Category: Writing

Make your own dog treats!

Three wonderful recipes from a guest author.

On the 21st January I received the following email:

Hi, I’m Evan;

I’m a pet lover and blogger at https://petsroof.com.
I’ve been following the excellent work you guys are doing at Learning From Dogs.
I’m writing to inquire whether you accept guest posts or link insertions on your site? If so, how much is the price?

Looking forward to your reply.

Regards,Evan

Of course I was interested and after telling Evan that I didn’t charge for guest posts he then sent me the following:

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Make Dog Treats Yourself: 3 Easy and Quick Recipes

Oh, is the dog biscuit jar empty again? Then it’s time to replenish them. But who says that you always have to buy more dog treats? You can also easily make them yourself! We’ll show you how it’s done and present you with 3 super easy dog treats recipes.

Baking dog biscuits yourself: the advantages of DIY treats

Making dog treats yourself has one major advantage above all: you always know what’s in the dog biscuits. Unfortunately, many industrially produced dog treats contain dyes and preservatives. Flavor enhancers, sugar, and artificial flavors are also not uncommon. With your homemade dog treats, you know 100% what is inside – and you can take into account the individual needs, demands, preferences, and, if applicable, allergies of your four-legged friend.

Since your DIY dog treats are mostly based on a few natural ingredients, they are particularly healthy, natural, and easy to digest. In addition, making dog treats yourself is often much cheaper than buying ready-made dog treats, because the ingredients do not cost much.

What ingredients are allowed in dog biscuits?

When it comes to baking your own dog treats, there are almost no limits to your imagination. As in all other areas of dog nutrition, you should avoid prohibited, unhealthy and poisonous foods for dogs in your DIY biscuits. These include chocolate, alcohol, cocoa, grapes and sugar. Otherwise, you can use just about any food that your dog likes and benefits his health. The diverse selection of foods gives you unlimited recipe options. It is important that you can puree the food into a dough and bake it.

The most popular ingredients that keep appearing in many recipes are:

fish, e.g. tuna
beef
poultry
ground beef
oatmeal
cream cheese
carrots
bananas
eggs
spinach
whole wheat flour

What’s the best way to store homemade dog biscuits?

A big advantage of homemade dog treats is that they do not contain any preservatives. However, this also means that they do not last as long as industrially manufactured products. As a rule, the dog treats are plastered off relatively quickly – that’s how it should be!

Nevertheless, you can turn a few adjusting screws to ensure the longest possible durability.

In general, the drier the homemade dog biscuits are, the longer they last. Moist dog treats can unfortunately mold quickly – you should definitely avoid that! To dry out your homemade dog treats as well as possible, you can do the following:

After baking, let the biscuits dry out in the oven (with the oven door open and 50–100° C).
Do not pack the DIY dog biscuits in a can immediately after cooling, but leave them in the air for half a day to a full day before you store them.
Pack the dog treats in classic tin cookie jars or in fabric bags so that no moisture can develop inside. Airtight plastic is unsuitable.
Choose ingredients that have a long shelf life. Whole grains and oats, for example, last longer than meat and fish.

As a rule of thumb, homemade dog treats can be kept for around 3 to 4 weeks on average. The shelf life is extended by several weeks in the refrigerator as long as no moisture penetrates. They can be stored frozen for several months.

DIY dog treats: 3 simple and tasty recipes

The good thing about our delicious DIY dog biscuits is that you don’t need a lot of ingredients or fancy kitchen utensils for them. The easiest way to implement the recipes is with a food processor or a strong one. Alternatively, you can use a hand blender or even a simple whisk to prepare the dough for your DIY dog treats. In addition, cookie cutters and a rolling pin will make your work easier. If you don’t have them at hand, the cookies can also be shaped easily by hand.

Which recipe is “right” for you? Below we present our 3 favorite recipes for homemade dog biscuits. If one or the other recipe doesn’t quite suit you and your dog, we want to motivate you to try it out. There are many recipe ideas on the internet, but only you know your dog’s preferences and needs.

Therefore: Just get started, try out our recipes, and vary them from time to time. Look what supplies you still have at home and then simply test your baking skills!

Recipe # 1: Tuna treats

Preparation time (including baking time): approx. 35 min

Ingredients:

1 egg
1 can of tuna (in its own juice)
130g oat flakes (alternatively: whole grain or potato flour)
Parsley or rosemary

How to make it:

Mix all ingredients together with a mixer or whisk. Add enough oat flakes or flour to make a firm but malleable dough. Now shape the biscuits as large as you want and bake them at 150°C for about 30 minutes. The baking time can vary depending on the size and thickness of the biscuits. Let your DIY tuna biscuits dry in the switched-off oven.

