The week that was ... I think

The heat wave is over.  The temperatures will continue to be higher than we are used to but the humidity will be much lower than it has been.  Thank goodness!

Kenya is becoming more and more freaked out by the blasting which was supposed to be finished this past Monday but which, in fact, has continued all week.  Yesterday I couldn't find her when I was setting off to get the mail and I thought she must have gone outside when I hung out laundry.  But no.  She was nowhere to be found.  I called and called.  I went back indoors and called some more.  I went all around the house looking for her.  No Kenya.  I headed off in my car and asked a neighbour if he'd seen her. No, but he would bring her home if he saw her on his way to the village.  I returned and did one more check everywhere ... down at the lake and indoors.

That's when I discovered her curled up under the shelf that holds the water heater and the boiler.  Curled into an impossibly small ball among the tubes that feed the in-floor radiant heating.  A black ball of a dog in a dark spot where she shouldn't have fit.

I am not sure just how the blasting is affecting her physically, but psychologically it is certainly having a deleterious effect.  She is frightened the whole time the workers are across the lake.  She recognizes the horn honking signal that a foundation-shaking blast is imminent.  She doesn't want to be outside or in the lake when the workers are there, and she sticks very close to me whenever she can.

.I wondered if she had been deafened when she didn't respond to my calls.

We went off to Erin's Meat Party after I found her.  The humidity had tripped the power bar  in the barn 

where her freezers are plugged in.  The meat at the bottom was still solidly frozen but the upper layers had started to thaw, so she decided to have a meat party.  Lots of people bearing beer, wine, soft drinks, salads and desserts ... and dogs ... arrived and spilled out onto the deck.  Ed did the barbecuing, and we all feasted.

Kenya was delighted to be surrounded by dog people, and happy to have so many canine buddies. She was particularly popular with the big boys, Jesse, Connor and Cole.  She knew C and C from three years ago when we looked after them.  Their owner, Andrea, brought photos of her new baby ... a nine week old foal.  I think we will go over and visit him soon. 

I am not sure whether it is the blasting or all the swimming without ear plugs, but I have gone deaf in my left ear.  A party is an odd occasion when you cannot hear on one side. Last night I felt a bit as if I were watching a silent movie with a lot of static on the sound track.

This morning  I  treated it with hydrogen peroxide and then with almond oil mixed with tea tree oil .  I hope whatever it is clears up soon.  I don't want to have to see my doctor who is 1 1/2 hours away, and it isn't a medical emergency which could be treated here in the village.

My Swiss student, Sibylle, has headed off to British Columbia for the next stage of her vacation.  I have enjoyed her company, and will miss her.   I have one free week and then I will be spending time with Yoshiko, the 84 year old Japanese artist, the following week or so.  Yoshiko was here last year and amazed all of us with her energy and youthfulness.  She still downhill skiis for goodness sake!

She is in better shape than I am these days ... deaf in one ear ... exhausted by the heat wave ... and swollen up with a reaction to a hornet sting.  A neighbour's son visiting here on the lake this week  has promised to help me blast the two nests I have here: a wasps' nest under the first step from the parking area, and a hornets' nest in the cute little box housing my hydro meter.  Because I reacted so strongly to the hornet's sting I received the other day, I am afraid to try to get rid of them by myself.

Oh ... and before I forget ... for those people who were following the doggy taste test ... I bought a bag of Pedigree Dentabones at Costco the other day. They are made by Mars, the makers of the Natural Defense bones that Kenya loved.  They smell the same but are smaller and are to be fed daily rather than a couple of times a week.  And Kenya loves them too. They cost $18.99 plus tax .

The list of ingredients:

rice
sodium caseinate
rice flour
vegetable oil
tapioca starch
natural poultry flavour
propylene glycol
wheat bran
calcium carbonate

dicalcium phosphate
potassium chloride
sodium tripolyphosphate
microcrystaline cellolose
iodized salt
potassium sorbate
'choline chloride
eucalyptus
zinc oxide
vitamins A, D3 and E
zinc sulphate
iron sulphate
magnesium oxide
d-calcium pantothenate
niacin
copper sulphate
riboflavin
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B1
Folic Acid
Vitamin B12

I will have to find the post I did on Natural Defense but I think this list is longer than the ND one was.  I will check and edit this post.

UPDATE:

Natural Defense definitely had a shorter, and, I suspect,  healthier ingredient list:

Ingredient List:
corn starch
potato starch
glycerin
water
natural flavour
dehydrated myrtle leaf
sodium tripoliphosphate
salt
potassium sorbate
a number of vitamins
rice hulls
chlorophyll
 
What do you think?


Have a great weekend.

Natural Defense

Natural Defense is the last brand to be tested and it appears to be the winner so far.


