Fido Want a Carrot?

To Hare is Human
Carrots wait for no one
So I’ll pick them now
Before they are eaten
By some slobby cow
Carrots wait for no one
So I’ll eat them now.—cartoon starring Bugs Bunny and Wile E. Coyote from Merry Melodies by Chuck Jones, 1956

My dogs eat carrots. However, I have to pulverize them into their meat or they’ll very delicately, with disdain, pick out the smallest slice and toss it on the floor as if it were some unpleasant annoyance!

I picture them saying to themselves, “Is she nuts? What is this weird orange thing?!” I can understand my mother’s frustration because I did the same thing when I was a child.

The charming story in the August issue of GUIDEPOSTS, Soup à la Bella by Rebecca Katz, inspired one of our readers to relate a lovely memory of her dog Baby who would always sit at her side at the sink waiting for a carrot.

The reader, Lorraine Torpe of Deltona, Florida, described how she’d put a bunch of carrots in the vegetable bin every week and Baby “would help herself to one whenever she had a taste for it.”

In my mind’s eye I could just picture this little dog romping around the house and stopping at the sudden urge to have a carrot, then cheerfully sashaying over to the veggie bin as if this were the most natural thing for a dog to do!

Doggies are omnivores. Some crave more meat than others, but there’s very little that dogs cannot eat. Some of those forbidden foods are onions, chocolate (the worst offender), cat food, small animal bones, grapes and raisins.

It’s also important to remember that while carrots are fine for dogs to eat, great for their teeth, and help a dog’s digestive system, you need to keep carrots to less than 10 percent of the total diet. Too many carrots, like too much of any one ingredient, could unbalance the diet.

Here’s a video of a bunch of dogs waiting for their carrot treats.

If you’re planning a party for the neighborhood dogs, you might like this recipe. I know your canine guests will jump with joy.

Doggie Carrot Cake

Ingredients1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon soy flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼-½ cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky)

1 egg

¼ cup vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup honey

1 cup baby carrots, grated or ground

Preparation

1. Combine flours, baking soda and peanut butter.

2. Mix in egg, oil, vanilla, honey and carrots until well combined.

3. Pour mixture into a 9x9-inch cake pan.

4. Bake at 325°F for 15 to 20 minutes. Cool completely.

Eat your carrots! WOOF!

Send in a photo and prayer for your pet!
 
Sharon Azar is an assistant to the editorial staff at GUIDEPOSTS. In her spare time, she rescues dogs and does portraits of furry, feathered and scaled companion animals. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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