Marina Update

Well... it's almost 2 weeks now since I picked this little Siamese stray up at Tempe Town Lake Marina. I thought I would give a brief update on her integration into Diethelm "Pet Central". Today I spotted her sneaking down the hall and going into the bedroom. She eyed the big bed but noticed there was another BIG kitty on it (Figgy) so she opted not to go there. She went underneath and checked that out--hissed a little at Sparky who really wants her to play with him (he keeps taking all his toys in her room and dropping them). I think she's content to be another "Queen" in the house. Each day she warms up a little more and extends her territory. For the first week we couldn't get her off the carpet cat house set up in her own room. Now she's checking out the "mod" canvas fleecy cat condo I bought at Target. Her eyes match the fleecy material perfectly!

Every night she's spending an hour or two watching a television show in my lap. She's still growling and hissing at the other cats at first sight but settles down after she gets comfortable. Chili, Sparky & Figgy are allowed in her room without any confrontation but she and the other girl cat, Pepper (Lynx Point Siamese), are still not sure who's going to boss the boys around.

Regardless, she loves to talk to me as soon as I walk in the room. She's purring more, running to greet me and loves her brushings. She is quite joyful for the always full food dish and water with ice cubes. Not to mention the moist kitty food breakfast and dinners. Such a life of luxury after laying on cement under sailboats in 100+ degree weather with no food available and her only shelter a cement ditch area. Her hair is starting to grow back where I cut mats out and she loves to clean herself now. She's had all her tests and vaccinations at the vet--no parasites & no diseases. Each day she grows a little closer to her family and reveals a little more personality. I think she's beautiful and certainly she's becoming my "little" girl.

Update on Jerky Treats

After fuming about how insensitive Adi Pet was about the crap product I bought today (see below) I did what I usually do—I "Googled up". Then I got mad because I found that over the last few weeks many, many, people have had sick dogs or still have sick dogs. They're having seizures, vomiting are lethargic etc and they all have one thing in common—they've been giving their dogs Waggin Trails Chicken Jerky Treats.

I immediately called my Mom & Dad as their border collie mix, Zach, had been having seizures recently. They've been giving their dogs these very same treats. They had no idea that others where having similar problems. I'm lucky Kobi has shown no signs of illness—although admittedly he's vomited a few times for which I attributed to eating grass.

If you have been feeding your dog Waggin Train Chicken Jerky, please visit Newsdays Forum and be astounded by how many people have written about what these treats have done to their pets. If you give your pets these treats--STOP immediately. If your dog has experienced any symptoms, do not throw out your bag with lot number ect. You may want this evidence later. Waggin Train/Adi Pet is certainly in the defense mode phase and perhaps in denial as anyone who e-mails will get the same canned response that I did. Obviously, there is a breakdown between the so called irradiation that is done and packaging. I believe this to be the case as the package I bought was completely sealed with no holes anywhere. I think my package was easy to detect a problem where previous batches may have not gotten to the point of noticeable bacteria, mold build up. Thus why pet owners unknowingly gave their dogs these treats without concern.

The last thing I would like to say is.... I learned something today. Our world has changed—we can not trust big companies to look out for our well-being. We have to do it ourselves. Please reward your small local businesses that want your trust and business. Reward those that keep their businesses close to home and who want to know you by name. Reward the businesses that use healthy products and ingredients. Cook meals with love and whole, organic ingredients. Do the same for your pets. They're family too.

My Consumer Alert...

Ok, maybe I'll vent a little bit about an annoying e-mail response as well.

So the story goes...
I may be kind of a bad doggy Mom. I've been feeding Kobi these chicken jerky treats that he got addicted to after he was given one by his doggy Grandparents. They're like "doggy crack" or something. The only problem was--you could only get them at Sam's Club or Wal-Mart. I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart for the reason that they drive so many local trades and business' OUT of business... but I love my dog and he loved these treats. So I reluctantly went to the EVIL EMPIRE to purchase them. Only recently have I noticed that these treats were imported from China. This has been making me wonder what I'm feeding my loving, almost 14 year old, best buddy in the whole-wide-world dog.

Well today something happend that pretty much convinced me that buying CHICKEN Jerky Treats from a company that sources it out to China is really wrong. Below is short pictorial of the said event and then some more commentary after.


Here is the product. Waggin Train Chicken Jerky.


This is what was INSIDE said product. It not only looked bad--it smelled rank. Certainly, it would not have "tasted like chicken".


