Monday, June 2, 2008

Greening my dogs

This is part of my To-Do List, not that the dogs really care one way or the other. As long as there is kibble in the dish and water in the trough, they are pretty cool and happy. Yesterday, Chile commented that I should just stick a bucket under the sloppy puppy when he drinks, 'cause, you know doggie drool could totally be greywater!

Other than that tip, which I am still thinking of how we could get a rubbermaid trash bin under a 50 lb. dalmatian while he drinks, the 'eco burban dad has come up with our first greener doggie tip of our journey so far. We occasionally let our doggies have a raw hide chew and the ones we had been buying from TJs, not only come from China, but are sold in a small 6-pack. A total waste of carbon emission and packaging, when we can go through 6 in a week.

I ventured into Costco yesterday, mostly because we needed softener salt and I was amazed at all the things I bought before, that I no longer feel like I need or even want any longer. That aside, we checked out the price of rawhide chews. $14.49 for 25 huge chews. The very wise 'eco burban dad offered his skillz with a chop saw to cut one of those huge chews (which come of the good ol' US of A!) into 3 chews. Sold!

10 minutes, a serious looking DeWalt chop saw, a very helpful littlest eco 'burban boy who brought along his own play saw to help and a little rawhide dust later - presto! 75 chews that will last months, from much closer than China, and only 1 plastic bag as waste instead of 12 bags from TJs. And... only a couple of weird stares from neighbors when they saw a dad and his boy using a chop saw to disassemble dog treats! Priceless!

2 comments:

Chile said...

Pretty slick work there! Now what I want to know is whether you swept up that rawhide dust, combined it with some gelatin and meat broth, and froze it as a special dog treat. ;-)

ONNO said...

Thanks for sharing this tip. I'm embarking on puppy ownership soon and every idea as to how to preserve the environment and keep puppy happy is great.

Dagny McKinley
www.onnotextiles.com
organic apparel