Possumworld Forum!!

Yep, that's right, there is now a brand new, all-singing, all-dancing POSSUMWORLD FORUM where all loyal followers of events in the Possum Kingdom can meet and greet others of their kind.

Seriously, it's just a nice, open place to chat with others interested in life in France, politics, writing, and just free-flowing conversation. It will be unmoderated (except for spammers; I hate spammers) and all are welcome.

Join us if you get the chance!

On to other subjects.

I wanted to put in a good word for the great service I got from Nature's Variety following the little canine health scare we had over the weekend. I wrote to the company and almost immediately heard back from their Consumer Affairs department. I spoke with them, told them the details of what had happened and was very pleased with their general response. I felt reassured that they had had no other complaints for their food, so I think that it was just a problem of our bag having been opened and resealed. That leaves me feeling uncomfortable buying it from the same source, and since it's the only source in Europe right now, we'll have to look into alternative foods.

Still, that being said, I was very happy with the product and can easily recommend it to anyone wanting to feed a high quality, human grade commercial food to their pets. I may be switching to a raw diet here, as I can't easily find a food that Maggie can eat because of her brewer's yeast allergy.

Both dogs are now doing well, although neither one is too happy that the weather has turned cold and rainy again. I try to explain to them that it's good for the flowers, but they don't seem to care.

Ciao for now.

Randy

Pet Food

I've been following the U.S. pet food recall with great interest. It's terrifying and the numbers of sick and dead pets seems to be much higher (according to anecdotal reports on various websites) than the official tally put out by the FDA.

I wasn't too worried about it living here in France, and I don't feed those kind of wet foods anyway, but dried dog food. However, the brand of kibble that I use is an American brand that I order from a distributor in Germany.

I've had to do this because Maggie is allergic to brewer's yeast, an ingredient contained in almost ALL European manufactured pet food that I've found. Although some of the foods may not contain it, their labeling tends to be less comprehensive than what we're used to in the States, so I can't take a risk with those at all.

I haven't been 100% satisfied with the supplier I use, but she is the only game in town, so I haven't had a choice. With 2 dogs, including Giganta-Shmoo, I wanted to stick with a commercial food because it's just easier.

This was fine until the last bag I fed. When my order arrived, I noticed that the first bag I used had been previously opened, then resealed. If I'd still been living in L.A. I would never have fed that to my dogs. But sending it back across borders to someone who speaks a different language was just so complcated that I made a judgment call. I was wrong.

Neither dog wanted to eat it. With Maggie that is not unusual, with Shmoo it was surprising. After all, he's a dog who will eat garbage! Still, I felt they were trying to manipulate me, so I persisted. Then, this weekend, both of them got sick. Shmoo had a gastrointestinal problem and Maggie had a urinary tract infection. Different symptoms but too coincidental for my liking.

I threw out the open bag, then started reading of reports of dogs eating other dry foods who had had similar complaints to Maggie's! I called the food manufacturer in the U.S. and they recommended throwing out the remaining bags of food, which I had already decided to do. This is a very expensive little game that we can ill afford, but it's less expensive than further vet bills and the horrible heartache we would feel if the dogs got even sicker or worse...

So, expensive as it is, I've learned a few important lessons: the world is more connected than we like to think; we can't take anything for granted; and if a dog tells you something is wrong with his food, he's probably right.

Ciao for now.

Randy

No more drought?

I have no idea whether that is the case or not, but we've been having rain and snow since last Monday and I don't think JM and I have seen the rivers this high since moving here. Yesterday, we ran into a neighbor who was thinking of moving their pump and other gardening equipment out of their garden in case of flood. The rain was only intermittent today though, so I don't think there's any risk. Just like in L.A., it seems as if we either have too much or too little of the wet stuff.

I haven't minded the weather though, as it is lovely to see everything looking as if it's no longer thirsty. I DO think that the Horde is getting a little antsy from less activity than usual. So, today, as it was only drizzling when we went out, we gave Shmoo a chance to run several times. I was worried that he would try to go in the river, but I had no reason to be concerned. Clearly he figured out that it wasn't a good place to be. So instead, he ran in one of the fields, chasing rabbits, moles or invisible creatures of one kind or another. I was pleased to see that I didn't even need to really call him back, because as soon as he got far enough away that he had trouble seeing us, he came racing back to make sure we weren't going to leave him. Perhaps a little separation anxiety isn't a totally bad thing.

Speaking of separation anxiety; we left the two dogs on their own for several hours yesterday while we went off to Carcassonne to have lunch with a varied group of American and British ex-pats from the DailyKos and European Tribune forums. We had a lovely lunch and great conversation and hope to renew the experience at the end of June. Next time I'll post the details here, in case any of my faithful readers are going to be in the area and would like to join us.

Ciao for now and keep dry.

Randy