The lot number--just in case you have an unopened bag laying around that you might want to check.

Being the good consumer that I am, I immediately called the Wal-Mart store and spoke to the manager on duty and explained that I would be returning the product. I have to say--even though I was talking to the "evil empire" they at least apologized and thanked me for letting them know so they could go pull the product from the shelves to check it. I returned the item a half hour after purchasing and even the customer service desk workers were nice, polite and incredulous when they looked at the open bag. I noted the girl wrote in huge letters with exclammation marks MOLD!! on the return slip.

So I'm all cool with what transpired at Wal-Mart. It's the actual treat company that's giving me a rash. I sent an e-mail to the address listed on the package waggintrainbrand@adipet.com. I explained that I had been a buyer of their product for some time and explained what I found in my most recent purchase. Of course, I'm doing this to be nice as one would think they would want to check it out to be assured it was an isolated bad bag or batch. Here is their word for word response:

---

Dear Concerned Pet Owner:
-- NONE of the Waggin’ Train Brand pet treats have been recalled --

Regarding our Chicken Jerky Tenders:

Waggin' Train Brand Chicken Jerky Tenders are completely safe and should not be confused with the other two brands of chicken jerky that are being pulled from Wal-mart’s shelves. We have NO association with the Pingyang Pet Product Co. or Shanghai Bestro Trading Co. nor do we purchase our ingredients from the same supplier.

As American joint-owners of the factories, ADI Pet is completely familiar with and confident in the exceptional quality-control protocols that we have in place for the processing of our Chicken Jerky Tenders and other Waggin’ Train Brand products. We are intrinsically involved in all aspects of the manufacturing process.

Please be assured that we sell thousands of bags of this product each week and have never had a recall on our product. Over the past five years, approximately 50 million pounds of the Waggin’ Train Brand Chicken Jerky Tenders have been consumed (without incident) by thousands of dogs nationwide. Based upon this excellent track record, we truly regard this product as safe for pets of all sizes.

All of the raw material that we use to make the Chicken Jerky Tenders is fresh, 100% premium chicken breast tenderloins and natural seasonings. Our "natural seasonings" are simply apple cider vinegar, sugar and salt.
The Chicken Jerky Tenders contain no grain fillers, no wheat gluten and no rice protein additives. Nor do we use artificial preservatives, colorings nor flavorings of any kind.
All Waggin’ Train Brand products are sterilized by irradiation, based upon USDA safe sterilization guidelines. The sterilization process eliminates the possibility of contamination by any potentially harmful microbes including E.coli and Salmonella.
Because chicken is a regulated product, the USDA regularly pulls samples from incoming containers of product, for laboratory testing. We have never had a positive test for product contamination.
Our facilities are regularly inspected by SGS, which is one of the largest international inspection companies in the world. Costco, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart contract with SGS, for inspections, to ensure that the products are being processed, based upon USDA processing guidelines.
Please be assured that when you give your pet Chicken Jerky Tenders, you are providing your pet with the highest quality chicken pet product that is available in the marketplace.

For more product information and to view our current Press Release and FAQ's, please go to our website: http://www.adipet.com/

To speak to a Customer Service representative, please call (864) 622-0101.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
Waggin' Train Worldwide LLC

---

This kind of made me a bit PO'd as the tone of this response is "it couldn't possibly be our fault". Geez, I was e-mailing the e-mail address listed on THEIR product afterall. My response back was dissappointment in their response and that one could respond without even saying "We're sorry and we'll check it out".

And then their response....
See response above. It was the SAME exact response. This pompous response is an auto responder --which tells me they don't even READ their e-mail. I could call them, but now I'm at that "it's their problem" point. I'm not ever buying their product again and I won't be buying pet treats made in China anytime soon. That being said, with all bad experiences comes good. On my way home from Wal Mart I stopped by "Bonnie's Barkery". It's a small holistic/organic pet food place right across the street from my house. There I found some chicken jerky/good-for-you treats with the stamp of the USDA, organic and made in the good ol' USA. Kobi loves them! They cost more—but believe me—he's worth every penny. By the way his new favorite treats are Plato Smart Dog Treats. So away from the EVIL EMPIRE and the big cheapest route to make money company and back to the small local business I go. I feel much better about that!

The Cat Named "Marina"

Yes... the little cat pictured below is at my house. There's a story behind this kitty as there is with ALL my cats that have been Humane Society or midwestern barn kitties (Sparky). I've been calling her Marina as she found me at the Tempe Town Lake boat marina. On Saturday I went to take my scull for a row. While I was getting my slings out of my gear box, I heard it... the meeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooooow! Uh oh...

