They tore off two perches.

Oh, goodness!

WS, I'd love to see it too.

Oh no! Should I not be using Purina? What should I use? I totally want to pamper my [brat of a cat], but a) vet recommendations have been contradictory and b) she doesn't seem to give a shit what she eats.

Er, or perhaps I should just go read it when you post it.

oh! my little bit of excitement - I saw flying squirrels! two of them, on the ground, nibbling on something. So cute!

Ok, I have banged it off to Ginger and vw. Emily, if you want it now, I'll send it along. If you want to wait until after it has been vetted (pun intended, no apologies), I will be sure to post a link here.

Purina, and a lot of other brands, have some ingredients that really spell trouble for Harvey. His digestive upsets taught me the need to read ingredients labels - wheat and corn products really set off his issues. And cats being obligate carnivores, the more meat in the first few ingredients in the list, the better. For dogs, meat is also a good thing, but as I understand it, it is a smidge less urgent. Still, here is a good website that explains a bit about how to read a pet food label. [link] IIRC it also has reviews of some brands, so you can see which are better and which are not so great.

Ok, I have banged it off to Ginger and vw.

Wow, that sentence is real easy to misread.

If Windsparrow is a pet food snob, that makes me the queen bitch of pet food. I'm sure she's much, much nicer about it than I have been in the past.

When Bartleby was so sick and I went into hyper-research mode out of desperation, I learned stuff you just don't want to know about some of the grocery store/common brands. Subsequently, I've pitched to both ends of the spectrum: raw home-made food to a kibble I respect with fresh stuff thrown in.

My theory is sort of a pay now vs paying later sort of thing. But, in the end, I've known some dogs who live long lives eating the worst brands and others who do better on the more 'human grade' brands.

I think the rule of thumb is the same for most things, if there are scary ingredients you would not eat yourself, chances are good they won't do your pet good.

My father used to feed his cat cooked liver every day...which my middle school life sciences teacher proclaimed to be a death sentence. The same cat also got that gross kitty pouched food that smells like plastic. She lived to 17 or 18, so go figure.

Vortex, I don't think your profile addy is cooperating today. So I sent it off through Facebook. I hope that is ok with you. And thank you so much for taking a look at it.

Hmm, i replied to your yahoo addy from my profile addy, so hopefully there's no issue.

Ok, I have banged it off to Ginger and vw.

Wow, that sentence is real easy to misread.

For dirty-minded people like you, maybe...

Somebody did something like that on Top Chef (I think - one of the cooking reality shows, in any case), and got raves for it.

I've had something very like that at a cocktail party somewhere it was fucking delicious. (And really, how could it not be?)

So last Thursday my doctor called with my HbA1c level ( 3 month avg glucose reading). It was, as I suspected not good. Stress - isn't good for it -- and when I am stressed, umm oddly I don't care for myself. and when I spend a lot of time caring for other people -- ( ok DH and The cat) it means there is less time for me. My doctor and I agreed to a retest in 3 months to see if I could do anything.

So starting Friday - I started paying attention. Adding exercise has been the easy part. However. it hasn't been as effective as it used to be. Food has been harder, because minimum carbs seem to be raising my blood sugar dramatically. I know that any improvement will take time, but this is not fun. I work better with a reward.