This Just In...
Kevin Fischer is an award-winning veteran broadcaster who has been seen and heard on Milwaukee TV and radio stations for nearly three decades.
Kevin, who is a legislative aide to state Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin), can be seen offering his views on the news on the public affairs program, “INTERchange,” on Milwaukee Public Television Channel 10. He lives with his wife, Jennifer, in Franklin.
The Barking Lot
By Kevin Fischer
Saturday, Oct 11 2008, 11:06 AM
TO NEW READERS: The Barking Lot is a regular weekly feature of This Just In...co-written by my wife and yours truly. Jennifer provides the opening blog and then I bring you DOGS IN THE NEWS.
THE WEEKEND DOG-WALKING FORECAST: We grade the weather outlook for taking your pet outdoors.
TODAY: “A” all day and this evening.
SUNDAY: Ditto. A picture perfect dog-walking weekend is in store.
My favorite neighbor dog Mickey is a beautiful, sweet-tempered Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier. If I see her out for a walk with her dad George, I run out to pet her and get my fix of licks and tail wags. I think Mickey is one of the happiest, healthiest dogs I have ever known. I swear that dog actually SMILES.
Mickey is about four years old and has all the spark of a puppy. She has a soft, shiny coat; bright eyes; perky disposition and I’ve never noticed any odor about her, be it “dog coat smell or doggy breath.” George and his wife treat this dog like gold… the same way we will treat our dog when we get one. (While Dad takes her for a walk in the winter, Mom is home warming towels in the dryer to wipe her chilled, damp paws. Every day.)
Kevin and I have discussed feeding practices many times. He’s all for the occasional scrap of human goodies: a toss of a pizza scrap, a morsel of meat, etc. I’ve seen what too many table scraps and treats can do to dogs: my Sugar was terribly overweight because our family literally killed her with kindness. Unfortunately pet health wasn’t as big an issue 25 years ago and we didn’t really know any better. Kevin’s theory is she must have lived a happy and content life… if she really enjoyed that piece of occasional pizza was that really so wrong? Did it knock of a day in her short life? Maybe. But if she was one day less on this earth, she was one day happier.
I have seen Kevin give Leia, our Yellow Lab dog-in-law, several bits of treats from the snack table on holidays. (Of course her family does it too so we are not going against their wishes.) Kevin helped let her out this past week while his brother and sister-in-law were on vacation. I bought her a new squeak toy. I can only imagine what he slipped her in everyone’s absence!
Back to Mickey, our neighbor dog. Mickey is fed nothing but 100% human food. Her mom cooks for her daily. Poached chicken, ground beef, rice, and an occasional piece of steak. She loves her vegetables too, especially green beans. Her diet has been fully sanctioned by her vet, a vet George has used for many years for many dogs. She gets commercial “treats” with vitamin supplements but other than that she and her mom and dad could share the same plate.
George has made the decision to feed Mickey a human food diet because of all the frightening recalls of dog food. He is not about to see anything bad happen to their beloved dog. Kevin and I both agree with this theory and plan on feeding our future dog this way. We can’t imagine the heartbreak of having a pet poisoned by the very food we thought would be appropriate.
We know that MANY dog owners and dog health professionals disagree with us. Obviously we would do our research and consult our vet before we’d make our dog bacon and eggs for breakfast.
The Whole Dog Journal offers subscription options but some articles are available in their entirety on-line. This article reviews many alternatives to feeding Fido his usual canned Alpo.
There is as much debate over feeding your dog a human food diet as there is over its owners being vegetarians vs. omnivores. For the Future Fischer dog, a human diet is as guaranteed as Mr. and Mrs. Fischer never touching tofu.
---Jennifer Fischer
Thanks, Jennifer! Time now for DOGS IN THE NEWS, canines that made all kinds of headlines this past week, and did they ever. We always begin with the more serious stories.
Did this woman go too far? I certainly think so.
A U.S. soldier's dog could be executed.
A warning has been issued about a rabid Iraqi dog here in the U.S.
A Texas woman uses the Internet to track down the adult child of a man killed while saving dogs from a freeway.
We love stories like this one, about another very special dog.
This church welcomes dogs.
Politics and pooches in a sibling rivalry.
There's a Rin TinTin-Hollywood controversy brewing.
The most popular names for dogs?
And it's an age old question. Do dogs look like.......their owners?
That's it for this week. Thanks for visiting. We close with music and lyrics from Eric Stoltz.
