Beat This, Lassie – Argentine Dog Saves Baby
Forget saving Timmy from a well — this little Argentine street dog saves a newborn baby. Beat that, Lassie.
From the BBC News —
An eight-year-old dog has touched the hearts of Argentines by saving the life of an abandoned baby, placing him safely alongside her own new puppies.
The country’s media are calling him “the miracle baby”.
He was born prematurely to a 14-year-old girl in a shanty town outside the capital, Buenos Aires.
She is said to have panicked and abandoned the boy in a field, surrounded by wooden boxes and rubbish.
Then along came La China, reports say, the dog which somehow picked up the baby and carried her 50m to place him alongside her own puppies.
The dog’s owner reported hearing the child crying and finding him covered with a rag.
The baby, weighing 4kg (8lb 13oz), had some slight injuries, but no bite marks.
The downside is that the sudden fame and attention has made the dog understandably nervous. Her owner says she’s not eating, and he’s worried she won’t be able to care for her puppies.
Here’s a video clip of the story.
Breaking News — Tessa really MIGHT rule the universe!
Wow, who knew one little, cranky, red and white dog could start this much ground swell?
Tessa says “Being leader of the free world is nothing compared to raising 21 cranky little Frenchie children. I’d take Putin over Sailor any day.”
Raw Dog Food Simplified. Sort of.
A few people have written to me asking for my ‘recipe’ for raw dog food, so I decided this deserved a post of its own.
To be honest, there really isn’t a ‘recipe’ per se. What there is is a ratio break down, which as I’ve mentioned before is:
50% or so turkey necks and fish with bones (salmon, sardines and mackerel, primarily)
5% liver, kidney, giblets (organ meats)
5% heart
25% muscle meat (beef, sometimes mutton or pork)
10% ground vegetables, fruit and greens
the rest is a mix of eggs, dairy, nutritional yeast, molasses, yogurt and cider vinegar
Bear in mind, this is MY ratio, based on what I have access to most often, and at the most reasonable prices. You, on the other hand, can muck about with this to suit your own preferences, and your own locally available ingredients.
Some people might have an easier time getting chicken necks and backs than turkey necks. Others might have a line on venison or elk in season, which they can substitute for beef. The same applies to veggies and fruits — if I’ve gotten a good deal on bananas or carrots, there’s going to be a lot of bananas and carrots in their food. Right now, my dandelion ‘garden’ is a reliable source for greens, so we’re using that (and getting some weeding done at the same time).
I don’t weigh out anything, either — I estimate by volume, using my trusty pots and pans and bowls.
I grind and chop all my veggies, and I pre bake sweet potatoes and squash. Technically speaking both of these orange vegetables are carb sources, so I keep them to a 20% ratio in my veggie mix. You can adjust as you like. For people who want a grain or carb source, try adding quick cooking oats or quinoa (although technically speaking, you don’t really need a carb source other than the veggies).
If you are confident that your dog can get through necks and backs, then by all means, skip grinding them. I, on the other hand, am confident that I’d spend a good deal of time pulling stringy bits of turkey out of the throats of my choking dogs, so I do grind. To each their own, and don’t let the hard line party advocates on either side of the issue bully you out of doing what’s best for you dogs.
Since I grind, I give my dogs recreational beef bones to chew on once a week or so.
Remember, this is all about finding what works for you. Preparing your own raw food is messy, time consuming and back breaking. Honestly, if I was only feeding one or two dogs, I’d have no hesitation about feeding them a pre made raw diet (we like the Nature’s Variety patties).
Don’t get caught in the “Unless you do it ‘this way’, you’re a dog killing heathen” trap. Too many raw feeding advocates get a sort of scary, cult like thing going on when they start preaching about their way of feeding. Personally, I don’t think any diet is perfect, unless you can make it work for you.