I just assumed that my first Molly Mutt purchase would be for Ray, in fact I never even gave a thought to the contrary, even though I have three cats.  After all, it is called Molly Mutt.   But as it turned out, I was using my Wag coupon to get some food and necessary items Incredi-bubbles for Ray and wanted to make it to the free shipping level, so I decided to add a sweet little Molly Mutt cover to the purchase.



Boo Kitty on her Molly Meow throne.     

I selected the La Vie en Rose because it was going in Asia’s room which is gray and pink so they could be all girly together.  Boo loves this little throne and rarely ventures her ancient self off of it and we were able to find a nice quiet corner where Ray and the kitty boys won’t even bother to look for her.  Yes, retirement is sweet.

Ray’s Daddy was out of town most of last week so he wasn’t around to see all the great loot Ray hauled in but recently we had a conversation that went like this:

K:  “What’s this?”
Me:  “Ray’s new magic mushroom.”
K:  “What does it do?”
Me:  “It dispenses food and treats so Ray’s brain can be stimulated.”
K:  (Turning it over and around in his hands) “How does it work?”
Me:  “Ray must be smarter than you because he figured it out right away.”

What are your favorite food and treat dispensers?

As Ray mentioned I was in a meeting all day Thursday. What he didn’t mention was that this meeting was actually planned and executed by none other than myself and my counterpart in another district and was to be a learning and development meeting for our direct reports.

One of my tasks was to come up with an icebreaker.  Although most of the participants in the group have known each other for quite a number of years, a meeting isn’t a meeting without the obligatory ice breaker.  Since this group was all women, and we all carry purses, the ice breaker was to find something in your purse that is meaningful to you and tell the group about it. 

I was actually amazed at some of the really, truly meaningful and sentimental things we came up with as well as a few flat out funny items as well.  When I told my husband about it later, he knew exactly what I had talked about.  In fact he said to me, “Did you talk about your poop bags?”

Does he know me or what? 

My mama has an all day meeting to go to today and said she didn’t have time to blog this morning, so I said that even though I’m really tired, I’d do it.

This week has been exciting not only because I got my March BarkBox in the mails this week but because my mama’s friend sent me some fun toys to eat from.  I used to have a Kong Wobbler, but that made me too excited when I was just a baby, so Mama gave it to her friend and she gave me a Magic Mushroom and a Tornado. These both make me use my brains a hole lot if I want to eat and when I use my brains I get really tired and go night-night early.

This month’s BarkBox was a huge success!  (And by success, I mean the stuffies lasted more than a few minutes!)  We have loved our subscription so far, because if you consider the treats and stuffies you get, plus any other bonuses like coupons and such, you get a box in the mail every month, new treats to try, a new stuffie or two to keep your pooch busy and access to products I might not have tried otherwise.

Practicing “wait.”

Inspired by Pitlandia‘s post about home made sweet potato treats for Athena, I decided to try my hand at making some for Ray-ray.  He loves the Sam’s Yam rawhide chews but they’re kind of pricey and I wanted to see if I could make something close to that.  Those are nice thick slices that take a couple of minutes to eat. 

So, my first batch I cut with my Pampered Chef crinkle cutter.  These might have been ok, but I’m not a very straight cutter and rather than make a stabilizing cut on the bottom, I wanted to keep all of the skin intact.  I did lightly oil the baking sheet and baked these for ever and ever about 7 hours total on 200 degrees for 5 hours and 250 for the last two.  I ended up blotting a lot of oil every time I flipped these which was every hour. 

They smelled great baking (if you like sweet potatoes-I don’t) so my hubby volunteered to give them a taste test. 

He said they taste like sweet potatoes, which, I guess, is what we were going for.  These ended up being firm but still softer in the middle and chewy, which I was going for.  The downside was they’re kind of ugly.

