Happy Birthday Dr. Z!

Dr. Zira's actual 13th  birthday is December 15, but we are celebrating today.  We adopted Zira in July of 2008 from her breeder.  I had been wanting a brussels griffon for my fifth dog and was thinking I would like an older dog rather then a puppy, even though I adore puppies, as we had just gone through the puppy stage with Bob our bulldog.  I had planned to get a male Brussels Griffon and name him Dr. Zaius.    The idea for the name came from the movie Planet of the Apes which we had just scene at the Landmark Loews, a really cool old theatre in Jersey City that has been restored and now screens old movies.  I have always thought Planet of the Apes was a hoot and since Brussels Griffons are known as monkey dogs I thought the name would be very appropriate.  I also loved this clip from the Simpson's of a musical Planet of the Apes, it always cracks me up.  I have recently decided that it is Dr. Z's theme song.

Anyway, I contacted numerous rescues and quite a few breeders and nobody had a male Brussels Griffon.   Finally, a local Brussels Griffon breeder told me that she had an older female, age 9, that had been returned to her recently.  So we went out to see her knowing we would probably wind up bringing her home.  When we met Zira she was named Samantha, and was very shy and a bit skinny.  She was living with about 20 to 30 other dogs so I knew that living with five other dogs would be nothing for her.  Of course we couldn't leave her.   She transitioned to our home very smoothly and became very close to our elderly pug, Bingo.


We changed Samantha's name to Dr. Zira and brought her to our vet right away.  There we found out she needed a bunch of teeth extracted and that she had kidney disease.  Today Zira has almost no teeth and with a good diet her kidneys have not worsened.  She is definitely still shy and doesn't like to cuddle much, but she is always around when you open a bag of treats.  She has some very nasty habits (the initials for it would be P.E.) but we love her anyway.  Our vet thinks we have extended her life by many years by bringing her into our home.  Here are some of my favorite picture of Dr. Z over the years she has been with us:

Today Dr. Zira began her birthday celebration with a trip to one of her least favorite people, the groomer, afterwards we took her for a walk  (short as she is not a fan of long walks)



 and out to buy our Christmas tree. 


When we got back Dr. Zira, and her siblings, had  cake (peanut butter flavor)

Goand got her present: 

Kung Fu Fido fortune cookies. 


Then we watched Planet of the Apes and decorated our tree (its a terrible blurry picture but it looks very nice and is very tall)

It was a great birthday for all!

Wordless Wednesday-Holiday Blast From the Past

Holiday's Past-Fun Memories-And More to Make This Year!

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Tasty Tuesday-Meatballs for Mutts

Tubby and Ping feel that it sometimes nice to share a romantic meal, perhaps with a bottle of wine as demonstrated in this photo from Valentine's Day two years ago.   You know what would have gone good with that wine Meatballs,  à la Lady and the Tramp.



Meatballs for Mutts 

1 lb ground meat (I used left over pork and veal from the meatloaf I made)

1/2 cup wheat germ

2 eggs beaten

3 tbsp parmesan

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil.

Combine the meat and wheat germ in a bowl, mixing well with a fork.  Add the beaten eggs and parmesan and beat again.  Bake for 1 hr.

Of course for the full Lady and The Tramp experience you need to make some spaghetti up, but the dogs will like it fine without.

A Date With Your Family-A Yummy Meal!

In my Thanksgiving post I mentioned that Thanksgiving in the anniversary of the premier of one of my favorite shows Mystery Science 3000, now sadly defunct.  MST3K is not for everyone, but its fans are loyal.  Whats not to love about a guy cruising through space and watching bad movies with his robot pals? Personally I think its the funnies thing that was ever on TV and one of the only original shows in the history of television.  Here is my favorite short from the shows history:

 Now here are two retro-styles recipes that put me in mind of a 1950s housewife.

