Oh, geez, not again!

Another potentially problematic pet food problem--and I think I just bought some of these for the Ts at K-Mart last night!

http://www.itchmo.com/wal-mart-removes-bestro-chicken-jerky-strips-after-dog-death-2321

Hug your kids, everybody.

Pet food recalls

Can you believe this is still going on? This is the latest from nationalpetfoundation.com. You can sign up there to get bulletins like this:

"Ol'Roy Complete Nutrition has Salmonella. The food is believed to have been sent out to Wal-Mart stores. The FDA has tested the food andfound Salmonella. The official statement release is"This product has the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. People handling this pet food can become exposed to Salmonella, especially if they have not thoroughly washed their hands after having contact with this pet food or any surfaces exposedto this product. Consumers who have the dry dog food bearing the code "04 0735 1" with a "Best By Apr 13 08" should not feed it to their pets."

"New Recalls Coming: It has also been reported that acetaminophen was found in pet food samples. Currently the FDA isinvestigating this and has not released the name of the food. Acetaminophen can kill both dogs andcats at high dosages. We will let you know the name of the pet food products containing acetaminophenas soon as it is announced. The FDA has not announced the Ol'Roy recall on their site yet."

more recalls (will it ever end?)

There are two more pet food recalls today. Please forward this information to family and friends that have pets.
Western Family Canada Chunks of Chicken/Gravy canned cat food dated December 11, 2009 to March 7, 2010 (374g)
Western Family Canada Chicken Cuts/Gravy canned dog food dated December 11, 2009 to March 7, 2010 (624g)

The full list of already recalled food can be found at:
http://nationalpetfoundation.com/list.html

another pet food recal

From National Pet Foundation:

Please forward this information to family or friends that have pets. "Nutra Nuggets" is recalling their 40 poundLamb Meal and Rice Dry Formula for Dogs. The contaminated batch's product code is #NLR0404 and the Best Buy dates are October 9-10, 2008. Tests on a bag of Nutra Nuggets brand dog food purchased from Costco tested positive for melamine.

2nd recall for today

More foods have been recalled today. This is in addition to our earlier alert and covers the following foods:
Doctors Foster & Smith, Shop Rite, Shep, Bulk Lamb & Brown Rice, Health Diet, and Evolve Kitten.
For detailed information about these latest recalls please visit http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/foods/0518.html

Please help get the word out and forward this email toany pet owners you know. Our goal is to keep our pets safe.

Get notifications within the hour of new recalls and save your pet's life. Sign your family and friends up for thefree pet alerts at:http://nationalpetfoundation.com/pet-food-recall.html

The full list of already recalled food can be found at:http://nationalpetfoundation.com/list.html

geez, another one! will it ever stop?

Another pet food recall:

Please forward this information to family or friends that have pets. "Lick Your Chops" has recalled their dry cat food.
This includes their Kitten and Cat dry foods in the #4 and #8 bags with best by date of 2/29/08. For more info
please visit http://healthypetfoodsinc.com/newletter.cfm
The FDA is aware of this but has not announced this on their site yet. The New York Times has stated that more food recalls are coming.

Get notifications within the hour of new recalls and save your pet's life. Sign your family and friends up for the free pet alerts at: http://nationalpetfoundation.com/pet-food-recall.html

The full list of already recalled food can be found at:
http://nationalpetfoundation.com/list.html
Please help get the word out and forward this email to any pet owners you know. Our goal is to keep our pets safe

.

More recalls

I think I'm going to have to tape up the Royal Canin GSD formula. This is too scary.

15 New Cat and Dog Food Recalls

Please forward this information to family or
friends thathave pets. Royal Canin has issued 15 new recalls on their"Sensible
Choice" and "Kasco" foods. For more information visit: http://nationalpetfoundation.com/foods/royal.htmlThe
FDA has not yet announced this information even though the information is on
Royal Canin's website. Get notifications within the hour of new recalls and
save your pet's life. Sign your family and friends up for the free pet alerts
at:http://nationalpetfoundation.com/pet-food-recall.html The
full list of already recalled food can be found at:http://nationalpetfoundation.com/list.html

still more on pet food recalls

Still more recalls--this from National Pet Foundation:

"Over 200 cat and dog food item were added to the recall list today. Some of these are new brands and some are extended recalls (within already recalled brands). This is the largest recall since the initial FDA findings that pet food was killing dogs and cats.
New Dog Recalls: http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/foods/0307dog.html
New Cat Food Recalls: http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/foods/0307cat.html "

Just in case you, like me, are totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of petfood recalls and are no longer certain what's safe and what's not, here's a link to a list that seems reasonably up to date (last updated 4/27). http://www.howl911.com/petfoodrecall_list.htm Has links.

