Love, Lilly Bug
Lilly is what you could call "an aggressive chewer". My husband and I joke that her head is just a giant hinge for her mouth. To date she has destroyed 8 pairs of shoes. All of which were mine, except for one pair. Yayyy. She chewed the Otterbox off my phone while I was asleep. She chewed up my portable phone charger. Saying she likes to chew on things is a bit of an understatement. Trying to find toys that will last through more than a single play session is a challenge. Yesterday I went to PetCo to buy Lilly some new things to chew on. I was going to buy her a PetStages Dogwood Stick but I ended up buying her a Nylabone Flavor Frenzy bone. Wrong choice. I brought it home and was so excited to give it to her. I could just picture her face when she realized it was bacon, egg, and cheese flavored! What dog wouldn't go nuts for that?? It turns out Lilly wouldn't. I opened it up and let her smell it. She grabbed the packaging instead of the bone. After pawing it at for a few minutes she came back and seemed less than mildly interested in the bone. She gave it a few chomps, walked off without, and never gave it another thought. I was SO frustrated, and honestly a little offended. I had looked at so many things at PetCo that I thought she would enjoy! I thought I had picked out the holy grail of toys. It's bacon, egg, and cheese flavored for crying out loud! But she ended up absolutely hating it. After a night of frustrating attempts to get her to play with it we gave up. I went back to PetCo today and bought her the largest size available of the PetStages Dogwood Stick and a Leaps & Bounds Playtime Pal Squeaky ball. I gave them to her about an hour and a half ago and she is still going nuts over them both, especially the squeaky ball. Lilly has had a PetStages Dogwood stick before. If you look at the picture on the right you can see the nub that is left of the first one that I bought her. She loves these! The Flavor Frenzy Nylabone I bought was priced at $19.99. She chewed on it for a total of less than 2 minutes. The PetStages Dogwood stick I bought was also priced at $19.99. Total chew time today adds up to about 10 minutes. She's been too excited about the squeaky ball to give it too much attention right now. She would chew on the first Dogwood stick I bought her for hours at a time, which was really great, especially if I needed to finish a paper for school or catch up on some work around the apartment. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from buying a Nylabone. Some dogs love them! Lilly just isn't one of those dogs. If you're fur baby seems dissatisfied with their current chew toy I would highly recommend giving the PetStages Dogwood stick a try. It comes in three different sizes, and Lilly has done well with the medium and large sizes. It is made with real wood so it sheds like a real stick would during a chewing session, but the pieces that come off are really soft and small. Yes, it leaves a mess behind after a chewing session, but in my opinion it's worth it. This in no way means that you shouldn't monitor your fur baby during a chewing session. You should ALWAYS monitor your fur baby and their toys during any kind of play/chew time. Lilly is currently going crazy over the squeaky ball that I bought her today. Squeaky balls are kind of her thing. She is very picky about the kinds of squeaky balls she wants to play with, and I've found over time that she doesn't like the expensive ones. She has squeaky balls from Dollar Tree, Kroger, Walmart, and PetCo. Her favorite one cost a whopping 97 cents at Walmart and her least favorite cost around $6 from PetCo. She refuses to even chase after the one from PetCo when I throw it. She likes softer ones so that she can squish them in her mouth and run around with them comfortably. The ball that I bought her today is made of flexible rubber and it was $3.99. I'm sure it won't last long, but I think it was a good buy. Somehow Lilly always ends up breaking the squeakers. She even broke the one on her Mighty Ball, and ripped all the fabric off, as usual. It was ranked at a 10, which is the highest the Mighty durability scale goes up to. Lilly needs a toy ranked at about a billion on a durability scale. She still likes to play with it though, even though all that is left is the plain rubber ball, which is why I bought the ball in the first place. Mighty doesn't use stuffing in their toys and they are still fully usable even after the fabric has been ripped off, which is a big marketing point of theirs. I hope this post helps those of you out there looking for some new toys for your fur babies! Have a wonderful weekend!
