On a Collar Quest

I love dogs. I love Capital Area Humane Society (CAHS), the shelter that housed our hounds before we adopted them. And I REALLY love guerrilla marketing.

Naturally, I'm delighted to introduce you to the newest adoption and awareness campaign at CAHS: Collar Quest.

Volunteers and staff at CAHS are dropping 50 special signs with collars around the city every week during the month of May. Location clues will be posted on the CAHS Facebook page. Fans who find the collars will receive a 25% discount on an approved pet adoption. A few special ones are associated with a gift card to CAHS' retail shop, Bells and Whiskers. At the end of the Collar Quest, one lucky collar-finder will receive a grand prize package of a free adoption, food, vet services and training.

We visited the shelter yesterday to hang out with adoptable dogs, kittens, rabbits, and guinea pigs. Oooh the cuteness!!

There weren't many kittens on the adoption floor when we visited but there are benefits to knowing one of the shelter managers - my sister Sarah showed us some of the kitties that are too young to be adopted. (Can you see the dark mark on Sarah's hand? It's from a month-old nasty cat bite, a serious hazard of her job.)

In the end, we decided that none of the pets were a good match for us right now. Lil was a bit sad that we couldn't adopt but she chose to give a dollar from her own wallet to the shelter. She wants a cat and we've promised her one when we move. We'll be following CAHS on Facebook for collar clues. Maybe when we find one, the orange kitty will be available for adoption!

Will you join us on the Collar Quest?

What Do The Hounds Eat? Nutro & Giveaway!

The hound dogs in the house, Devie and Hawise, eat a lot of things: scraps Lil drops, food they lick from the dishes, birthday cakes, chicken poop, grass, peas from the garden, basically anything they can get their paws on.  I only feed them one thing: Nutro dog food. I have fed Nutro's Adult Lamb and Rice formula for years. It keeps the dogs' coats looking lustrous, they eat it well, and their stools are firm.  Did I just write that?  Well, it's true, and a decent measure of food quality.

Recently the fine folks at Nutro offered me a sample of their Ultra Holistic Food.

When the bags arrived, Devie approached cautiously, sniffing the bags all over.

When Hawise entered the picture, Devie claimed the bags and growled for her to go away. Neither of them could tear into the bag alone so we helped them out with a little dog food day reenactment.

The dogs love the Ultra formula as much as any food, which is to say they gobble it up as if it were their last meal.  Like the lamb and rice formula, Ultra Holistic keeps them looking fine and their digestive system continues to seem great so far as I can tell from what's coming out the other end.  The Ultra formula differs most from the Lamb and Rice with the addition of nutrient rich superfoods like avocado, salmon, blueberries, pomegranates and more to support immunity, heart health, and sharp vision.

In an ideal world, I would make my own food for the dogs from all natural local humanely raised meats, whole grains and vegetables.  Right now, there isn't room in our food budget nor my busy schedule for doing so.  Nutro suits our needs and my dog's health very well.

Now for the fun part: Nutro wants to feed your pup you too! Leave a comment with your favorite dog's name. I'll pick five random comments at 8 pm next Monday May 10 to receive a sample bag of Nutro Ultra! Be sure to leave a valid email address so I can contact you if you win.

The contest is over!  Congratulations to winners Tracie, Tara, Lisa, Jen, and Betsy!

Disclosure: I received the Nutro samples for free. I am not being compensated  for this review and giveaway.

Cursed Fruitcake

I am reading happy Xmas posts on other blogs.  All in all I had a good day, but I am feeling a bit cursed. Between celebrations number two and three we stopped home to feed the dogs, drop of gifts, and pick up new ones.  We were headed to my parents and packed up some food to contibute to dinner.

About half way through our short journey, I realized I had forgotten Lil's stocking stuffers.  We turned around.

I ran into the house and saw this:

ACKKKK!!!!  My beloved fruitcake!  The one I carefully baked, stored and basted!

Apparently when Alex grabbed the bag of food to load the car, he forgot the fruitcake.

Maybe I should have checked the car.  Maybe the dogs should be better trained.  Maybe I should not attempt such a touchy expensive confection.

At any rate, after coming home tonight I sliced off the dog-mawed parts and helped myself to a piece.  I wouldn't serve a dog licked anything to anyone else but I at least had to taste the fruitcake myself.

And of course, it is delicious.  I wish I had a whole loaf to enjoy.  Maybe next Christmas...