Romping in the Snow

The nice thing about living in the foothills of a mountain is that we get a few hundred acres of free land right behind our house. Land in Seattle is expensive, and the housing market here is ridiculous so it is really valuable to live somewhere close to the city and yet have open spaces closeby. That's the beauty of living in Issaquah. We are 30 min from downtown, and have all the modern amenities in our local downtown and we also have woods, forests, lakes and streams.
The current winter storm has been severe, while other states are getting rain storms and floods, we've got snow. The Interstate 90 even had to be closed down last night because of avalanche danger at Snoqualmie. Mum and I take the opportunity to head up to the woods behind our house. We love to explore together.

Hmm... what's that scent?

Because my long distance recall is reliable, I get to go offleash. There are hardly any critters out now in the cold winter, and its so quiet when we are up there. No humans or doggies. Just Mummy and I. It is so fun to sniff and see and hear.

I'm not the fastest runner, but I do love running and hopping around in the snow. Mum and I don't like the rain, but we sure do love snow. It doesn't stop us from going out to have some alone time.

Woopee!!!

Checking out to see if I can spot any squirrels.

Snow clings onto my furnishings making snow clumps. They can be hard to remove. Strangely enough, this time, we didn't have to get them out because by the time we went home, 2 hours later, they just fell off by themselves.

Running here, there and everywhere

One of my other favorite things to do is to pick up sticks and chew them. The more breaks I can get into a single long stick, the better.

Showing off my snow encrusted beard.

I'm quite happy with myself. Can you tell?

Love,
Kimi

Mr Yellow Monkey

As I've been a really really good boy lately, Mum bought me a new toy. Its a rubber yellow monkey. My name for it is Mr Yellow Monkey, but Mum calls it 'monkey'. It makes a squeaky sound when you bite his arms, legs or torso, and he is fun and chewy. He doesn't seem to break apart like my other victims (aka toys) and there doesn't seem to be anything to disembowel. Well, yet, for now maybe not....

I bring Mr Yellow Monkey all around the house with me, showing him all of my domain. He keeps smiling at me so he must be really happy.

I love to play tug with Mum, and she didn't seem to want to let go, so I just hung on. This game is fun! Until she says "Ous" that is... then I let go.

So believe it or not, the pretty Christmas tree is still up!! Its the 30th day of January Mum!! It has become a bit of a joke, to see how long Mum will leave that tree standing.

Gulp! Gulp! I run down the stairs to show Daddy my new toy when he gets back from work, but he seems to be upset, "What? Another new toy? How many new toys have you bought Kimi this week?" He asked Mum. Silence.

Love,
Kimi

My Raw Diet

Some of my friends who come to my blog are curious about my diet. So I figured I had to kick Mum's butt to get her to detail my diet for a week. She's been collecting photos of my food and of me eating, so you have an idea of what a raw fed dog eats in a regular week.

Monday
Minced lamb with bones, inc lamb organs, yoghurt, one raw egg, salmon oil, supplement
Total weight: abt 3lbs

Tuesday
Fast (no food)

Wednesday
Minced chicken with crushed bone, kelp supplement, one raw egg, salmon oil, supplement
Total weight: 2 lbs

Thursday
Pig tails (with bone)
Total weight: abt 2lbs

Friday
Chicken parts (with bone and skin) - 1 drumstick, 2 thighs, 2 wings, 2 chests, and a few misc un-identifiable parts
Total weight: abt 3lbs

Saturday
Fast (no food)

Sunday
Oxtail
Total weight: 1lb

Monday
Beef flanken, stewed carrots, stewed garlic, stew sauce
Total weight: 2lbs

Below are miscellaneous photos of me eating these meals over this past week.

Enjoying my favorite, stew sauce over anything, in this case, I've got flanken beef.

When I was little, Mum would help me by cutting the pieces up so that I didn't have to chew so much, cos I'm a slow eater (I take an hour or so to finish one meal), but now, she doesn't do that anymore. She says I'm old enough to work my teeth, gums and jaws. One of the benefits of eating raw food instead of kibble is the advantage of chewing long and continuously. The gums get good blood circulation and helps my teeth stay healthy. Also, the food that have ligaments and tendons work like floss.

