Artnotes: Testing the Water

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Paris Windows  LFP  Acrylic/canvas 18 x 12"   45 x 30cm

Pot of Posies  LFP  Acrylic/paper  17 x 25"  43 x 61cm

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Baah baah baah   LFP  Acrylic/cnvas  12 z 18"  30 x 45cm

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Teeny picture of teeny peppers  LFP  Acrylic/canvas  7 x 7"  18x18cm

“When she’s ready, just place a piece of paper under her.”   Hah.  So I was able to obtain a urine sample from Harika, and entertain the neighbors.   With some stiff paper, strategically cut, I was able to fill the glass tube provided by the veterinarian.

Harika has had some health issues since just before Christmas.  They became really obvious over the last ten days.  So, when we had to get her heart medicine prescription at the vet, he made an appointment to get her blood tested.  In fact, she had nothing too serious, but a urine sample might make things more clear.  It didn’t.  So then I put on my thinking cap.

What had changed to make her so thirsty?  We got a new large bag of her regular dog food in December, and within a week this insane drinking manifested.  After the usual jokes, like, everyone drinks more during the holidays, and is she taking after her mother? it was more serious.  So, I took a look at the bag of dry dogfood – pretty much the same, but a former minor ingredient, ash, had suddenly jumped to the top of the list:  10.5% ash.  This filler should only make up 2 percent of the ingredients, but 10+?

This is the second time we’ve had a problem like this, with top quality dog food products.  I am really sensitive about ingredients after a friend who worked for a major timber firm in the Northwestern USA pointed out that “natural fiber” in dogfood (and in humans’, too) is really sawdust (a major profit center for the logging company).  Companies get away with putting tons of filler, wood or ash, in dogfood, because dogs don’t talk, don’tcha know?

After several sleepless nights (she’s been up drinking at 1 AM.  Slurp, slurp) and menu modification, things are improving.  I make most of Harika’s food, anyway, and just use the dry stuff to clean her teeth.   So, now I am making a larger casserole of meat and peas and rice…  I am adding garlic next time, and maybe a carrot or two. 

I have been enjoying cooking, not just for Harika, since the start of the year. There seems to be a move toward more vegetables – a plethora of which grow in Italy.   I am instituting some new dishes in my repertoire:  curried mussels, butternut squash parmigiana, mushroom pot pie, pasta alla vodka , and beans, sausage and gorgonzola (in a nod to Italy).  Buon appetito.