About Dottie

My nicknames are Hot-n-Dot, Dippin' Dots, Hottie Dottie, Devoted Dottie and Jerry Garcia Bear. Recently the Treat Man started calling me Wally the Walrus. I like to lie on the couch next to Mom and I love snacks. I love waking Mom up in the morning with Flower.

Shih Tzu Review Board: Orijen Freeze-Dried Dog Food

Our Human, whom we call Mom, makes us “meatloaf” every couple of weeks, and we get it every morning for breakfast with our kibble. We love it! She makes it with lean ground beef, lean ground turkey, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green peas, and she throws in other vegetables, like zucchini and squash from the garden. Sometimes she adds fruit. It is soooo good!

However, once in a while she gets things from Chewy.com and lets us try it. This time, she got Orijen Regional Red Freeze-Dried Dog Food. We weren’t sure what she meant when she told us it was “freeze-dried.” We thought it had something to do with our last name, which, ironically, is “Freeze.” Well, it doesn’t. It’s the process they use. Why Mom wanted us to try it was, first, because it is a “whole prey diet” containing really fun “wild” stuff: angus beef, wild boar, ranch-raised lamb, heritage pork, and free-range bison, and even fruits and vegetables. The second reason was that she said that since it is “freeze-dried,” it is fresh and has no preservatives.

Before Mom gave it to us, she did some weird things. First, she took these “medallions” out of the package, broke them into four pieces (one for each of us!) and then poured warm water on them. The hard part was that we had to wait about five minutes while the medallions “un-dried.” Then, Mom divided it into four bowls as an “afternoon snack.”

Orijen Freeze Dried Food

Today we tried Orijen Freeze Dried Food.

What happened next? Well, Mom set the bowls down. First, she set one down for Nigel, and then one for Flower, Candy, and me. However, in the few seconds it took for Flower to get to her bowl, Nigel swallowed his piece and came and stole hers! Mom scolded him and then had to split up the last two pieces for me, Flower and Candy. Mom was surprised we liked it, because she didn’t think it smelled as yummy as her meatloaf. The good news is that because of Nigel’s bad behavior, she fixed us another one to share!

You are not going to believe what happened next! Mom had us girls go outside, since we are better behaved than Nigel. She put his bowl down on the kitchen floor, quickly went outside with our bowls, and shut the door so he couldn’t come out and steal our food. Then, she put down our bowls, and FLOWER ate hers and then ran and stole my piece before I could get to it! Sometimes it just isn’t fun living with three other shih tzus! I hope Mom feeds that stuff to us again!

Shih Tzu Special Treat From Chewy: Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken Jerky

Hi everyone! It’s me, Dottie! Most of our friends know that Mom is very particular about our treats. She used to buy treats for us at the store but when she found out that many of them came from China, she began dehydrating chicken, sweet potatoes, apples and other yummy stuff to make us chicken jerky, chicken-wrapped sweet potatoes, chicken-wrapped apples, and even chicken-wrapped rawhide. As a special treat, she took some of the leftover ham from Thanksgiving and made us ham bites!

Blue Buffalo Wilderness Chicken Jerky

Sometimes Mom runs out of treats before she can make more, though, and then we don’t get any. That’s never good! Because of that, when she goes to the store, she’ll look at “emergency” treat packages. If they say they are from China, she puts the package right back down! If they are made in the U.S., or at least NOT in China, she’ll get us something as a special treat.  And sometimes she gets stuff for us from Chewy.com. She particularly does that when she is going to spend more than $49, because of the free shipping.

Last week she ordered Blue Buffalo Wilderness Trail Treats Chicken Jerky from Chewy. She said it was good for us because it’s 100 % grain free and DOES NOT come from China. Also, the only ingredients were chicken, dried cane molasses and salt.

Flower, Candy, Nigel and I loved it! There was one thing about it we didn’t like, however. Mom wanted to just try it so she got a little bag that didn’t go very far between four shih tzus! Next time, maybe she will buy us a bigger bag!

Oh, and we were happy because it gave Mom an idea. After we ate the bag, she made us chicken jerky (yesterday!), and she added a little molasses, just like Blue Wilderness! It was really good!

If anyone knows of other goodies for us not from China, please let Mom know! Also, if your Human hasn’t visited Chewy.com, tell them about it! They have lots of yummy stuff, and even toys and other fun things!

Shih Tzu Step Brother and Sister Squabble

 

Hello! Well, Mom doesn’t have her act together yet, so we will just keep posting videos until she gets around to writing more! This is Nigel and Flower antagonizing each other! They do that all the time. Flower loves to egg him on and then jump up on the couch where he can’t get her. She almost didn’t make it this time! Notice their alien eyes at the end!

Happy Birthday to Flower (Day 289) April 13

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday, Dear Flower! Happy Birthday to You!
Flower is now 3 years old! This is Flower’s first birthday at her forever home. She spent her first birthday at a puppy mill and her second at a foster home.
So glad that Flower, Candy and I have a Forever Home together! Nigel too, although he didn’t come with us from the puppy mill!

Mom says she will have pictures later of our birthday party, including the homemade chicken jerky!!