Homemade Dog Treats

On November 9, 2008 · 1 Comment · In recipes - for dogs, tessa

I saw this recipe a while ago over on Vicki’s Healthy Eats and Sinful Treats, but just never got around to making them for my sweet little pup. Given that she is in recovery this weekend, and I feel like she needs all the extra spoiling she can get, I decided that today was the day to make these.

Michael and I were discussing the ingredients and thought, hey, these might not even taste half bad for humans.

Wrong. They are nast-yyy. No sugar or butter = not good at all for human tastebuds.

But Tess? Tessa loves them. Loves them in an I-will-wrestle-that-cookie-out-of-your-hands-before-it-even-hits-the-floor kind of way. We were going to share some of them with other doggie friends, but quite honestly, I’m not sure if Tess will let a single one of them leave the house.

So all of you mutts out there… you may be out of luck. Sorry.

You roll them out like cutout cookies. I used a dog bone cookie cutter, but because those are pretty big and Tessa is pretty small, I decided to do some smaller shapes as well. So I mixed in some little hearts and stars, too. They all turned out really cute.

Peanut Butter Dog Treats
(Source: ivillage.com)

Ingredients:
– 1 1/4 cup milk
– 1 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
– 2 cups whole wheat flour
– 1 cup all-purpose flour
– 1 1/4 tbsp. baking powder

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine flours and baking powder in large bowl.

3. Mix milk and peanut butter in large bowl, until smooth. (I used my KitchenAid mixer.)

4. Gradually stir flour mixture into wet ingredients.

5. Knead dough by hand, adding small amounts of milk if mixture is too dry. (Again, I used my KA mixer for this, with the dough hook attachment.)

6. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface to desired thickness and cut out treats with cookie cutter of choice.

7. Bake on cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes, modifying timing for dough thickness and treat size. (Mine were probably rolled to about 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick, and 12 minutes was the perfect time for all of them. The little hearts and stars took the same amount of time as the bigger bones. Just watch them closely.)

They rise a lot during baking, but they do not “spread” very much, so you don’t have to worry about leaving a lot of space between them on the cookie sheets. The consistency of them when they are done is like a cross between a cookie and a biscuit.

 

Surgery Day

On November 7, 2008 · 2 Comments · In tessa

I’ll be updating this post throughout the day…

8:00 a.m. — Just dropped Tessa off at the vet for her biopsy surgery. It was pretty rough. Poor thing shook like a leaf and whined the whole car ride to the vet. Then continued to shake nervously throughout the whole vet check-in process.

We had to hand her over and felt absolutely terrible about it. Sometimes it’s a blessing she has no idea what’s going on, and sometimes it sucks. We hate that she doesn’t understand that she’s there for her health, and that it’s only a few hours and we’ll be back to get her later today. It was heartbreaking to think that she may think we abandoned her.

11:22 a.m. — The doctor called to tell me that Tessa is out of surgery, is awake and doing well. He said that he was able to get a good piece of the lymph node to send to Albany for pathology. He said we may know by early to mid- next week. I’m not overly anxious to get the results back because I feel like all it will do is solidify what we already know. And then we will have to face the reality of the decision to treat or not to treat, and that sucks. (I feel like I have used the word “sucks” more times in the past week than I have in my whole life.)

Anyway, Tessa has apparently already been out for a bathroom break (haha), and will spend the next few hours being monitored and in recovery. Sounds like it was a smooth and easy surgery. I hope they are cuddling my baby for me. We were told this morning that she was going to be given a nice, fluffy fleece blanket to lounge on. I hope she’s actually able to get some rest.

We have a 4:00 p.m. discharge appointment to go and get her. I cannot wait. The afternoon cannot go by quickly enough.

2:28 p.m. — Nothing new to report, aside from the fact that this is the longest. day. ever. How is it not 4:00 yet?

7:00 p.m. — Tessa is at home and resting (for the most part). She is definitely out of it. When she’s not lying around sleeping, she’s slowly walking around aimlessly, not sure what she wants to do with herself. Poor thing.

I picked her up at the vet without incident. They gave me a few instructions, then brought her in for the reunion. She was excited and I couldn’t wait to get her home. My mom came by shortly after and just left a few minutes ago. She spent a lot of time snuggling a very drowsy Tessa.

Tess is still doing everything she normally does, except playing. She can jump on and off of the couch without problems, barking, etc. She just has really tired eyes. :)

Her incision is a little bit ugly, and her lymph node bump now looks bigger (I assume due to swelling). The one side of her neck is shaved, and a little section of one of her front legs (for the IV). All in all, she is doing well. I’m looking forward to spending the evening curled up on the couch with her.

7:37 p.m. — She just scratched her incision and made it bleed a little. Now we’re extra paranoid about her accidentally removing her stitches. Great fun.

 

Charmed

On November 6, 2008 · 2 Comments · In tessa

Michael just sent me this picture on my phone:

One of his coworkers just gave it to him. It’s a little “Protect this Dog” angel charm for Tessa. She knew Michael was out of work on Monday because we had received bad news at the vet, and asked him about it on Tuesday, so he told her. She said she’s been thinking about us since then, so she gave him the charm and a really nice card.

It makes me cry. But it’s totally going on her collar as soon as we get home tonight.

So grateful for the kindness of others. (Thanks, Kristin. We really appreciate it.)

 

Yes we can

On November 6, 2008 · 6 Comments · In obama, politics, tessa

Obama did it. Or rather, we did it. We won.

I didn’t have to go through another disappointing election loss.

Thank you, America.

Now I’m looking forward to seeing what will come. Unfortunately, I think we have a really long way to go, and I feel like Obama is at a huge disadvantage from the get-go. But I have faith that things can change.