Odd n Ends

Check this out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cori_w/104838937 Be sure and follow the link to the yarn--whoever would have thought that yarn would knit up so pretty?? Not me!

On a more depressing note, this appeared on the Maine Coon Cat list: "FDA now admits that at least 4150 dogs and cats have died from eating contaminated pet foods. And there is now a historically huge hold on food products imported from China. See the article at: http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2007/04/30/pet-food-recall-the-fda-puts-out-some-numbers-at-last/ It summarizes the USA Today article about this. And of course, the melamine has made it into the poultry eaten by humans....it's not just pork anymore...."

Body temp 96.0 this morning--95.7 on the digital. Talk about brain fog; I could barely find my way to work. Finally got into gear around 3, though I fell asleep when I got inside this evening, and I'm still under 97.0 (96.7 on digital).

About two days ago the ash tree was leafless; tonight I nnoticed that it's fringed out with new leaves.

It's supposed to start raining tonight and rain the rest of the week. I wish it wouldn't. Tonight and tomorrow, okay, but I need time for things to dry out before I let the dogs into the puppy pen. Since it's supposed to be watered in well after you put it down, I threw down an entire bag of Gardens Alive! fertilizer and weed suppressant after work. Well, actually, it's a pre-emergent weed killer, but I figure it may help keep all those dandelions from reseeding. I'll be spending a couple of weeks hand-weeding out there. Some Dutch clover has somehow made its way in there, and I don't mind at all--for one thing, it helps fix nitrogen in the soil.

Cut back the copper shawl; gonna start over (why does that sound so familiar?). For some reason one side of the triangle kept getting longer and pointier than the other side. I checked the publisher's website to see if there were any errata, but didn't find anything for this project. I *think* I know what the problem is--I'm going to experiment tonight.

I've been going through a Band phase since November. I'm grateful to the people who post rare concert clips on YouTube, and wish I had a faster connection (I'm on dial-up). Anyway, after some hemming and hawing (did I really want to give Robbie more money?) I got The Band: The Best of A Musical History in the CD/DVD version, mostly because I wanted the DVD part, which I'll have to comment on later because I've only watched it once--spent too much time last night fighting with Blogger (WHY do I have such a hard time with the spacing when I use pictures???), then downloading WinZip so I could send log files to Registry Mechanic, then fighting with WinZip until I got mad and turned the computer off (note: I did not close the computer, I shut the expletive-deleted thing off. I hate that computer). But I've listened to the CD a several times. It's a very weird collection of tunes. The playlist:

Who Do You Love? Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks- pretty much what you'd expect from Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks; no surprises there.

He Don't Love You (And He'll Break Your Heart) - Levon and the Hawks - very "early 60s" (liner notes say recorded 1965), kind of r&b blended with a little jazz, great drum break by Levon, good vocal from Rick.

Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? Dylan with the Hawks (single version)

Ain't No More Cane (Richard drums) - will always make me think of the clip on YouTube from Festival Express, with Rick, Janis, Jerry Garcia, and Bob Weir, Rick smashed out of his mind; this version is considerably more together.

The Weight - from the brown album.

Orange Juice Blues (Blues for Breakfast) - I first heard this as the demo version on the extended CD of Big Pink better, stripped down to great vocal and piano from Richard with low-key bass support, probably from Rick. I think I like that version better; this one, with the full Band, is too dressed up, too jaunty.

King Harvest (Has Surely Come) - from the brown album.

All La Glory (early version) (Richard drums; Levon guitar) - I hadn't heard this tune before. It's obviously sort of a lullaby from Robbie to his daughter Alexandra, and the liner notes say Levon is singing it, but I don't think it is. I think it's Rick. It's much lower than Rick usually sings, but the phrasing is very Rick. Once in a while a word sounds like Levon, and where you'd expect Rick to switch to his upper register in the bridge he doesn't--but boy, to my ears it sounds like Rick. And there's one of those Robbie msytery lines--"Feel so tall, like a prison wall" kinda comes out of nowhere and seems really--odd in this context. (Just listened to it again. I don't know. It could be Levon... Or it could be Rick.) Now I'm curious to hear the Stage Fright version.

