Hero Worship

We spent weeks carefully researching dog food before we found one that our dogs loved and we felt one hundred percent comfortable feeding them. We really wanted to go organic but couldn't find one that we could afford that the Zeus loved. He's very picky. We finally decided to go with the Merrick brand dog food. The have a handful of different flavors that the dogs rotate through. We are firm believers that our dogs aren't just pets they're family. If we eat good so do the dogs. They are spoiled and babied. We have a separate charge account so that if they need vet care they will get it.

I'm sure there are a lot of you that are going to go see how much a bag of this dog food goes for. I can save you the trouble, at PetCo I pay around $32 for a 15lb bag. I also take advantage of their pals reward card which gets me a free bag of dog food for every 10 bags I buy. When you read the ingredients on their bags you'll see why they are a lot more costly they include salmon, buffalo, turkey, duck, trout, etc. A lot of cheaper dogs foods use corn meal, Iams and Hills Science Diet which aren't as cheap use corn meal and ground corn as fillers so they can use less meat. If it's the first or second ingredient you can bet there's more of it then meat which makes the food cheap and gives the company a high profit margin. Merrick doesn't use corn in their products. The problem comes in the fact that corn is something a good number of dogs are allergic too or can develop allergies. My mom had a cocker spaniel that was allergic to corn and was put on a expensive perscription diet. I'm betting Sammy would have been able to eat the Merrick foods without a problem. It's also harder for dogs to digest corn. Shoot corn is difficult for humans to digest. The dog food industry is one that's not very well regulated and when you see the by-product on the bag you can bet it's not good. By-product is all the nasty stuff that humans wouldn't consider for consumption. They throw in chicken beaks, feet, hooves, etc...you get the point. Not to mention the fact that they can use diseased animals and euthanized dogs and cats in meat meal and by-product. Can we all just give in a resounding ewwwwwww, gag! I don't know about you but lets just say I'm not willing to take a chance that one of these things is in my dogs food. Yuck, yuck, yuck, gag! That's just nasty and wrong on so many levels. So I pay more for my dog food because I think my dogs deserve to eat real meat.

Our household (for the humans) buy high quality fruits and veggies and we generally go organic whenever possible. Fresh is best but if we can't get fresh we go with frozen. I'm always happy when winter is gone and the fresh fruits and veggies start rolling back in. Farmers markets are always a bonus when we can make it there. We've adjusted our budget to make food more important then frivolous spending. High quality food has always been more important then eating out, video games, expensive cable packages, etc. That's not to say that we don't go out and do things as a family or buy extra stuff. Our kids don't lack in the toy department or want for clothing. We've just learned the hard way that a well balanced budget is an extremely important thing to have. 

But anyways, off my soap box and on to the real hero worship thing. The dogs were looking at me this morning with what I can only be call hero worship. We decided to pick up some canned Merrick dog food to give the dogs a treat. We give them a small amount in their morning bowl of dog food so the can lasts 2 days. We want them to eat more dry dog food because it's important for the tooth and gum health. It helps keep the tarter build up down. This morning was Smothered Comfort. Oh my goodness that stuff smelled good. It has really chunks of roasted chicken, carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, blue berries. You want to give your dog a treat, give them this stuff! They'll look at you with hero worship in their eyes. This is not your standard canned dog food mush it looks and smells like homemade human food. 

Anyways, on to the knitting portion of this post. I have a few things that I finished up or have started.

First up the nylon scrubbies I made for my granny.

I used nylon netting I picked up from Season Decorator who sells on ebay. The rolls are 6 inches wide but for 50 cents you can have them cut it in half which is the perfect width for making the scrubbies. I got these 4 and one more that I didn't like because it was knit on needles that were too small out of one 3 inch wide 40 yard roll. I used US size 11 needles. If you have bamboo needles that need to be smoothed down knit with nylon netting. My cheapo bamboo ebay special needles are smooth as a babys butt now. :~)

I've started a new pair of socks for Bree.

These are being knit with a skein of Apple Laine apple pie sock yarn I bought from The Loopy Ewe several years ago. The colorway is Pretty in Pink. I'm using my basic toe up with a short row heel pattern but this time I'm going to use the ruffled cuff instructions for Sydney (ravelry). Sorry I only have a Ravelry link. The pattern is from Toe Up! Patterns & Worksheets to Whip Your Sock Knitting Into Shape by Chrissy Gardiner.

I decide to change to the Embossed Leaves (Ravelry) socks for my YOSS April sock pattern.

I picked out some Zen Yarn Garden Serenity 20 sock yarn out of my stash and started knitting away. I've made a few changes in the pattern. I hate twisted ribbing so I swapped to a k1, p1 cuff. I also worked a slip stitch heel instead of the stockinette one the pattern calls for. I'm also going to knit a regular toe instead of following the pattern.

I'll end this post with my babies who have passed out with contentment. 

Happy Crafting!