Meditation on Making Dogfood

And so it's Saturday, and as I have done for over a decade, today I am cooking, for dogs and humans, but most importantly, for dogs.

Today: my famous vegetable stock, marinating chicken breasts for my guests tomorrow, and making bean salad for myself for dinner tonight, and probably lunch tomorrow as well.

Oh - the dogfood, the *real* ritual, the important thing here, is the dogfood. I've been utilizing Saturdays, to make food and treats for my beloved dog-beings, for close to 12 years. It's just so very strange to be making only one kind, one recipe, and my mind wanders back to those days where I had two to make, the one a fairly simple, straightforward recipe, the other endlessly complex in it's frantic balancing act of high-protein for heart, low protein for arthritis, high fat for cancer, non-gluten, good presence of RS...on and on and on...

Now I have only one dog to cook for. And I can't describe how much I wish I had double the work.

I think about my early forays into homefeeding my guys, back when I had the simplistic, albeit well-intentioned notion that "natural is better". Well, "natural" is only half the battle. Unbalanced natural versus well balanced commercial - this is one battle I am very weary of fighting. Now I try to balance the good and pure natural diet with the best of science, in terms of what an individual dog needs. A healthy dog like Dan is one thing, a challenged dog is entirely another - and a dog like Bo, with multiple health issues from early in life, well, that's why I call her my greatest teacher.

Well, I have chicken, liver, lamb, rice and sweet potato to attend to. Although I only have one dog, he's a lot of dog. I used to say one RR was like four "normal" canines. And this one is hungry, and sad.

Although Lila is gone, the traditions started with her carry on. That's what I mean by legacy. The need to learn more, the desire to be better, the strength to act on insight, the humour to know when you're out of your depth.

Today is just shot through with beauty, start to finish.