puppy up! spokesgirls!

Meet our new spokesgirls for our puppy up! brand.

On the left is Caroline, age two and Avery who's seven.

Aren't they adorable? Unfortunately, either their Uncle Luke is a mindless git who can't operate a digital recorder or my camera has gone blinky. For some odd reason, the clips had split frames.

Life's about improvising so I used them all in a series of outakes. I like the way it came together and anyway, I couldn't think of editing my nieces.

Meet Allison Reed

One of the cornerstones of this great country is scientific curiosity. When Sassy, her Golden Retriever, passed away from bladder cancer at age three, Allison wanted to know why. She then spent a year analyzing DNA from the tumor and isolated and cloned the suspect cancer genes.

That in of itself would be quite a story. But Allison is only thirteen years old and her research project was for a science fair. This awesome California junior high student is one of three finalists for the Outstanding Young Scientist Award selected from over 6,500 submissions statewide. You can read more about her story and watch a TV interview here.

That she turned her tragic loss into hope for a cure for cancer is truly inspirational and it embodies the spirit of 2 Dogs 2000 Miles perfectly. We look forward to following your journey, Allison. Safe travels.

The Honest Kitchen Journal - Entry One

This morning was Hudson & Murphy's first Honest Kitchen meal! I've listened to both schools of thought on 'transitioning' dogs to new foods. Some say it can cause bloat. Some say it won't. For me, why risk it? So I gave them each a cup of their old food with 3 Tbs of 'Verve'.

As soon as I opened the pouch my senses were aroused by the aroma of fresh herbs. For this batch, I used a 1 to 1 mixture and let it sit for about 10 minutes or so. The consistency was similar to porridge, perfect for my purposes.

To say they loved it would be an understatement. Poor Murphy, long after his meal was gone, he kept licking the bowl. And licking. And licking. For 42 seconds. I timed him. I'm going to chronicle this new experience over the next week or so.

The Honest Kitchen

It is with great pride that we formally announce our pet food sponsor - The Honest Kitchen, though I'm hesitant to label their products just for pets. Not only are they 100% human-food-grade, their meals are produced in an FDA approved, human-food-producing facility in Southern California, that makes the very same foods you eat. Isn't that incredible?

And so are the ingredients they use. Let's take a look at just one of their five entrees for dogs, Force: Hormone-free chicken, organic flaxseed, potatoes, celery, sweet potatoes, apples, alfalfa, organic kelp, honey, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, bananas, papayas, yogurt, basil, garlic and rosemary.

Perhaps the greatest appeal to me though is that the meals are prepared fresh and raw and then dehydrated so all I'll have to do is add water and voila, gourmet cuisine back country style.

The Honest Kitchen also offers cookies and ice treats and supplements, too, and they were honored with the 2006 Puplife Food of the Year Award.

The first shipment of food went out yesterday so I can't wait to share more with you. Thanks again to Lucy, Cami, and the rest of the people at The Honest Kitchen for sponsoring our hike.