Cooking with Dogs

Yes, Zoe is always underfoot and I tell her to get out of my kitchen. Yesterday I was rinsing the breakfast dishes to place in the dishwasher. She sneaked in to lick the silverware and when I turned, instead of hurting her and breaking the dishwasher door, Mommy Instinct kicked in and I slammed my shin against the corner of the dishwasher door. Ow!

Bleeding, and there’s gonna be one heck of a bruise. Dad is the enabler. I am the trainer, bather, brusher (Dee’s Torture Chamber of Combs and Brushes and Avocado Oil Spray) and food wench. She herds me everywhere and usually stays out of the kitchen on a rug where she can watch me in the “magic food room.” Looks like burgers tonight… yum. No, Zoe, it’ll be Beef Carbonnade over Pappardelle. And you can have a piece… AFTER we eat. In your bowl.

She is a joy and great companion to me because my husband works long hours and travels. Sometimes he asks me what I just said and I reply “I wasn’t talking to you. I’m talking to Zoe.” He wonders why I talk to the dog. He’s never here. When she goes I’ll be talking to myself, which will be even more strange.

I didn’t think I had another pup in me but maybe so. Look out, shelters, I may be coming your way in five years or so. To date I’ve had four great pets, two dogs, two cats. All with great personalities and kind. Nathan the Burmese/Tuxedo talked and I never got the last word in until after that dreaded needle. Chani the Golden/X was abused and very sweet. She hated uniforms and children. Before she died all the kids at the tot lot would call her name and run out to pet her as we entered the park. The neighbors all bought a tree for the City for her favorite park after she passed.

Mickey (Tuxedo/DSH) was a daredevil, jumped into Chani’s bed and stayed there for a year. Dogs used to run away from home to come to my home and play with him. I’d answer the phone at seven in the morning and a voice would say “Is he there” Hold on. Yep, he’s here.

Mick taught himself to fetch… crumpled post-it notes! He’d sail over the couch to get one and bring it to me and drop it on the floor. He’s gone as well. I gave him to neighbors before I married because my husband is deathly allergic and Mick he loved playing with their Corgi, who used to take his entire head in his mouth. Fun!

Zoe (Aussie/X) is the first rescue I’ve raised as a pup and she is the happiest and most well-adjusted of any of my rescues. A two year-old could take food out of her bowl and she’d just look up at Food Wench and say “Mommy, can I have some more?” Not every neighbor knows me but they all know Zoe.

Should Zoe be better trained? Yes. She passed Obedience 101 but was very sick when we got her with coccidia and hookworms. Then her hips turned out to be the worst her surgeon (Val the Vet) ever saw. After much research I had them taken out at six and nine months and my husband sneaked her into a pool for therapy at night. She grew her own hips and has to be lifted to our bed but can run for a squirrel or corner around a tree to beat any Retriever!

I cooked for Chani. She was allergic to a lot of things so I used to make her lentil loaf, rice and add 1/3 really good dried food with chicken broth. I swore not to cook for Zoe but do give her our leftovers every once in a while. She’s on a raw food diet, grain-free that suits her, with broth because she doesn’t drink enough water. She should stay on the thin side because of lack of hips but at nearly ten years old, she’s doing great. You know those hair models on TV? That’s what her fur feels like.

We met a couple here who hired my dad in another town 35 years ago. We met walking dogs and they invited us over. Their dogs are 13 now and very sweet. Whether you’re cooking with dogs or not, dogs are a good thing. Dee