Love, Lilly Bug
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While in New Mexico I discovered that Lilly has an intense love for Greenies. For those of you who don't know about Greenies they are a grain free dental chew for dogs that can be given daily and they are vet recommended. They are also shaped like toothbrushes! How cute is that? My mom has three very tiny rescued chihuahuas so she feeds them the smallest size of Greenies. Lilly could eat one of those in less than 10 seconds. Chop chop, swallow, and gone. I swear she could beat someone in a pie eating contest. The day before we headed back home my mom insisted that we go to the pet store and get Lilly some Greenies to have once we got home. My mom got her a box of large sized Greenies and I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price she paid. The box of large Greenies was priced at $39.99 and it contained 17 Greenies. 40 bucks for 17 treats?? That seems more than a little outrageous to me. Lilly REALLY likes them though, so I just might end up buying her another box. or two. I've been on the lookout for a DIY recipe so I can make Greenies at home but so far I don't feel comfortable with any of the recipes I've found. I'll keep looking for a recipe and a lower price and will post as soon as I spot one! We haven't gone grocery shopping in quite awhile and I realized yesterday that we are out of every ingredient I use to make Lilly dog treats. We're even out of flour! I decided to try making some chicken jerky with the chicken breasts we have in the freezer and it ended up going pretty well. I tried a piece and it tasted just like extra crispy bacon, which is really weird, but whatever. I'll roll with it. DIY Chicken Jerky Ingredients: 1 frozen chicken breast soy sauce Directions: Preheat oven to 250* F. Defrost the chicken breast in the microwave and pat dry with a paper towel when finished defrosting. Place dried defrosted chicken breast on cutting board and slice into pieces about 1/4 inch thick. Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and arrange so no pieces are touching. Place 1 small drop of soy sauce on each piece of chicken and rub into each piece. Bake for 2 hours and then flip each piece. Continue baking for an additional 2 hours. The slices end up much smaller than what you originally cut so chose a pretty good sized chicken breast to start with. These can be stored in the freezer or the refrigerator. I'm storing mine in a sealed mason jar in the fridge. My rule on any homemade treat is to toss it after it has been in the fridge for 2 weeks. Some treats last longer than others and some spoil faster than others. Use your best judgement when feeding things to your fur babies! I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays! For those of you that have already started the spring semester or will shortly (mine starts on Tuesday, ug) I wish you the best of luck! Have a wonderful semester! And don't let yourself get too stressed out. Pour yourself some coffee, punch today in the face (and tomorrow for that matter) and give your fur babies some loving. They seem to always know how to make the day a little brighter. Love, Lilly Bug We are currently in the snowy state of New Mexico! Woo! My parents moved here during mid 2015 and this is our second time to visit. Driving here with Lilly Bug and Dante Peaches seems to always be an adventure. Dante Peaches apparently really does not Like Lubbock for some reason. During our first drive here he flew into the windshield, stunned himself, and fell limp on the dashboard while driving through Lubbock. This time he flew and landed on Chris's face while he was driving through the town. Something always interesting happens on the way here. Lilly loves my parent's house. It has a pretty open floor plan and lots of rooms for her to run around in, which is much different than our one bedroom apartment. She's been getting lots of energy out. My mother fully believes that Lilly is her grandchild. The fur, paws, and wagging tail make no difference to her. (Maybe she's where I get my Dog Crazy from) Lilly doesn't sit like a normal dog. She never has and she probably never will. She sits flat on her butt with her legs stretched straight out in front of her, like a child would sit on the couch if their legs weren't long enough to reach it. She loves to follow my parents around and see what they are up to. She's like a curious little child and she certainly has the attitude and temper tantrums to prove it. We all joke that she must think she's human, so when I spotted My Dog Thinks He's Human: 50 Ways to a Happy Healthy Pet on the clearance rack at Hastings I knew I wasn't leaving the store without it. I wasn't sure what to expect when I began reading it but I ended up really enjoying the information and the way it was presented. My Dog Thinks He's Human was written by Peter Wedderburn, better known as Pete the Vet. His website is really informative and has some great links that feature things like the writing he has done for a variety of places and his blog. Through his website you can also find the book My Cat is Ignoring Me: 50 Ways to a Happy Healthy Pet. My Dog Thinks He's Human offers great information on a variety of subjects including, creating a balanced diet for your dog, dental health, preventing puppy bites during playtime, exercise and playtime, and tricks to getting those pesky pills into your pups tummy so they can do their job. The book is a short read, just 85 half-sized pages, and it is jam-packed with helpful information. I would highly recommend keeping a look out for a copy. The information is great and the illustrations done by Pet José Karlén are absolutely adorable. I hope everyone is having a great day on this after-holiday Monday. Stay warm! Love, Lilly Bug |
Love, Lilly BugHello, Loves! It's still Hannah here! Lilly Bug's Human from Tater Tots and Wine. Lilly has inspired so many DIYs that I thought she needed a blog space of her own! On this page of the Tater Tots and Wine Blog you will find dog treat recipes, diy dog toys, and maybe hear about an adventure or two! I hope you Enjoy! Archives
October 2016
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