The Great Dehydrator Experiment

I finally put my dehydrator to work this past weekend. I got all of the supplies ready. Non-stick spray, garlic powder & papertowels (to dry the meatables before going on the grates).

I used organic beef liver...Mmmmmm, looks yummy, huh?

Chicken hearts, gizzards, chicken pieces & a salmon fillet.

The smell wasn't too bad while it was cooking. I let the machine work for 12 hours and ended up with a bunch of shrivelled up meat.

My mistake was putting it in the fridge in zip-close bags. It got really sticky & hard to work with.

So then next day I spread it out on papertowels and let it air dry for another 8 hours.

Dried gizzardables & chickenables..

Dried Liverables...

It still was really sticky and hard to work with. I pitched the Salmon because while it was dry on the outside, it was moist and flaky when I went to cut it. I should've eaten it.

We don't care! Give us those dried up Meatables!!!!

Really, the Dogs loved all of the meat. Even picky Penny. So at least I have goodies for them for a while.

The conclusion...next time, I will let the meat dry longer (probably 18 hours). And I will let it air dry before putting it in the fridge.

I didn't think it smelled too bad while it was cooking...but the lingering effects (BAD) are still in my kitchen 4 days later. I will also put the machine outside next time.

I'm going to try & dry stuff for ME next...apples, bananas, apricots, tomatoes, etc and see how they turn out. I kind of prefer my old method of making dried treats for the Dogs (email me if you'd like the details). The smell isn't as bad & it only takes about an hour & a half.

It was worth a shot!

Ferndoggle???

The Dogs are taking a break today. They are too full from the dehydrator treats I made over the weekend (will post about that tomorrow).

I've had so many people ask me what the deal is with Ferndoggle. Stupid name, huh? Well it's an even stupid-er story. And...it has absolutely nothing to do with dogs. No lie.

My name is Jennifer. Most of the world calls me Jen. Scott calls me Jenny. But my family calls me Jennifer. When I was in high school, my brother's friend started calling me Jennifern. Then my brother started calling me Fern. Then my Dad got clever & started calling me Ferndoggle and the rest is history.

Told you it was stupid.

Blue tagged us for the 'Scattergories' game. Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the questions. They must be real places, names, things ... nothing made up! If you can't think of anything, skip it.

Blue said if I was a glutton for punishment...all three dogs could play. Well, Ha Ha Blue. I'm playing (as Ferndoggle)!!

1. Famous Singer: Fergie (Yeah, I'll admit it...I think My Humps is catchy). She's a classy gal...I have that skirt in blue.

2. Four letter word: Fart (sorry...I had to do it...in honor of Lola)

3. Street: Forbes Avenue

4. Color: Fuscia

5. Gifts/Presents: Food Processor (hey, I'm a simple gal)

6.Vehicle: (Toyota) Four-Runner

7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: From the Mike Feinberg Company...I bring you Chipped Ham Sam (Sorry guys...it's a 'burgh thing)

8. Boy Name: Fred

9. Girl Name: Fiona

10. Movie Title: Forty Year Old Virgin

11. Drink: Flying Dog In Heat Wheat (yummmm)

12. Occupation: Financial Planner (a very exciting occupation...I might add).

13. Celebrity: Kevin Federline (the smartest man in Hollywood)

14. Magazine: Fortune

15. US City: Fenwick Island, DE

16. Pro Sports: FOOTBALL!!!! (American)

17. Fruit: Fig

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Fell down the steps (yes, it actually happened) .

19. Something You Throw Away: Funky smelling Food in the Fridge

20. Things You Shout: FINE! (this is a PG blog)

This is harder than you might think!! I'm giving Randi another Tag! Also Rockford & baby Clover.

The V.E.T.

I had to go to the V.E.T this weekend for my annual check-up. I love going to the VET! Mom takes a bag of cookies with her and I get treats for laying down nicely at her feet or ignoring other dogs that come in the waiting room. I charmed the pants off of two ladies by staring at them & smiling. They told Mom about 10 times "You're dog just never stops smiling".

I do have a pretty great smile...see?

This trip to the V.E.T. was great because they didn't steal any of my blood, nor did they stick me with any needles. I also found out that I've lost 2 lbs!! And Mom thought I was gaining weight. They did put that thing up my butt and I just can't understand why they haven't come up a better way to judge how HOT I am. They could've just asked Dot.

