In Honor of His Belated Birthday, Elvis His Animals and a Recipe

While I am a fan of old style music, I admit I'm not much of an Elvis Girl.  I prefer the songs of George and Ira Gershwin and Cole Porter as sung by Fred Astaire, still I have a healthy respect for Elvis.  He is a kitsch icon and I think he had amazing style.  Remember Diana Vreeland famously said "bad taste is better then no taste at all" and you certainly cannot say that Elvis had no taste.

Just look at his amazing gold and turquoise living room!  Image Source

Apparently Elvis was also an animal lover, after a fashion.  He had many dogs over the years 

 

most famously a Chow named Getlow.

 In typical over the top fashion Elvis did not stop at dogs, his pets included horses, geese, goats, chickens, snakes, myna birds and most misguidededly of all monkeys.  Elvis's favorite pet was a chimpanzee names Scatter, who was his companion throughout his 1960s film career.

Image Source

  Elvis dressed Scatter in clothing and allowed him to drink alcohol, which may have contributed to the poor animal's early death.   Sadly, Elvis did not realize that primates make innapropriate pets and continued to own monkeys until his death in 1977.

Despite his irresponsible pet ownership habits Elvis sang some rather sweet songs about dogs, such as A Dog's Life:

 

If I had my life to live over
I know just what I'd like to be
A pampered pet of a rich brunette
Sitting on my mama's knee
Someone to love me, someone to care
Rubber duck dubble little fingers through my hair

I need a dog's life
What a life, that's good enough for me
That's good enough for me

If I had a bone to be picking
A picking chicken or a steak
Curled up there in an easy chair
Man, that won't be hard to take
I'll always be faithful that's what I'd be
Never bite a hand that feeds me, no siree

Just lead a dog's life
What a life, that's good enough for me
That's good enough for me

I'd find me a pink little poodle
And lose my noodle over her
I chase her 'round all over town
Just to ruffle up her fur
Nuzzle her muzzle, a hole in her paw
Greatest case of puppy lovin' you ever saw

It's called a dog's life
What a life, that's good enough for me
You heard me say it now
That's good enough for me
That's good enough for me

Read more: Elvis Presley - A Dog's Life Lyrics | MetroLyrics

In honor of his birthday, which passed on January 9, I made the Elvis Sandwich, which happens to be one of my husband's favorite recipes.

 Scaled down for two I used 1 banana and 4 tbsp of peanut butter and 2 tbsp pf butter, you can add a few slices of bacon if you wish, which is apparently how the King, ever decadent, liked it.   

See Beautiful-Tell Your Pet Their Story

As my dogs and cats get older it gets more and more important to celebrate and savor my time with them.  Recently, I read a book about a common dog health problem, I will review it at a later date, and the book talked about taking the time to tell your dog their life story.  The author recommended getting down on the floor with your dog or cuddling up together on the couch and telling them the story of their life, including as much of the details as you can remember and involving other family members and friends if they are close to your dog.  Your dog will bask in the attention and you will be reminded of wonderful moments you may have forgotten.   While the book recommends this exercise for older dogs or dogs with an illness, I see no reason not to start with a dog of any age.  You can begin telling your dog their story the day you bring your puppy home for the breeder, or spring him or her from the animal shelter, or adopt them from a foster home.  

 While I made a photo book of little Weasley's first year of life using shutterfly

 I've never really sit down with my dogs and cats and told them their story.  Well this year I'm going to start.   While this blog certainly can't came one one hundredth of all of my darling pets stories I do have some key memories that stick out.

Tubby, I remember the first night you came home.   You cried and cried in the crate and we weakened and put you in the bed you crawled right up on my head and stayed there.

 Norbert, I remember when you were about two and we would go to the dog park park every day.  One day you were having such fun you forgot to check for your dad and I.  For a moment you thought you were lost, you spun around and around and then ran over too us so happy to find us it broke my heart.  I was reminded again of how much you depended on us:

Ping, I remember taking you on a bike ride over the Brooklyn Bridge.  You were so relaxed in the basket.  You loved going down the bridge and feeling the wind in your face.   It seemed like everyone in Brooklyn stopped to pet you.

Bob, I remember when you were a baby and we took you in a relatives swimming pool.  You couldn't swim but you loved the water and you still do.

 Weasley, and I apologize for this one, I remember when you were taking your puppy training class and there was a group of family members in the front row watching their dogs.   You were tooting so much, as you often do, that everyone in the front row had their shirt pulled up over their nose.

 Baby cat, I remember, when your father and I adopted you as a kitten.  We were all set to name you Totoro after the Japanese animation character.  That night watched Bringing Up Baby on AMC, you watched the movie with us, and that decided your name

Scooter, I remember when you were a tiny black kitten.  We were staying with your Great Aunt Antonia and she was eating a pork chop.  She got up to go to the sink and you pulled the pork chop right off the plate and started eating it.  It was bigger then you.

