Wandering around in any food store, all the brands seem to be the same, all claiming the same old marketing stuff.

But honestly, I have no idea which one I should be getting. Money is not a factor here, because I am willing to save money else where, as long as my 4 little ones are healthy.

Any advice would be appreciated. I am asking here because I am starting to trust the opinions of people here - with the exception of the people I fight with, when  promoting kindness to animals. -

Thank you in advance.
 

Dogs and cats have much quicker metabolisms than we do, so they internalize bad things more quickly, and in greater concentrations.

In our case, Little Dog is not exposed to much that his horribly artificial.  But we live on a ground-floor apartment in NYC, and we all have to cope with dust and bad vapors coming in from the street.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

I tried cooking chicken once and nearly killed the man I was dating. The middle of the chicken was still frozen and the outsides were burnt. Well, the only reason this guy ate the whole thing was to be nice to me and to get "some" after dinner. Despite the chicken accident, we are now married. And there are only live animals in the house. I am too "chicken" to cook with the dead ones.

But upon your suggestion, I shall buy some little dog food. Thank you.

Little Dog does eat food from vegetable sources, as I wrote.  But she obviously prefers meat, cheese and eggs; and I would never try to convert her to vegetarianism, as some people with dogs try to do.

For some reason, my omnivorous husband made himself a lamb chop the other night, and gave Little Dog the bone.  She is such a baby that she could not chew it herself, but needed him to pick the meat off it and feed her by hand.  And then, the next day, she had indigestion and lost her appetite!

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

In our house, the dogs and cats are treated like Gods! Infact, I think if I set them "free", they would just sit at the door, until I let them back in!

Oh "little dog" is your dogs name, I though that was name of the dog food brand. Sorry.  

So anyway, from Blanquita, we got to Little White Dog, or just Little White, or just Little Dog.

But more formally, my husband calls her Theodora, and I call her Fiordiligi.

You have many more critters on your hands than we could manage, apparently.  By all means, you are responsible for doing everything you can for their safety and health.

My birthday came and went, and I did not get what I asked for: a rat, from the ASPCA.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

So why did you not get a rat? - whats up with that? I am sure there were lots of rats at rescue place.

Rats are said to be very intelligent. One day when I have child, I hope we can have more pets, but as for now, my husband has put a limit to my saving more animals!!!

But I think if I did a fait-accompli, without his knowledge, we would all get along just fine.

By the way, I love the second Grist picture, of the yellow dog looking protectively at the little striped cat.  I always love photographs of cats and dogs being nice to one another.

But by the same token, my suspicion is that as soon as the photographer leaves, the cat claws out the eyes of the dog, then disembowels it, then starts eating it, while it is still alive.

I could be wrong, of course.  : )

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

And many more...
By which I mean, many more birthdays, not all of which necessarily have to be belated...

</impromptu musical number>

The day went very well, thank you.  It happens to be April 15, arguably the gloomiest day in the calendar.  Not only is it Tax Day; but that is the day when Abraham Lincoln died (though he was shot on the 14th!), and when the Titanic sank (though it met the iceberg on the 14th!).  And although two celebrated if notoriously difficult artists, Leonardo da Vinci and Henry James, were born on that day, it is also the birthday of Kim Il Sung, the super-notorious Stalinist dictator of North Korea and papa of the current Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.  One hears that the day is an important festival there, and that a great hall for public events in Pyongyang is named for it.

In spite of all that, the day went well enough.  There is a pretty little park here, with an elegant, somber monument dedicated to Isidor and Ida Straus, two New Yorkers who sailed on the Titanic; she would have been given a place in a lifeboat, but she would not leave her husband, and so they died together.  I went to sit for a few moment on the great marble bench, saying some prayers, and admiring the pigeons.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

We can't quite afford it all the time, so we feed Fromm's with Stella and Chewy's as the "special" meals a couple times a week instead of canned or other wet foods.

I highly recommend avoiding anything that has artifical coloring, flavoring, and preservatives, even in treats.

Also, check to see where the ingredients come from, in addition to where it's made. I've done a lot of research on the subject, and you'd be surprised how many companies claim "made in the USA" but actually source their ingredients in China when you dig deep enough.