Susan C. Daffron

Award-winning fiction & nonfiction author

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July 10, 2014 By Susan Daffron

What’s In That Dog Food?

One of the canine characters in my new book, Fuzzy Logic, is a Samoyed named Swoosie. Like many Samoyeds, Swoosie is an eager eater. In fact, she has a tendency to eat everything. That level of dietary indiscretion causes some issues for the humans in the book as well.

Swoosie is loosely based on my own Samoyed Fiona. To say that the furry Fi likes food would be an understatement. She’s not fussy. If it’s in the bowl, she’s eating it.

HungryFi
Mmm. Food

I don’t have to worry about offending her sensitive palate. I could feed her pretty much anything and she’d eat it. But I don’t.

In her daily fit of gluttony, Fi doesn’t pay much attention to what’s in her bowl. But as Fiona’s “mom,” I do.

ImEating
Don’t bother me. I’m eating.

At the grocery store, I read labels for the food my husband and I eat. In fact, years ago I got into a stupid argument with one of my then-in-laws about the loathsome fake milk product he was drinking. Ninety percent of the ingredients on the label were chemicals and not recognizable as any form of food at all. He didn’t see a problem with drinking something where there was pretty much “no food in his food” (to quote a line from the movie “Say Anything”).

I figure if I don’t know what something is on a label, I don’t want to eat it. I feel the same way about the food I feed my dogs. That means for years, I have fed my dogs expensive dog foods and read long articles about what some of the words on those pet food ingredients lists actually mean. (Hint: chicken byproduct meal is not the same thing as chicken.)

Now if only I could get Fi to stop eating things that are not edible. But that’s the topic of an entirely different post.

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Filed Under: Alpine Grove Novels, Dogs

About Susan Daffron

Susan Daffron is the author of the Alpine Grove Romantic Comedies, the Jennings & O'Shea mysteries, and multiple award-winning nonfiction books, including several about pets and animal rescue. Check out all her books on her Amazon Author page.

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