mama shares any of our Irish (Celtic) feast.  I've seen a nice brisket in the refrigerator and there's a cabbage on the counter, so I'm hopeful for some corned beef and perhaps a nice pot of colcannon.  Or maybe soda bread; mama makes a pretty good soda bread.  The Irish also do a great cheese, so cheese would be appropriate to the occassion.  Have I mentioned that I SO enjoy a nice cheese?

 

Okay, so enough about the Irish and Welsh things.  Let's talk about my life.  I told you last week that we have a new foster; well, she's still here but should be shipping out later this week.  I know as a former foster myself, I should always be supportive of rescue dogs, but this girl is wearing me out.  Lord, save me from a puppy!  We dodged a bullet this past week when mama found a little corgi mix she fell in love with; thankfully she was able to get him to a rescue so he didn't have to come live with us.  I know I have to share, but seriously, there has to be a limit to all things.

We got word the other day that our former foster, Bernie, has found his new forever home!  Congratulations, Bernie; enjoy your new life.

That's all I have for this time, everyone.  Til next time, take care of each other and celebrate the Irish responsibly!

Love ya,

Lily the Corgi

Hoping I find a little Irish bacon in my dish this week!

    Facts in this blog post come from Wikipedia, the AKC website, and www.wales.com.

We've Sprung Forward

I don't understand this "spring forward" stuff

Hi, all, Lily the Corgi here; how's your week been?  Here, things have been mostly normal, but with a few twists.  Our foster dog, Bernie, left us on his transport to Denver to seek his new forever home. We were all rather fond of the little guy and wish him well.  After Bernie left, we had our home and our mama and daddy all to ourselves for ONE night and then a new foster arrived...nothing unusual there.  But here's the catch--this new foster is a GIRL!  We don't do girl fosters here.  I have no time, energy or patience to deal with any more little bitches attempting to take over my rightful place as queen of all I survey.  I thought I had made that abundantly clear to my parentals after we got Lucy, but perhaps they've forgotten.  So, for the next couple of weeks, we have Canyon.

The new foster; she's a beagle mix named Canyon

This animal is insane!  She is about 9 months old, just a puppy, and is in to everything.  Mama says I should act like a mama corgi and show Canyon the ropes, but just no.  Canyon just goes looking for stuff to get into and it wears me out just watching her.  And she has no sense of personal space.  Tonight she was sitting on MY mama and reached her snout down and began rummaging on MY belly like she was looking for a nipple!  I had to nip her on the nose to remind her that my bikini area is off limits to anyone unless I give permission.  Whew, it's gonna be a long 2 weeks.

Anyway, something that happened here last night...as it did to many of you...is this thing called daylight savings time.  It seems the humans tell time by looking at devices called clocks and they attempt to manipulate time by messing with these clocks; I totally don't get it all except that it changes the time when we get fed and when we go to bed and just a whole batch of other things and that annoys me.  Daddy says this daylight savings time thing is good because it means there will be more daylight hours after he gets home from work, so he'll be able to play in the yard with us more and maybe take us to the dog park on week nights.  On the other hand, mama hates the daylight savings time because she says it is just unnatural for it to be bedtime and still not fully dark.  I don't know; I just want my dinner at the same time every day.  Is that really too much to ask??

This playing with the clocks is a signal that spring is just around the corner; another sign is birds.  We've had a yard full of birds for the past couple of weeks.  One morning, I managed to slip out the door very quietly and sneak up to the bird feeder area and catch a bird off guard.  He was sitting on the ground eating dropped seeds and I grabbed him.  I truly didn't mean to hurt him, but I think I may have scared him to death.  Anyway, my mama came running out to see what had happened and yanked the bird away; she tried to revive it but it was too dead.  I feel a little bad, but then again, a girl has to hunt sometimes.

Last night daddy made a fire in our fire pit and we all sat outside and enjoyed a mild evening.  Off in the field behind our house, we could hear little frogs singing.  Mama says that means bugs aren't far behind.  I don't like bugs.  When that new foster came the other day, mama found 2 ticks on her...UGH.  Mama and daddy put this oily stuff on our fur each month to keep us from getting ticks and fleas and other creepy, crawly things on us.  Another spring reminder--If your dogs don't have their flea preventative through the winter, now is the time to start back up with that!

I think she was trying to sneak up and put a tick on me.