Stage Fright - from Stage Fright

I Shall Be Released - from Music from Big Pink

4% Pantomime (with Van Morrison) - another I hadn't heard before, and it's great. It's one of those outtakes that has a false start, then they start again and Richard and Van really get into it, and at the very end amid the laughter you can hear Garth say "That was spectacular." I think that's very cool.

Don't Do It - a studio version, not nearly as fiery as the version on Rock of Ages or Last Waltz

Life Is A Carnival - from Cahoots

Slippin & Slidin (live) - from The Festival Express and you can find a vid of it on YouTube. Richard just burns up the piano keys, Rick's bass work is amazing, and Garth takes it home with pyrotechnic organ. So much energy, you'd think they could power their amps sheerly by their music. There's some speculation on YouTube that Robbie's mike was on (*cough*). I'm really glad to have it on CD.

Endless Highway - from Moondog Matinee
Share Your Love With Me - from Moondog Matinee

Forever Young (Dylan with the Band) - from Planet Waves

Twilight (song sketch) - Er--Twilight is Robbie and piano, recorded in his Malibu house. 'Nuff said.

Home Cookin' (Richard drums, Levon bass, Rick guitar) - Home Cookin' is a Rick Danko song recorded in 1976, and it's okay, but you know, not *special,* though it's one of those everyone-swap-instruments songs the Band was so good at. I wish I liked it better, since it's Rick's. I don't think this was ever released anywhere else, so it was nice of Robbie to put it on this CD.

yikes

Just learned that the Natural Balance folks believe the rice in the products they recalled contain melamine. http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/press_release.html

The Ts get Royal Canin GSD formula, which has rice as the starch. I just opened a 30-pound bag. I'm going to tape it shut for a while--I've got some Innova Evo, which is blessedly, completely grain free (potatoes are the starch), that I think I'll feed them for the next few weeks. They'll be thrilled--they've been getting it as training treats.

Annie's on Innova Feline Senior--different formula; it has rice, too. So I'll switch her over to canned food and I think Innova Evo dry. Karen (our vet) will have a fit--she thinks it's too high in protein and bad for her kidneys, but melamine will kill her faster than too high protein.

Guess I'll get out the credit card this evening.

More on pet food recall

from a post on the Maine Coon Cat list:

On April 10th, 2007, the FDA has added more products within a number of different brand names. Brands include:Pet Pride, American Choice, Your Pet, Winn Dixie, Nutriplan, and more.To see today's latest pet food recalls please visit http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/recall041007.html

The National Pet Foundation will notify you within an hour each time a new brand is recalled. If you want to add a family member or a friend to our "Recall Update" email list please visit:http://nationalpetfoundation.com/pet-food-recall.html

DOG FOODS ALREADY ON THE LIST: http://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/dog-food-recall-list.html

CAT FOODS ALREADY ON THE LISThttp://www.nationalpetfoundation.com/cat-food-recall-list.html

pet food scare, take 3

Updated list of safe foods (some dated 4/06).

http://www.thepetfoodlist.com/petfoods_pg1.htm

another recall

http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/sunshinemills04_07.html

Itemized list.

pet food scare and a little T-chat

If you've been following the pet-food scare, here's an article to check out: http://tinyurl.com/2o3rp3 Follow the links in the article--lots of political, economic, and safety issues. The foods I give the Ts are grain-free, but I've gone back to reading the labels for the snacks I sometimes get them (Pedigree chews, for instance).

Also, here's a link to an extensive and detailed list of foods that are safe--or at least, they were safe when the list was posted: http://petsitusa.com/blog/?p=210

I have this bottle toy that dispenses food (Tug-a-Jug, http://tinyurl.com/25oa74 ) and it's interesting to watch the Ts play with it in their different ways. Timber, direct and straight-ahead in his problem-solving, grabs it by the bottom--and it's quite big, sometimes he needs to use a paw to get it out of his mouth!--lifts it, and drops it. Food falls out, he eats it, repeat. Taenzer is more subtle and less forceful, and she's discovered that if you wiggle the rope in the mouth of the bottle, food will fall out, so she lies down on the floor with the bottle between her paws, takes the rope in her mouth and jiggles it back and forth, then eats what comes out. Timber gets more at one time than Taenzer does, but Taenzer probably gets as much in the long run because she's willing to lie there and manipulate it longer.

They're the same with the Buster Cube. Timber picks the whole thing up and carries it onto the couch--it's all scarred and marked up from Timber-teeth now--and then fusses and whines and wrestles with it. Taenzer, like her aunt Stella, uses her nose and paws to roll it along the floor--much more elegant.