Have Confidence in Your Pet Food - Make it Yourself
Or...your writing assignment is to share recipes

Today's post was difficult to morph into the theme of The Dragon. I wanted to give visitors to The Dragon something very useful because animals are (obviously) near and dear to my heart. But what do animals and their food have to do with writing and grammar, eh? Here we go!

In my novel Choices Meant for Gods, Loetha and Lahs, the couple that works side by side at the Taiman estate to keep the place running smoothly (and the couple that will probably get me in trouble with all the right-wing conservative entities that take umbrage with same-sex marriage in this country - ah well - what can you do?) cook up fabulous meals from scratch for the family. They have to. It's a society akin to medieval society. They can't just pop a Stouffer's Lean Cuisine in the microwave. So I have allusions to recipes in the book. A friend of mine suggested I come out with a (no, my Freudian Slip isn't showing - everyone relax) book of definitions/glossary terms for the novel and recipes that Loetha and Lahs have made. Excellent marketing idea, thought I. (And Choices Meant for Gods is still available at www.amazon.com.)

In the meantime, it's spurred me to think that I should post a couple pet food recipes here at The Dragon for my visitors who might be concerned about the pet food scare that's still plaguing us in "real life." I'm stunned by the inability of the pet food manufacturers' public relations officials to get this under control. They should be working hand in hand with their product development departments to contain and fix this issue. The public has no confidence in the pet food industry right now, and that isn't going to change any time soon with the way this has been handled.

I can't fix it with one post at The Dragon, but I can share with you two recipes that I've used for my significant other's cat. (No, not my cat. Yes, I baked for it. Christmas present, you see...)

This thing takes some effort, but, hey, if you love your pet, it's worth it. I've had the recipe for years so I don't remember where it came from.

Catnip Cookies (oh, yeah, drug the animal, right?)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1 teaspoon catnip
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1/3 cup powdered milk
1 tablespoon unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil (and use the butter with no gluten, just to be good to kitty's insides)

heat oven to 350; mix all the dry stuff; add the egg, molasses, butter & milk; roll the dough flat on a greased cookie sheet and cut it in little pieces (or, if you're like me and hate the rolling business, just shmoosh the dough into little bite-size pieces like cookies onto the cookie sheet - they're cats - they don't care what it looks like); bake for 20 minutes; store the cookies in a sealed container

Here's one called Tuna Patties, but, folks, I am totally against the commercial fishing industry so please request farm-raised tuna at the fish counter.
Tuna Patties
6 ounces of tuna (Preferably fresh - even the dolphin-safe cans are a result of netting practices that include waste and bycatch that harm other sea creatures like sea turtles! Only the dolphins are helped out of the nets and that's only because Greenpeace is watching.)
1/2 cup boiled rice
1/4 cup liver (this is what makes it smell so gross - puree the liver so it's liquidy and vile)
2 or 3 sprigs of some nice green herb that's safe for cats - like parsley (good calcium source)

mix everything together and roll into 7 or 8 little balls that you pat out like a hamburger; store in a tight container in the fridge and serve raw (gross)

I'll find some more online this weekend and post them in honor of protecting animals for Earth Day. There are some dog food recipes out there, I'm sure! As your writing assignment for The Dragon today, post a pet food recipe to share.

"Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

Tags: Choices Meant for Gods, Earth Day, pet food scare, pet food recipes, same-sex marriage, Freudian Slip, right-wing conservative, dragon, grammar, sea turtles, dolphins