Speaking of Food....

Over the last couple of months I have had a lot of people ask me why I chose to start Pet Chef, so I thought this would help explain.

This is not a new idea. Three years ago I got my Beagle and a couple of months later my Pug joined the family. I grew up with dogs and love them to bits but growing up it was always my poor mother who had to deal with the feeding and cleaning up after them. Once these two arrived - I was on my own and had to make so many choices for them.

When I moved to Bangalore I had a 16 hour a day job and was hardly home so I had to settle for getting a fish just so I would have someone to talk to when I came home. But I spent a lot of my time dreaming about having a dog again and what life would be like if I could come home to a wet nose and doggie breath! So anyway - eventually the job was swapped for one that was more flexible and my two brats made an entrance.

I promptly went out and checked for the best food that was available and actually did a lot of research on doggie nutrition. This was about the time the whole melamine scare happened and I remember sifting through pages and pages of info to make sure that what I was feeding my babies was not among the recalled and high risk food.

Anyway - the long and the short of it is that I sorted that decision out, but I was still being stared at every time I had a snack or meal. I have even had my crazy Beagle steal a chilly off my plate and scarf it down with no apparent reaction! It got me thinking - while dogs like their routine and don't take well to constant changes in diet, that doesn't mean they don't appreciate good food! So every now and then I would make them a special treat that would be their version of my chips and pizza and cake minus the sugar and salt and preservatives and other nasties.

I considered selling my stuff back then but I was still kind of stuck in the rat race and the only person I asked for an opinion was horribly discouraging so I just went back to making things for my two and put bigger plans on the back burner.

The big change came last year when I had to have surgery and was told that my lifestyle had to change or I would be going back to the doctor sooner than I thought - and the first thing that came to my mind was that I should resurrect the plan and see where it takes me this time.

So here I am - and I'm looking forward to being able to give all your dogs the same yummy break from the everyday food that mine have enjoyed so much. I have a policy that I will never make for a dog, something that I am not willing to put in MY mouth - so, while some of you may not like the taste of the treats since they are usually low on salt and bad-for-dog stuff - they really ARE healthy for you AND your dog!