Small Things Equal Big Worries

After you have a pet die from cancer, especially quite suddenly, every small ailment feels like a huge deal. Right now Reagan is limping a lot and her back end is quite wobbly. She has hip dysplasia, but has had no issues with it since her first bout with it about four years ago. This week it seems her hips are really hurting. We'll give it a few days of rest and see if she improves, but after that it will be time for an x-ray if there isn't a change. The worst part about all of this is fearing for the worst: cancer.

Reagan is only six years old, but after losing Wembley at seven years old, I'm terrified to think of Reagan passing away at a young age. She had a vet check-up two weeks ago and everything checked out fine, including her bloodwork, yet here I am, worrying about the big C for no reason at all.

Quincy had a limp about six weeks ago, and naturally I feared for the worst, thinking she also had hip dysplasia (She turned out to be fine and had a minor strain). Walter has a small fatty tumor on his bad leg, right where it meets his body. Again, I freaked out and thought it was a cancerous tumor, and obsessively checked it to see if it got bigger. Luckily that was not the case. I can't help but wonder if I will ever stop thinking this way after losing Wembley so suddenly.

My heart is so full of love for these guys, that all I want is for them to play all day, have fun, and be happy. A retriever who loves to play ball more than anything else shouldn't have to deal with hip dysplasia that keeps her from running.

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Super Easy Dog Treats

In an effort to help the pups cool down and save some money on expensive treats, I made some frozen dog treats this week with only two ingredients: peanut butter and bananas. I had five bananas that were past their eatable stage (for me anyway), but still good for baking- or in this case, dog treats.

I mashed the bananas together in a glass bowl and added about 3/4 cup of peanut butter. I used JIF natural, which is the closest thing to organic "mainstream" peanut butter that you can get. The pups shouldn't have just any old peanut butter, because most types are loaded with sugar and other less than stellar ingredients.

After mixing the ingredients together, I used a cookie cutter to serve as an outline, and spooned a little bit into it on top of wax paper. Altogether, this made eight frozen "bones". These were pretty big, so another idea would be to roll them into balls, with which you could probably double or triple the batch.

I gave them to the pups today, and all three gobbled them up with their seal of approval. I'll definitely be keeping this as a go to dog treat recipe!

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