The Yam Experiment & Tuesday Tag-Along Blog Hop

Lucy and I have been blessed enough to have the last 2 days at home- away from the store. (Notice that I do not say that we have had the last 2 days off...) While I had a ton of painting to do, Lucy and I also managed to sneak in some play time. And I managed to make a quick run to the grocery store. My little boxer was excited to see me come home, and I know that all the smells in the grocery bags peaked her attention, so I humored her and let her help me unpack.

These soup bones are one of Lucy's favorite things. They're relatively inexpensive, but they're pretty tasty and they are very good at satisfying Lucy's urge to chew, keeping those sharp little teeth off of my all ready raw toes, ankles and elbows! I wash em off, put them in the microwave for about 7 minutes, let them cool and then I hand one off to Lucy who will chew, and chew, and chew usually for a good hour or two! They don't splinter like some bones do, and don't get all mushy and gross like rawhide does- and as I mentioned- they're pretty inexpensive. I got a pack of 3 of them for $2.00.

Lucy really loves vegetables, and I've decided that I'm going to experiment with adding different vegetables to her Wellness dog food which she's kind of been picking over lately. (Okay, I accept full responsability for this- she's probably been getting way too much human food- I am guilty as charged!)

At any rate, the vegetable of the day yesterday was to be yams. And I returned home from the grocery store with 4 pretty good sized ones and introduced them to Lucy. I was surprised that my little boxer even paid any attention to this raw yam, but she did. She and I talked about it and played with it for a whole 5 minutes before I decided it was time to cut it up and cook it.

Lucy sat patiently by my feet while I scrubbed and cubed 2 of the yams. (Cutting a yam is not an easy task, and I was feeling like the chances of me getting all of the yams cut without taking off my finger were pretty slim- but I did it! Yams are very hard- I'm pretty sure they're harder than a regular potato- and they make a big orange mess all over the place.)

Lucy was very interested in the pretty orange vegetables floating in the pot, she stuck her little head right in there. I was waiting for her to try to eat one of them raw, but I got the pan out of her reach in time. (Lucy is a good little kitchen helper, and I get a big kick out of showing her what I'm doing, or letting her sniff things. When I load the dishwasher, I let her sniff a plate or two, and she sits and watches as I finish loading the dishwasher. When she was younger, she jumped up on the door of the open dishwasher which was bound to eventually be a disaster. Thankfully, I have broken her of that habit!) She watched as I put the pot on the stove, and then she sat watch waiting for them to be done.

For 10 minutes, Lucy sat there and waited. At one point, Lucy laid down and let out a very deep sigh. I guess she thought this process was taking way too long. I wondered to myself how long this patience would last.

And I had no sooner finished this thought to myself when I turned around and Lucy had decided it was time for her to check on her dinner!

(Notice she's still got paint on her ear!)

"Oh boy, Lucy! You're way too precious! But, it's hot up there and you really need to get 'DOWN' You could get hurt and I would feel horrible! They're almost done, I swear. Just a couple more minutes."

Lucy looked at me, got down, let out a deep sigh and laid down on the floor in front of the stove.

I knew Lucy's patience was wearing thin, so letting those yams cool naturally was out of the question. She was right at my feet, sitting and waiting! I ran them under cool water, and mixed them right in with her dog food.

"Okay, Lucy! Your yams are finally done! 'SIT!'"

Lucy couldn't wait to get at those yummy yams. And she was quick to drag one out of the bowl and into the living room for some odd reason. She abandoned it there, and returned to the kitchen where she pretty much emptied out the bowl- except for about a 1/4 cup of the dog food.

The yams went over so well, that she had them again this morning for breakfast. My fiance thinks I've lost my mind- I'm cooking for the boxer!

I have been trying to clean out our house for the last couple of months. We've got all kinds of stuff that we don't use anymore that's just sitting around collecting dust, and of course, with the impending move- I've got to get cleaning! I had a huge pile of the old USPS boxes, (the ones with the old rates on them) in my study upstairs that needed to go, and I dragged them down to the burn pile, dropping one accidentally on the way. Lucy was quick to jump in and grab the dropped box. She dragged it all over the yard for a couple of minutes before trying to get into the house with it. Of course, the box was too big for her to carry in her mouth and walk up the steps. Lets just say I had a few giggles out of the event!

"Do you need to mail something, little Lucy?"


Without further ado...

Here's how it works:

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