I’m not making Otterpop eat beets. Or beetlejuice. But I am trying to get her to eat because during the Otterpop is sick era of the last couple of weeks she got very, very skinny. She would like you to know she’s feeling much better, and has a fantastic new diet that includes cooked chicken, dog food from a can that has sweet potatoes in it, and some cheap kibble that looks like cheerios. For some reason, this agrees with her so this is what she eats.
I now have 4 dogs who all eat completely different foods. Banksy gets way more high octane kibble. Gustavo is a vegan with extra added goopy medicine sauce. Ruby likes canned dog food with these nifty little chicken sprinkles, and Otterpop needs the menu mentioned above so she doesn’t barf. When that’s all done, I just make myself a burrito with whatever came in the farm box.
Otterpop also got very clean this week. Is it bad to teach kids to paint on animals? I just bring out the patient ones who stand still even if someone’s trying to paint a rainbow. Scrubbing off paint really gets the dirt out too, so even the dustiest horses come out looking sparkly and shiny.
The days are long and the days are hot. Evening walk has kind of morphed into this thing where we go to the school field and sit in the shade. We walk around a couple of times, as fast as Ruby can go, which is like a very, very slow creep, with occasional blasts of running in the wrong direction. We all go running after her and get her turned around, then we go sit in the shade and send Banksy around the backstop for the ball. This is an arrangement everyone agrees with right now. So this is what we do.
Love that Otterpop got in on the painting (and cleaning)!
Good luck with the food – my senior diva wouldn't eat anything twice in a row, so I had to have a whole kitchen full of different foods I could combine in different ways because if she suspected something was the same as the last meal, well, she let me know!
So, I live in the land of swamps and humidity and critters where all the things hot and sweaty and miserable for large portions of our year and I'm curious – are you getting the heat wave that San Diego got, with the 100+ temps? At 11pm last night, we were still above 80… I'm scouting out cooler places!
Hmm, our hot is actually, maybe, not that hot. Not exactly 100…but it FEELS very hot!
Why is Gustavo vegan? Sounds really weird for a carnivore. What does he eat then, is there like vegan dog food in the States? 😀
Gustavo has a congenital liver disorder called hepatic microvascular dysplasia. It means his liver doesn't work, and if he eats normal animal proteins, like meat, he has little seizures and feels very sick because his liver can't clean his blood, the blood vessels don't go through it properly. Ammonia builds up in his blood and makes him feel yucky and brain ammonia makes one's brain go all funny. So he eats grains, vegetables, a little bit of yogurt and cheese, and there is one type of vegetarian dog food made by natural balance. His favorite food is meat, and when he does get some, he gets very sick. He gets medicine too, to help him. He would not like to be vegetarian, at all but it keeps him alive!
Ah, I see! Poor Gustavo for missing on the great things, but I'm glad there's atleast some diet that he can pursue without getting sick and brain-funny.
<3 Otterpop! Eat those beets!!!
It was 105 when we left herding today. The sand was so hot it would burn the dogs and sheep's feet. Just miserable. But it got better in that we had our 4th of July picnic a little early.. Put stuff on the grill, had cheesecake, and a cookie cake, and an apple pie. Also had some rapidly melting Klondilke bars too. Since we've been home, no one has asked to go outside at all! I must be the only person alive saying 'come on, winter!'
Hope you have a great 4th of July – I'm planning on trying not to sweat all day long! Lol
Sure you done want to come for a visit??