dog food etc

Apart from Jane I don't think anyone else is reading this blog as I cannot seem to come up with an address for anyone to type in and get to it!.

Never mind I will plow on and see what the future brings!

The other day I stewed some chicken backs which are quite cheap, to mix in with the dried food I give the dogs. I usually add a couple of stock cubes and a little tomato ketchup as the dogs seems to really like that. The end result is quite a lot of meat and a nice rich gravy. I make enough to last 4 dogs 3 days. It does entail taking out every single big and little bone with my bare hands but it is a labour of love.

The point of this story is that after the chicken was cooked and the stock cubes added I reached for the tomato ketchup. Now, here in Barbados there are a number of brands and one has a very pretty plastic cover with pictures of tomatoes all over it. You know the kind of covering on some glass food containers...like it is vacuum applied, like a second skin. Well, Tony has a thing about pickling hot peppers and making various hot sauces. He loves them and I am so allergic it gives me an instant asthma attack if I get too close to his masterpieces! Like I said, I reached for the sauce, take off the top and slosh some of it into the chicken stew. Except that it isn't tomato but one of Tony's concoctions!!!

I was so furious...I was spluttering and coughing and swearing!!. I had to throw all the gravy away and then put the meat in a sieve and run cold tap water through it and thoroughly rinse every trace of the pepper sauce away. Then I had to pick all the bits of of pepper that were still stuck to the meat. Tony proceeds to tell me that he had made it some time ago and had told me he had used that bottle. I do remember something of the sort and asking him at the time to put a label on the bottle as one cannot see the true contents. "Oh" he says, "I thought you knew that was pepper sauce".

I collected Rosie the latest kitten from the vet yesterday. She is fine and leaping about just as before. Cats and dogs always amaze me by the the way they get over spaying and neutering.

Next Tuesday I am taking 3 female cats to be spayed. Not my cats...they belong to a blind lady who is getting overwhelmed with cats but does love them and does her best. The Hope animal Sanctuary is paying for them and I am transporting them. It is a never ending job here in Barbados....dealing with strays and trying to educate people about spayiing and neutering.