 Ernie, I remember when we had just adopted you and you had to have your leg amputated because before your adoption you have been hit by a car.   You were so sick and we had to give you so much medecine that sometimes you hid for us.  Other times you would sit there and let us give you the medecine you seemed to know we wanted to help you.

 

Thankful Thursday-Good News for Tubby

I want to thank everyone for their good thoughts for Tubby and the positive vibes may have helped because we got good news!!!!!!!  Tubby's white blood cells are normal!  (Sorry for the nearly five years old picture but its one of my favorites)

 

Wordy Wednesday-Lets Help Tweedles

Our good friend Tweedles  recently had some major health problems and major bills to go with them.  She is feeling better but the bills are still around.  In order to help Tweedle's mom with all the green papers blogville is having an auction.  

 The auction will be at auction for petz blog which is a new site that is going to help raise money for all our sick friends will bills.  The auction starts today.  Since we are big readers here

 we have donated some books.  Please check out the new site so you can help dear Tweedles.

Also we would appreciate some good vibes headed our way we are getting the results of Tubby's latest blood work.  His last bloodwork about a week ago revealed low white blood cells, half what they should be, and I am really worried.   Tubby is acting fine but low white blood cells can be an indicaiton of something pretty scary.

All Natural Treats from Wylie's Naturals

 Its been so cold here that we have been doing a lot of this:

The good think is its given us some extra time to catch up on our snuggling time and to try some of the new treats we got for Christmas.   On our Friday snow day after we spent some time playing in the snow (not Ping she wouldn't even get off the deck) mom opened our bag of Wylie's Naturals Pork and Pear treats and we got to be taste testers.

 Mom and Dad got these treats for us in November at the New Jersey Pet Expo.

Wylie's Naturals is made locally in my home state of New Jersey.  The ingredients for the food and treats are all bought locally and our human grade.   The dog food mixture is made up of 40% meat 30% vegetables and 30% carbohydrates and is  free of preservatives and additives.   

Wylie's naturals treats are made from meat and fruits or vegetables and the biscuit type treats are made from wheat free oat flour made by hand from plain oats.  One thing mom really appreciates about these treats, we didn't try the dog food, is that they have a nice short list of ingredients.  Our Pork and Pear treats contain only Pork and Pears with no mystery ingredients on the list.  We enjoyed the treats so much that mom couldn't even get a shot of us gobbling the treats, we were done to fast.  All she got was this picture of Tubby gazing longingly at the bag:

An important thing to remember about Wylie's is that since there are no preservatives you need to refrigerate the treats after opening the bag.  Wylie's Naturals foods and treats are available online on their website    and local pet shops in New Jersey such as the Montclair Feed and Pet Supply. 
For cats they also have a new Lola Line of cat treats  
unfortunately they were all out of cat treats when we went to the expo.  Overall we give these treats a four paw review.

Snow Day and A Belated List of Goals for 2014

 Today I experienced one of those rare treats unique to children and school teachers: Snow Day!!!!  At least 3 of the dogs (Bob, Norbert, and Weasley) enjoyed it too.

The snow day gave me some extra time to think about my New Year's goals. I'm relatively new to New Year goals, in fact I've never really made any before, but this year I felt it was time to start.  With an extra day at home it seemed like a good idea to write them down:

1) Worry less: This is the most important one.  I'm a chronic worrier and it robs me of living in the present.  Currently I'm very worried about Tubby's low white blood cell count and what that could mean.   However I'm trying really hard to focus on the present with regards to Tubby, myself, my husband, and our other pets.  Whatever happens we are happy and together now and that is what matters.


2) Spend less: (Vet bills aside).  I really want to increase my savings this year.  Its a challenge with a high mortgage and a lot of pets, but I'd like a bit more of a cushion in case something goes wrong.  Particularly seeing as I never insured my two oldest dogs and two oldest cats, big mistake there which I've learned from and won't make again.

3) Walk more: Particularly with Weasley who loves going on nice long walks.

4) Try more restaurants in jersey:  At least this should be fun.   I eat out a lot in New York but there are lots of interesting ethnic and old style restaurants in my home town of Jersey City and the surrounding towns that I've never tried.  As a bonus most of them are pretty cheap.

5) Learn to cook Korean-I love Korean food but I have never really attempted to make it at home.  This year I want to make the attempt.

6) Learn how to give myself a decent manicure-I like the look of painted nails but I hate getting manicures at the salon.  I get bored sitting in the chair and I don't like the expense.  I'm a slob at painting my nails myself but hopefully practice will make perfect.

7) Expand my vintage wardrobe (without breaking the bank) and continue to be brave about what I wear-I have a long list of dream vintage items I want to own and I hope to acquire some more this year, whether the genuine article or reproductions.   Sometimes I feel a bit self conscious dressed up in my vintage wares but I am getting braver and I hope to keep doing so, after all life is too short to not wear just what you want!


We hope all our friends have an amazing 2014!

Happy New Year!

The best New Years Eves are spent at home with dogs and cats, (and perhaps a Lt. Worf pillow)