What an historic evening it was. I was elated when the election was called for Obama at 11 p.m. I managed to stay awake long enough to hear McCain’s speech (which I thought was very nice, actually), but konked out afterward and woke up to see Obama and his family exiting the stage. Whoops. Missed the speech. But I’ve caught up on most of it today, and it was typical Obama–inspiring. Today is a new day.

And January 20 will be here soon. Let’s do this.

Yes we can.

As for us, we spent election night holed up in our house with our sweet little dog. We donned our Obama gear, made a BBQ chicken pizza, and I baked a loaf of banana bread. We relaxed on the couch, watched a few political SNL skits on the computer, and waited for results to come in.


Today, I am in better spirits. The last few days have been really nothing but despair, but today was better. I only cried once (so far). I still have my moments, of course, and I’m sure there will be many bad days to come. But today? I just felt like I was able to focus more on the joy than on the sorrow. Today, it didn’t physically hurt to smile.

My mom was crying about Tessa the other night and mentioned how it almost feels like it’s not worth it to have pets because you run the risk of so much pain. My dad said something similar, about how he doesn’t want any more dogs because you almost always outlive them, which is always sad. My response (also through tears) was that even though we’re going through this, I do not regret it. I do not regret Tess.

If you don’t experience the pain, it means you haven’t experienced the joy, either.

And there is nothing like the joy.

Tessa is scheduled for surgery on Friday. They are going to remove at least one of her swollen lymph nodes to send it off for pathology. After this, we’ll know more about her cancer. What type of lymphoma, what stage its in, how aggressive it is, etc. The doctors will be able to give us a more accurate prognosis and options for treatment. We’ll just have to see where we go from there.

For now, we’re just focusing on one step at a time, and right now that step is the surgery. We have to drop her off before work in the morning, and then, barring any complications, we can pick her up after work. I’m so glad she doesn’t have to spend the night. It’ll be traumatic enough for her, I’m sure. The plan for the weekend is to pretty much hibernate in the house and help her heal.

So… Can we get through this?

Yes we can.

 

Change

On November 4, 2008 · 8 Comments · In obama, politics, tessa

My, how things change.

I’ve been waiting for and looking forward to this day for more than a year. Up until yesterday, Michael and I were totally excited about making a huge Election Day meal, cracking open some wine or beer, and then, if things went as planned, maybe even popping open some champagne. All while watching non-stop election coverage, of course. And I was so looking forward to going into that booth and pressing that lever down. So excited to vote for change.

Now? Well, now, I’m having trouble giving a shit about any of it.

Still, I dragged my sorry ass into my polling place this morning. Went into the booth, voted for Barack Obama (and other local politicians), came out, proceeded to go to my car, and then I cried all the way to work. And three more times since.

In just a week’s time, I’ve gone from happy, laughing Heather to someone who can’t wait for each day to be over so she can go to sleep. Sleep is the only time I’m not sad.

This is not the kind of change I was looking for.

Have I mentioned how much this sucks?


It sounds so overly dramatic, but when I stop and think about it, I really don’t know how I’m going to get through this.

There’s nothing anyone can do. There’s nothing anyone can say.

But of course, it means a lot to hear from people and know that they care. To know that people understand.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t make it suck any less. Doesn’t make it any less painful.

I feel sorry for everybody around me. I know I’m probably not going to be fun to be around for a while. Most likely a long while.

I just hope that people understand that this is just a really tough time. I don’t mean to be this much of a downer; it’s just that I can’t help it.

And the worst part is knowing that this is just the beginning of what is surely going to be a downward spiral. I can’t see that this is going to get any better any time soon. It’s weird looking to the future and feeling like there is nothing to look forward to.

Again, I worry that I sound way too dramatic about all of this. But I’m in a black hole and am really not sure how to crawl out.

For now, I’m just going to work hard to get through each day. To get home and be where I feel like I need to be right now. And to at least try to enjoy some things.

I’m still going to watch the election coverage tonight, and I’m still going to root for my man, Obama. I just wish it was going to be with the same gusto it would have been before.

This is a rough patch. People deal with this stuff all the time. Worse things. Things with parents, children, siblings, friends. I’m aware of that. The story of life, I suppose. I just wasn’t expecting it to be the story of my life. But no one ever does.

For my sanity, and to truly spend as much time with her as possible, I’m going to start driving home for all of my lunch breaks. Thankfully, we don’t live very far from where I work, so it’s a pretty good chunk of time to be with Tess. I think breaking up the day like that will help me get through each day at work.

So today was day 1. Day 1 of trying to live a semi-normal life.

I went home for lunch. It’s beautiful outside today. And Tessa did what she always does when it’s warm and sunny out.

She flopped for belly rubs before she even made it all the way onto the grass.

And I, of course, let her enjoy them for as long as she wanted. Because of winter on the horizon, I know that these days are truly numbered.

As if Tess wasn’t already one of the most photographed dogs on the planet. Now, I predict it will be even worse. Right now, while she is still healthy and acting like herself, I’m feeling like we need to document all of it. All of the little quirks and adorable things that she does that we have taken for granted because we always think we’ll get to see her do them over and over and over again.

After her belly rubs, we sat on the porch and watched neighbors pass by. Watched a contractor load equipment and tools back into his van. Tessa growled her low, rumbly growl that always makes us smile.

When the contractor first came around the corner of the neighbor’s house, Tessa barked at him. I laughed, but apologized to the guy. He smiled and said, “Oh, it’s OK. She did startle me a little. I wasn’t expecting trouble today.” I laughed and said, “Oh, she’s trouble alright.”

Tough girl. All bark and no bite. The guy paused when he got to her and leaned down to pet her. She immediately turned to mush. Like she does with just about anyone who pays her any attention.

Just counting down the hours until I can go home again.

In the meantime, go Obama, go! (Had to get that in there.)