Store tuna dog biscuits in the refrigerator depending on the quantity.

Large portions of the fish biscuits that you will not use up within a short time should be stored in a dry, protected place in the refrigerator. This extends the shelf life of the protein-rich snacks. Depending on your needs, you can also freeze the biscuits and store them for several months.

Recipe No. 2: Cheese crunchy pearls

Preparation time (including baking time): approx. 35 min

Ingredients:

100g of grated cheese
100g of cottage cheese
1 egg
50g crumbled crispbread (or crunchy oat flakes)
1 tbsp sunflower oil
some water if the batter is too firm

How to make it:

Mix all the ingredients together (ideally with a hand blender) and shape the dough into small balls. Place the cheese balls on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and press them into small thalers with a tablespoon. Bake the DIY dog biscuits at 180°C top and bottom heat for about 25 minutes and then let them air dry for one night.

Recipe No. 3: Liver sausage cookies

Preparation time (including baking time): approx. 40 min

Ingredients:

125g liver sausage
250g of oatmeal
1 egg
150g of cottage cheese
5 tbsp sunflower oil
flour for rolling

How to make it:

Mix all the ingredients together to create a creamy mass. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for about 1 hour and then roll it out on a floured work surface (about 1 cm thick). If the dough is too wet to roll out, add more oatmeal. You can read more in the article “Can dogs eat oatmeal cookies?”

Pierce or cut out your DIY dog biscuits as you wish and bake them for about 30 minutes at 150°C (180°C top and bottom heat). Allow the liver sausage biscuits to air dry overnight before stowing them in a cookie jar.

Homemade dog treats for in between or as a healthy gift idea

Baking dog treats yourself is fun, healthy, does not cost a lot, and is easier than you think! Over time, you will learn which ingredients work best for you and your four-legged friend, and you can make them happy with tasty DIY biscuits.

Since you alone determine the size, ingredients and taste of your homemade dog biscuits, you can bake delicious chews as well as small training bites that your dog can tolerate well. The DIY dog biscuits are also suitable as a great gift idea for other dog owners – ideal for Christmas, for a birthday or just for in between. Great fun for all dog lovers!

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I think these are great.

What would be lovely is to hear from someone who has made the treats (and I haven’t yet shown the menus to Jeannie). Even better for that person to write up a guest post for this place.

A hero dog

Clover comes to the aid of her human friend!

This was a story that appeared in my ‘in box’ yesterday afternoon but I didn’t want all the clutter that came with it. No problem because there were a number of videos on YouTube and I selected one that seemed to capture the essence of the story.

Words from the Today programme.

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Video captures moment hero dog stopped traffic during owner’s seizure

By Tim Fitzsimons

March 25, 2021

A dog named Clover is being hailed by Canadian media as a hero for helping her human, Haley Moore, survive a seizure that struck her suddenly during a walk.

Moore was strolling through the Stittsville neighborhood of Ottawa on Tuesday when she seized and fell to the curb, CTV News reported.

The incident was captured by a neighbor’s home security camera.

Clover, a year-and-a-half-old Maremma mix, sprung into action, attending first to Moore before bounding into the street and stopping traffic.

Dryden Oatway, a driver who stopped thanks to Clover’s heroics, said, “It was really impressive, the dog actually blocked my way. She kind of backed into the road to block my truck.”

Clover stopped another driver and then returned home.

“All I remember is waking up in the ambulance and being really confused, just like, ‘What is going on?'” Moore recalled in an interview with CTV. The cause of the seizure remains unknown.

Moore’s father, Randall Moore, told CTV that Clover was fed delicious steaks as a reward for her faithful service.

Psychology Today reported in March that new research suggests that seizure-predicting dogs are aided by the scent of volatile organic compounds that are excreted around seizures.

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Here is the YouTube video.

I’m still having some difficulty with the new WordPress but it is easier than yesterday.

Stranger than fiction.

And I am still talking about dogs!

I wasn’t going to publish a post for today because I had to go to the dentist yesterday for an 11 am appointment. In the afternoon the aesthetic was still making my jaw a little ‘sleepy’. But then I saw this article about a particular dog loving blueberries and figured is was too good to overlook. The article was published in The Dodo.

