I must stand up and be counted - My name is Liz, and I am a meat shopping addict.  Yes I have traded my other additions in for a meat shopping addiction.  I can't go to a grocery store without checking the meat aisle. I never pass an ethnic market without venturing in to check out their various hard to find meat products.  It's not all my fault - the dogs need variety, it's good for them

You need to understand the level of adddiction. We purchased abrand new freezer two months ago.  Not just any freezer but the biggest freezer I could find!  We are the proud owners of a 25 cubic foot upright freezer.  She is lovely. Yes, you know you are in trouble when your freezer is lovely to you. She can hold an incredible quantity and I am very creative in my packaging.  Soon after we got this lovely addition I recieved my beef order for 225 pounds of beef.  Then for fun I went and purchased the miscelalneous meats I needed such as 30 pounds of duck neck, 30 pounds of pork kidney, 40 pounds of chicken liver andd 40 pounds of chicken hearts. Passing an ethnic market yeilded 5 rabbits, goat, pork tongue, yes PORK TONGUE, who knew? I have lamb lung, bison kidney, venison liver. Add in some beef heart and you know what my freezer looks like. 

Now because I belong to an awesome co-op I will be adding 25 pounds of venison heart next week. My amazing market also had chicken quarters on sale for .40 per pound.  Who could pass up a deal like that? Not me, I ONLY bought 90 pounds.  Yes 90.  I am not done yet, my co-op is also offering day old calves for an incredible price - I am getting 2. Mind you these are anywhere from 40 - 100 pounds calves I won't know till I get them.  The only saving grace is that I have 8 dogs at home right now who love their meat and love me for buying it.

No, not all the dogs are living here, 3 will be going to their respective homes over the next couple of months. The bad thing is that they are feeding my addiction as I feed them. The good thing is that at least this is a productive addiction.  My other addictions were to yarn - I love to crochet, 4 containers later I have more than enough yarn for a couple of years. Donna Dewberry painting got a hold of me and no I did not buy a few paints I bought 60 plus complete brush sets, let's not even get started on my books. None of these addictiions paid off.  My meat addiction does. How you might ask?  Well how about this, we don't buy kibble, I don't buy supplemets for the kibble, I never have to buy chewy treat to clean the dogs teeth or freshen their breath, my dogs never have skin problems so they don't need special shampoos or conditioners, they don't need steroids shots, they haven't had to go to the vet on years. Yes this addiction saves me money. Thanks everyone, I don't feel bad anymore.

Have a wonderful day and remember, your dog is a carnivore and would love it if he to could eat meat, organ and bone.  You might want to  look into it. I know I am glad I did.

Wow, we have been having a crazy time around here. Finally, all but one of the puppies are in their new homes.  Flicker the little tri girl is so tempting but you just can't keep them all.  She is looking for a good home. We have been placing puppies, pet sitting and planning our next breeding with our new sheltie girl Cherri. 

We are also still raw feeding and that is actually doing great. I hope I never have to go back to kibble. My dogs look fabulous and behave like youngsters. even my cranky momma dog has gone from kinda frumpy to sleek and elegant with energy and playfulness to spare. 

My puppies are lovely with incredible muscle tone and gorgeous coat. They love their food and never have tummy troubles. 

We are getting our doggy beef this week and I can't wait.  Since I last wrote my freezer went caput and we had to invest in a new one! Ouch! This is my very first brand new appliance - she is lovely. Anyway we have 275 pounds of beef coming. Add to this that Cash N Carry had a clearance sale on pork ribs of which I bought 85 pounds. We also have stocked up on rabbit we now have 7, some goat, lamb lung, chicken of course, duck neck, chicken heart, chicken liver, pork kidney and just for fun pork tongues.  We also recently scored 7 free beef tongues. Even my Prima Donna Cherri who won't regularly touch beef guzzled the tongue.  Does this sound like your freezer?  My dogs eat like kings though admittedly some of that food is ours like the pork ribs, some of the chicken and some beef.   

I wouldn't change a thing - we are all doing great. Another interesting note is that now that the dogs are eating so well I am really looking ot our family diet and making changes there too!  Everyone wins.

I am grateful that all our new puppy homes are open to feeding some raw - mostly to keep that breath fresh and teeth clean and they are all feeding grain free foods. Thanks everyone for doing your best for these babies. You will be rewarded with many years of good health.

Well gotta finish for now. I have one more puppy to find a home for and need to take some new pictures, glue ears, dremel nails, brush out coats, etc. Wow, I am tired again. 

What a wonderful winter!  We were blessed by our smooth tri color collie with 7 lovely puppies on November 19th.  She had her first pup at 1:00 p.m. in the afternoon and the last at 12:00 midnight.  Waht a long day.  She is 6 1/2 and in great shape - she is a wonderful mother.  Willowis raw fed and minimally vaccinated and doing wonderfully.  I see such a difference in this litter and her last. She is in much better health and the pups are growing quickly and calm and quiet.

For Thanksgiving we had friends over and and extra dog.  Dogs outnumbered people in our house. We had 9 people and 14 dogs.  I visiting dog, two pet sitting dogs and the rest are ours.  Everyone seemed to have a nice time and all the animals were on their best behavior.  It was a lovely day and we had so much to be thankful for.  Pets, new puppies, family and friends.

I love this time of year because I was able to stock up on turkey for family and the dogs. So nice to put aside about 60 pounds of meat at 27 cents a pound. A great buy - I only wish I had another freezer so I  could stock up on more.

Wel raw feeding is fun and not turning back. Teh dogs are doing great and the kids and I have got a good handle on things. My kids actually feel sorry for the animals we pet sit because they have to eat kibble and our dogs get fresh meat.  I like taht my children are learning how to take care of their animals properly.  What a blessing home schooling and raw feeding/natural rearing go together so well.

I will write again soon.

We have finally made the  switch to raw feeding.  We are in our third month and everyone is doing great.  The dogs for the most part love it. My little Sheltie is being a bit finicky but what she likes she eats happily.  We are hoping she is pregnant so tough love on what she will and won't eat will have to wait. 

We have another week or so until we can tell if Willow is pregnant.  I hope so. 

Feeding raw has been in interesting experience. I wish I had made the switch sooner.  All the dogs have cleaner teeth, better breath and gorgeous coats.  Hunter my old man is behaving like a playful puppy. 

I am actually saving money feeding them this way and their health is improving by leaps and bounds. 

We are so excited.  We are adding a beautiful sable girl to our pack.  She is a lovely Sheltie and has already won her Championship titles in both UKC and Internationsl.   She is going to be a great asset to our area as she brings with her a lovely pedigree.  We can't wait to see what she produces.  First, though we have to get her here.  Of course our lovely Cherri lives in Oklahoma.  They never have severe winters, at least not until I want to ship a dog out of that area.  We are here waiting for a call from her breeder letting us know she is on the plane.  I so hope this happens this week.  We have already been waiting about 3 weeks. 

Cherri comes to us on the heels of the great loss of our blue merle Sheltie, Delta.  She is not a replacement in that for me,  Delta was irreplaceable.  However we do dreadfully miss having a Sheltie around the house and finding her was a huge blessing we could not pass up.  I think with her totally different looks and personality she will find her own place in our hearts and home. 

Wow, I'll  write back when we get our sweet girl.

In the meantime our exercise pen has been mostly reconstructed and it is so nice to have dry dogs again.  The Collies have spent the winter with free run of the yard and both they and the yard are a wreck.  Now they get to hang out in their coveredplay area and still have a section that is open for sunny days.  What a blessing to have a handy husband and good friends.

All that is  left is for some dividers to be put up in the exercise yard and we will be set to go.