You see, there's quite a few strays and some feral cats hanging out by the marina. They like to lay in the drainage ditches to try and cool down. It's been easy to look the other way as they tend to run away from me. But this meow was getting closer... until she was smack dab in front of me. Looking up at me and meowing. I looked down into those big blue eyes and immediately felt a tug at my heart. She was hungry, dirty and her fur was all matted up. Then she "head-butted" my leg and I squatted down and pet her. Here was this small friendly cat out in what would be a torturous hot day. I gave her some water from my water bottle in a make shift bowl that I made out of the bottom of a soda bottle. She was thirsty...

I came to row and I told myself that she would be gone or somebody would take her. She was too friendly to be left out in the heat. So I rowed and the entire time I thought about her and started thinking about all the people I knew that could give her a good home. I finished up and carried my boat back... secretly hoping she would be gone. But she wasn't. She was laying under the sailboat next to my gear box. I had some granola bars in my bag so I got one out and she sniffed it and decided that she was hungry enough to eat this strange object. She snarfed down a good quarter of the Clif bar, purring and twitching her tail.

"NO... I cannot have another animal. I have too many." I kept telling myself this and mustered the strength to pet her and tell her someone would find her. Someone would give her a home.

All the way home, I felt terrible for leaving her. I went home grumpy and mad at the world. Mad at people who don't take care of their animals. They count on us. How can anyone be so cruel. I told Matt about it and he didn't say anything. I didn't blame him--we have 4 cats already.

On Sunday, I went to row again. Matt was helping me pack up the car and asked "Should I put the cat carrier in the car?"
I got to the marina and there she was—laying on top of my gear box. She chose me and I knew it. She even walked right into the carrier when I opened it!

After I got her home, I cut all the mats out of her fur. Her back looks a bit like a really, really bad haircut at the moment. My neighbor Jan came over and we bathed her. I thought she was all gray. But after her wash she had cream colored fur.

Today she went to the vet. That was really scary as her tummy was hard and they though she might be pregnant... I left her to get x-ray and blood tests done. They called a half hour later and I was SO relieved that she was not pregnant. She was instead a little bloated and there was a object in her stomach that looked like plastic or some other foreign material that she likely ate while scrounging for food. She had no ear mites, tested negative for feline leukemia or kitty AIDs and they couldn't tell if she had been spayed or not. So the vet said to wait and see if she goes into heat. If she does, then she can get spayed.

Tonight is Marina's integration into the household. We'll see how that goes. I think there will be some hissing but at the moment the other pets seem to be keeping their distance from this stranger. Kobi layed down on the floor in front of her and let out a sigh. He likes his kitties.... and now he has one more.

Here's some photos of her. Mind you, she had lots of shots today--so she's not too spunky. One more kitty with a good home. I wish they all could be so lucky.

Matt's In-Between-Jobs Motorcycle Ride

I should have had this blog up a couple weeks ago, however, I got a bit side tracked with a temporary office management job in which I had to drive to work on a day to day basis. I forgot how little time one has before and after work when you add in drive time etc. Needless to say, I'm happy to be home working today and so are my animals—many animals—more on that in a subsequent blog.

For those of you that still don't know. Matt decided that change would do him good. He resigned from his job at Honeywell after 20+ years and started working for Kutta last week. His first week of work was spent in West Virginia helping to test Kutta's subterranean radio in some mines. Prior to that he took his new motorcycle on a pacific northwest swing to visit relatives and friends. He went to Portland, Seattle and then stayed over with his Uncle Jim and Aunt Gaylene in Wenatchee, WA. Matt Sr. and I caught up with him for the weekend in Moscow, Idaho. It was a full house at Gary & Marilyn Pope's. HIs friend GK (Gary Kindorf), Jim Pope, Matt Sr., Matt and I all stayed at the Pope B&B. We had such a great time going fishing, hiking, going to get Huckleberry shakes and playing Texas Hold'em. I particulary love Moscow as it always reminds me of how much I like being in a small town. Thanks again to Gary & Marilyn as well as Alice & Erol Barbut for the hospitality. Also thanks to Jim for trying to get me to fly fish correctly. I still need to WORK on that.

Photos are on my web gallery. CLICK HERE for that.


Matt (a.k.a. Cricket) catch.