89 = 4

Saturday was 89's birthday so we did a lot of celebrating. If you're here just for the food, you may wanna come back later; this post is all about 89 (although there are snacks)!

 

 We started the day with one of 89's favorite foods: pancakes! She got a stack all to herself.

Here she is perturbed that she had to wait to eat them (but peep her pin!).

Stealing the idea from a pal, we got these fab balloons.

They were even cool on the flip side.

 

Of course there were gifts and cards to be had.

 

And, you may have already noticed that her hoodie has been customized by VM since Christmas.

A better view of the tush.

Be on the lookout for more bday duds, but 89 was mostly interested in eviscerating this bird.

And then she received a timely special delivery from Vegan Divas, which she unceremoniously made off with before a proper photo op (don't worry; there's another one). Review up on Vegansaurus! 

We went to the grandhumans' house for more festivities:

more balloons, 

More presents,

and ice cream!

Per usual, it was a fun day in celebration of this nerd and her 4th bday!

MWAH

Our 2nd 89iversary: Vegan Dog Cupcakes

If you keep up with 89 or the blog on Facebook, you probably already know that this week we celebrated our 2nd 89iversary.

We'd begun the celebration when I filled her food jar earlier in the month.

In the week preceding, she found one of her presents and disemboweled it before I could reclaim it.

Then, over the weekend prior to the anniversary, we visited with some old rescue friends.

On the day of, there was the (unrealized) threat of torrential rain so we started the day as anyone stuck inside might: by baking celebratory cupcakes from Vegan Miss.  As always, my sous chef:

They came out great, but something was missing.

Yep, FLAIR!  Picked up these adorable and working pinwheels just for the occasion.  Those are quartered Three Dog Bakery sandwich cookies atop.

An extra box was part of her present:

The pinwheels (and 89) in action:

She followed me around as I made every effort to get a great shot of the cupcakes.

Ultimately, she had to be distracted with a cupcake (all part of her plan, I'm sure).

The rest of the day was spent with the things 89 loves.  Arugula, of course.

House demolition:

Neighborhood watch:

Costume changes:

Presents:

Aaaand, more cupcake consumption:

A happy anniversary indeed.

Read more about when we first met, our getting to know each other, what 89 eats as a vegan, other things I've cooked for her, and places she goes.

Think you're ready to commit to a companion animal and have all kinds of love and fun in your life?  Remember: rescues rule, so adopt; never shop.  

89iversary

Today is our 89iversary, so I thought we'd talk about cookies.  89 loves cookies; just like me.

89's arrival (last year!) prompted a slew of welcoming gifts from friends, many of which were cookies (!).  Who knew there were so many vegan options available?  Well, I actually did.  But it's interesting how many people are surprised to learn that there's a large assortment of vegan treat options for dogs, in addition to food and bones.  Please do note, though, that many of these products are vegan offerings from a line of non-vegan treats, so always read the labels.

We started off with Wet Noses' sweet potato Little Stars.

Since she had to go through a food transition first, I stockpiled her gift cookies in the pantry (for a little dog, her stuff takes up a lot of room in there) and stuck with these for a while.

 

When she got a little bigger (mainly her ears; they're enormous!) I decided to switch her to Cloud Star Buddy Biscuits' veggie flavor Itty Bitty cookies for her everyday (about ten times a day) treat.

These are bigger, but also thinner and easier to bite; I don't know if it's the size or the taste, but she seems to like these better (although I still give her the stars from time to time).

The first cookies I gave her for dessert were these awesome-smelling mixed berry (cranberry, blueberry, and cherry) health bone biscuits from Omega Paw, gifted from a pal with extremely good taste.

 

They really did smell like all of the fruit pictured on the package and, while they were crunchy, they were still easy to break (more on that later).

A non-vegan co-worker gave us these Bandit's Biscuits veggie snaps that she'd found at a local pet supply store.  Unfortunately, they smelled stale when I opened them, so I contacted the company.

They kindly sent a fresh batch and I'm glad they did.  The replacement cookies arrived looking and smelling like a just-baked vegetable biscuit.  89 ate as many as she could before they too passed their (unadvertised) shelf-life.  I recommend them, but make sure you feed them to your pooch relatively fast.  No preservatives! 

The Old Mother Hubbard line can be found at your larger, chain, pet supply stores and it's great that there's a vegan option so readily available.

They're pretty thick, so- as always, be mindful of your dog's chewing habits.  If they have chewing habits.  For some reason, 89 needs her cookies pre-broken for her.  Really!  If I give her an entire biscuit she'll walk around with it in her mouth, crying, until I can't take it anymore and physically remove the soggy thing.  And, for the record, I'd much prefer to pre-break them when they're crisp, as opposed to retrieving them when they're soggy with saliva.  Is this weird?  Does anyone else know a dog like this?  It's a pattern.

"I eat plants" (ed. note: not really!  Plants can be toxic!)

Odd girl.

I love her more every day (and feed her lots of these cookies from Bocce's Bakery, her favorite).

If you can provide a safe and loving home to an animal, please identify a rescue organization and adopt; it will change two lives.

Happy 89iversary, Agent 89!! xoxo