I am running out of frozen expired foods to feed my fleabags for their daily treat. There is one shelf left to explore, but the contents of the door and three shelves of FRIG II's freezer half have been eaten little by little, one day at a time.
Sunday, they finished off two pork steaks with freezer burn. Of course I cooked the meat for them a day ahead of treating. I can't make them eat like animals, even though they are. So I baked the two large pork steaks at low heat for about an hour. I set them out to cool. They were mostly done, if not quite fully cooked. Some bloody fluid seeped out as they were resting on the stovetop. Yes, of course I cut them up into bite-size pieces! Which left two bones with meat clinging to them.
Here's the dilemma. WHO should get the bones? Juno and Jack, because they're MY dogs? Or Juno and Copper Jack, because they're the biggest? I decided the large dogs with large jaws and digestive tracts should have the meaty bones. My little Jack has a tiny mouth. Not great for crunching. He IS adept at gnawing. But I couldn't be sure he would stop at that. There's a sense of urgency amongst the dogs to eat up what they're given, before an interloper can abscond with it.
To make it more fair, I gave Jack the cut-up pieces of meat reserved for the bone day. All dogs got meat the first day. In addition to their bones, I forced Juno and Copper Jack to first eat a slice of wheat bread as an appetizer. To bind any bone fragments for their ride along the intestines. Jack seemed happy enough with his meat cubes, though he was done first.
Copper Jack did NOT take his bone and run to enjoy it, as I had assumed. He stood right there behind Juno's house, crunching it like a barbarian. I guess he hoped I might toss him something else, too. I'd like to think that Juno was more of a lady, lying in her house while daintily gripping that bone between her forefeet while she gnawed the meat. I'm pretty sure that didn't happen. Juno is not adept at using her front paws like hands, which Jack does like a champ.
Anyhoo... while I hate to play favorites, I'm wavering on exactly WHO got the preferential treatment. Juno and Copper Jack, who had to work for their meager strips of meat? Or my little Jack, who got no bone, but easily chewable bites of meat? I guess that's about as fair as I can get.
I do that, too. Worry about fairness among the canines. Cujo was fat and his treats were considerably smaller than those of the other dogs. He didn't seem to notice. My hand still grabs 4 treats from the trat jar out of habit. I know would be more than happy to take the extra one, but I just put it back. I think that as long as they each get treats, they don't really care. I gave my cat food I had just purchased and all Martha's treats away to the lady at the crematorium. She doesn't have cats, but knew someone who would appreciate it. She has 42 dogs. 30 seniors that were taken to vets to be put down because the owners either died or went into an institution and the families didn't want the pets. Instead of euthanising them, the vets call this woman and she takes them in. I like her, she is my kind of person!
ReplyDeleteKathy,
ReplyDeleteKudos to that lady for taking them in! I try to give Jack less, because he can become portly. It's the hound in him, methinks. Dr. Pol says the animals don't care HOW MUCH you give them, it's just the idea that they're getting a treat.
42 dogs??!! Yowsa!
ReplyDeleteI think you should stop worrying about fairness. The dogs don't care as long as they get food and treats. Just make sure you never forget a dog when handing out the yummies.
River,
ReplyDeleteI know! 42 would be expensive to feed.
Copper Jack is just a freeloader, but I still make sure he gets something when the others do. Even though he shuns me like the plague, and acts like I beat him daily! He will walk up to Farmer H and put his nose in his hand, although Farmer H never gives him anything.