These "bones" are the largest of the treats and are intended for medium dogs.  The recommended amount is 2 per week.  I must say these look good enough to eat with their marrowy looking centres.  The ingredients, with the exception of salt and sodium,  read like a health food product for dogs, and there are 140 calories in every bone.  That is only 40 calories per day, the same as the Crunch'n'Cleans.  They also smell like something a dog would salivate for ... strong smoky sausage.

Ingredient List:
corn starch
potato starch
glycerin
water
natural flavour
dehydrated myrtle leaf
sodium tripoliphosphate
salt
potassium sorbate
a number of vitamins
rice hulls
chlorophyll

Kenya agreed with my assessment.   First she sniffed cautiously ... then with enthusiasm.  Then she took the treat to her treat-eating carpet in front of the wood stove.  She took a long time savouring this one.  No worries about gulping down indigestible, intestine-blocking chunks here.  She licked for a few minutes and then held it between her paws the way a chipmunk or groundhog eats a treat and nibbled away at it for a very long time.

I haven't priced any of the products or compared their price and appeal to Dentistix, but so far this one is definitely a treat we like.  By the end of the test we will report on Kenya's breath and the appearance of her teeth.

Not part of the official taste test ... Kenya stole the smaller of my recently planted hydrangeas yesterday thinking it was a stick to play with ... Maybe she isn't as bright as I had thought!  She refused to give it back and tore off into the woods with it.  I have replaced it with a rosemary plant.  Good grief!

Other Doggy News ... Remi, who was supposed to come last weekend is now coming today.  He may be here for a couple of weeks.  Kenya will be in heaven.  And I can see if Remi is dumb enough to like the Crunch&Cleans.

White Bites by Arm and Hammer, the Baking Soda People

I am cutting the testing of this one short ... not because Kenya hates them or because they are causing any bad side effects ... but because the sample I have is intended for a very small dog and the texture is so hard that I am afraid Kenya might swallow one whole and, like the Tasty Treats, this could cause a blockage.

Kenya chewed the Tasty Treats more than she does these little white bones with blue speckles.

She eats this one in the oddest way.  First she sucks the whole thing into her mouth and then slides it out.  It is a little like watching a kid eat a popsicle.  After doing this a few times she is drooling all over the carpet on which she is lying.  She finally starts to chew and the White Bite disappears far too quickly to have been properly masticated.

The ingredient list for this one is fairly innocuous:

wheat gluten
water
soy protein
glycerin
rice flour
gelatin
soium caseinate
calcium carbonate
titanium dioxide
potassium sorbate
sodium alginate
FD&C Blue #1
Baking Soda

So ... no more tiny White Bites.  She is going to start the fourth one tomorrow. 

And I am going back to filling my square foot garden with black earth, sheep manure and vermiculite ... and stopping every hour to rub linament on my aching haunch.

I will post photos of this lovely box soon!

An Eclectic Post

We are concluding the taste test of the Tasty Treats today.  The fishy breath was just an aberration ... maybe Kenya caught a fish that day and ate it ... after all she caught a mouse in a neighbour's garden  this week.  So ... the nubbly little Tasty Treats were a success ... clean breath and customer satisfaction.  Stay tuned for the next treat on the list tomorrow.

Today is a busy day ... Jim is coming to make my square foot gardening box this morning at eight,  and Dan is bringing Remi to stay for a few days a little later this morning.  Then I have to make a town run after that to shop at Costco for groceries and a new kettle.  If I continue to use a pot and wander off and forget it for much longer I will burn the house down.  And now is not the time to do that!

I will try to use up the Crunch'n'Cleans on Remi while he is here.  I have offered them to Kenya occasionally this week and she just leaves them lying wherever I have put them.  Too bad because I had a whole box of those whereas I have sample sized amounts of all the others.

A little of this 'n' a little of that ...

First the new dog treat testing ...

I decided to end the trial run with the C&Cs as they were causing a smelly bum ... likely the result of diarrhea and long feathers ... I know ... more information than you need ... but also because Kenya so obviously did not enjoy them ... and a treat ... even a healthy one ... should be a treat.

#2    Iams Tartar Treats (TTs)

These look like little brown nubbly tooth brushes and Kenya spent a lot of time chewing and drooling the first time she ate one (Monday, May 10, 2010).  I suspect this is healthy for her gums and for the stimulation of teeth cleansing saliva.

The recommended amount for dogs 10-20 lb. is one per day.  I think I will give my 90 pound dog 2 per day ... one each morning and night.

I was a little concerned about the cautions regarding size of treat.  Kenya doesn't gulp down large objects so is unlikely to be in danger of the "harmful or fatal" results of swallowing the thing whole ... but if I had a Lab ... or that Mountain Dog puppy ...

No mention of calories on this one ... I like to know.

