Dog food. Cat bowl.

Fresh puppy cake anyone? By today’s standards that cake probably has ended up in somebody’s tummy, got digested and returned back to the good earth many cycles ago already :P, since I took this picture in Australia more than a year back. How’s that for a retrospective view of puppy cake? :P

The puppy cakes were being sold in a shop called “Breadtop”.  We laughed when we saw it because we have a local chain of bakery shops called “Breadtalk” here in Singapore. The branding for both are fairly similar, wikipedia tells me Breadtop started a year after Breadtalk.  Regardless, these puppy cakes do look happy, don’t they? :P

Our not-so-little girl pup here is not so happy.

Ears are pressed back. A little worried looking.

The dog does it sometimes. If she realises that we are preparing to go out, she will quietly go to the far corner of the living room and hide under the coffee table, by the sofa. – – As shared in a post last week, we do leave food out for her so that she may be conditioned to associate the positive feelings brought about by the food to us leaving the house, rather than reinforce it and degenerate into severe separation anxiety. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t because she will wait until we return before she proceeds to eat the food.

I don’t really think there is a magic formula to solving this instantly, besides daily exercise and slowly working on counter-conditioning with her to moving away from that anxiety she seems to feel.

But if there were, perhaps it would look like this recipe :P

Recipe for a not-so-happy Donna puppy cake

Ingredients
For puppy cake,
“Erghh” brand Sour Cream, 1 cup
Frown’s Essence of Doom and Gloom, 1 teaspoon
Puppy’s tail wag of (un)yeast, 1 tail*
Chicken stock, 1 cup
4 or 5-star grain-free kibble, 1/2 cup
Organic positive self-reinforcement flour**, 2 cups

For icing,
Plain natural yoghurt***, 1 cup
Gobbledygook****, any amount (to induce her to eat it.)

For garnish,
strawberry, 1 half (for tongue)
sausage for dogs, 3 thin slices (for eyes and nose)

Instructions
1) Ground puppy’s tail to powder.
2) Mix sour cream and essence of doom and gloom in chicken stock.
3) Soak kibble in mixture for 5 minutes
4) Fold in powdered puppy’s tail and flour gently. Mix well.
5) Pour in round bowl and bake evenly until cooked.
6) Once done, remove from oven and let cool.
7) Slather all over with plain natural yoghurt
8) Decorate at will with sausage eyes, nose, strawberry mouth and gobbledygook about the body.
9) Serve while fresh.

Additional Notes:
* This tail is not traded legally. You will need to hunt for it, the dog usually hides it under the coffee table, by the sofa. Please note that the consumption of puppy and puppy parts are highly mortifying! Details, visit notodogmeat
** I know dogs don’t need carbohydrates but you must not skip the flour or the cake will not rise and neither will puppy’s spirits.
*** For good digestion. An unhappy pup is a constipated pup! :P
**** If Gobbledygook is unavailable in your area, you may substitute with boiled plain chicken, canned tuna in water or boiled egg, or all three. Preferably FRESH and see puppy slurp it up!

Last week, Jessica(@YDWWYW) wondered if picking the food off the floor when we get home helps to prevent the dog from not eating it until we return. Well this afternoon when I got back from lunch, she did her welcome home dance, just one wave of it (she usually dances towards you and then away from you in many waves), and then scrambled towards her bowl to gobble up her food hastily. Perhaps she has clued in to my intentions to remove the bowl once I take off my shoes. Haha.

I love the new cat bowl for her. It’s so self-satisfied. :P Meow, meow.

Disclaimer: Donna puppy cake recipe is fictional. I do not bake. Sorry! :P