Going Granola Exhibit A

So for the past six-and-a-half months or so, we have been making homemade dogfood. Yes, folks, you heard me right. Or rather, I have been making homemade dogfood. It all started when I was reading Kal's blog one day. She linked to this really great blog with homemade dogfood recipes, and gushed about the wonders that it had brought about in her sweet guy Crash. So I went and looked. Bad idea. My mind started racing through all the horrible stories that I had read during the dogfood recall debacle. Then I started googling, and that's always a bad idea. (Well, a good idea, really, but come on...there are just so many horror stories you don't hear until you start googling crap.) We had been worrying about Libby's skin and coat recently, and we had always been concerned about her eating habits. Read: the girl just wasn't all that interested in food. Yeah, I know. What kind of dog isn't trying to attack you when you feed them, right? Not our girl. We had to beg and coax her to eat most of the time, and there were nights she just wouldn't even bother. And she was thin. The vet was always reassuring me that she was a healthy weight and that it was better for her to be slightly under- than slightly over-weight. But that didn't reassure me any. She was just too darn skinny. So, after reading about all the benefits of homemade food (um, and the higher price), I approached Sean with my facts. And I waited for him to say, "sorry about your luck." But he thought it was a great idea. He even praised me for making such an effort to take good care of our sweet girl. Seriously!?

Seriously. And we haven't looked back. That isn't to say it doesn't have its drawbacks. Like the price, which is slightly more than twice as much, I mean have you been to the grocery lately? And the time. It doesn't really take that much time, but when you already have cooking, housekeeping, homeschooling, etc., on your list it can sometimes (okay, usually) feel like a chore. I truly feel like it has been worth it, though. Libby girl has gained five pounds! And she likes to eat! Whereas before we were begging her, now she's in the kitchen before five-o'clock with a "where's my dinner" look on her face. And what a cute face it is, huh?

The bottom line for us was this: we took her in , took responsibility for her, and promised to love her and take good care of her. We wouldn't feed ourselves or our children canned, preservative-filled food every single day, so why should we feed our Libby that? If only she weighed fifteen pounds instead of eighty, it would be a lot cheaper to feed her. But we hope that the quality of her food will make her healthier and , therefore, less vet trips will be needed. And hopefully, we will prolong her life a bit. Afterall, larger breeds don't tend to live as long as smaller breeds. As a german sheperd/golden retriever/? mix, she's not exactly tiny tim, and we hope to keep her around as long as possible. It's been over four years since we found her at the pound, and she's a fixture around here. A definite member of the Barber clan. I can't imagine what the children will do without her one day, or us for that matter. Yes, we certainly love our Libby, and we feel really good about feeding her the best quality food available.