Here are the ingredients:
wheat gluten ... uh oh
sodium caseinate
water
glycerin
tapioca starch
corn oil
gelatin
pea protein
natural chicken flavour
calcium carbonate
potassium sorbate (a preservative)
potassium chloride
titanium dioxide

Basically a cookie made from fairly innocuous ingredients that give it the consistency of hard rubber plus those last few chemicals which I will check out ... I suspect they are teeth cleansers.


I don't like the fact that the first ingredient is wheat since Kenya gets diarrhea from too much wheat.

Titanium Dioxide is a fine particulate produced mainly in China and used in almost every sun screen, name brand vitamins, and most anything requiring whiteness.  It has been listed as a possible carcinogenic, but not for those who ingest it, rather for those who inhale it.  In other words, all those Chinese workers are likely to get lung cancer from inhaling it by mouth so that the dust goes down the trachea to the lungs or by breathing it in as they work in not-too-well-controlled factory conditions.  Kenya is unlikely to be in danger as this is not a cookie that crumbles, but I am not overly impressed by the addition of something that could be toxic for anyone.  Just how important could whiteness be?

Potassium Chloride is saltpeter, and the calcium is the same thing found in bone strengthening pills for osteoporosis.  Not too worrisome.  I don't think she has a sex drive to diminish, and strong teeth and bones are good, right?

The sodium caseinate is just milk with acid added.

Next ... glass work ...

I had trouble controlling the little tube brush that dispenses the fake lead lines.  It was all right on the smaller test piece, but long flowing lead lines are hard to manage.  My first little table top has blobby lead lines.

I thought when I finished that it might be fun to actually make a top out of bits and pieces of stained glass ... and my lead or solder lines would be neater.  However I would have to learn to use lead if I wanted small pieces because solder only works if you can wrap the edges in foil.  Tiffany glass lamps shade, for example, are all made with channeled lead and the other , less finicky, modern types of construction join copper wrapped pieces by soldering them with lead (speaking of toxic products).

Something to think about.

What I am reading ... 

I have almost finished Khaled Hosseini's newest book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and can recommend it without reservation.  I find it hard to put down.

  I have been trying to read Birth of a Nation, the story of Kenya's biggest and best newspaper, but it is heavy going.  The author doesn't know what to leave out .  So, while the history is accurate and interesting, the flow is like my lead lines ... blobby.  It is an easy book to put down.  I am sending it on to a friend who is younger, more academically inclined, and even more interested in Kenya's socio-political history than I am.  Like me, she read The Nation every day while living in Kenya ... and continues to read it on-line.

I enjoyed Twenty Chickens for a Saddle and would recommend it to anyone interested in Africa, simple alternative life styles, and home schooling.

I am also picking away at the square foot gardening book ... chock full of good ideas.


And that ... for today ... is that ...  Have a great week.  I think I will finally go to town this week to get new frames for my glasses ... and make the trip a Costco run as well ... My tummy is finally feeling as if it might hold up for a trip to town.

Mother's Day 2010

It's a good thing I haven't got around to changing my heading picture yet.  The hermitage looks exactly like the photo.  Snow blankets everything.  Thank goodness I was feeling too ill yesterday to shop for impatiens to plant in the strange attempt at a well that sits in a large patch of tiger lilies that also had the sense to wait till it was really spring before blossoming.  And thank heavens I am still nurturing indoors the basil plant I bought last week.

A strange year, this one.

Unseasonably warm this spring.  Far less snow and frigid temperatures than is usual this past winter.  And now this ... a real snowfall on Mother's Day.

Kenya was very sweet this morning ... and she finally broke her mother's heart.  Here is your Kenya story ... or is it the Crunch'n'Clean story?

Kenya went out to pee, and returned expecting a cookie.  I handed her a C&C which she tossed on the rug with a dismissive fling of her head.  I retrieved it.   (Yes, I know, she is the retriever, not me.)   We did the shake-a-paw trick thing.   She shook my hand and then went over to her food dish and rattled it loudly on the slate floor.  I said she had a C&C there, and pointed.  She gave the canine equivalent of a shrug and tossed the C&C around for a minute or so.  Then she ate it and went straight back to her food dish.  The message was clear to any mother.  "All right.  I've eaten my damned carrots.  NOW can I have dessert?"  I fed her, and went back to the fire and my tea.  When I came back she was sitting under the treats shelf looking up longingly.  She noticed me and gave that groany "PLEASE" thing she has perfected.

It worked. I gave her a Dentistix.  She took it with a look that can only be described as joyful and bounded off to her couch to savour it.

To all you mothers out there ... and to any dads, single or not, who play the role ... have a great day, even if it is snowing where you live.  Enjoy your children.

