Of Clumsy Dogs & Missing Mixing Bowls

We feed our dog her food in medium sized, stainless steel mixing bowls that we got at the dollar store. We bought 7 of them, to ensure that the dog had a clean bowl every day for her food.

While this was nice in theory, it's never worked out quite that way. What usually ends up happening is that when all 7 dog dishes run out, our older son Jericho (whose job it is to feed the dog) ends up dipping into our people dishes, which also end up dirty and scattered about the back yard. Ewww.

Few things are more annoying to me than finally having a day where everything is caught up, and I'm in the mood to go into the kitchen and mix up something special for the family...only to find all my mixing bowls and baking pans AWOL.

The odd thing is, I don't usually notice that they've slowly disappeared until the following begins to occur: I'm sitting on the living room couch, Judah is down for his nap, sound asleep. My housework is caught up, and I'm in the mood for some tea and scones while reading a good book or working on the computer.

I just sit down to enjoy it, when there is a commotion in the yard, right outside the window. In quick succession, four stainless steel dog dishes suddenly go skittering across the concrete patio along with what sounds like someone grunting and groaning as they stumble around out there in broad daylight.

Initially, I startle, but when I hear barking, I realize it's just the dog. Probably racing at breakneck speed to bark at some passerby at the front fence and stumbling over everything in her path.

What I don't get, though, is why the dog would trip over these things when they're usually out there long enough to become part of the scenery and for her to learn to navigate around them.

Is she just clumsy, or did she actually lose some of her vision as a puppy?

I've mentioned before how Raisin, our black Shar-pei dog, had lots of wrinkles as a puppy, and they were so heavy above her eyes, that they pushed her eyelids down, causing a dangerous condition called entropion that could have caused blindness if we'd not gotten her a corrective eye-lift.

Yes, the dog. Got an eye lift.

But it's got me thinking. How could a Vet know for sure how much vision a dog really has? It's not like there is a special vision test for animals. "Raisin, place a paw over your left eye and look at the chart down there. Tell me which animals you see on the top row."

Nor can the dog reply back to questions the Vet might ask about her vision, "Things are a little fuzzy in the right eye, Doc...and I've been having some trouble with my depth perception. Oh, and I've also noticed that my night vision is a tad off."

You don't see dogs wearing corrective glasses, so there must not be any conclusive way to tell for sure (or if there is, it's probably not in our budget) so we've sort of had to figure these things out by trial and error.

"So in general, do you believe she can see?"

Well, when the glass sliding door is open out back, she's sitting there, staring at us longingly through the screen, alert to the slightest movement or additional people entering the room. So, yeah, I'm pretty sure she sees us.

"Have you ever seen her bump into things?"

Just the glass sliding door when it's clean (which isn't very often, between her jowly slobber on the outside, and Judah's fingerprints on the inside).

"Does she seem to see moving objects?"

She spends the entire day chasing the neighbors puppy up and down the fence line, trampling shrubs and scattering beauty bark along the way...does that count?

"Does she seem to be able to see far distances?"

Hmmm. Well, she's been known to bark at the FedEx guy when he gets out of his van across the street.

By all accounts, she can see well enough, and her corneas don't look foggy anymore like they did just before her eye lift.

So why in the world does she go for weeks without making a peep in the backyard (aside from her barking, which we've learned to tune out), and then all of a sudden one day, she's tripping over those doggone bowls left and right (er, other than the fact there are just so many of them, that is, heh heh).

I just don't get it, but it's scared the daylights out of me a couple of times of late.

I'm beginning to wonder if she's out there kicking them around on purpose...going on strike because she doesn't like her dry dog food.

Personally, I think she's seen one too many of those Fancy Feast commercials on the neighbor's bigscreen TV, which glows out through their glass sliding door at night. Thinks she's all entitled to wet dog food in a fancy crystal dish. Uppity pup.

:: ::

English Scones

These lightly sweetened scones are a cross between a biscuit and a muffin top are excellent with Lemon Curd and Devonshire Cream (Crema Mexicana or whipped cream in a can work if you're desperate...ask me know I know this!). And you can't have English Scones without a proper cup of hot English Breakfast or Earl Gray tea.





4 cups flour (I use whole wheat)
2 Tbs. baking powder
4 Tbs. sugar (half as much if adding raisins)
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbs. butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. milk (plain yogurt works well, too)
*1 c. raisins (or currants), chopped in food processor before mixing up dough, but removed to a dish until dough is mixed.

In a food processor fitted with the chopping blade, mix all the dry ingredients and give them a whirl to mix well.

Add butter, and 'cut in' briefly to make coarse crumbs as though for pie crust or biscuits.

Add egg and process until dough begins to stick together.

Slowly add milk until soft dough forms. Add chopped raisins and incorporate into the dough.

Spoon golf ball sized lumps of dough onto a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 2 Dozen scones.