I have a little baby lump on my leg that Mom wanted to have the Vet check. It's so little, Dr. F couldn't even find it. Mom does this massage thingy on me every week to check for lumps & bumps and I love it because I just lay there while she rubs me. That's when she found it. This is where it is on my leg.





So she showed Dr. F where it was and they don't think it's a cyst. Because it's so small, they want to wait to biopsy it if it gets any bigger. So that just means Mom will be massaging me every single day & that's just fine with me!!

It made me feel like roachin'!

Mom likes the funny noises I make when I roach...till the stupid white dog comes along & ruins my fun!

(Back to the Vet visit...I'm pretty freaked out about this whole diagnosis. My Vet thinks it could be lymphoma because the lump floats & is not attached to the skin. I almost passed out when she said the C word. Right now it's the size of a pea...and trust me, if that thing gets any bigger Sherman will be at the Vet in a nanosecond to have it biopsed. She doesn't feel the lump is big enough to put him through the whole process right now though. I love this Vet & trust her. She assured me it could stay the same size for a long time. Let's just hope that's the case.)

Dad???

Hi Pups & GG. I must tell you that I was very sad this weekend.



My Dad left the house on Friday and didn't come back. We were looking for him all night!

We love our Mom, but we really love Dad too. Sherman & Lola were sad...but I was the saddest. See how pathetic I look..

Apparently, he was gallivanting in Canada with his buddies all weekend! How dare he not take me with him. I could have stopped by & hung out with Sophie!!

But thank goodness...he came back!! I'm just going to sit here right next to him so he doesn't leave ever again!

Lola was pretty happy he's home too. Actually I'd say she was REALLY happy!


Keep an eye on your people Pups!

The Life of a Diva

Let me just tell you...It. Is. Exhausting. Believe me, I would love to be home waiting for this whole "treat extravaganza" that is supposedly going on at my house.


But the fabulous Ruby Blue picked me up in her private jet & we went to see my *love* Marvin for his blogiversary. Oh my...we drank way too much champagne on the flight over and devoured Jeannie's roast chicken & potatoes. My future MIL is a great cook. I may just move to Scotland.

See...we were all there. 'cept Sherman & Penny who had to stay home. Ahaaaahaaaahaaa!


And THEN! As soon as I got home I had to rush to Hawaii for a photo shoot. Diva Dogs Monthly was on my case for a beach shot. I made the cover. I guess it was worth it.

I am so glad to be home. All I want to do is sleep. It's been a whirlwind couple of days...see yinz puppers after a good 24 hour nap!

Stinkin' up the house!

Excuse me...I hope you don't think it was *I*, Sherman Bubbadoodlefinklestein, that would be stinkin up the house.

No, Mom got this cool machine for Christmas...TWO YEARS AGO...and she's been afraid to try to make us treats because it would stink up the house too much.

Well, the good news for us is...she's busting out the stinky machine and making us some deeeelicious dehydrated liverables, chicken heartables, gizzardables...

plus she's gonna try some salmonables & chicken tenderables! So you all are going to have to stay tuned for the results this weekend. I think the house will smell much better than it does now (I'm not into flowery stink).

Till then, I will rest as to conserve my taste-testing energy.

And I have to do the middle name tag too. I will shorten my middle name, Bubbadoodlefinklestein to Bubba (which sounds tuffer anyway) so this post isn't a bazillion lines long.

Big-boned

Utterly starving ALL THE TIME!

Black

Bashful (not really, I'm just running out of Bs)

Attached to my Mommy (don't make fun, Sweetest Sweet Pea in the Whole Sweet Pea Patch)

My weekend - by Lola

Penny got to post about her weekend (show-off!), so I wanted to say a little something about mine.

Friday night I ate a bee (we think) and my right jowl swelled up to the size of a ping pong ball. Mom gave me a big meatball and the swelling went away (it was laced with Benedryl). Saturday, she woke up and my left jowl was swollen. Yay! More meatballs for me!! Saturday afternoon my eye swelled...'nother meatball!! And Saturday night, my chin swelled...yep, 'nother meatball. She was all ready to take me on an adventure to the ER vet on Sunday, but I was fine. No more swelling for Lola. Da Diva is back!!



Mom did take this picture of my swollen jowls. Dad says he can't tell the difference b/c I'm pretty jowly to begin with, but take my word for it...I'm swelled (and doped up on Benedryl!).





Sunday, since I was all better, I got to graduate from Rally class. I was pretty excited (BAD) at the beginning but I settled down by the end & we did OK. I'm no Penny (no darlin'...you are not. Yet.), but I'll get there.



