Cute gingham bikini... fundoshi?!

Reuters video: http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=101134

Well hey... gander sauce. Jezebel and its readers can't seem to get over 'loincloth' like it's some horrible idea, nor the lack of elastic. What, some problem with more coverage than a thong? So much for feminist enlightenment and alternative thinking.

(Here's a text article including a model and some instructional images.)

Dog food

Help! Our dog exploded! Part 1
Help! My dog exploded! Part 2

Poor Zeus! D'Argo's kind of like that, bless him. My main question is... why the blazes did they latch the crate door closed at night?? Tchah.

stormrunner is a BARF diet devotee; myfanwy does a mixed diet following some of Stormrunner's suggestions, and for the life of me I can't remember what xianghua feeds her pack.

Mine get kibble once a day, a blend of the rather expensive Hund-n-Flocken by Solid Gold (recommended to me by a breeder in Indiana), slightly less expensive Wellness Super5Mix Lamb, Barley & Salmon Meal Recipe, and a little less expensive again Prairie Lamb Meal & Oatmeal Medley — Nutro Natural Choice Lamb & Rice is last choice on the list when I'm that low on kibble as to need a fourth bag (wish they were 40 lb. bags instead of 30-odd).

Why the mix? Because Solid Gold alone is too expensive to feed all these guys, but the quality of the food has been really beneficial in ways you really don't want details on. The lamb and rice is due to D'Argo's irritable bowel - something else you don't want to know about. He has to be on a single-protein food, and I don't want to get, say, cheap stuff with mixed ingredients for everybody else, with the bother of separate storage et alia, and have to stand and watch everybody eat to make sure the special diet goes where it's supposed to. Why punish the other dogs, too?

I don't have the freezer storage for a raw diet, unfortunately - it was harrowing enough when Meissa was on liver and spinach to try to keep her blood elements built up.

I do have to say that tinned pumpkin is great for fiber, and the dogs seem to like it just fine. I saw this story about a ferret who ate an eraser once....

Anyway, here's:

Incandescent Dog Loaf

Ingredients: 

• 2lbs ground beef (Beef, lamb, turkey, chicken, or buffalo in any combo)
• 1 Cup Cooked Whole Grains - Brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, etc
• 1 Cup Ground Flax Seed or Flax Meal
• 1 Cup Dried Parsley * (I will explain this)
• 1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 6 Whole Eggs
• 2 Cups Fresh or Frozen Veggies - NO GARLIC OR ONION - (I use the mix of peas, carrots, corn & green beans from the freezer section)

Instructions & Info: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
2. Mix all ingredients together by hand very well in a large mixing bowl. 
3. Place in greased Pyrex meatloaf dish and bake for 1 hour.  Let cool for 45 minutes before serving. 

You may double (or triple) this recipe if you have multiple dogs to feed - the loaves freeze and keep well in zip-lock freezer bags.  We like to take one loaf out, leave it in the refrigerator to cut off pieces as we need for Zeus, and freeze the rest.  We make loaf about once a week.  As for feeding instructions, we feed three times a day, just enough to keep Zeus as his optimum weight.  If the dog loses weight, we increase food...  and if he gains weight, we cut back a bit.

That's it.  About as simple a recipe as it gets.  I've tasted the stuff myself - it's completely edible and made from human grade ingredients, but it is very, very bland.  Dogs seem to like it without spice or salt, though.  (I suppose you could add ketchup if you wanted to eat it yourself.)

[snip]

Oh... the parsley.  I promised to explain the entire cup of dried parsley in the loaf, didn't I?  Well, suffice to say that including an entire cup of dried parsley in the loaf is more for us humans than the dog.  It freshens his breath and has the added bonus of neutralizing that scourge of dog owners everywhere - dog gas.

(No, he didn't say how much goes into each meal.)