You will undoubtedly agree with me!

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Dog Has Cared For Every Blueberry Her Mom Has Ever Given Her

She even snuggles them 😂❤️️

By Caitlin Jill Anders
Published on 3/10/2021

Ava is an incredibly sweet and caring dog, and one of her favorite things in life has always been toys.

“Any time anything happens, her answer is to bring over a toy,” Talia Henze, Ava’s mom, told The Dodo. “And I mean any time. If anyone laughs, if she sees anyone sad, she gets up and brings over a toy.”

One day, Ava was watching her mom snack on some blueberries. She looked so curious that Henze decided to give her one. She thought Ava would enjoy having a little treat, but instead, for some reason, she decided to treat the blueberry exactly like one of her toys.

“She’s been trained to only eat her treats and long-lasting chew stuff on her elevated bed or in her crate, so she naturally just brings new toys, treats, etc. to those places,” Henze said. “So it didn’t surprise me that she brought the berry to it. But she just never ate it.”

Instead, Ava gently carried the blueberry around, caring for it tenderly. She showed absolutely no interest in having it as a snack. Her mom thought maybe she just didn’t understand what it was and tried to show her, but it was no use. The blueberry had become Ava’s friend, and that was that.

“She kind of just carried it around to her different places for a while and snuggled it,” Henze said. “When she eventually got bored and left it in her crate, I tried showing her [how] to eat it by breaking it open … She wanted nothing to do with it when it was broken.”

Now, every time Henze gives Ava a blueberry, the same exact thing happens. They’ve become one of her favorite toys, and it’s the cutest quirky habit ever.

“So I know she doesn’t really like eating them, but every time I eat blueberries she seems to want one,” Henze said. “So I just give her one every time … She tried to eat one once when I really encouraged it, but she just spat it out.”

To Ava, blueberries are friends, not food. They’re her little buddies, and that’s never going to change.

No one has any idea why Ava loves playing with blueberries so much, or why she’s so opposed to actually eating them. Her mom doesn’t question it anymore, though. It’s just a part of who Ava is, and that’s perfectly OK with her.

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Dogs are as much a mystery at times as they are pure companions. This is an example of a dog, Ava, who has set her mind on something and that is it! All of us dog carers know this about the animal. I guess there’s a logic to the way that a dog thinks even though that logic is beyond reach to us humans.

But that is one of the many characteristics that makes the dog so precious and so adorable.

Enough said!

Lessons

Nothing to do with dogs but everything to do with the future!

An item in The Conversation recently was not only interesting from a scientific point-of-view but also it had real lessons for the way that we humans are interfering with the planet.

As The Conversation introduced the article:

A mile below the surface of the Greenland ice sheet, an ancient Arctic ecosystem is preserved in the frozen soil. How scientists discovered its leaves, twigs and mosses is a story in itself. It starts with a secret military base built into the northern Greenland ice.

Scientists Andrew Christ and Paul Bierman describe the discovery as something of a Rosetta stone for understanding how well the ice sheet stood up to global warming in the past – and how it might respond in the future.

So, for a change, read something that has nothing to do with our furry friends.

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Ancient leaves preserved under a mile of Greenland’s ice – and lost in a freezer for years – hold lessons about climate change

Remnants of ancient Greenland tundra were preserved in soil beneath the ice sheet. Andrew Christ and Dorothy Peteet, CC BY-ND

In 1963, inside a covert U.S. military base in northern Greenland, a team of scientists began drilling down through the Greenland ice sheet. Piece by piece, they extracted an ice core 4 inches across and nearly a mile long. At the very end, they pulled up something else – 12 feet of frozen soil.

The ice told a story of Earth’s climate history. The frozen soil was examined, set aside and then forgotten.

Half a century later, scientists rediscovered that soil in a Danish freezer. It is now revealing its secrets.

Using lab techniques unimaginable in the 1960s when the core was drilled, we and an international team of fellow scientists were able to show that Greenland’s massive ice sheet had melted to the ground there within the past million years. Radiocarbon dating shows that it would have happened more than 50,000 years ago. It most likely happened during times when the climate was warm and sea level was high, possibly 400,000 years ago.

And there was more. As we explored the soil under a microscope, we were stunned to discover the remnants of a tundra ecosystem – twigs, leaves and moss. We were looking at northern Greenland as it existed the last time the region was ice-free. Our peer-reviewed study was published on March 15 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Two men with the ice core — Engineers pull up a section of the 4,560-foot-long ice core at Camp Century in the 1960s. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

With no ice sheet, sunlight would have warmed the soil enough for tundra vegetation to cover the landscape. The oceans around the globe would have been more than 10 feet higher, and maybe even 20 feet. The land on which Boston, London and Shanghai sit today would have been under the ocean waves.