Kenya's Choice

Before getting rid of the obviously less-than-palatable first test item, Crunch'n'Clean, I decided to do an experiment.  I laid down four treats and invited Kenya to partake.  The one closest to her was Crunch'n'Clean, the next, a no-name from Costco with the same ingredients as her kibble, , the third one a Marrow Bone, and the fourth, a piece of a dried chicken breast, also from Costco.  I made sure that all four were roughly the same size so that she would not be lured by gluttony.  All four were approximately the same dull tan colour so she would not have been tempted by what might have looked good.

Kenya sniffed each one in turn and then picked up the one furthest away (the chicken), and ate every crumb.  Then she chose the next furthest away, the Marrow Bone, and ate it up completely as well before moving on to the third choice, the Costco biscuit,  She looked around for a few minutes snuffling and vacuuming up all stray bits of cookie. 

Finally she sniffed the Crunch'n'Clean and licked it.  She put it down on the rug for a moment and then bit into it and ate each of the pieces.

I decided to continue till the end of the week in view of the fact that she may not like it very much but it isn't something she refuses to eat, so her teeth are probably getting their daily cleaning with it.

Also ... she eats fewer treats when that is the one I offer most often.

I suspect that a gluttonous dog might behave differently.  Most of the Labs I know don't care what they eat as long as it is edible, and there was that Bernese Mountain Dog puppy who didn't even care whether it was edible.

Kenya has never been a glutton ... but she does like her treats ...so she is probably a very good taste tester.

On finding cookies everywhere ...

I am afraid that this day will tell whether Kenya continues to test the Crunch'nClean.  She seems to have gone on strike. 

First thing this morning I asked whether she wanted her cookie or whether she wanted to go out and pee first.  She made it clear that the front door was her goal ... not the treasure trove of treats above her crate.  When she came back in out of the damp cold I offered her the treat.  She allowed it to fall to the floor.  I played her game where she has to let a treat sit on her paw till she is told to take it.  She picked it up in her mouth and I went off to make tea.  Later I discovered it sitting on the floor and Kenya sat looking longingly at her food dish.

I fed her and she ate her breakfast ravenously ... as if kibble and yogurt was the best possible taste in the world.  The Crunch'nClean  lay on the floor nearby.  Rejected.

First Taste Test Report on Crunch'nClean

The first one we are trying is made by Hartz, the people who make all those products for birds.  If they can sharpen birds' beaks with cuttle bones, they should be able to create a doggy tooth brush, right?   I examined the big box of Crunch'nClean for dogs under 20 pounds ... maximum for that size: 2 per day ... Kenya can have 8 per day.  There are 35 calories in each biscuit so 280 calories worth of this treat for teeth in a day.

Then I read " not for human consumption".  That led me to check out the ingredient list.

wheat flour ... not an auspicious beginning for my dog whose digestive system is not good with wheat.
ground whole wheat ... hmm ... or this ...
chicken meal
wheat germ meal ... more wheat
sodium hexametaphosphate
poultry fat
salt ... as well as sodium?
poultry digest
whey
malted barley
molasses
calcium
brewer's yeast
choline
sodium metabisulphate ... more sodium?
chlorophyl               
colour
ferrous sulphate
vitamin e
2 zincs
vitamin b
vitamin a
2 coppers
niacin
calcium proteinate
manganous oxide
manganese
riboflavin
vitamin d
thiamin
another 2 sources of vitamin b
calcium iodate
sodium selenite ... yet another sodium
folic acid


That seems to be it ... an awful lot of wheat and sodium ...but  only 35 calories ... just a little for a 90 pound dog.

Kenya's reaction to the taste of #1: 

She liked the taste, but the next morning she stuck her nose up at this substitute for her Dentistix. As the day progressed I tried her again and she actually left it sitting on the staircase despite my attempts to convince her that it was a tasty treat.

Her breath is still okay ... perhaps not as nice as with Dentistix but not unpleasant.

Other effects noticed: She has farted a couple of times and Sadie (the puppy)  has been very interested in the smell of her bum.  Kenya is not a farter usually, likely because she has yogurt with every meal. In fact she looks shocked and turns around to sniff her own bum when the unexpected does happen, so this might be the result of the  Crunch'nClean, but I doubt it since she is so reluctant to eat any of them and they are intended for such small dogs.


By the end of today she had actually chewed and ingested 4 of the 8 permitted.

She prefers the taste of her regular treats, and her regular food wins paws down over this treat.  (Her regular food is usually way down on the list ... a mix of two types of Kibble: Gastro from the vet and lamb or chicken without wheat from Costco.)

We have been asked to try each dental treat for a week so we have 5 1/2 days to go before we try the next one.  Either Kenya will acquiesce and accept this one or she will stop eating it entirely if it is bad enough, I guess.

Will keep you posted.