Product Review: Blue Buffalo Wilderness Treats, duck flavor

We got the email from Chewy.com offering treats for review, and I selected the duck flavored Blue Buffalo Wilderness treats. It's a brand I've been happy with, and after a series of mostly chewy and/or freeze dried treats, I thought something along the lines of a crunchy biscuit would be good to try.

Just Right by Purina product first thoughts

At the end of October, I posed this shot as a "teaser":

Well, it's because we'd just gotten our box of customized Just Right by Purina food. I was approached by a rep to see if we were interested in trying out Purina's new customizable food. I did a test run to see what the ingredients ended up as, and then said yes.

(these offers also always seem to come at a time when Elka has become bored with her current food)

"That dog sure is spoiled!"

I don't get a comment like that a lot, once in awhile, in casual conversation, somebody refers to Elka as "spoiled". Arguably, that's a pretty rude thing to say, but she's just a dog, right?

Anyway. Is Elka spoiled? I think it's kind of in the eye of the beholder.

Product Review: Natural Balance Jerky Bark dog treats

I'm able to share this review with you, product made available courtesy of Chewy.com!

I picked the Natural Balance Jerky Bark treats because the flavors sounded interesting (subjective, I know; I'm not going to eat them) and because they're made in the United States. We got the Chicken and Sweet Potato. They're grain free, which is not an allergy issue with Elka, but just a preference for me when it comes to purchasing her ingestible products.

As always, she was very excited to see the package come in the mail. Poor dog; most of the time, the packages we get are books or similar things that have nothing to do with her. But frequently enough, it's toys or food or treats, and well, we know about random reward schedules. So she gets excited.

Taste of the Wild: review and giveaway!

I used to feed Elka Taste of the Wild. When the voluntary recall happened back in May, though, I jumped ship for the time being. My most recently purchased bag of food had fallen in the recall, and I was just squidged out, frankly. Well, as it turns out, no Taste of the Wild actually tested positive for the Salmonella. Which is a pretty rad thing.

Interestingly, when I was contacted by a rep to see if I wanted to sample Taste of the Wild's new flavor, Southwest Canyon, and do a (very generous, I feel) giveaway for my readers, it was exceedingly good timing. Elka, though she'd previously been happy with the Blue Buffalo switch, appears to have become disillusioned with it. Overall, Elka is not a picky eater. Back in November, I groused about how she only wanted to eat from puzzle toys, but after I'd put them away for awhile, she returned to the bowl well enough. Poking around in her mouth, she doesn't appear to have developed anything wrong in there which would make eating kibble aversive, either, so I wondered if it was time for a switch. And then I got the email.

Am I dreaming? Decent dog food at the grocery store?

Somebody pinch me.

I was at the grocery store (Hannaford) the other day, and wandered down the dog aisle, as one does. An unfamiliar bag of food caught my eye. Oh, Nutrisca? What are you? Grain free? Potato free? At my grocery store?!

Flourless Peanut Butter Mug Cake (for Elka)

Not only had I quicked Elka's nail while trimming it Sunday night, but when Monday morning rolled around, and we took the sock off, she was bleeding again. Or still. I think again; it looked like A LOT, but I think being freaked out about it probably multiplied the volume. Me being freaked, that is. Elka minded it, but wasn't a wreck. I just didn't anticipate it to still be a problem; I knew that Elka didn't have Von Willebrand's Disease (will post about this on Thursday. This week is just coming together, isn't it?), so I didn't think it was life threatening. But still bleeding was a total problem in my eyes.

So I called out of work. And took her to the vet, hoping they would be able to get her in without an appointment. Last time we had to have an emergency vet trip was the year before I started the blog. She'd broken her toe by getting it caught in the leash while pouncing on a tennis ball in the back yard, and the vet sedated her to x-ray her to be sure of which toe was broken. In all honesty, I should've said no, because it seemed pretty obvious which toe, and that it was only one. But what it came down to was she peed the bed, with my fiance in it, while sleeping off the sedation. So, not knowing what the vet trip would hold, I called out, so that I could supervise her and keep her from worrying at it through the day, in the belief (hope) that things would be better Tuesday.

Of course, I still felt horribly guilty. She yelped when I pressed a paper towel to it, which she hadn't on the night of the Incident. So I sprinkled some cheese on her food after we came back (armed with cauterizing powder and gauze). I kept a baggie of treats on the coffee table and gave them to her for doing things like moving out of my spot on the couch. And oh yeah, making her a Flourless Peanut Butter Mug Cake, from the Kirbie's Cravings recipe.

Tasty Tuesday May 8, 2012: Where the buffalo roam

So, after last week's Diamond Pet Food recalls, including their Friday "as we go out the door" announcement of recall expansion, we aren't doing Taste of the Wild anymore. I'm not saying that we're dropping it forever, necessarily, but definitely for the foreseeable future.

What have we gone with, you ask? Blue Buffalo Wilderness.

I actually had to sing the first verse of "Home on the Range" to remember the line about the buffalo. I hope you appreciate me. Elka did not.