Oh, hello there!

Hello friends! Bijou and Summer would like to tell everyone they are incredibly sorry that their mother has abandoned her blogging. They have dragged me back to write an update on their current diets and share some more adventures. Which is a lot! Currently they are eating Bravo's Balanced Blend. We feed mostly chicken and then rotate some of the other meats every month. We bought a food scale so we can measure precisely how much the girls need based on their weights and activity level. Because they receive precisely the amount of food they need (we measure in ounces) they have both maintained perfect weight without any extra supplementation. It's also very inexpensive for a raw frozen food and has helped our wallet stay bit fatter.

As for adventures...first off, we got married!!

Summer and Bijou LOVE that their family is all together now. Seriously these are two happy happy happy pups! Anyone else a Duck Dynasty fan?? Haha. 

Here are some pictures from the last year or so...

Two happy ladies

Bijou during thunderstorms

Summer in her Hoodie!

Snuggles

Staying just outside of the bedroom...feet over the line!

Add caption

Our First Christmas as a married couple!

We like to hike!

Summer turns two!

Sisters

Chewing on bones while dad cleans his car.

Bark in the Park at the Braves game!

They LOVE their pool ;)

Bijou really enjoyed watching the game!

After I had been gone for a week on vacation...she missed me :)

The Girls, a Raw Food Update, and Recent Adventures.

Hello all!

I have been extra busy with school and graduating and starting new jobs. The girls have also been busy and enjoying the time that they are able to spend together now that Matt and I are further apart.

Summer and Bijou are both eating OC Raw Dog and loving it! Summer now weighs over 50 pounds and looks amazing! She is still extremely muscular but now has a bit of fat on her as well. The fat balls are perfect for her and her fast metabolism. Bijou LOVES the patties and finishes them off in one swallow. She has lost over 10 pounds and looks happy and healthy. I started giving her tripe for dinners as she dropped below 30 pounds and that seems to be the trick to keeping her between 30-35 pounds. Perfect.

We have been feeding brewers yeast pills since Jan/Feb and their coats looks amazing. We also haven't found any fleas on them! Much better than last summer. We are still really careful as it doesn't really offer tick prevention but we have only found ticks when we go hiking. The girls are in great health and are probably two of the most spoiled dogs on the planet :)

Enough typing, here's some pictures from our adventures!

At Grandma and Grandpa's House, our current home.

Big Baby

Visiting Bijou's cousin Charlie, who will be coming to stay with us soon!

Typical

 

 

 

Are you awake Mommy?

Car rides

We got a new toy from Petsmart!

Can I sit in your lap?

Sharing

Thundershirt!

Daddy and Summer hiking

Supporting Daddy at the Firebreather Challenge! Hottest day of the year but the girls stayed cool with wet bandanas and playing in the creek!

Exhausted after running around on 4th of July

Bigger Baby

We have had such a wonderful summer so far and hope our friends are also enjoying theirs!! Much love from Bijou and Summer :)

Sick Bijou :(

**I wrote this post about a week ago and never got around to posting it. And unfortunately my easy dog, Bijou, ended up sick last night! So here's a little update on our food journey, hoping Bijou's stomach will fix itself before a visit to the vet is needed.**

Another update on our raw feeding journey. Summer visited the emergency room, again, after a night of diarrhea and vomiting. The vet told Matt that she just has a sensitive stomach and we have to watch what she eats. Matt had her at a friends house in their backyard and thinks she may have eaten part of a tennis ball. Yup, that would do it.

We love feeding them raw however it has become time consuming and is taking over my freezer. I also feel that we aren't feeding them enough meat and they definitely haven't been getting any liver or organs. So on Saturday after a nice visit to the dog park we stopped by an all-natural organic pet food store that Matt found. It's so close to my current apartment and I'm so mad because I'm about to move!! Fortunately it will be a half way point between Matt and I so we may meet in Kennesaw some weekends. Anyway-back to the pet food store...

We visited The Good Dog Co. Atl. and chatted with Lori and Regina about different options for the girls, what they were missing from their diets, and how to fix Summer's terrible gas! These ladies were extremely helpful and the girls had a blast being spoiled. After much chatting here is what we have decided upon:

For Bijou She is the easiest dog who can eat anything without it messing up her stomach (or so we thought!). My only concern is that she was overweight until we went raw and she finally lost the 10 pounds she needed to lose! I wanted to put her on a dry kibble but wanted to make sure it's a high quality so she won't gain weight. We decided on trying Acana Ranchlands. It's about $20 more expensive than Blue Buffalo (which she was previously on) but a 30 pound bag will last at least a month. I've been adding 1/4 cup of food to what she normally eats while cutting back on the raw slightly. She did have itchy face last night but was fine this morning.