The second batch, I cut with my mandolin and I baked on 250 degrees on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.  These I also turned each hour-ish but only baked for maybe 3 or 4 hours.  They were less uniform in size but all the same thickness, or thin-ness, if you will.  The smaller chips were crunchier like actual chips and the larger slices were a nice medium between the two.  Chewy-crunchy and definitely prettier.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results and for the price of a sweet potato, you can’t beat this.  Of course it makes me want to buy a food dehydrator, but since my kitchen is about as big as a whisper, I don’t think that is going to happen.

Have you tried a sweet potato dog chew recipe yet?  What have you found to be successful?

Hi folks!  Ray and I apologize for our extended period away; it’s been a rough few days starting with last Friday.  As I mentioned here, I did end up needing to get my wedding rings cut off my finger.

I gained some weight and my rings wouldn’t come off but then I cracked my finger and the knuckle swelled up.  A lot.  Just when I thought maybe I could just get by, I messed up my finger again and was in so much pain that I had the rings cut off Friday after work.

We’ve also been dealing with my husband’s father and some health and well being issues associated with the elderly.  I won’t go into details but we’re going to need some strength in the upcoming weeks/months.

 Then we had a sick, feverish baby who didn’t sleep much Sunday night, daycare who didn’t mention that Asia needed to bring more milk…until she was dropping off the baby and since the fever was back, I just dropped off the milk and picked up the baby.

Ray and I ended up babysitting and I have to say, that Ray is becoming quite the responsible young man.  We’ve kept the intros extremely brief for a very long time since Ray was such an exuberant puppy.  Ray still doesn’t have free run of the house and actually when I took this picture on Monday, this was the first time he was allowed in the nursery.  The baby luuurves herself some Ray-Ray (who doesn’t?) and Ray loves the baby, but we do keep it brief and calm.

We’ve got a couple of adoption/outreach events coming up this week as well.  Tonks will be at greenDogGoods Friday afternoon hoping to make a love connection and I will be helping at a St. Patrick’s Day event on Sunday with an adoptable pooch.

Thanks for bearing with us.  We do try to update Ray’s Facebook page as well, though in addition to the other issues, my phone isn’t most cooperative of instruments. 
Peace.

Happy Friday, folks.  My Mama has been a little bit crazy this week, so I thought I should take over some writing duties today.  I’ve been hearing some talk around about getting a new little brother and  even though that sounded like it was going to be a happy thing, I also heard crazy talk that sounded like this:  “King is much better behaved than Ray.”  Pfffsh.  As. If.

Everyone knows that the Ray-Ray is a good boy.  I’m clean. 

 I’m fun.

And I’m stylish.

I’m also very brave sensitive.

But I’m sure you know all of that, I know Mama know it, she just lost sight of the fact that I’m the best dog in the world her heart dog.  What you might not know is how incredibly slow my people have been in letting me spend time with the little human.  She is seven months old now and I still only get short visits with her.  I’m learning that I can’t just kiss her whenever and however much I want, but if I sit nicely and ask for permissions I can usually get a good butt sniff in kiss her a little.  Now that I’m so much better than King proving that I can be such a good boy I get to spend more time with the girls.

That makes me very happy.  I hope you get to spend time this weekend with your favorite people too.  Are you planning anything fun?

The King …

…has left …

…the building.

Come back tomorrow to read more.

You know that smell?  That certain doggy smell?  Well, oddly enough, Ray doesn’t smell like a dog.  In fact, he really doesn’t smell like much of anything at all.  I read a post last year about how it is more important to keep a dog’s bedding clean and as a result, it will keep your dog clean and fresh smelling.

Despite the recent pictures and posts about Ray’s new obsession with the bathtub and despite the fact that he’s been jumping in the shower with me, I really haven’t bathed him since…I’m not sure when.  I’m thinking it might have been before the baby was born and she’s nearly seven months old now. 

I’m telling you, Ray has several blankets and other mats scattered around that get washed every 1-2 weeks and even my hubby who has a super sniffer says that Ray doesn’t smell like anything at all, especially not “dog.”

So  tell me, how often do you wash your pooch and their bedding?