This Little Doggy Went to Heaven...
Or at least, he probably thinks so!
Nash got a bit of an early Christmas present this evening; a huge chunk of beef-bone, with a fair amount of meat still on it. We had been wondering what to give him for a gift, when it dawned on me that there's a place near town that does custom cutting for meat. We gave them a call to see if they had any bones, and they said they had plenty, come on over and get some! They're weren't kidding either! Joey (the owner) is a young fellow, I think he's younger than me, and he was in the "shop" cutting meat when I got there. The smell of a cutting-floor is not like anything I've ever smelled before, and it's something that definitely takes some getting used to. In any case, he had three huge plastic garbage-bins full of scraps, mostly bones, but some meat and fat scraps as well. He had three dogs of his own, and they were all pretty well-feed looking, with two of them gettign downright fat! Very friendly too, as one might expect considering how well-fed they were. Joey says that he hasn't had to buy any commercial dog-food in years!
He gave me at least 50 pounds of bones, some of them with enough meat on them to make me think, "screw the dog, I'm gonna toss this on the Bar-B-Q for myself!" Seriously, there were some huge chunks of meat on some of them! He says to give them a call anytime I want more of them; Normally he just buries them out in a field, or dumps them in a "bone pile" where the dogs take their pick. I had to meet trixstir at the bowling alley for a Christmas Party group, so I brought the bones with me (all in a heavy plastic bag) and just left them in the back of the car. With temperatures in well into the -20's, there wasn't any danger of them spoiling. Not that the dog would have cared in any case! By the end of the evening, the bones were definitely cold, but they hadn't yet frozen together so we were able to give Nash one of them. I've got the rest of them in the house in a cooler, and tomorrow we'll put them into individual bags so that we can give him one at a time.
Nash could see (and probably smell) the bones and meat when I brought the bag into the house, and his tail was wagging so fast you'd think it would have fallen off! I selected one of the larger bones from the bag, and gave that one to him. It must have weighed a good Five Pounds alone! Normally he follows us wherever we go, taking his bone or toys with him, but he's been downstairs for more than an hour now, oblivious to anything but that bone! I watched him for about the first ten minutes; He had some difficulty figuring out the best way to hold it and eat it, ripping off bits of meat still stuck to it, and crunching up the softer sections of the bone. When I left, he had finally laid down, and was holding it between his paws, gnawing on one end of it. He's still down there, even with the lights off, happily munching away.
The Christmas Party at the bowling alley went very well too. This one was for Talisman Energy, and though they had originally booked for 23 people, only 14 showed up. The other nine backed out at the last minute, and considering how much everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, they'll probably wish they had gone. Ah well, they still paid us for 23 people, so that was nice of them. The booze was flowing readily as well; Not so much beer or coolers this time, but the hi-balls were going like crazy! 44 by the end of the evening! I'm really glad that we got that liquor dispenser, it makes it so much easier to prepare a drink! No spilling, no mess, and you know exactly how much is in each one. They had catered the event with pizza, wings, dry-ribs, and salad from the King's Hotel, and invited us to join in the feast! Even so, they wound up taking a whole pizza (and about half of another) and a bunch of wings home. As said, they all seemed to have a really good time, and the end tab will look really nice in the old bank-account! It's going to be busy for the rest of the week too, I think we've got bookings clear through to Saturday! :)
Nash got a bit of an early Christmas present this evening; a huge chunk of beef-bone, with a fair amount of meat still on it. We had been wondering what to give him for a gift, when it dawned on me that there's a place near town that does custom cutting for meat. We gave them a call to see if they had any bones, and they said they had plenty, come on over and get some! They're weren't kidding either! Joey (the owner) is a young fellow, I think he's younger than me, and he was in the "shop" cutting meat when I got there. The smell of a cutting-floor is not like anything I've ever smelled before, and it's something that definitely takes some getting used to. In any case, he had three huge plastic garbage-bins full of scraps, mostly bones, but some meat and fat scraps as well. He had three dogs of his own, and they were all pretty well-feed looking, with two of them gettign downright fat! Very friendly too, as one might expect considering how well-fed they were. Joey says that he hasn't had to buy any commercial dog-food in years!
He gave me at least 50 pounds of bones, some of them with enough meat on them to make me think, "screw the dog, I'm gonna toss this on the Bar-B-Q for myself!" Seriously, there were some huge chunks of meat on some of them! He says to give them a call anytime I want more of them; Normally he just buries them out in a field, or dumps them in a "bone pile" where the dogs take their pick. I had to meet trixstir at the bowling alley for a Christmas Party group, so I brought the bones with me (all in a heavy plastic bag) and just left them in the back of the car. With temperatures in well into the -20's, there wasn't any danger of them spoiling. Not that the dog would have cared in any case! By the end of the evening, the bones were definitely cold, but they hadn't yet frozen together so we were able to give Nash one of them. I've got the rest of them in the house in a cooler, and tomorrow we'll put them into individual bags so that we can give him one at a time.
Nash could see (and probably smell) the bones and meat when I brought the bag into the house, and his tail was wagging so fast you'd think it would have fallen off! I selected one of the larger bones from the bag, and gave that one to him. It must have weighed a good Five Pounds alone! Normally he follows us wherever we go, taking his bone or toys with him, but he's been downstairs for more than an hour now, oblivious to anything but that bone! I watched him for about the first ten minutes; He had some difficulty figuring out the best way to hold it and eat it, ripping off bits of meat still stuck to it, and crunching up the softer sections of the bone. When I left, he had finally laid down, and was holding it between his paws, gnawing on one end of it. He's still down there, even with the lights off, happily munching away.
The Christmas Party at the bowling alley went very well too. This one was for Talisman Energy, and though they had originally booked for 23 people, only 14 showed up. The other nine backed out at the last minute, and considering how much everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, they'll probably wish they had gone. Ah well, they still paid us for 23 people, so that was nice of them. The booze was flowing readily as well; Not so much beer or coolers this time, but the hi-balls were going like crazy! 44 by the end of the evening! I'm really glad that we got that liquor dispenser, it makes it so much easier to prepare a drink! No spilling, no mess, and you know exactly how much is in each one. They had catered the event with pizza, wings, dry-ribs, and salad from the King's Hotel, and invited us to join in the feast! Even so, they wound up taking a whole pizza (and about half of another) and a bunch of wings home. As said, they all seemed to have a really good time, and the end tab will look really nice in the old bank-account! It's going to be busy for the rest of the week too, I think we've got bookings clear through to Saturday! :)