All of this happened before humans began warming the Earth’s climate. The atmosphere at that time contained far less carbon dioxide than it does today, and it wasn’t rising as quickly. The ice core and the soil below are something of a Rosetta Stone for understanding how durable the Greenland ice sheet has been during past warm periods – and how quickly it might melt again as the climate heats up.

Secret military bases and Danish freezers

The story of the ice core begins during the Cold War with a military mission dubbed Project Iceworm. Starting around 1959, the U.S. Army hauled hundreds of soldiers, heavy equipment and even a nuclear reactor across the ice sheet in northwest Greenland and dug a base of tunnels inside the ice. They called it Camp Century.

It was part of a secret plan to hide nuclear weapons from the Soviets. The public knew it as an Arctic research laboratory. Walter Cronkite even paid a visit and filed a report.

Workers cover a trench to build the under-ice military base — Workers build the snow tunnels at the Camp Century research base in 1960. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

One of the original scientists, glaciologist Chester Langway, kept the core and soil samples frozen at the University at Buffalo for years, then he shipped them to a Danish archive in the 1990s, where the soil was soon forgotten.

A few years ago, our Danish colleagues found the soil samples in a box of glass cookie jars with faded labels: “Camp Century Sub-Ice.”

Scientists look at the sediment in jars — Geomorphologist Paul Bierman (right) and geochemist Joerg Schaefer of Columbia University examine the jars holding Camp Century sediment for the first time. They were in a Danish freezer set at -17 F. Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

On a hot July day in 2019, two samples of soil arrived at our lab at the University of Vermont frozen solid. We began the painstaking process of splitting the precious few ounces of frozen mud and sand for different analyses.

First, we photographed the layering in the soil before it was lost forever. Then we chiseled off small bits to examine under the microscope. We melted the rest and saved the ancient water.

Then came the biggest surprise. While we were washing the soil, we spotted something floating in the rinse water. Paul grabbed a pipette and some filter paper, Drew grabbed tweezers and turned on the microscope. We were absolutely stunned as we looked down the eyepiece.

Staring back at us were leaves, twigs and mosses. This wasn’t just soil. This was an ancient ecosystem perfectly preserved in Greenland’s natural deep freeze.

One of the authors looking excited — Glacial geomorphologist Andrew Christ (right), with geology student Landon Williamson, holds up the first twig spotted as they washed a sediment sample from Camp Century. Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

How old were these plants?

Over the last million years, Earth’s climate was punctuated by relatively short warm periods, typically lasting about 10,000 years, called interglacials, when there was less ice at the poles and sea level was higher. The Greenland ice sheet survived through all of human history during the Holocene, the present interglacial period of the last 12,000 years, and most of the interglacials in the last million years.

But our research shows that at least one of these interglacial periods was warm enough for a long enough period of time to melt large portions of the Greenland ice sheet, allowing a tundra ecosystem to emerge in northwestern Greenland.

We used two techniques to determine the age of the soil and the plants. First, we used clean room chemistry and a particle accelerator to count atoms that form in rocks and sediment when exposed to natural radiation that bombards Earth. Then, a colleague used an ultra-sensitive method for measuring light emitted from grains of sand to determine the last time they were exposed to sunlight.

Maps of Greenland Ice Sheet speed and bedrock elevation — Maps of Greenland show the speed of the ice sheet as it flows (left) and the landscape hidden beneath it (right). BedMachine v3; Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), CC BY-ND

Chart of CO2 concentrations over time — The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today is well beyond past levels determined from ice cores. On March 14, 2021, the CO2 level was about 417 ppm. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, CC BY-ND

Lessons for a world facing rapid climate change

Losing the Greenland ice sheet would be catastrophic to humanity today. The melted ice would raise sea level by more than 20 feet. That would redraw coastlines worldwide.

About 40% of the global population lives within 60 miles of a coast, and 600 million people live within 30 feet of sea level. If warming continues, ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica will pour more water into the oceans. Communities will be forced to relocate, climate refugees will become more common, and costly infrastructure will be abandoned. Already, sea level rise has amplified flooding from coastal storms, causing hundreds of billions of dollars of damage every year.