Chewing on pigtails. They are meaty on the outside, with soft bones on the inside. Very crunchy and delicious.

Crunching a piece of a pigtail end

Yoghurt acts like a form of probiotics, helping to create the healthy environment in my tummy, making it full of enzymes necessary to break down raw meaty food. When I was a puppy, converting from kibble to raw, I had to have probiotics added to my raw food to hasten the process, so that I would stop having diarrhea during the 'healing period'. Now I no longer take probiotics since yoghurt does the same thing.

Mmmmm... yummy oxtail. Similar to pig tails, they are meaty on the outside, crunchy bones on the inside. There is also a bit of fat and its good for me in winter.

On a "Down-stay" command, waiting for Mum to give me the release "Free" command to begin eating. I always have to be put through a mini drill process before I am allowed to eat. Mum says I am learning my manners.

Eating Raw Food is good for me, because I am a canine, and I am a carnivore, but I also get to eat table scraps as treats. I get apple, seedless grapes, bread edges tho it happens seldom, pizza edges, and some other small bits and pieces of things. I also get treats, dried raw lamb lung, dried real meat jerkeys, hotdogs, and maybe I should post something on my treats too.

And the best reason for me to go raw is my Poop. It is tiny and hard, like small little pebbles, about 1-2 inches in size and they are easy to pick up, and don't smell as pungent as mushy kibble poop.

The poop is hard when I have bone in my diet. When I eat only mince (like those from the supermarket) my poop gets mushy too, but Mum hates that, besides, bone is a necessary component for my diet. People have many misconceptions about bones and dogs. Raw bones are good, cooked bones are bad.
The reason why raw fed poop is so small is that most of the nutrients and good stuff have been absorbed by the body. On the other hand, kibble poop is massive because there's a lot of junk in that food that is not absorbed by the body, therefore turning to waste.

Love,
Kimi

Washington's Marymoor Offleash Dog Park

There is an off leash dog park in Washington state called Marymoor Park. It is situated in the middle of Redmond town, so its only 30 min from where we live. It is about 44 acres of beautiful wide plains, with a running river (Sammammish River) thrown in for dogs who love to swim. It is huge, and Mum and I head to Marymoor about once a week for doggie socialization and walk for an hour or two. I love going there because I get to meet new doggie friends and we all get to sprint around offleash. Mum says we can go there only because I am reliable with long distance recall.
Checking out the river to the left for salmon and ducks, and other water fowl

On this trip, I even got to see another Airedale, we greeted each other with happy tails, and we could instantly tell, we were the same kind. We hung out for a little bit, sniffing bushes and things. There was something strange about her though, her ears stood straight up and wouldn't flop down like mine. Also, her tail is really short.

Then Mum and I met this really cool guy with his dog, and he could call the ducks. He would make odd duck sounds and they would flop over to him to be fed. When I saw the ducks, I was really surprised that they weren't scared of me. After all, we are scary DOGS!

Mum, are you seeing this? Ducks only a few feet away!! Yummy dinner.

I just couldn't bear it, the ducks were right before me, and I couldn't catch them. Heck, I wouldn't even jump into the river to try. I've got a secret, I can't swim.. but my lab buddy could, and he was swimming around, fetching his 'ball' instead of trying to catch dinner.

This is me answering the call of nature, before I dashed off to run and play again

The weather was so cold, the puddle froze over. It became ice.

Playing along the river with doggie friends is fun, although I can't swim.

Greeting a young pitbull. Meeting other doggies helps me learn good manners, and keeps me in touch with my canine need to socialize with my own kind.

Woopee!

Playing around with the giants of the park, the Great Danes

I hope I get to go to Marymoor again soon but Mum says that's not going to happen with this wretched weather. Its been snowing and raining and extremely windy up here in Seattle this week.

Love, Kimi