Homemade Dog Food

Snoop usually eats regular dog food, but recently he has been difficult. Some say it's because of the weather, some say it's because he is spoiled! He has not being eating breakfast and he doesn't show an interest in dinner either. Sometimes just before bed, he eats some of the dog food in his bowl but he doesn't seem very excited about it..

Today I decided to make homemade dog food. I know many people feed their dogs raw and homemade food and I wanted to try making some.

The ingredients are minced chicken, brown rice, oats, carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. I cooked all of them in a pot for a while and made a Homemade Doggie Chicken Stew! I tried it and it actually tastes pretty good!

Did Snoop like it? Yes! He licked the bowl clean and asked for more! I put the rest of it in containers so that I can freeze them in individual portions. Here are 7 days worth of Snoop's meals. Are you happy, Snoop?

Blue Sky

It was a great day out in the field and stretch!

Dog Friends

My friends and I took our dogs to the trail this afternoon. It was a long walk (about 2 hrs), but I'm sure our Snoop dog loved it! He will sleep very well tonight.

I took this shot of the dogs before the walk.
Coco (Black Cocker Spaniel, Age 9)
Hunter (Grey Yorkie Mix, Age 3)
Goro (Brown Terrier Mix, 6 months)
And our Snoop boy, Age 7

They are good friends!

I'm back

After a month of absence, I'm back.

I came back from Japan with my parents at the end of June, and we travelled to Victoria, Seattle, Vancouver and to the Rockies in a month. My parents really enjoyed everywhere we travelled, specially Victoria, but their favourite place was our backyard, just sitting on the chairs, relaxing, looking at the trees around and playing with Snoop. They enjoyed the trip very much and said they want to come back next summer again. I'm sure they will come back.

So, in one month, our vegetable garden has over grown, everything is getting so much bigger, including the zucchini plants. We had our first early tomatoes harvest a few days ago and they were actually really good. We have been eating salad everyday from the garden and we can't keep up with the amount of lettuce leaves coming out.

Snoop has been a bit stressed out for a while as I was away many days. But I think he is also back to normal and happy to have me around again.

Today's Snoop

My new favourite spot in the house, overlooking the garden :)

Summer like day

Happy Mother's Day!

What great weather! It was 23C during the day, just like summer!

We were playing in the back yard, cleaning up, weeding and stuff... but we had to stop it as it was scorching hot! Looked around and tried to find Snoop. Where is he?

Look closer...

Is it really comfortable? You know, you have your own nice cushy bed under the roof...

Ready for summer!

Who is ready for summer? ... Snoop is!
He is geared up with his new life jacket for kayaking, boating and many more fun summer activities! Just needs a pair of doggy sunglasses, it's too bright, can't keep his eyes open! Beautiful Friday today and it is supposed to be a nice weekend too!

Glucosamine for Dogs!

Snoop will be 7 yrs old this year. So he is now considered a senior dog. Although he is active and loves to run, we were noticing some stiff back legs while he walks and the vet actually told us early this year he would benefit from taking some Gloucosamine.

We found a new product from Jamieson, a very popular supplement & vitamin brand for humans. They now have several products for animals including the one we bought for Snoop, 'Joint Health'. One small bone shaped tablet/day, just like your Mom and Papa take our Vitamins.

We want you to be healthy all the way!

My new treat :)

 

Spring Makeover!

I can see much better now!

Hydrangea

Sunny Saturday. We spent some time shopping for more gardening items at Costco and playing in the back yard.

I always wanted to have Hydrangea in the garden if I had my own house sometime. Today my husband bought me a beautiful white hydrangea :)

Two of my favourite white things in my own back yard...

Snoop's sunny afternoon

Frosty morning. Is it really April?

Sun came out later in the afternoon, and I started re-doing some of the edges of the hedges with driftwood instead of rocks. While I was working in the yard, Snoop was of course enjoying the sun :)

Happy Birthday Amy

We caught Snoop trying to sneak out to wish Amy a Happy Birthday!

Amy, I tried... :(  Happy Birthday anyway.

Crazy Cake

We have been getting mixed weather here, sunny and warm one day, and next day is cold wind and rain. Our new 21 trees are doing fine so far. We think they are a few inches taller already... or maybe we are just hoping too much!

I had a craving for a chocolate cake. This has been my usual "go to" chocolate cake since my mother-in-law told me about it a few years ago. Good things about this cake is low fat, easy to bake and Vegan (for you Amy!). We had this with plain yogourt & maple syrup and fresh strawberry sauce. Yum :)  I always notice sweets with chocolate (i.e. cakes or cookies) taste better next day. I once baked this for my friend's birthday (doubled the recipe), sliced the cake in half, added Nutella in between and finished with raspberry sauce & vanilla ice cream. That was great too!

