First, because it was just Thanksgiving, I would like to start out by giving thanks for my family dog, Dixie. She passed away the Monday before Thanksgiving and so it was kind of a sad time for my family because we had her for 14 years!! I remember picking her out when I was just a wee child (I was only 11!). Really though, 14 years is pretty incredible for a farm dog. She was an amazing, sweet, and wonderful dog that we all miss dearly already. However, as sad as it is that she passed away after 14 good years, I am so thankful that she left us before the winter truly got here because it would have been very hard on her, so I am very thankful that she did not have to suffer through another winter. I can only hope that Atlas will give us that many good years.
With that, we love and miss you Dixie-cup:
On the bright side though, my parents will probably get a puppy in the spring so now Atlas will actually have a playmate when we go to visit.
With Thanksgiving being last week and knowing we were going to be seeing a lot of people, Chris and I decided that it was time for Atlas' quarterly bath on Tuesday. It was our third time giving him a bath in our enormous bathtub, which has its pros and cons (Pros: There is a lot of room to fit all of us in to give him a bath Cons: There is a lot of room for Atlas to slip around and try to escape). It went better than the first two times but still not great. For starters, when he even senses we are going to do something "horrible" to him he shuts down, and by shut down, I mean he flops to the ground and is nearly impossible to get him to do anything once he is in this mood. So Chris physically had to pick him up and put him in the tub. Once he was in the tub he was okay-ish
"Please No….you really do not have to do this"
"Why ME?!"
Other than his few escape attempts, the rest of the bath time went pretty smoothly….well other than when he slipped and fell down into the water because he kept putting his back paw on the side of the bathtub, in which he really tried to give up after that happened.
"If I back up far enough….. I will get out of this tub!!!"
No worries though, we eventually got him up and finished his bath so he looked and smelled squeaky clean for the long holiday weekend, which I am sure everyone was thankful (No one likes a smelly doggie!).
Now, onto the reason this blog exists, what did we try feeding our good smelling puppy this week!? Well, with it being Thanksgiving I obviously wanted to do something that fit the holiday and also, with us trying to keep Atlas looking good, I figured we might as well feed him something that is good for him: Cranberry! (Fun fact: Cranberry is very good for dogs!) We didn't feed him a full cranberry but this cranberry dish my mom makes. We wanted to test it out but Atlas was sleeping…..so we had to get him to come by us so we could see if he liked cranberry!
"OHHHH Atlas…. we have something for you"
"I'M COMING!!!!"
Of course we made him sit and stay before we gave him the cranberry… he cannot just get food without working for it!
"That looks super scrumptious!"
And oh boy did he ever find it scrumptious!!!! Not even Jasper could interrupt him while he licked up the delicious cranberry out of the dish!
Jasper: "You still smell wonderful from your bath!"
Atlas: "Excuse me Jasper, I am busyz….. but thank you"
"MMMM"
Okay Atlas, take a break.
"But… But… mom… "
"plz…I eat more?"
Needless to say, I think he likes cranberries…. kind of shocking considering how bitter they can taste…. but hey…. as long as they are good for him.. I can't complain. He ate them pretty fast so he must actually like them a lot…. I mean after watching how he ate them, I kind of picture that he was doing this while he was in the midst of scarfing down those cranberries:
On a unrelated note, Chris and I may need to consider investing in a tent for Christmas because he made himself a nice and cozy bed inside our friends childrens' tent while we were visiting her over Thanksgiving….:
"Dear Santa..... could you puh-wease bring me a tent with
pillows in it for Christamas, I've been a very good boy dis year.
That would be super.
That would be super.
Thanks, Atlas"
*****
“If you're at Thanksgiving dinner, but you don't like the stuffing or the cranberry sauce or anything else, just pretend like you're eating it, but instead, put it all in your lap and form it into a big mushy ball. Then, later, when you're out back having cigars with the boys, let out a big fake cough and throw the ball to the ground. Then say, "Boy, these are good cigars!" ~Jack Handy
P.S. As hard as it is to believe, I had an incredibly hard time finding a quote regarding cranberries! Why is there such little love for the cranberry?
