Back from the Midwest
I went to Omaha recently to see the food manufacturing plant for Natura, the company I work for. Compared to the Hill’s plant I saw in Etten-Leur, The Netherlands, it was amazing. The plant itself is only a few years old and the impeccable cleanliness and dedication of the staff there impressed me greatly. The scary thing is, this plant, three years ago, was running at half capacity - and now it’s barely got enough room and manpower to fill all the orders. Maybe because people are realizing that nutrition is the foundation of good animal husbandry - if your nutrition is poor, you can’t expect to be healthy - just like in humans, and just like the large animal industry has known for years. Why should it be any different with companion animals? Mostly, I enjoyed hanging out with people with the same interests and mindsets as myself for a couple of days. Even in vet school there are a wide variety of opinions (often strong, narrow-minded ones) and it’s nice to sit down with fourteen people who think like you do about nutrition and behavior and where the future of this occupation is going. All in all it was a good trip, even if my flight to Dallas got cancelled and I was delayed in O’Hare twice.
The dogs were of course very glad to see me when I got back. I was so happy to see Beau wagging his tail at the staff (something he never does) when I dropped them off, but he got sick a couple of days later (probably because he had half a can of canned food before he left) and I worried about him a lot. But he’s fine now, happy to be home, and Faye is enjoying being outside as much as possible per her usual self. I’m starting now to walk them in the mornings, since in the fall I won’t have class until 9 (except on Tuesday) and if I get up at 6 and walk them for an hour, it will give them a chance to burn off some sleep-energy while I am gone until 5 everyday and they won’t get another walk until 8 or so when it cools down.
I bought something amazing called the AlphaPac. This unique hands-free walking device is absolutely awesome. After a few adjustments and a couple of practice lessons, the dogs seem to have a pretty good handle on the situation and Faye walks on the left while Beau walks on the right. It may look a little goofy, but it’s so much easier to hold a poop bag and the garage door opener and a cell phone when you don’t also have to keep switching leashes between your hands and untangling dogs and being yanked in all directions. It was hard enough to do that with one dog (and Beau is very well leash trained) and now I don’t have to do anything at all but offer praise and stroll along with them. We walked almost 3 miles this morning and it was the best walk I’ve had with the dogs since Faye came home. And of course, it will only get better as we begin to walk more and more now that school is rushing its way towards us.
housekeeping, musings, nutrition | Comment (0)