How To Cook For Dogs

Promising the kids a new puppy when Jim was diagnosed with cancer was such an easy thing to do. It was the follow through that took a while, like almost a year - not that we didn't check out weekend adoption clinics at the neighborhood pet store. We already owned an eight year old English Springer Spaniel, and nothing we saw seemed to match the standards set by our Hunter. After eight months of hearing "When are we getting that puppy?" over and over and over, Mother's Day ‘08 I sent Sevy off to serve 500 people brunch and took the Boy, Sister and Hunter to Operation Kindness in Carrollton.

We were drawn immediately to two black and tan brothers (10 weeks old), which is strange because I've always been more of a "purebred" dog owner, but their temperaments were exactly what I'd been searching for. How to choose? One was so lovey and sweet, the other handsome and gentle, both extremely attached to each other. Wait! It was Mother's Day - so I called Jim (in the very middle of his kitchen rush) and asked if in addition to the propane gas grill he'd given me, could I double down on the puppy thing? I think he said something like "Whatever, I'm in the weeds", but when he came home he understood - these dogs were special.

Well, it's not like we don't have the ingredients for this recipe. Nice fenced back yard, pool, great-friend-who-is-a-vet (and another one in the family), teenagers, lady-home-all-day, man-who-comes-home-with-delicious-smelling-shoes every night. Hunter has even adapted, he has no choice since at 6 months they are physically bigger than he is. He's taken on the role of Yoda-dog, teaching the youngsters how to be fierce toad warriors and how to dig out an entire shrub.

But it hasn't been all easy, I travel to Walmart every week to get another big bag of Iam's, things have been eaten that shouldn't have, and I've invested $120 in a "spot-bot" carpet cleaner. Also, they've needed treatment for worms, one has already required stitches and boarding three dogs when traveling is about the same as the room rate at a hotel.

This recipe is so delicious, I'm not sure if three bites are enough. Maybe I can talk Jim into a 4th small bite, something lap-sized. But my days of cleaning up puppy pee are almost over so the next one will have to be a grown adoptee.