A rock and tundra with a glacier in the background — Tundra near the Greenland ice sheet today. Is this what Camp Century looked like before the ice came back sometime in the last million years? Paul Bierman, CC BY-ND

Andrew Christ, Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in Geology, University of Vermont and Paul Bierman, Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, Professor of Geology and Natural Resources, University of Vermont

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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The article is republished with the full permission of The Conversation.

I hope you read it because the way the climate is changing is affecting all of us now and sooner rather than later we have all got to amend our ways. Indeed, when I look at anyone who has potentially thirty or more years of life in them I ponder what their future is going to be like. And, of course, it won’t be a drastic change in thirty years it is already happening now albeit at times difficult to see.

But there is not one scintilla of doubt that we humans are the cause and we humans have to be the solution!

Not just us humans who enjoy a pizza!

A rare sight!

Once again a recent post on The Dodo I felt was worthy of a share.

See what I felt when you read the following:

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Wild Coyote Discovers Her Favorite New Dinner

“It was nearly half a pizza.”

By Sarah V Schweig

Published on 12/12/2017

A man in California who took up wildlife photography a decade ago had never seen anything quite like what he saw this fall — and he was lucky he had his camera with him.

Every morning, Russell Greaves, of Huntington Beach, California, goes out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve behind his house to immerse himself in that slice of the natural world. He often sees coyotes, enough that he’s begun to recognize individuals in the area.

“A lot of people here just love the coyotes,” Greaves told The Dodo over the phone, during his morning walk on Tuesday.

One morning in October, he saw a familiar wild coyote. It was a mom who had given birth to a litter of pups six months before.

“She had had four pups,” Greaves said. “The pups would come out and play around, while dad went out to hunt. But they’re out on their own now.”

It was nice to see the mom again — but there was something different about her. And as she got closer, Greaves couldn’t help but laugh.

Somehow, the mother coyote had found a pizza — and she decided to go ahead and take it with her.

“It was nearly half a pizza,” Greaves said. It’s not certain where the coyote managed to find this enormous meal. Greaves said that there are some homeless people who camp out in the woods and perhaps she swiped it from them.

Since her pups had already gone out on their own, she probably wasn’t planning on sharing, Greaves speculated. “I thought, ‘This has got to be for herself.’”

More important than this meme-worthy sight is the balance the residents of the area have struck with the natural world — something sorely lacking in other communities across the country, where coyotes are often brutally hunted in killing contests.

Admittedly, not everyone loves the coyotes quite as much as Greaves does, but many people are fascinated by the wild family living nearby, and people take precautions to ensure a peaceful coexistence. “We tell people to not feed the coyotes. They’re not here to eat human food,” Greaves said. “We tell people who are walking their little dogs to be careful because the coyotes are around.”

“The coyotes come back to the same habitat because they like it here,” Greaves added.

And the coyotes are lucky to have people like Greaves, who love having them there.

—————

You can help people coexist with coyotes and other wildlife — to learn how, visit Project Coyote. You can also donate to the wildlife reserve.

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Just another wildlife story of endless fascination about the animal kingdom.

What’s a stray dog need? Food and caring!

Another international story of love and caring for our dogs.

This time about homeless or stray dogs and in Peru. Again it was written by Stephen Messenger and was shared on The Dodo website. Again it is about the fundamental goodness that is in a great many humans spanning continents.

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Nice Restaurant Owner Prepares A Free Meal For Every Stray Dog Who Visits

“They pay us with their happiness and wagging tails” ❤️
By Stephen Messenger
Published on the 26th February, 2021

One evening five years ago, an unexpected customer dropped by Gerardo Ortiz’s restaurant, Ajilalo, in Peru. It was a stray dog, a look of hunger in her eyes.

Ortiz could have easily turned the dog away. But he didn’t.

That evening, Ortiz offered the dog a free meal, made just for her.

And thus began an adorable tradition that continues to this day.

Each evening, from then on, the hungry dog came and received a free meal from Ortiz’s restaurant.

But it didn’t take long for word of Ortiz’s kindness and generosity to spread among the community of local stray pups.

More dogs began to arrive with that first visitor— and Ortiz welcomed them all with a meal.

Nowadays, numerous stray dogs arrive to the doors of Ortiz’s restaurant each night. Many are regular “customers,” while others are first-timers — all hoping to fill their bellies thanks to Ortiz’s kindness.

Often, as Ortiz is working, he’ll look up and see a new dog’s face at the front — waiting politely to see if the rumor that free food can found there is true.