Even though it snowed last week, there are patches of green showing up in our yard where little grasses are popping through the ground.  Spring is the time when stuff starts growing and budding and blooming all over the place, and the time my sister Sadie starts getting itchy.  She is allergic to grass (I kid you not; what a ridiculous condition for a dog.)  Soon Sadie will start having to take Benedryl again to keep her from scratching herself raw.  If you have a dog that has unexplained itches, especially in the spring and summer months, talk to your vet about possible allergies.  It may be that just the simple act of a taking a sweet roll in the grass could make your doggie miserable.

Daddy says that since spring is right around the corner, it is time for him to clean up our yard and make it safe and pretty for all of us again, dogs and humans.  Over the winter months, sticks and limbs get broken off by ice and can scrape or jab a dog or one of the human babies when playing outside.  When we had our foster Linus, somehow my wonderful small mole digging hole area got competely out of control and now it looks like the craters of the moon.  Daddy says a human could turn an ankle and break something or a small dog might fall in and be lost, so he needs to take care of that too. 

Spring seems like a whole lot of work to me. Cleaning and clearing and medicating and changing clocks around, all while making sure the routine of your corgi isn't disturbed, seems like quite an ordeal.  I'm glad I have my mama and daddy around to take care of all that for me.  Leaves me more time for things like bird hunting and planning a new design for my mole hole digging.

Til next time, take care of each other and get your spring chores underway!

Love ya,

Lily the Corgi

I leave you with a few pictures of me and a REAL Canyon.  This is the Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle, where we used to live.  It is supposed to be the 2nd biggest canyon in the US, second only to the Grand Canyon.  It is a beautiful place.  I like that Canyon much better than the one now living in my house.

Honoring Benny

RIP sweet Benny

Several years ago, my parents had mourned the loss of their first corgi, my beautiful fluffy sister Audrey.  They had loved being corgi parents and decided they needed another corgi in their lives, so they began looking at rescue websites and talking with friends they knew in the corgi rescue world.

It was at about that same time that a huge, horrible puppy mill in Missouri was shut down, requiring the euthanization of over 1000 extremely sick dogs.  One of the few survivors of that terror was a little corgi boy with a disfigured face--it seems he'd been attacked by other dogs as a puppy and no one ever even othered to have his face treated.  My mama said as soon as she saw the little disfigured corgi boy, she fell in love with him.  She began making inquiries about the possibility of adopting him.

But mama was afraid that the little guy would not do well in our household...they already had the neurotic Sadie to deal with and heaven knows what kind of emotional problems the new guy would have.  My grouchy brother Claude the husky felt quite territorial about his home and my parents worried that bringing another male dog into the home might prove to be a problem.  They kept looking at other rescue sites and saw an extremely beautiful girl named Angel who was needing to be rehomed for the 3rd time.  Mama also made inquiries about her.  In the end, my parents chose to apply to adopt little Angel and not the little disfigured boy from the puppy mill.  That little Angel turned out to be ME; I got adopted by my parents and Benny Corgipants was adopted by the Medina family and we were both extremely fortunate corgis.  Mama and Benny's mama talked about how our lives were intertwined and how both families made the perfect choices!

The super ultra wonderful Angel, who became Lily!

Benny Corgipants' mother helped him become a very effective spokesdog against puppy mills. Benny's sweet face became THE face of puppy mills for people who had never really understood how awful these places could be.  Benny became a celebrity on the internet and brought awareness to a problem that needs to be stamped out in our world.

My friend Benny had been diagnosed with bladder cancer a year and a half ago.  Given only 6 months to live, Benny once again proved what a tough little guy he was by living a good life for a full year longer than the experts believed he would.  Benny lost his life this past week to the dreaded cancer and the world lost a sweet, determined little fighting spirit.

All of us, dogs and the people who love dogs, need to honor Benny by carrying on his fight against puppy mills where dogs are held as prisoners in unfit conditions, without proper care and without love.   I am so glad that Benny spent the last several years of his life in the care of his family, who adored him and who helped him become the best corgi he could be.  Frap on at the Rainbow Bridge, friend Benny, and we'll all see you when we get there!  Our deepest sympathies to the wonderful Medina family and the great folks at Corgi Connection of Kansas who loved Benny and made it possible for him to have a great life.

We love you like bacon, Benny.

That's all I've got for this week, folks.  My mama has a tummy bug and says she can't take anymore time out of her vomiting schedule to type for me.  Everyone please hug your corgi tight in honor of Benny and take care of each other.

Til next time,

Love ya,

Lily the Corgi

Couldn't resist another picture of me...back when I was much younger and thinner, on the day I came to my forever home.

*The pictures of Benny Corgipants were taken from his Facebook page.  I'm hoping Mama Bossypants won't mind that we pinched a few of her photos to make this memorial to Benny.