Classic Meat Loaf From Epicurious:

• 2 slices of white sandwich bread ground into bread crumbs in the food processor
• 1/3 cup whole milk
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 medium celery rib, finely chopped
• 1 medium carrot, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 pound bacon (about 4 slices), chopped
• 1/2 cup pitted prunes, chopped
• 1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck
• 1/2 pound ground pork (or replace beef and pork with 2 lbs meatloaf mix, a mix of veal, beef, and pork)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

• Garnish: 3 slice scooked bacon

 Preheat oven to 350.  Soak bread crumbs in milk.  Cook the chopped veggies in the butter in a sauce pan or skillet for five minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently, cover and cook five minutes more.  Put the vegetables in a large bowl with the bread crumbs and milk and stir well.   Add the chopped bacon and prunes and stir well again.  Beat the eggs with a fork and stir into the meat mixture, add the parsley and stir again.   Mix up with your hands to combine completely.


Line a baking pan with tin foil and form the meat mixture into an oval loaf.  Bake 1  hr 15 minutes until internal temperature measures 155 degrees Farenheit.  Garnish with cooked Bacon.


Serve with baked potatoes and salad and the next day make meat loaf sandwiches with rye bread, pickles, and Heinz chili sauce.

Smells Good!

Yum!

For Desert

Chocolate Pudding Pie with Oreo Crust

Crust 

• 24 oreo cookies, crushed in food processor
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

Filling

• 4 egg yoks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 2 1/2 cups whole milk
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped, I used chocolate chips
• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1 tbsp vanilla

Whipped Cream Topping

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tbsp sugar (confectioners or regular)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350.



Crush cookies in the processor and add the butter, process until crumbs are well coated with butter.  Press crust into a 9 inch pie pan.  Bake 13 to 15 minutes until firm to the touch.





 For the filling combine the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch in a metal bowl and whisk well.  Add 2 tbsp of the milk and whisk to make a past.   Heat the rest of the milk in a sauce pan over medium high heat until it is barely simmering.  Carefully pour the hot milk into the egg mixture and whisk constantly, pour into the sauce pan and cook over medium high heat.  Whisk constantly until the mixture thickens (make sure to scrape the bottom of the sides in order to prevent burning.)  Cook for one minute.   Stir in the chocolates and the vanilla extract and whisk until the mixture is very smooth.   Pour into the crust and refrigerate over night.


Chill a metal bowl and beater for electric mixer in the freezer until very cold.  Beat the cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form.   


Cover pie with whipped cream and serve! 

Early Morning Walk-And Breakfast

One of the best things about an early morning walk is that a usually crowded city park can be almost empty.   This morning we walked in Liberty State Park at 6:30.  ( Dr. Zira didn't go with us because her arthritis makes her not fond of walks that are longer then around the block.  She is getting her stitches from her surgery out today though!)

The other nice thing about an early morning walk is you have plenty of time to make an indulgent weekend breakfast.

Ina Garten's French Toast Bread Pudding

1 loaf Challah bread (I  use the bread they sell at Whole Foods)
5 cups half and half
8 eggs
3 tbsp honey
zest and juice of one large orange
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp kosher salt


Preheat oven to 350.   Slice Challah 1/4 inch thick and lay in a 9X11X13 baking pan.   Whisk the half and half, eggs, honey, zest and orange juice, vanilla extract, and salt together in a large bowl.   Pour the half and half egg mixture over the bread.  

Place the baking pan in a large roasting pan.   Pour hot tap water in the roasting pan, enough to come 1 inch up the sides of the baking pan.  Cover the roasting pan in foil and cut 2 slits to allow steam to escape.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake 40 to 45 minutes longer.  Serve with maple syrup and confectioners sugar.

Book Review-Mark Twain's Book of Animals

The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moralinferiority to any creatures that cannot.  ~Mark Twain, What Is Man, 1906


My favorite American author









 had a birthday anniversary on November 30, so in honor of his birthday I am reviewing the most recent of the many posthumous collections of his works:  Mark Twain's Book of Animals.

All of his life Twain was committed animal lover and a champion for animal rights. He was particularly fond of cats, one often sited quote:  "Some people scorn a cat and think it not an essential; but the Clemens tribe are not of these."

