Reading, Eating, Running: Vegan MoFo this one is for the dogs!

As you know, I have three incredible dogs. I love them like they were my children! They are part of our family.

Lily, the oldest, is a Beagle. We adopted her over 8 years ago from the animal shelter. When we went to look at dogs, I didn't want a beagle, because I didn't want her to bark and howl. Lily never did those things, though. In fact, my daughter had to teach her how! Lily is my DBFF (my dog best friend forever).

Copper is the youngest, and largest. She is about 4 now, and it is hard to believe she was the smallest of the litter. We got her from a local farm, and are pretty sure she is a mix of terrier and lab. She's my running buddy, and goes with me everywhere I train. She has completed a few half marathons!

Jack is 6, and was a stray dog that adopted us when we were traveling a few years ago. We contacted the local authorities, but didn't leave him behind, the local shelter was a kill-shelter. By the time we realized that no one was going yo contact us or claim him, he'd already decided he was one of the pack. He is the funniest little dog, and the best snuggler!

Each of the pups has such a great, individual personality. I love them all!

Because I care so much about what I put in my own body, I started doing research about what I was feeding my dogs. After all, they're part of my family! What I discovered wasn't pretty. Most of the moderately priced dog food on the market (I hadn't even been feeding them the cheap stuff, which I would expect these statistics from) was awful. That kibble was the equivalent of a fast food meal, on the health scale. Then I found out that a lot of those companies also conduct cruel animal testing, and I knew something had to change.

I found a few brands of dog food that were healthier, and cruelty-free, but wow, really EXPENSIVE. I mean, first of all, when you have three dogs, dog food isn't cheap, but this stuff I wanted to buy was just out of my price range.

So what I do now, is supplement. This makes the high priced good stuff last a lot longer, and adds in even healthier, fresher foods into my pup's diets. Also, it gives them some variety, which I know I like in my diet!

Here's an example of some things I make for the dogs:

Rice

Beans

Legumes (their favorite!)

TVP

Carrots

Green Beans

Sprouts

Peas

Corn

Sweet Potato

Pumpkin

etc.

Then I add in Flax oil (to keep their skin and fur nice-this also helps Little Jack who gets itchy sometimes), and this powdered supplement, Vegedog, which has B vitamins and taurine.

The dogs each eat about 70/30% of the cooked food and the healthy kibble. They seem to love it! And they are very healthy. It takes me about an hour to make (factoring in 40 minutes for brown rice to cook!) And I generally make a batch once a week while I'm also cooking my own dinner. It is worth every minute!