Monday Mischief: Smoothie Mischief

If you've read my novel, What the Dog Ate, you know that Maggie, the main character, enjoys a smoothie for a post exercise recovery food. She always lets Kona, her chocolate Lab, have a go at her glass when
she's done.

Kona doesn't just eat undies. Lots of things make him lick his lips throughout the story.

A big ol' cup o' goodness

That part of the story is taken from real life since the hubs and I are big smoothie drinkers, especially after a workout.

Both our previous pups LOVED our smoothies. Bailey, our beagle, would take any chance she could to try and get her head in the blender (we make HUGE smoothies so I get a big glass full, and the hubs has whatever is left and drinks it straight from the blender).

Bailey with her head in the blender. Watch the blades, babe!

Abby was instantly interested in our smoothies. The second day after we brought her home from the shelter she knocked over an entire blender full of purple deliciousness. Good thing she was so cute:

Abby - cutest puppy ever.

I don't have a pic of the mauve lake flooding our beige living room carpet. (I wasn't blogging back then, so didn't realize I should be documenting absolutely every move the dog made!) Oxiclean to the rescue that day!

"Okay, yeah... it's not bad."

As for Rita, she's got a very "meh" attitude about smoothies. She has never once tried to check out what's in the blender, even if we sit outside to drink them and the hubs sets the blender on the ground. But after Taryn at A Tail of Two Cardis posted recently about making smoothies for breakfast, and the boys being huge fans, I thought maybe I'd give Rita another shot at them. I made myself a big ol' smoothie for lunch, and poured a little in her bowl.

I wish I'd been quicker with my camera, because at first she looked at me like I'd offered her ... wait, what's something gross that a dog won't eat?? Dogs love to eat gross things... hmm... Something not gross, but still bad... maybe arsenic... yeah, she looked at me like I'd offered her arsenic. Or butterless popcorn (she hates that). Anyway, after a little coaxing she finally realized that smoothies are good!

She's not so convinced of their deliciousness that she'll come beg for some, or try to steal some out of the blender, but she'll at least join us in a little bit if I pour it in her bowl.

Remember - if you make your own smoothies and want to share a little with your pup, go easy on the dairy since dogs' tummies don't do well with dairy. (That's a kind of mischief you want to steer clear of.) For our smoothies we include: 1/2 a frozen banana (makes them good and creamy!), soy or almond milk, whatever fruit we have handy (usually frozen organic mixed berries, cherries, or peaches), cherry juice (or whatever juice we have handy - OJ is nice w/ peaches), some veggies (raw kale &/or beets) and we usually add a scoop of vanilla or chocolate protein powder. (We have a Vitamix, so it makes easy work of the hard raw beets.) Yum!!

Have you ever shared a smoothie with your pup? Happy Monday Mischief!