It always is.

“For me, they are the best customers,” Ortiz told The Dodo.

And his human customers hardly take that as a slight. Inspired by Ortiz, they often bring food for the visiting dogs as well.

“Thankfully, our clients have reacted well to the dogs,” Ortiz said. “They are affectionate toward them.”

Ultimately, Ortiz’s sweet routine of feeding all the stray dogs who visit does more than keep them from being hungry. It lets them know that their lives matter — a truth that Ortiz is happy to prove to them each and every day.

“They do not pay us with money, but they pay us with their happiness and wagging tails,” Ortiz said. “They are very grateful, and we enjoy giving more than receiving. Since I was a child, I have loved animals. My mother always taught us to help others, both people and animals. She’s my inspiration.”

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This is such a wonderful share. Snr Ortiz confirms what we know absolutely. That people who care for animals care for so much more. As Gerardo says: “It lets them know that their lives matter.”

I am minded to remember when I first met Jean in December, 2007. Jean was living in San Carlos, Northern Mexico, and had been for many years. Her husband, Ben, had died in 2005.

Jean was rescuing street dogs off the streets of San Carlos and surrounding areas, caring for them, neutering or spaying them, and then finding homes for them mainly in Arizona, USA. Many, many dogs owed their lives to Jean’s love for those dogs. In 2010, after I had gone out to San Carlos with my Pharaoh to live with Jean and her dogs in 2008, we came North to Arizona to find a U.S. home and be married. We came through the Mexican-US border with 16 dogs, all of them with their paperwork in order. I will always recall the American border agent, after I had approached him with all the paperwork, leaning out of his booth and calling to the agent in the next booth: “Hey Jake, there’s a guy here with sixteen dogs!”

Jean and I were married in Payson, AZ on the 20th November, 2010.

Very sweet memories and the start of a loving era in our lives.

Loving each other and loving our dogs!

Across the world people care for dogs!

This is a marvellous story from Turkey.

It is an account of how a young girl went to seek help for a dog.

It is on The Dodo website and just shows how the caring for a dog crosses all boundaries.

Yet this young girl is just one of millions, literally, who care for our precious dogs.

Here’s the story:

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Little Girl Trudges Through Heavy Snow To Get Help For Her Sick Dog

By Stephen Messenger
Published on 2/26/2021

“She’d wrapped her dog up and brought him to me on her back” ❤️

The other day, Ogün Öztürk was called to a small village in Turkey to attend to a client’s cow. He hadn’t planned on staying long.

But what began as just a routine visit ended as one Ogün won’t soon forget.

After wrapping up the job he’d come for, Ogün was about to leave the village. Before he did, however, something in the distance caught his eye.

There, trudging toward him on a path thick with snow, was a little girl. And she was not alone.

On her back was a pup.

Evidently, word had gotten around that a vet was in town — and that presented an opportunity which the girl, 8-year-old Cemre Su Türköz, refused to pass up.

Cemre’s dog, named Pamuk, had fallen sick. Desperate to get him help, she decided to carry Pamuk more than a mile from her home to the spot she’d heard that Ogün would be.

“When I first saw them, I was very surprised and touched,” Ogün told The Dodo. “She’d wrapped her dog up and brought him to me on her back.”

Ogün, of course, couldn’t turn Cemre and Pamuk away. While the little girl looked on, concerned, Ogün performed a checkup.

Fortunately, the dog’s sickness wasn’t all too serious. Ogün found Pamuk just had some minor skin issues that were making him uncomfortable, but which could easily be treated.

“When Cemre heard that her dog would be fine, she was very happy,” Ogün said. “I applied external parasite medications to Pamuk. He is now enjoying himself again, healthy and happily.”

The little girl and her dog had gotten help. But they also got a friend.

Ogün has been back to the village to check in on Cemre and Pamuk, ensuring that they never need to brave the snow again to get whatever help he can provide. It’s the least he could do, considering the effort she’d put in to find him.

“It made me very happy that an 8-year-old girl behaved in this way with such a loving heart,” Ogün said.

Ogün didn’t charge Cemre for his services that day. Just seeing her love and devotion to Pamuk was the best payment he could ask for.

“The fact that a person at such a young age exhibits this behavior gives hope to humanity,” Ogün said. “With all that’s going on in the world, there’s still hope. Cemre showed us that the only truth in the world is love.”

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Let me pick up on that last paragraph for it is so full of things that we know in our hearts are correct.

