Saturday, February 12, 2011

Nick Nack, Paddy Whack ....

...Give a dog a bone! As I was busy doing some food preparation in the garden today, I needed the dogs to behave themselves and give me some space, so I decided to give them a bone each. At our supermarket I can sometimes buy big vacuum-packed ham bones, quite cheaply, and the dogs love them. I knew I had three in the cupboard, so I unwrapped them and gave the smallest to Foxy, and the middle one to Miki. Meanwhile Chris had gone to the other end of the yard to give the largest one to Chico. These are big bones and you would expect them to keep any dog occupied for a day or two, but not Chico. Within twenty minutes, his was gone - every bit of it! His jaws must be so strong. And as he had a front leg amputated a year ago, he only has one paw to hold his bone still, but that doesn't deter him.


Miki, meanwhile had taken hers into their shelter and was happily gnawing away on it. She always hides away in there when she is given a treat. She managed to eat most of hers but it took her a couple of hours, and I think Chico probably polished off the last little bit for her.



Little Foxy struggled a bit with hers but she had a good go at it, and when Chico had finished his and walked over towards her, she growled to warn him off. We wouldn't have let him take it from her, but she picked it up and came to sit by my feet in the hope that I would help to protect it for her. In the end I sent Chico indoors to watch football with Chris, while Foxy had all she could manage of hers. Eventually she got tired of it and wandered off, then it was first come etc. I think Miki had a go at it, but I expect Chico got it this evening and finished it off. They all enjoyed them anyway, and I got my preparation done in reasonable peace.

Why was I preparing food in the garden you ask? Well, I decided to make some of our favourite pickle - Hot Chilli and Ginger Jam. It is smooth and thick so it spreads easily in sandwiches and it is wonderful with cheese. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I didn't want to spend too long in the kitchen, so I did all the preparation outside. This evening I have posted a series of photos with the recipe on my craft blog and you can read all about it here.

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