A Taste of Japan While in China

While we were in Nanchang we ate twice at the Japanese Restaurant that was located in our hotel.  The genuine kindness of the people working there made the experience as wonderful as the delicious food that we ate.  When we first arrived we were surrounded by three of the wait staff.  I think they were mainly just curious about the strange Americans with the cute Chinese baby.  They would not give us even a moment to look at the menu and make our choices.  They wanted to discuss each possibility with us in depth.  It was so hilarious.  Only one of the three spoke a little bit of English so she would have to translate for the other two plus for the two of us.  This went on for 15 minutes.  Finally the chef came over and thankfully spoke very good English.  We were able to explain that we eat seafood but no other meat.

Our hostess was so pretty and sweet.  When we asked to take a picture of her in her kimono she grabbed her friend by the arm and made her pose along side her for moral support.


This is the fruit salad that they serve with every meal. It cracked me up that they only give you one grape. We didn't eat it though because we will only eat fruit in China that we can peel and vegetables that are cooked. So far that rule of thumb has served us well.






This kind woman took pity on our less than perfect chopstick skills and offered to feel Natalie. Since we are in our bonding phase we normally wouldn't allow other people to feed her, but with the language barrier that was just too difficult to explain. We decided to make an exception.


She was so sweet and tender with Natalie.


Our chef was very friendly and spent quite a bit of time talking to us.  Everyone there wanted us to enjoy ourselves.  They were so sweet and patient with us.

The Dish on Dog Food

I am truly sorry if my post about dog food last week offended anyone; I wasn't trying to say that there is only one way to feed your dogs. Most readers of this blog are dog lovers and I'm sure we all do the best we can for our fur kids. Here is the story of the evolution of our dogs' diet:

For years I fed my Siberian Husky, Scarlett, Science Diet ID (prescription food for intestinal disorders). Scarlett had pancreatitis and this was the food that was supposed to make her feel better. Instead she continued to have disabling attacks about every 2 weeks. This food was costing me about $60/bag... definitely not a "cheap" food. I started doing a lot of research and found source after source stating that some dogs have difficulty processing wheat, corn and soy. I looked at the ingredients list on the Science Diet and found that the first ingredient was corn, so I thought it was time to try a different food to see if we could get Scarlett some relief.

I first heard about Canidae from Katie's breeders and decided to give it a try for our new puppy Katie and our 13 year old girl Scarlett. The Canidae agreed with them both and Scarlett's pancreatitis attacks went from every 2 weeks to every 8 weeks. I was so happy that my baby was almost free from this illness. Scarlett lived a happy life until she was over 15 years old. When Canidae changed their formula the food began making a lot of dogs sick, so I used the website dog food analysis as a starting point to evaluate our dog food options. I chose Orijen partially because it received the highest rating on this site, but also because so many of our Newfie friends have used it with enormous success for years. I read post after post on newf.net about dogs with various digestive disorders and skin problems that miraculously went away when their owners switched to Orijen. Since Louie was having some itchy skin problems I was hoping it would help him, and it did :-)

What we choose to feed our pets is a very personal decision. The main point of this post is not to change anyone's mind about what kind of dog food they buy, but instead to provide a source of information to those who are interested in digging deeper into this topic.

"As God is My Witness, I'll Never Go Hungry Again"

Any other "Gone With the Wind" fans out there? I am a huge fan myself. Some of you may not know that my full name is Wilbon's Katie Scarlett O'Hara. Like the heroine of that book, I love the feeling of a full belly and the comfort of knowing that the dog pantry is fully stocked up.

Mama orders our food online and a big shipment just came in. If Louie and I had our way we would get ten pounds of dog food a day, but our parents are big meannies and insist we stay slim...some mumbo jumbo about that being better for our joints. Our diet is also strict because we never get any wheat, corn or soy. Now this part I have no complaints about 'cause those fillers give my brother a terrible rash. Our Newfoundland ancestors lived mainly off fish and so do we. We love our Orijen 6 fish food so much that we will do lots of tricks just for one piece of kibble. When a whole bowl is put in front of me...WOW...the only word that comes to mind is "Heaven".

Lots of love and Newfie kisses to all my doggie and human friends, Katie