Pet Cookbooks
Cookbooks cater to the gourmet in Fido and Fluffy
By Betsy Kline and Nancy Anderson, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
It was a scene to make any cook's heart go pitter-patter. The recipes
were selected with care. We shopped. We slaved over hot ovens. And
then the reward: the taste testers sniffed, licked and dug into their
special treats.
And then they sniffed and licked each other.
That's how a recent tasting went at Animal Friends, the no-kill
shelter in the Strip District where we went to test the palatability
of recipes from two new cookbooks that piqued our interest both as
cooks and animal lovers.
"Real Food for Dogs: 50 Vet-Approved Recipes to Please the Canine
Gastronome" by Arden Moore and its companion volume, "Real Food for
Cats" by Patti Delmonte (Storey Books; $ 12.95 each), begged to be
tested.
Rather than just feed the recipes to our own pets, we decided to seek
a broader selection of palates and preferences and last week were
enthusiastically welcomed to Animal Friends. A no-kill shelter since
1943, Animal Friends places about 2,400 animals a year, said marketing
director Kathleen Beaver. These are dogs and cats (with the occasional
sheep and pot-bellied pig) who are brought to the shelter by people
who can no longer keep them. Others are rounded up as strays, found in
abandoned buildings or, too often, rescued from neglectful or abusive
situations.
We selected three recipes from each book. The doggie menu du jour:
Munchy Pup-Cakes, Marvelous Mutt Meatballs and Si, Si Tortillas. The
cat selections: Mmmm Meaty Cookies, Tuna Cakes and Salmon Loaf.
It came as little surprise that the dogs attacked the samples with
gustatory gusto.
First up was Athena, a pit bull pup whose whiplash tail and bounding
enthusiasm belied the days' old spaying scar on her belly.
Affectionate and energetic, she was just as happy licking faces as
she was lapping up every morsel of her ground beef-and-Cheddar
meatballs. She adored the corn tortillas and their cinnamony coating.
The ample banana-and-carrot-laced Pup-Cakes disappeared in two
chomps.
Suaz Forsythe, Animal Friends marketing coordinator, laughingly
commented on Athena's adventurous appetite: "I'd like a change from
time to time, too. I'd get bored with the same old diet."
The Pup-Cakes, however, were not a particular favorite with Squiggy,
an 8-month-old Doberman mix, but he was manic for the meatballs,
lunging whenever one came into view. A survivor of parvo, the
distemper-like viral disease that killed his sibling Lenny, the
spirited Squiggy has all the makings of a discerning gourmet.
Darius, a mix of Irish setter and German shepherd, was a daintier
eater, nibbling at the tortilla chips and chomping tentatively on the
meatballs. Estimated to be about 5 years old, Darius was part of a
mass rescue of 60-some dogs from a farm in Westmoreland County. Most
of the dogs were running loose, but Darius was chained to a chicken
coop as a guard dog. His coat is dull and ragged but his eyes are
soulful.
Our stock of doggie treats pretty much depleted (truth be told:
Squiggy overturned the bowl of tortilla chips and proceeded to dance
on them), we moved on to the more daunting challenge: the cats.
Food hockey
As any cat owner knows, cats eat on their own timetable, which rarely
coincides with any schedule we try to impose on them. And they don't
like having an audience. This might take a while, we realized. All
the feline treats were crumbled into bowls for easy consumption.
Sultan, a 5-year-old orange tabby, was the first to approach the tuna
cakes. He nibbled, offered little in the way of a review and almost
immediately slunk off to nap.
Various kittens inspected the bowls, but they were more interested in
chasing each other over and under the cages where other cats napped.
If they touched the food at all, it was to engage in hockey play on
the floor. (The Meaty Cookies make perfect pucks.)
Cassie, a 9-year-old Himalayan with warm cocoa markings, contemplated
a Meaty Cookie as though waiting for it to make the first move. She
gave the salmon loaf a few delicate licks. The food bored her. Or was
it the company? Oh, well.
Then we realized this gang had just been fed. We moved to the second
cat room, where we were greeted with a chorus of "me-ow, too." The
salmon loaf was lapped up as fast as we could spoon it into the
cages. A handful of kittens, enjoying their freedom while their cages
were being cleaned, decided to help themselves, climbing head first
into the Tupperware.
The verdict: the Salmon Loaf was a resounding success. The Tuna Cakes
were a close second. The Mmmm Meaty Treats -- probably a tad dry by
now -- were the least favorite.
Cute and tasty
As far as the books themselves, "Real Food for Dogs" contains 50
doggone good, veterinarian-approved recipes to please the canine
palate, which isn't hard to do.
We're not talking hard dog biscuits here. Many are tasty concoctions
you and your best pal can share, such as Pawsitively Pleasing Pasta,
Mmmm Meat Loaf, Gobble Down Goulash and Turkey Pizza, to name a few.
Meaty main dishes come in intriguing combinations of liver, pork,
ground beef, bacon, kidneys, chicken, turkey, brown rice, yams,
cabbage, baked beans, green beans, hard-boiled egg, cottage cheese,
garlic, zucchini, spinach and chicken broth.
Baked items contain some of the following: whole wheat flour, shredded
carrots, eggs, baby food, honey, vanilla, baking powder, vegetable
oil, Cheddar cheese, dry milk and cinnamon. Bow-wow Brownies have
carob chips and carob powder.
Even dogs get the occasional vegetarian dish. Vegetarian entrees
include Lip-Smacking Green Beans, Tempting Tofu and Mac(aroni &
Cheese) Attack.
The book also has recipes for special occasions (birthdays and
obedience school graduation) and special-needs diets (puppies,
seniors, hypoallergenics, active and inactive dogs).
Kids interested in cooking but afraid of making a mistake can have fun
with these recipes. The family dog will never know whether the dish
"turned out" or not and will devour every bite with gusto.
"Real Food for Cats" challenges the concept of the finicky feline with
temptations such as Trout Treats (using whole trout), Turkey Surprise,
Boogaloo Shrimp, Grassy Goodness (carrots and sprouts with a hint of
catnip) and Meowshi Sushi. Unusual ingredients include baby food,
brewer's yeast and bonemeal. If the ingredients don't appeal to you,
the adorable black-and-white drawings by Anne Davis will.
Author Delmonte, a children's book illustrator when she's not playing
housemother to her own six felines, also offers tips on cat care and
prescription recipes for special needs (obese, underweight or
allergic) cats. One section of the cookbook features the wonderful
concept of tandem recipes: dishes designed for the human family,
which can then be easily amended for kitty consumption.
These cookbooks are keepers. Not that we intend to become personal
chefs to our pets, but every routine needs a break every so often. If
we get tired opening the same old cans day after day, imagine how
they feel lapping up the same old food. The fun is in the discovery.
All these animals and more await new homes at Animal Friends, 2643
Penn Ave., Strip District (412-566-2103). Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Mondays; noon to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesday; closed Thursdays; 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays.
Posted on SHARE Yahoo group Jun 1, 2003