JustFoodForDogs

  

    No column in the paper today. I was on assignment for the Sunday editor Wednesday, and Thursdayd wrote a large piece that's running Sunday.

     "I wonder if they have any food for cats," I mused, as my wife and I drove to Highland Park. "Maybe I'll ask them."
     We don't have a cat, not anymore, having lost our Natasha last June. So we have no need for cat food. But my odd comment becomes less mysterious when you understand our destination: a shop called "JustFoodForDogs" in Highland Park. I guess I was trying to be funny, and failing.

   Our Kitty, who is a dog, for new readers, or longtime readers slow on the uptake, pushing 16 years old this summer, has been having what we call a wanky stomach. I will spare you the details. Let's just say instead of taking her out three times a day, I've been taking her out five or six. This also necessitated several visits to the vet — three, maybe four — a variety of tests, including x-rays. An expenditure, I estimate, of some $500. At least..
     We'd given her medications. We'd mixed canned pumpkin into her food. Now the vet's suggestion was to go to this JustFoodForDogs — not sure what happened to the spaces, but that's how they present themselves — and secure some balanced remedy food. No problem. Had Dr. Jones suggested we go to Lourdes and wash her in the water at the Grotto of Massabielle, well, that's what we would do. We love her that much.
     I must admit, I was taken aback by the store, particularly it's sparseness. It reminded me of the Parachute boutique on Oak Street in the 1980s, when "you're going to pay a fortune on this rags" was conveyed by having just a few exquisite garments hanging from a hook or two.
     I let out a mental slow whistle.

     Our entrance tripped some secret signal, in the back, and a young man came out and attended to our high end dog food needs. He was a handsome young man, tall, with his face obscured by a mass of hair, and I considered taking his photograph, then thought better of it.
     We bought two forms of the food — in essence turkey and rice with a bunch of oils in it — and took it home.
     Kitty zupped the stuff up. And while the unmentionable problems got only a little better, if that, we were encouraged enough to return. This time I bought three frozen slabs, each weighing 18 ounces, for a little over $30, and took it away in a little white bag, the sort of thing you'd expect at a jewelry store or expensive boutique, which I guess this is.

     Yes, it occurred to me we could whip up some turkey and rice and mash it up and save ourselves about 90 percent. But we could also make our brooms out of sorghum.
     JustFoodForDogs was founded in 2010 to offer "human-grade food" to canines without all the filler and ground up horses and whatnot that must be in commercial dog food.  In addition to the stand-alone stores, they're available in PetSmart — also no space; I'm beginning to see a trend here,. Maybe the pets eat the spaces between the words.