Here I am practicing my Sit Stays with distractions...my Pixburgh boyfriend Apache was there & I REALLY wanted to play with him!!! But I was good. See??

And here I am with my Grad-ee-a-shun pressie. Cookies!!!

Apache...I'll share my cookies!!!

Oh & I have to do the middle name tag. Here it is:

Special

Pretty

Rambuncious

Ornery

Unbeliveably adorable

Total Diva

Now I tag Eddie & Peaches (and Bella too) and Sitka.

My Saturday - by Penny

On Saturday, Mom goes & helps her friend Bob teach obedience classes at the WPHS. Bob asked Mom if she wanted to bring one of us to demo & since I'm the most well behaved, I got to go!!!

I was very excited. But what she didn't tell me was that there would be PUPPIES there!!! I love PUPPIES!!

We ran & ran & ran & I had so much fun playing I didn't want to stop.

Afterward, I had to sit in this big jail while Mom helped the puppies learn new stuff.

Sometimes I got to come out of jail & show the puppies how good dogs heel on leash, stay until released and how to pay attention.

When I got home, I was very tired!! All I wanted to do was lay on my landing in the sun...but a certain white dog thought I should play with her too.

Hey Penny! Don't you want to play with your most favoritest puppy???

Maybe later little white Dog...teaching is hard work!

The Kapp Pack has tagged us to share our middle names and what the letters of them would mean. Since this is MY post I'll go first...

Wiggly (duh)

Intellegent

Girly

Gorgeous

Lola's bestest friend in the whole wide world (next to Tadpole)

Energetic

Sweet

I'm going to tag Jazz & Dixie and Chance. Sherman & Lola will do theirs later this week & will tag other.

Stew

The Brat Pack asked on The Bones Zone for some "stew" type recipes to add to their diet, so I thought I'd share ours. As many of you know, I don't like following recipes...usually I just take what I have & run with it!

My local meat supplier has started carrying "chicken chunks" for dogs. This is basically the meat that is left over from trimming chicken breasts. They actually called it "chicken waste" when I ordered a case of it, but that's gross so I'll continue to call it "chunks".

So that is my base. Some sort of meat. Usually boneless...chicken, ground turkey, ground beef, even ground buffalo when I was fortunate to have 10 lbs of it. (I have used chicken legs but I boil them first, strip the meat and add it to the veggies later). To that I add veggies...sweet potato, carrots, kale, spinach, peppers, zucchini, squash...pretty much anything but onions. I'll also toss in an apple or blueberries if I have them. Skins on please. And 1 -2 cloves of garlic. Put meat & veggies in a pot & cover with water.

See how pretty (the meat always sinks to the bottom)!


Note...the Dog's giant vat of dinner vs. my teeny weeny dinner cooking. I obvioulsy have my priorities straight.

I cook it for about 45 mintues to an hour till it gets mushy.

Scoop out about a cup of cooking liquid, reserve and then rinse & strain mix.

Add strained meat & veggies to reserved cooking liquid and mash with potato masher. Voila! Chicken stew.

I don't add any grains to this because it's usually mixed in with the Dog's dry food, which contain plenty of grains. But you can also add brown rice, oats, quinoa, or some other healthy grain to the stew while cooking if you wanted to feed it alone.

We're ready for dinner!!!

For more information on supplementing a kibble based diet, please visit Mary Straus' very informative site.

Presents from my LOVE Dot-Spot

Finally!

I got this great present from my true love, Dot Spot over the weekend & Mom wouldn't let me open until she fixed her stupid camera. But Today is the Day!!

Even the bag looks just like her!



And I got a special letter from my special girl.

Dot is very smart ...she knows that you need to suck up to the Mom a little bit. Mom got this great book that she's going to read to me, a book mark & an Alert sticker so if our house is in trouble, the good guys know to look for us!

Ummmm...is that jerky I see behind the book? I don't think that's for Mom! Why isn't it in my belly????

And she got these little cutters to make our salmon cookies pretty! Mine, of course, will be the GIANT heart.

And check out all of these stuffies!!! Mom said she knew which one I would like best before she even gave them out.

And she was right!!!

Thank you Brat Pack for all of our presents!! We're stylin' now!

And the best gift of all! Dot & her Mom made me this video for my Gotcha Day. It made Mom's eyes leak and I got lots of hugs. You guys are these bestest!!!