Monday, May 10, 2010

The bone debacle

I don't like giving my dogs raw bones. When I do, I have to stand around, glazed with boredom, to make sure they don't bite and swallow off large chunks, which an Airedale can and will do with his size extra-large teeth. Then they get messy beards that have to be washed. Then they get diarrhea in the nighttime; it's always at night.

I gave the dogs bones. Photo is the "after" shot.

It happened because there was a discussion about teeth on Airedale-L and whenever there's a discussion about something I'm not doing, I feel guilty for not giving my dogs the absolute best of all possible care. It happened because I drove past a butcher store the other day and butcher stores are as rare as the proverbial hens' teeth. It happened because the young woman at the store exclaimed over my child's Timex watch with the colorful band and light-up face with real hands because she has the same watch and had never seen another adult wearing one. (She had the one with the geckos I used to have and I had the one with the flowers that she almost bought.) As a result, I walked out of the shop with a piece of bone larger than my thigh--not the femur, the whole thigh--that my son sawed into pieces—the bone, not my thigh.

I gave a large piece to Alanis and the smaller chunk to Miró. After half an hour or so, I traded Alanis her bone for a few pieces of super-smelly salmon treat. Miró did not want to trade for super-smelly salmon treat. Seeing me approach, he eyed the treat bag, then picked up the bone and ran. We chased around in circles for a while. You’re not supposed to chase the dog, of course, when trying to pry something loose from him because he makes a game of it. That admonition doesn’t take into account that it’s fun to chase the dog around.

I fetched the offspring and we cornered Miró when he ran around the chicken pen. Surprisingly, he readily dropped the bone in exchange for a super-smelly treat. We then went inside where he drank a gallon of water, leaving a quart of it on the floor along with muddy footprints all over the kitchen. And the hall. And the living room carpet. Alanis, as usual, did not make a mess. Even mud rarely clings to her feet.

Now I’m taking bets. Will it be barf or diarrhea? Alanis or Miró?


9 comments:

  1. LOL- I went the grocery today and tried to procure? a of couple large bones today also. Didn't have any luck. The butcher wanted me to drive to another store for them. I said never mind. It could wait another day. Maybe that's a good thing. ;) Good luck!

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  2. Hi guys,

    Those teeth are WHITE!!!!! But why do you guys get diarrhea after?
    We have a bony snack nearly every day as part of our Barf diet. We only ever get lambs knuckle, shoulder or back bones because beef or anything larger than lamb is too hard for us and we just leave it. We love the lamb bone (raw of course), we eat pretty much all of it. The ends are nice and soft and the middle gets cracked open and the marrow licked out.
    The bones in our diet make us be pretty 'solid' actually ...

    Playing 'chasey' is soo much fun, and you get treats as well - lucky things.

    Nibbles
    Nelly xx

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  3. What beautiful white toofies!
    We used to get diarrhea too until mom learned to push 90% of the marrow into the garbage can before she gave the bone to us!
    The marrow is the best part! *sigh*

    Love ya lots
    Maggie and Mitch

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  4. Bone update: icky poops but not indoors, thank goodness. Maggie and Mitch, I think I'll take your mom's advice. That yummy marrow just has too much fat in it.

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  5. Mmmmmmm! Raw bones! Our mom tried giving them to us, but all we did was lick them. Not much teeth cleaning value for us. Penny did knaw on one for a while, but then her teeth were too sore to eat her regular food for 2 days.

    We hope your icky poops are gone by now!

    Aire-hugs,
    Penny & Patches

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  6. I'm betting on the runny poo. My girls will get sick every time I give them bones. Love what you said about the water and muddy paws. Savannah rarely gets dirty or mucky...Sasha is a constant mud pit. Even the water turns brown after she is finished with the bowl.

    Michelle :)

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  7. Oh yes, we do chuckies every time too. We still go for it though, only livin' once, ey?!

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  8. Barf or diarrhea, both worth it for those pearly WHITES!

    Love nibbles,
    Miss Sunshade

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  9. My 80 year old mum has that same watch!

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