we feed him what?

It was Chuck's decision to get a ridgeback. He did all the research and found the breeder. We hadn't been living together for more than a year when I found myself going to Escondido to look at a litter of puppies. I love animals and have had my share of adopted dogs growing up, but never one of my own. This addition to our family wasn't going to be any different, this was Chucks' dog. As soon as I saw them I fell in love, as you can imagine, and we made a deposit on a male, not show-quality puppy. I forget how long, but we had to come back to pick which one after they got a bit older.

Chuck let me pick the puppy when we went back. It was so hard to pick, took me hours. I sat in the corner of the pen and watched them interact. In the end I picked Jo'Burg because he was a wheaton (orange) color with big blue eyes and a bit of a loner. He'd sit in the corner and watch the other dogs. I felt he needed us.

The breeder took us up to fill out the papers and handed me this cookbook. She believed in feeding the dogs what they would normally eat in the wild. Raw meat, with added oils and flax seed and green stuff like whatever the animal they caught would have in their tummy. I looked at Chuck like "you've got to be kidding me" but took the book, figuring it was his dog, he'll make it.

On the drive home I held him on my lap as he cried for his siblings. I felt so bad but promised him he'd be happy.

Most people love a puppy, as they love a baby, but I realized how much I loved this little boy in no time. As I'm chopping up his raw chicken and mixing it with fish oils, wheat germ, dried seaweed, etc, etc every night I realized he could be Chuck's dog on paper, but guess who he cuddled with???