Whole Foods.

I consider myself incredibly lucky to have good health and don't for a moment take it for granted. I have seen too many loved ones suffer because of a variety of physical ailments. These issues run the gamut from migraines to high blood pressure to cancer to Parkinsons to Alzheimers to arthritis and the list seems to grow with each passing year.

When I hear of something that will fend off toxins or aid the immune system I am generally game to try it. I'm also guilty of trying to get the whole fam to come along too.

So when I found the first lump on my dog... we headed straight to the vet. I lost my favorite cat just over three years ago to pancreatitis, which was as an inflammation of his pancreas. 

There they are, I do have better photos of the two together, but this one's my absolute favorite.

The vet examined the lump on Rama (my dog), pulled and tested some fluid from it and determined that it was a non-threatening fat deposit. Nothing to worry about. 

But why was it there? The vet had no answer. How can we get rid of it? Surgery. 

I am the last person to be put under and go under the knife until I've examined every other possibility, so of course I asked: What happens if we elect not to do surgery? Nothing. It might get bigger, but it doesn't cause him pain, doesn't have an impact on his mobility, basically she said, your dog is fine.

Mmm. Okay. And he was for a while. And then he got another lump. Then we found a third. Yikes what's happening? It was time to take matters into my own hands and start doing some research.

First, you should know that I love my dog more than anything. It's almost pathological. But you should also know that he is the best dog ever in the world. So ages ago I had wanted to get him off kibble and put him on raw food. I don't eat boxed cereal every day for every meal, why would I feed this same kind of thing to my dog? Yikes, have you ever looked into the cost of raw food at the pet store. Astronomical. I'd have to sell a kidney to pay for it and well I've just told you how I feel about going under the knife. But I am not one to give up. I'm a screenwriter for crying out loud, the only people who have a harder time breaking into the business and making a living are professional surfers!!

We managed to find a local butcher shop that would sell us frozen beef at a deep discount. But my dog didn't like it raw. Well I'm sorry I am not going to fry up the beef for you Rama, that's not healthy.

Eventually a compromise was found. He'd have kibble with a bit of super healthy canned food for breakfast and get a beefy bone for dinner. The trouble with that is ... canned?? That can't be the best. And the pet shop didn't always have bones with enough meat on them.

I digress. My dog was getting more lumps. I did some research and learned that fat deposits on pets are caused because the dog's organs are not able to handle the toxic over-load, so it would encapsulate the toxin in fat and pull it to the body's biggest defense organ, the skin. You can read all about it HERE. They are called Lipomas - essentially they are fatty tumors.

The toxins can come from a number of things. Dewormer medication, poor diet, environmental factors, aluminum bowls, dog toothpaste (yes I brush his teeth) - Shit. How do you know? What do you do?

I am a big fan of whole foods for myself and I've even been known to share my glowing green smoothie with Rama, so damn, if it's good enough for me, it's gotta be good enough for my boy. Knowing full well that he doesn't like raw food, I knew I had to track down a well balanced cooked food recipe for him. Lucky for me, the Ottawa Dog Whisperer had that too, you can see the full recipe HERE.

Most of the ingredients I needed I already had, things like parsley and turmeric, (I recently learned how great a healing agent turmeric is, but that's a post for another day) and I went shopping. It was easy. Except the buying of the meat part, because again, as a vegetarian, I find it hard to buy. Here's what our groceries looked like. See whole foods? Yum.

I set about washing, peeling, chopping and combining until I came up with what to me looked like a very delicious French stew. Rama was gonna love this!

It took some time to prep but I was happy to do it as I knew every ingredient that was going into that pot.  Finally came the blending part. Ewe. It was so gross. Trying to slop it from the pot into the blender. It would splash up and get everywhere. But in the end I got there.

Now it was looking a little more like dog food. But then it occurred to me. Omigod, I've just put my dog on the Tracy Anderson Baby food diet! Sweet potato? Check! Carrots? Check! Chicken? Check. Apples? Check. Basically every thing that I put into that pot was on the Tracy Anderson approved list. I laughed my ass off. Even considered sitting down to a bowl as you know after my holiday at the lake, I could stand to drop a pound or two. Lol.

I did get a little zealous with the turmeric, everything I spilled and dripped on has been stained yellow, so I was a little worried that Rama might not like it. How wrong I was. He licked the bowl clean and then some! Happy dog.

I have to still get a topical homeopathic treatment for his lumps but am hoping that together, these things will get him back to right. I'll keep you posted.

Honestly, I cannot believe that the first recipe I wrote about on the new blog was for dog food. Told you it was a new world. 

I sincerely hope that this finds you in good health. And if god forbid it doesn't? Don't simply put blind faith into your health care professional. Listen to your gut, your heart, and your instincts. We have those things for a reason.

Be well,
Shan