The first thing is that this eight-year-old girl, Cemre, knows what is right. To be honest, most young people of either gender more often than not know the right thing to do. Then Ogün was reported as saying: “With all that’s going on in the world …”. But there has always been so much going on. It is just that modern communications makes the world’s news to come in at us; wherever we are!

But the most important observation is that the only truth in the world is love!

“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” Victor Hugo.

“Love doesn’t make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” Franklin P. Jones

The above two quotes are just a fraction of what may be seen if one Googles love quotes!

Ancient North American beginnings.

And early humans also came with their dogs!

Gary, aka Nimbushopper, sent me an item that appeared on Newsmax.

It was all about the early settlers. I very much would like to share it with you.

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Study: Dogs Came to N. America With Earliest Humans

Wednesday, 24 February 2021.

A Siberian husky enjoys the snow during a training session in Huy, eastern Germany, on February 11, 2021. – Musher Kerstin Galisch is a multiple participant of national and international competitions and takes care of a pack of fifteen Siberian Husky sled dogs, that live in and around a former and rebuilt feedlot premises administration building. (Photo by Ronny Hartmann / AFP) (Photo by RONNY HARTMANN/AFP via Getty Images)

Scientists said Wednesday they had discovered the oldest remains of a domestic dog in the Americas dating back more than 10,000 years, suggesting the animals accompanied the first waves of human settlers.

Humans are thought to have migrated to North America from Siberia over what is today the Bering Strait at the end of the last Ice Age — between 30,000 and 11,000 years ago.

The history of dogs has been intertwined with man since ancient times, and studying canine DNA can provide a good timeline for human settlement.

A new study led by the University at Buffalo analysed the mitochondrial DNA of a bone fragment found in Southeast Alaska.

The team initially thought the fragment belonged to a bear.

But closer examination revealed it to be part of a femur of a dog that lived in the region around 10,150 years ago, and that shared a genetic lineage with American dogs that lived before the arrival of European breeds.

“Because dogs are a proxy for human occupation, our data help provide not only a timing but also a location for the entry of dogs and people into the Americas,” said Charlotte Lindqvist, an evolutionary biologist from the University at Buffalo and the University of South Dakota.

She said the findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, supports the theory that humans arrived in North America from Siberia.

“Southeast Alaska might have served as an ice-free stopping point of sorts, and now — with our dog — we think that early human migration through the region might be much more important than some previously suspected,” said Lindqvist.

Older Migrations

A carbon isotope analysis of the bone fragment showed that the ancient Southeast Alaskan dog likely had a marine diet that consisted of fish and seal and whale scraps.

Lindqvist said dogs did not arrive in North America all at once. Some arrived later from East Asia with the Thule people, while Siberian huskies were imported to Alaska during the Gold Rush in the 19th century.

There is a long-standing contention about whether the first humans entered North America through a continental corridor that formed as the ice sheets receded, or along the North Pacific coast thousands of years earlier.

Previous age estimates of dog remains were younger than the fragment found by Lindqvist and the team, suggesting that dogs arrived in the continent during the later, continental migrations.

Lindqvist said her findings supported the theory that dogs in fact arrived in North America among the first waves of humans settlers.

“We also have evidence that the coastal edge of the ice sheet started melting at least around 17,000 years ago, whereas the inland corridor was not viable until around 13,000 years ago,” she told AFP.

“And genetic evidence that a coastal route for the first Americans over 16,000 years ago seems most likely. Our study supports that our coastal dog is a descendant of dogs that participated in this initial migration.”

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I have said it before and no doubt will say it again many times in the future: The bond that dogs have with us humans and, in return, the thanks and love that we have for our dogs goes back a very, very long time indeed.

This is just another article that confirms this.

Just want to repeat the amazing news that Charlotte Lindqvist reported:

But closer examination revealed it to be part of a femur of a dog that lived in the region around 10,150 years ago, and that shared a genetic lineage with American dogs that lived before the arrival of European breeds.

I do hope you read the full article as presented here.

Thank you, Gary!

True love, doggie style!

It’s a very simple yet very pure message!

Dogs offer so much unconditional love: For their human pals; for their doggie pals; and so much more.

I was minded to write in this manner after just coming from the main bedroom next door and finding Brandy resting on the bed. It was a ‘grab the camera’ moment and take a few shots. Moments later Brandy had come down from the bed and was back in the main living room.

So here’s a recent article on The Dodo for you to enjoy.