Acana For Bijou!

For Summer Summer is the difficult one and we want her on an extremely limited ingredient diet while still getting all the nutrients she needs. We decided on OC Raw Dog frozen patties. We are also adding tripe to help her gain weight (she needs about 10 pounds) and Goats milk for her stomach. Bijou also gets goat's milk but only once a day. Currently I'm feeding Summer half a pattie twice a day while cutting back on her normal food. Next week we will start feeding two patties a day along with tripe and fat balls!! Fat ball recipe to come. We will prob use veggies/fruits as treats.

Summer loves these!

Goats milk has really helped Summer's Stomach!

We are hoping this will be easier time-wise to feed the girls and also help Summer gain weight.

Unfortunately Bijou has had diarrhea and I'm really hoping it's not the new food. We will see in a few days :(  Summer however is doing great with her new diet and the Goat's milk has really helped her!

Police Officer's Shooting Dogs. What?!

In the past few days I have now read two stories concerning police officers shooting dogs. The most recent story is about Cisco who was shot by a police officer Austin, Texas. The police officer arrived at the WRONG address when he was called out for a domestic disturbance, pulled a gun on unsuspecting Michael Paxton when Cisco ran out from the backyard. Cisco and Paxton had been playing with a frisbee in his backyard before the officer showed up.

The other story is about Parrot the pit bull who was shot after being thrown down a flight of stairs by an officer. Please read this story and view the video for more information.

I don't understand why these officers would shoot without hesitation. Or why that officer threw Parrot over a railing down a flight of stairs. I worked in a Pet Hotel and I saw a fellow employee pick up a dog and throw him across the pet yard. It was his immediate reaction when two large dogs got into a fight and the other employee in the yard couldn't break them up with an airhorn (which is company policy). Not the 'prettiest' solution, but it worked. When we looked back over the situation it was the best way to separate the dogs immediately. Then again, he wasn't throwing the dog down a flight of stairs.  In Parrot's case the dogs had already been separated and the officer had Parrot pinned down. The rest was unnecessary.

What do you think about the way these police officer's handled the situation?

Raw food Update

So Matt and I have slowly changed the girl's diets in the past few months and finally seemed to have settled on a grain free raw diet with fruits and veggies. Saturday we went shopping for their food and made two weeks worth of meals. We chopped green beans, snap peas, celery, carrots, potatos, and apples and mixed them between morning and evening meals into small baggies. To that we add raw chicken, eggs, fish oils and/or salmon, brewers yeast with garlic (as flea and tick control), alfalfa sprouts, and kelp. We also have banana to use as treats or added to their breakfast. Summer is currently getting ham for breakfast and raw chicken wings at night to help her gain some weight. She keeps growing and we can't seem to get weight on her! We hope she's stopped growing taller and will now start to fill out.

We were inspired by the Honest Kitchens amazing dog food products as well as Sojos; both of which are all-natural, raw, dehydrated meals. However we could not afford to feed these products to our dogs so we decided to make our own. And yes, it's actually cheaper to feed raw. Well, it does depend on what meat you feed. We currently feed chicken but will start adding variety in the next few months.

Ice cubes are delicious but not nutritious. 

It's been going really well so far, but we still can't seem to get weight on Summer. Suggestions???

Bobbing for Ice Cubes

The girls and I went for a good long walk today. About 3 miles up and down hills. I've been slowly increasing the distance to help build up muscle for my knees. These hills really do a number on my knees and after blowing out my knee over a year ago I've had to be extra careful. But today I was ready for the longer distance and the girls behaved themselves so well. They have become comfortable walking side by side on the coupler so today we tried walking right next me on my right side. They did great! It really helps when we all fall into the same rhythm.

After our walk I gave the girls ice cubes in their water and I had a blast watching them bob for them! Summer was a bit confused at first but quickly figured it out. If you turn up your volume you can hear them blowing bubbles :)

Chilling.

School has honestly not been keeping me away from the blog...it's job hunting! So time consuming. Expect fewer posts and more pictures. Hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed for me!