grace grits and gardening

ramblings from an arkansas farm girl

A Pet Tribute

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The death of a pet is one of the most heartbreaking things. The pain is raw and real. It will knock you to your knees.

Recently several of my friends experienced the devastating death of their pets. It seemed every few days another beloved pet had died. The Facebook comments and condolences piled up for each because everyone could relate. We’ve all been there. Pets are so easy to love and incredibly painful to lose. They fill an empty space we didn’t know we had.

But this isn’t meant to be a sad post.

love your pet day

This is a tribute to all those pets we love—yesterday, today and forever. And since today is National Love Your Pet Day, I thought I’d post pictures of my friends’ special pets who are missed so much…

Sadie Hackney

 

Heather Stewart

 

Peaches Rutledge

dexter wooten

 

Wembley Camp

Sweet pets…

Feel free to leave a thought or story about your pet(s)—past or present—in the comment section for everyone to enjoy!

Grace Grits and Gardening

Here I wait, for my friend who’s late. I will stay, just to walk beside you for one more day.”
― Jess C. Scott

Musical Pairing:

Love Your Pet Day

Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats

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I made homemade peanut butter dog treats in honor of Love Your Pet Day (Feb 20). Of course in our house, EVERYDAY is pet day. After reading various recipes and double checking ingredients to make sure they were safe for dogs, I whipped up my own recipe using ingredients I already had. Lucy and Annabelle went nuts for these treats.

peanut butter and sweet potato dog treats

Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Print Recipe
Servings 2 dozen depending upon size of cookie cutter

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup oats
  • 1/3 cup peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup sweet potato baked
  • 1 1/4 cup water
  • egg white optional

Notes

I used crunchy peanut butter because that's what I had...

Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Method

Mix everything together (except the egg white). Knead into a ball. It will be sticky so add flour to your hands and rolling pin. I was surprised at how wonderfully malleable this dough turned out to be, easy to roll and cut and waaaaaaaaayyyyy better than any pie crust I’ve ever made.

homemade peanut butter dog treats

I bought this bone shaped cookie cutter at Sur La Table after Christmas. So cute! (If you don’t want to roll and cut your dough, you could form into little balls and press with a fork like human peanut butter cookies…) I also made some heart-shaped treats.

peanut butter and sweet potato dog treats

Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet and finish with a little egg wash. The cookies will not spread so you can place close together. Bake for ten minutes at 350 then turn and bake another five minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

how to make homemade peanut butter and sweet potato dog treats

They smell peanut buttery, and they taste pretty good too. Go ahead and sample. The inside texture is a bit creamy but not messy when the dogs dine on the rug like all dogs do.

Lucy loved hers.

Lucy enjoying her homemade dog treat

Annabelle inhaled hers.

Annabelle inhaling her homemade dog treat

They both wanted more and followed me around the rest of the day like the Pied Piper.

Lucy and Annabelle

I’m not kidding…

Annabelle

I’ll be making these again.

Grace Grits and Gardening

P.S. These will keep for several days, but store in the refrigerator…

“Dogs do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.”
― Orhan Pamuk

The things we do for our pets…

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Annabelle

Oh the things we will do for our pets. I admit I’m a nut about our miniature schnauzers, Lucy and Annabelle. And since Thursday is Love Your Pet Day, I thought I’d devote this week to all those furry friends who make our families complete…

A couple of weeks ago Annabelle became sick right before my trip to Arkansas. For three days, she trembled and hid upstairs. Finally I took her to the vet who prescribed doggie Advil for whatever was ailing her.

I almost cancelled my plans, but when John dropped both dogs off at the pet lodge for boarding, he reported Annabelle seemed fine. She tugged on her leash, excited to be there. (She obviously remembered about the four hours of afternoon playtime.)

A week or so later after we all returned home, Annabelle was back to trembling and hiding upstairs. I developed a complex, because she seemed fine at night when John was home…

Annabelle is our sensitive schnauzer. She’s sweet and happy go lucky until something scares her. And it doesn’t take much. Annabelle becomes upset by anything loud and/or mechanical such as the vacuum cleaner, an ambulance siren, the lawn mower or loud cheering yelling during Razorback games. I didn’t take this into consideration with her “sickness”.

Finally I put my Nancy Drew sleuthing skills to work and looked for clues to Annabelle’s problem. The answer stared at me from the kitchen counter. Each morning since the beginning of 2014, I’d begun making green smoothies.

green smoothies scare my schnauzer

Loud, green smoothies.

Was Annabelle afraid of the blender?

To test my theory, I skipped a smoothie day and hid the monster blender in the cabinet. Annabelle was back to normal.

the things we do for our pets

So here’s my solution…

Early, early, early in the morning when John walks the dogs, I race downstairs before I’ve even had my coffee and whip up my green smoothie to save for later. I even wash and put the blender away before Annabelle sees it.

All is well.

What crazy things have you done for your pet?

Grace Grits and Gardening

“Dogs are the leaders of the planet. If you see two life forms, one of them’s making a poop, the other one’s carrying it for him, who would you assume is in charge.”
― Jerry Seinfeld

Food. Farm. Garden. Life.

THANKS FOR READING!