Bones and Blue Skies

The Kids got a treat. This morning I drove to the grocery and bought bones. Soup bones or round bones, they're called. Ask the butcher for them. These do not splinter** and are safe for dogs. I brought them home and cooked a few of them, then when they had cooled, took bones and dogs to the deck. For about an hour now, there has been not much but gnawing sounds here at Lynilu Land!

**BTW, never feed your dog any bones but round bones. Never poultry bones! Never rib bones! One of our dogs died because she got hold of some rib bones, and the splinters from them shredded her stomach so badly that she could not be saved.

I decided that perhaps Sam needed some diversion for his chewing habit. The vet recommended buying one of those huge rawhide** "bones," one too big for him to chew up. Perhaps it would distract him and alleviate his chewing needs. I can't get to a pet store till next week, but I remembered that when the original Shih Tzu were small, we gave them bones. Remember the picture of puppy China going to town over one?

**Be careful with rawhide, too. When they begin to soften it and pull pieces loose, it can get lodged in their throats or can plug them up on the other end. Rawhide is leather, and it does not digest. Remember Sam puking up leather bits from more than a week before? That is why the vet said to get one big enough for a mastiff, to avoid this happening.

And what a blessing it was to remember that. Ali has been barely picking at his food, but he is gettin' busy with this bone! I gave him one with a little meat on it, and he is loving it! All of them are going after the bones except Sam. Poor guy doesn't seem to understand about them. He has licked them, but isn't into it. And Sam, my perpetually starved boy just can't believe his is as good as the others (the bone is always sweeter in the other dog's mouth, you know), so he keeps leaving it to investigate the others, and he is causing grief! Even tiny Jazi told him to get the flip away from her and her bone!!

While I was standing at the meat counter, a man head me talking with the butcher, and his face brightened. He asked for some, too. Only his were left whole, not like mine. He got the whole big bone with joints on both ends, because he has a Rottweiler puppy, nine months old, who is chewing everything up, including the taillights of the camp trailer AND the wiring that he pulled out after that! I hope it helps him!

Hey! It was supposed to be sunny today, and it is overcast, breezy and cool! What's with that? I don't know whether to go work outside or stay in. All the weather forecasts say "go out," but the IRL says, it may rain at any moment. gah!