Meow Mix

One of the great things about having a dog is that he's a constant feeding experiment. So far I've discovered that he LOVES raw chicken and steak, carrot peelings, white and sweet potatoes, craisins, peanut butter, goldfish crackers, and pizza crust. He does not care for cucumbers, celery, watermelon, lemon wedges, or apple pie filling. This, however, does not make up a significant part of his dietary needs. They are more like snacks, or more accurately, opportunities for us pet owners to entertain ourselves for a few moments. The rest of Davey's mundane food fare consists of Science Diet Large Breed dog food. You know- the expensive stuff. 6 cups a day. A 35 pound bag lasts about 20 days. On super special days, like his birthday or Christmas, I'll buy a super cheap can of Pedigree "Country Stew" and mix it in with the dry stuff. Now watching that is some fun stuff because he knows. As soon as I walk in the house and he sees the can its like watching a heroin addict who's been clean for a week try to get a fix. He whines. He paces. He shakes with excitement. He drools. And when it's finally all mixed together he devours every morsel and then licks the bowl for 10 minutes. Everything in the world is right again and tomorrow's meal of just plain old Science Diet kibble suddenly seems like prison food.

For the most part, Davey is not a picky eater. We use to feed him 3 times a day in much smaller portions when he was a tiny guy but now he prefers to eat in the late evening. He eats at his own pace but that doesn't stop his peculiarities. He ALWAYS removes the first 3 kibbles from his bowl and places them on the carper in almost a triangular pattern. I'm not sure if this is his way of adapting the Italian tradition of placing 3 coffee beans in Sambuca (a Italian Liquor) for good-luck, or maybe its an unknown dog ritual passed on from mother to pup that has continued through the centuries, or if he's offering up some kind of canine tithe. Then he'll only eat half and saves the rest for later, about an hour and a half later. All of it is a little odd, but over the last 2 years I've become use to it.

Okay, so the other day, David really had us worried. We took him running in the morning like we usually do. He had left about a cup of food left over from the day before. When he and Alex got back from their run he drank just a tiny bit of water, the remaining cup of food, and then took a long nap. We both went to work, came home, put out some fresh dog food and water, and continued on with our nightly routine. In the morning we noticed that Davey hadn't touched his food or his water. So now I'm starting to get a little worried. I watch him all day which isn't hard because all he did was sleep. When he was awake I message him down to see if something hurts on him but not a peep. I try to get him to eat ice cubes but he doesn't seem interested. I offer up one of his Salmon treats and that's a big green light but he's not interested in the stuff that he really needs like food and water and its been about 36 hours now. So in my desperation, I walk out to the car, grab a handful of cat food and walk back in side.

Wait a minute, cat food? Yes, I have cat food in the trunk of my car. No, I do not have a cat, officially. I am so very allergic to cats its really not funny. But I like cats. The reason I have cat food in my trunk is because there is a year old, black male stray cat that lives in the storm drain in the parking lot of the restaurant where I work. My co-workers all have different names for the little guy. Some call him Snape, some Midnight, and other call him a slur of profanity because he likes to lounge on their brand new clean cars. Anyway, I call him Kitty Kitty. Honestly, he doesn't care what I call him as long as I feed him. But back to the story...

I walk in the house with a handful of Meow Mix and Heroin Dog greets me at the door. Suddenly he knows. I let him sniff my hand and the drooling and shaking and whining starts immediately. I'm not sure where this comes from since I know for a fact this is the first time that he's ever had cat food. I sprinkle it in his bowl and like magic the mighty appetite has returned. He polished off every morsel of food and slurped down 2 large bowls of water. I breathe a sigh of relief and a dozen thoughts flood my mind. I remember back when my sister was 2 and I caught her eating cat food on the porch.  I think back to when we first brought Davey home and all the "food rules" that we agreed on, which by the way have all been broken including the chocolate rule. And I think of all the exasperated moms that come in my restaurant with picky kids. Maybe I should tell them about Meow Mix too.