Crazy Cake Recipe: (from Prevention Magazine)

Ingredients:
1.5C   Flour
1/2C   Brown Sugar
3tbsp  Coco Powder
1tsp    Baking soda
1/2tsp salt
3tbsp  vegetable oil
1tbsp  white vinegar
1tsp    vanilla extract
1C      cold water

1) Preheat oven to 350F.
2) Sift the first 5 ingredients together. Make a well in the mixture, and add oil, vinegar and water. Mix thoroughly with a fork to moisten all the dry ingredients.
3) Pour it into 8x8 baking dish. Bake for 30 min or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Oh, by the way, Snoop really needs a hair cut!

Underwater Dogs

The day after the big storm was a sunny day. We had a roofer on our roof patching up the exposed areas. Although we might have to re-do the whole roof, we needed those quick fixes as today was another stormy day. Snow, hail, rain and strong wind. It was not as strong as the other day, but it was strong enough to take another shingle off our roof... The roofer is due to be back sometime this week, so we will see.

Now something funny to make you smile :)

Check out this website, Little Friends Photo, for underwater dogs like this one below! You will find more pics in the gallery.

My husband told me about this photographer, Seth Casteel, who lives in the States and takes underwater dog pictures. All the dogs look so intense and funny!

Snoop? He is defiantly NOT an underwater dog... Amy, your dogs should be good candidates for underwater dogs?

White Dog

Snoop had lots of fun at the dog park today... Who decided to get a white dog....?

Big Smile :)

Today we woke up to a big dump of snow. It made driving very difficult for many people and my husband had to shovel the drive way for the first time in the past ten years! We know this because he had to take off his wedding ring that he has been wearing for 10 years - it was digging into his finger and making it difficult to shovel. Plus we never had a driveway until we moved recently. 

At least one of us was happy...!

Yay, Snow!

Update

Snoop is fine!

Chocolate Incident

When I came home in the afternoon, Snoop welcomed me as usual, standing up on his two feet, jumping and smiling. I went to the kitchen and put some groceries in the fridge, turned around and saw something on the carpet by the fireplace. ...? What is it??

"SNOOOOOPPP!!!!!!"

It was a plastic container with the lid chewed open. I remember seeing that container on the dining table earlier, there were several pieces of dark chocolate in it and of course I didn't see any chocolate in it now.

Chocolate is toxic for dogs, and dark is even worse as it contains higher % of theobromine. This is called Theobromine poisoning. The first signs of theobromine poisoning are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and increased urination. These can progress to cardiac arrhythmias, epileptic seizures, internal bleeding, heart attacks and eventually death! (above info from Wikipedia)

He ate quite bit for a small dog, we thought, about 1 oz or so, and it was a dark chocolate, we were worried about him. My husband called the vet and was able to get some good advice from them. Not sure how long ago Snoop ate the chocolate, but best thing is to make him vomit by giving him some Hydrogen Peroxide. We looked at each other and wondered if we should give him this as it sounded like poison, but we did as the vet recommended. It took him a while but he vomited a bit! It worked!

He seems better now, but we were told to keep eyes on him tonight...

Snoop, you are so in trouble!

 I am feeling sick.. :(   but it was so tasty!

Snoop and friends

Today started out with heavy rain and wind. We were all looking outside thinking it might be another stay-home day. Around 3pm, it cleared and the sun came out! I called my friends & dogs to get together at a school yard near by.

Although at first Snoop found it difficult to get along with other dogs, he has learned how to socialize and made many good dog friends. 12 people including kids and 4 dogs came together this afternoon and had a great time running around and enjoying sun. 

Hope the weather stays nice like this tomorrow :)

Coco - 9 yrs old, Hunter - 1.5 yrs and Snoop. We are missing the puppy Romeo. Where is he?

                                                    

BC SPCA Lottery

How was your Valentine's day? I had a pretty good one that my husband made dinner for me and gave me BC SPCA lottery tickets for a special Valentine gift!

We often give donations to the SPCA as birthday gifts and other occasions for each other or other family members. If you are planning to give a gift to someone, check out the SPCA website, "Shop SPCA". There are nice T-shirts, jackets and hoodies. You can buy them as gifts and the money will actually be donated to help animals. This SPCA lottery is another good one as we can donate money and there is a $100,000 cash prizes! Yay!

If interested, check out this link. Tickets are still available and there are so many animals in need.

I am a dog from the SPCA, but I now have a much better life :)