Fallback time and home cooked dog food

My early-morning, out-of-focus eyes thought the clock read 6:40, which would be 5:40 Fallback time. That was OK, 6:40, since that is within a few minutes of normal wakeup time, unless younger dog Charlie decides an earlier time he and older dog Victor need to go outside.

6:40 a.m. OK. I got up and went to the bathroom and took my old man prescription drugs and went back to the bedroom and got dressed in jeans, pullover shirt and socks. Then, I looked at my phone, which, as phones do, had kept track of Fallback time and now brightly informed me

4:40 a.m.

That was 5:40 before Fallback, but up is up, one of those times you know is too early, but you also know going back to bed will not lead to sleep. Sometimes, better up and thinking than down and not sleeping.

Charlie and Victor went out earlier than they expected.

Then it was medicine for Charlie, fludrocortisone in a quarter of a wiener and then the other quarter, and two for Victor as well. If one dog gets something, fair says the other does as well. Dogs understand fairness. Dogs are great fans of fairness.

I fed Charlie and Victor dry dog food with some beef sandwich slices that had been in the refrigerator enough days past human consumption. Then, with coffee making, I began cooking dog food.

Last week I took Victor to WestRock Animal Hospital to have the vet check a hand-size lump just below Victor’s rib cage. The vet pulled whatever was in the lump and diagnosed the lump a fat tumor. Priscilla did online research and found that meant Victor is not processing fat. Victor and Charlie are standard poodles. Victor weighs 88 pounds, Charlie 65 pounds. Priscilla and I decided to change the dogs’ diet, combining commercial dog food with homemade food, consisting of white rice cooked in chicken broth, sweet peas, carrots and, in this week’s mixture, browned hamburger.

We got the recipe from Kathleen, whose pugs are overweight. Her recipe calls for ground chicken, but Kroger didn’t have any.

Dogs love the stuff. Rice, peas, carrots – Who would have guessed?

Victor and Charlie usually graze, eating dry food as necessary. A morning feed lasts all day. With the home cooked stuff, though, they eat it all at one meal. One in the morning and one around 6 p.m. Gone. And each checks the other’s dish to see if anything is left.

The rice and stuff is easy to cook. Two cookings a week uses a two-pound bag of rice.