"Naturally Complete" from Purina's Dog Chow line ...

That's a nice story.  On the flip side to that, I was at a Wendy's drive-thru and a woman came up to my car and asked me for some money so she could get a sandwich or something from inside.  I asked her what she wanted and that I would get it for her, whatever she wanted, it didn't matter how much.  She walked away!  She didn't want to buy food, she just wanted my cash to do God knows what with.

ORIGINAL: willowchow

That's a nice story.  On the flip side to that, I was at a Wendy's drive-thru and a woman came up to my car and asked me for some money so she could get a sandwich or something from inside.  I asked her what she wanted and that I would get it for her, whatever she wanted, it didn't matter how much.  She walked away!  She didn't want to buy food, she just wanted my cash to do God knows what with.

 
Yep there are alot of people like that over here. On the other hand there is an addict in the neighborhood who has a spotted mutt that goes everywhere with him. He begs for food for his dog before begging for money for himself, to go do you know what with it. I dont applaud begging but I am just saying it doesnt matter if they have money or not its the love that counts

Also I was in no way saying that 20 dollars more for a bag of food would make a difference in me going broke. I mean I do budget and that is why I need to adjust my budget to buy a more expensive food. Say I get paid X dollars every 2 weeks. Well I save Y for bills, and Z for the savings account. I also take out a certain amount of money for the two weeks so I can eat lunch in case I cant bring my lunch to work for a few day. I set aside money for diapers, medicines if needed and the 13 bucks for Lizzies food which lasts her roughly 3 weeks.
 
My point is that if I do have to rearrange my budget so instead of 13 bucks im taking out 35-40 for Lizzies food. It doesnt make me go broke but I have to budget differently, so that I still have a good amount to put in the savings and what not.

Oh Sandra. You know why Blue Bell tastes so good? Because cows think Brenham is Heaven. My wife was raised around there.

 
 
 
Ron, those cow KNOW they re in God's country.  Ha Ha  bur really, that is a very nice area.

I never give money to those begging because so many are wino's and will spend every penny on wino and no food. That is why i buy food for them instead of giving money.  Also I give food to the food pantry at our little church every month--like those complete dinnes in a  box that already has meat, cans of spahtetti sauce with meat ( as little meat as it is) and spaghetti, canned ravaoli,  Chunky soups, tuna, Spam, cans of veggies, etc.  It is amazing how much we give out each month. There are 3 different companies in this area tha build and repair those off shore rigs and it seems at least one is always between work and have workers laid off.  Of course they can draw unemployement, but that is a far cry from their actual pay.    Some get food stamps, etc, but many can't becuase they have a new car, etc.  They rely on the churches food banks for a lot of their food.

Although i choose to feed premium foods, i think that there are other things more important in ownership of a dog.

Right on Ridge!!!!
 
Sandras story makes me kind of feel sad because our Cleveland Sunday newspaper also wrote an article about the homeless here in downtown Cleveland a few years ago, and it also changed my attitude about them. I don't know, maybe most of them are trying to freeload but there are enough of them that truely fell on hard times..good people that just lost all their luck and with it went their family and friends...isn't it nice that they found a dog to be their best friend because he needs that dog for a best friend as much as the dog needs him. Its so true that fellow is a much better dog owner than the people that feed their dog great food and leave them out in their fenced in yard all day, or go to work and then out every evening leaving the dog totally by himself most of the time with his premium food in his dish.

Vet care was never mentioned in that article, but I rather doubt the dog did hvae vet care.  But what if he had remained a stray and not been killed"  He would have lived a life scrounging for food, no loving hand to pet him, no arms to hug him, no person to speak lovingly to him and no vet care either.   I am sure there were times he was probably was hungry, as was his owner.  But better to be hungry and loved than hungry with no love.  Of course this has nothing to do with what your feed your dog, just a story I thought note worthy of a guy and his love for his dog despite his circumstances.  I thought it touching how he went to the dog food asile first. 

My post was not directed at you.
 
And may you never go through the hardships I've had. I've been homeless twice and I have been 5 days without food (not my choice).

Oh Ron I cant imagine how hard it must have been for you. We should be grateful that we have a roof over our heads.
 
I am glad you are doing much better now, and I hope everything is always as good or better

So Ron your living proof of  good people that have fallen on very hard times and ended up homeless.....I'm glad you succeeded in pulling out!

Do you, as a human, eat meat raw?

Some vegetables are certainly better raw. Lettuce for example.

I don't eat meat, at all

If the meat is of high enough quality, you *should* be fine, eating it raw. Some meat (like Kobe beef, or sushi grade salmon) is perfectly fine to eat, raw. Factory farmed meat killed in a slaughterhouse, not so much....

Many cultures have one or more traditional uncooked meat - either smoked, salted, or simply au natural (beef tartare anyone?).  The idea that meat must be cooked is a recent one, in spite of the fact that compression refrigeration is also an innovation of the last fifty years.  People knew how to handle meat because they had to be careful.  Meat, egg, and milk animals were raised in ways that did not favor the overgrowth of bacteria unnatural to them.  People didn't know about bacteria but they weren't stupid - they knew what behavior tended to make people sick and they avoided it (unless they were slovenly or were forced into subhuman conditions).

I'm not saying it's a good idea to eat raw meat now, or be careless with it.  Or that raw meat never killed anyone in the "good old days".  Just that there wasn't a huge jump from raw meat to cooked meat and modern health and prosperity.  Meat must always be cooked is pretty much a concept of the current generation.  Cooking meat didn't appreciably raise the average life span - most anthropologists believe the greatest jump happened in conjunction with sustainable farming methods about 10,000 years ago.

I've had two family members end up with food borne illness.

My brother got salmonella, from a hot dog, at a gas station. It wasn't kept hot enough, after it was cooked, and the bacteria LOVED that warm, fatty meat juice.

My mom got e coli from raw, low grade, ground beef. She got it from contact with her hands, not from eating it. E coli comes from fecal matter. In other words, the meat had cow poop in it. YUM YUM.

Both cases were caused by gross mishandling, not by meat, itself....

I've never heard of anyone getting sick from eating raw veggies. Is there any food borne illness that can come from properly cleaned veggies?

Not from properly cleaned veggies, but there was an incident a few years ago at Chi Chi's (a "mexican" chain that still may or may not exist) where a few hundred people got hepatitis A from green onions.

This won't turn into a poor Ron thread. But fortunes can turn. My problem last fall in being laid off was that I'm now over-qualified. If I were a journeyman or an apprentice, I could find a job in a heartbeat. Those guys are always needed. But a master? And lacking the money to start my own business, too. But it is possible to get a pet while things are good and have finances go to the crapper.
 
I can't imagine what it must be like for you having to pay more for shipping than the actual MSRP of the stuff itself. And all on minimum wage.