Twain's cats.  Photo taken from Twain Quotes 

Twain attributed his love of animals to his mother whom he was very close too and who made a great habit of taking in strays while he was growing up.

The Mark Twain Book of Animals is a collection of Twain's writing on animals taken from his novels, travelogues, and magazine articles.  Some of the pieces are longer stories, but many are brief essays of less then half a page.  However, even in the briefest of essays Twain's brilliance shines through.  The animals that appear range from bugs, to dogs, cats, camels, and of course frogs in the famous The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.  Many of the pieces showcase Twain's reputation as the greatest American humorist, but others are more serious.  One short essays deals with dog fighting and Twain describes his disgust at the suffering of the animals and the cruelty of man.  In nearly all of the essays humans appear in a far less favorable light then the animals.  In the short stories animals often take on some of the ridiculous airs of humans, such as in the story A Dogs Tail in which a dog embarks on a long drawn out description of his social class and religious background.  The text of the story can be read here.

My favorite part of the collection was an excerpt from Twain's unfinished sequel to his greatest book Huckleberry Finn.  In the excerpt Huck shoots a bird and is over come with remorse.   The incident was based on actual occurrence in Twain's childhood which he describes in the following quote:



 I shot a bird that sat in a high tree, with its head tilted back, and pouring out a grateful song from an innocent heart. It toppled from its perch and came floating down limp and forlorn and fell at my feet, its song quenched and its unoffending life extinguished. I had not needed that harmless creature, I had destroyed it wantonly, and I felt all that an assassin feels, of grief and remorse when his deed comes home to him and he wishes he could undo it and have his hands and his soul clean again from accusing blood.

Read more: http://www.utne.com/GreatWriting/Mark-Twain-Animal-Rights-Activist-5341.aspx#ixzz1fKhWKOWJ


In summary we give the book four paws up.   As a bonus the woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser are really beautiful:

In Memory of Bingo-Dogs with Disabilities

Yesterday, marked the anniversary of the day we had to say goodbye to Bingo.   Even though all deaths of loved ones are sad and we all miss Bingo, as I have written on here before his story is a very happy one.  Bingo came to us at the age of 11-13 years after a lifetime of neglect and with serious health problems: probable cancer of the spleen (a spleenectomy was impossible due to the size of the tumor, but it was a slow growing cancer), partial paralysis, thyroid disorder, and incontinence.   Even with all of these problems he lived two happy years with us, until he went into liver failure and we had to let him go.

Bingo had partial hind leg paralysis.  Our vet was unable to determine the exact cause of the problem.   Unfortunately, his condition worsened in the time we had him so that he want from being able to walk short distances to losing all control of his back legs.   We were lucky that Bingo, being a pug, was small and he was able to move around inside by scooting along using his front legs, with the back legs dragging behind.  We cleaned his back legs and made him little overalls to wear so that he didn't scrape his legs when he dragged them.  We were also lucky we had no rugs, so no rug burn.  Of course Bingo, needed away to get around outside so we got him a wheelchair.  Due to the seriousness of Bingo's condition we went for a simple model wheelchair that could be made quickly, rather then one of the more expensive and fancier models, as we were afraid that if it took to long to make the chair Bingo might not be around to enjoy it.    Here is a video of Bingo using his chair in our back yard on the day it came.  (Another lucky break being city dwellers our backyard is concrete since it is also our car port, so Bingo was able to roll around easily). 

My experience with Bingo has taught me that dogs with paralysis and other disabilities can do very well with wheel chairs. While I realize it is a very personal decision and every situation is different, I am always saddened when I hear of people automatically putting loved companions to sleep because of compromised mobility or loss of bowel/bladder control.  These days there are many options from wheel chairs to doggie diapers to mobility harnesses, that can help dogs with disabilities maintain a great quality of life.  Below are some resources:

Eddie's Wheels
Dogs With Disabilities
Help 'Em Up Harness