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Dog Shows Up At Front Door To Invite His Girlfriend On A Date

He even brought her a gift ❤

By Stephen Messenger
Published on 12/9/2019.

This is Holly, a cuddly black Lab who lives in New York with her parents.

She’s downright adorable — and we’re not the only ones who think so.

Holly, of course, gleefully accepted dear Harry’s offer — but she wasn’t the only one smitten by the gentlepup’s thoughtful gesture.

“My heart is so full!” Casi Cook, Holly’s owner, wrote online. “If you listen when my brother opens the door, I’m in complete shock and I didn’t believe it.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Holly Cook (@holly.and.her.money)

Now that’s true love.

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And speaking of love ….

It’s not the world’s best photograph as I had to use flash!

Yet another recall, and some good news!

Hats off to Malwarebytes.com!

Those of you that read yesterday’s post will know that I was having malware problems.

I have McAfee Total Protection and yesterday first thing I started a full scan using McAfee. After many hours it still had not removed the malware.

I again called Apple and they recommended me using the Malwarebytes software. I installed that software and it worked! So I very happily struck up a paying relationship with Malwarebytes!

Now to today’s dog food recall!

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Bravo Packing Recalls Performance Dog Pet Food

March 3, 2021 — Bravo Packing, Inc. of Carneys Point, NJ, is recalling all Ground Beef and Performance Dog, a frozen raw pet food because it has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.

What’s Recalled?

Performance Dog and Ground Beef both come frozen in 2-pound and 5-pound plastic sleeves with the following labels (provided by the company).

About Salmonella and Listeria

Salmonella can cause illness in animals eating the products, as well as people who handle contaminated pet products… especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with the products, infected animals or any surfaces exposed to these products.

Listeria monocytogenes is an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.

Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, server headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria monocytogenes infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women.

Healthy people infected with Salmonella should monitor themselves for some or all of the following symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, abdominal cramping and fever.

Rarely, Salmonella can result in more serious ailments, including arterial infections, endocarditis (an infection of the heart muscle), arthritis, muscle pain, eye irritation and urinary tract symptoms.

People who have these symptoms after having contact with this product or an animal that has eaten this product should contact their healthcare providers.

Pets with Salmonella infections may be lethargic and have diarrhea or bloody diarrhea, fever, and vomiting.

Some pets will have decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain.

Pets exposed to contaminated food can be infected without showing symptoms.

If your pet has consumed the recalled product and has these symptoms, please contact your veterinarian.

Infected animals including those without symptoms, can also shed Salmonella through their feces and saliva, spreading pathogens into the home environment and to humans and other animals in the household.

No human or animal illnesses have been reported to date.

About This Recall

Bravo Packing, Inc. is voluntarily recalling the products after samples of Performance Dog and a sample of Ground Beef were collected during an FDA inspection, tested positive for Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes.

Where Were the Products Sold?

Performance Dog generally works with the distributor located in Brooklyn, New York, that fills orders to brick-and-mortar retail stores or to consumers directly nationwide.

What to Do?

If you have an Ground Beef or Performance Dog, please throw it away. (My emphasis. PH)

Consumers with questions should contact Bravo Packing, Inc. at 856-299-1044 (Monday – Friday, 9:00AM-2:00PM, EST).

U.S. citizens can report complaints about FDA-regulated pet food products by calling the consumer complaint coordinator in your area.

Or go to the FDA’s “Report a Pet Food Complaint” page.

Canadians can report any health or safety incidents related to the use of this product by filling out the Consumer Product Incident Report Form.

Get Lifesaving Recall Alerts by Email

Get free dog food recall alerts sent to you by email. Subscribe to The Dog Food Advisor’s emergency recall notification system.

There’s no cost. No spam ever. Cancel any time.

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As per usual, please share this recall as widely as possible.

Thank you!

Make Dog Treats Yourself: 3 Easy and Quick Recipes

Baking dog biscuits yourself: the advantages of DIY treats

What ingredients are allowed in dog biscuits?

What’s the best way to store homemade dog biscuits?

DIY dog treats: 3 simple and tasty recipes

Recipe # 1: Tuna treats

Recipe No. 2: Cheese crunchy pearls

Recipe No. 3: Liver sausage cookies

Homemade dog treats for in between or as a healthy gift idea

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Study: Dogs Came to N. America With Earliest Humans

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Dog Shows Up At Front Door To Invite His Girlfriend On A Date

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Bravo Packing Recalls Performance Dog Pet Food

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