October 7, 2005 written 3:39 PM

To all the loyal Michelle Bernard followers:

I didn’t know it until today, but I have an Agenda. Yes, it amounts to keeping supplement and grinder manufacturers in business. Don’t worry, I do not receive kick-backs from these manufacturers, it’s just part of my agenda.

A fellow cat breeder wrote me today asking about this "Agenda." It seems she got thrown off a raw feeding list for mentioning my name in a post that never made it to the list. I must be extremely infamous if people do not allow my name to be spoken on their lists. Oh, horrors of all horrors, Michelle Bernard, that evil person who supports supplement and grinder manufacturers.

Unfortunately, according to some people, the diet that I feed is "pre-fab" and strays from a "naturally-occurring" diet. Hmmmmm I truly wonder what these people are feeding their dogs and cats. They say supplements are not necessary for a healthy dog [emphasis added, most of these "whole prey model" people are dog people who also have cats. It is prohibitively expensive to feed a dog the type of diet we feed our cats so no wonder why they are looking for alternatives.] fed a raw diet. That may very well be true, but how many dogs (or cats) these days are truly "healthy?" Unless the dog or cat is at least fourth generation raw fed and unvaccinated, it is not healthy. Generations of poor quality food, vaccination and over medication have all but ruined the health of dogs and cats today. My cats are no different, there’s still layers and layers of disease in them that I’ll never completely clean up because I’m not willing to breed long enough to do it.

Unless these people are feeding their cats small rodents, birds and insects that they’ve raised and fed a species-appropriate diet to, they are not feeding whole prey. I highly doubt any of them are doing this simply because it is impractical. Believe me, I’ve tried it. It is a lot of work raising these creatures and many cats don’t recognize mice, birds, etc. as food. Sure, they’ll chase them and eventually kill them, but they frequently won’t eat them. What a waste of a life.

Even if they feed organic meat, in my opinion, it is still not a complete diet. While large wild cats and wild dogs may bring down an animal large enough to consume over days (and I believe this is where the balance over time concept comes from), small cats do not. They kill small animals and eat the animal immediately. They eat complete, balanced packages of food in every meal.

Regarding grinding: no, it is not natural and it is not ideal, but because chicken and rabbit bones are much larger and harder than those that a small cat would encounter eating its natural prey, I choose not to subject my cats to chewing on these bones in an intact state. I have a few cats with broken canines from chewing bones. If the meal is too difficult for them to manage, they won’t eat it. What they would do is chew the meat off the bone which would throw the Ca:P ratio off. My dog chews through chicken and rabbit bone with ease, but his jaws are way bigger than my cats. He can put an entire cat head in his mouth. You cannot feed a cat like a dog. It doesn’t work.

October 4, 2005 written 4:50 PM

I suppose many people sleep in on Sundays, read the paper, drink coffee and generally just take it easy. I remember when I used to do that. Not any more. I am not allowed to sleep much past 6 AM. If I don’t have cats jumping on me or thundering through the house, I have a dog pushing my hand or foot with a wet nose.

This past Sunday was very enjoyable even if I didn’t get to sleep in, read the paper or drink coffee. After feeding the cats, I took Gel outside and instead of exercising him in my usual manner (throwing his Kong), I decided to take the ducks out to "graze." They are now in an approximately 25’ fenced in grass enclosure so they can "graze" there, but I thought they may enjoy having some freedom and getting some exercise. I know full well every time I take them out I risk loosing them into the pond. Gel did a fine job of getting them out of their pen. We moved them around for a while, then I put Gel in a down stay and just let the ducks do what they wanted to do.

Ducks are very entertaining creatures, they are also very sly. They putter around for a while, the female ducks quacking and the male ducks muttering. Male ducks can’t quack, but the females more than make up for their lack of quack. After a few minutes one of the ducks would decide it was time to make a run for the pond. I’d let them go a ways down the yard then send Gel in a fetch and fetch he did, every time and except for a few bobbles, made nice wide arcs around the ducks and carefully brought them back up to me. We did this a half dozen times, maybe more. Eventually the ducks got tired of this game and went back into their enclosure for a swim.

I recognize that the ducks probably don’t appreciate being herded. I do my best to keep Gel from "duck bowling" and it is finally sunk in that he’s not supposed to dart in the midst of the ducks like a bowling ball sending several of them flying. The ducks get lots of time swimming in fresh, clean water and they have a lot more living space than most ducks who are kept for herding (or meat) get.

While the ducks were out, Matrix came out of the thicket of woods that is close to my house with a field rat in his mouth. He chirped to me as if he were a mother cat bringing me a treat and dropped the rat (still alive) at my feet. See, who needs newspapers or coffee? I get fresh field rats delivered to me. I had to run into the house and when I came back, the rat was gone. A few minutes later, Simon (Matrix’s son) came out of the same woods with a field rat in his mouth. The same one? Likely. This time the rat was killed and consumed. I don’t mind my cats catching critters because they eat what they catch, from bugs to birds.

After I put the ducks up I borrowed a neighbor’s truck and went to Home Depot to purchase materials to begin another attempt at a duck house. The first attempt was disastrous. I have a bruise covering just about my entire calf from the house falling on me. Luckily it fell on me and not a duck! This time I made an A-Frame. You see, I’m now an expert at making agility equipment and an A-Frame is one piece of agility equipment. Let's just hope that Gel doesn't decide that he should add this particular A-Frame to his agility run. I covered it with tin and screened in the back part of it with hardware cloth. I still need to finish it, but soon I’ll have a safe place to put the ducks up at night.

So, how did you spend your Sunday?

Oh, I forgot, I had a private agility lesson on Saturday and we ran an entire novice class! I didn't think we (well I) could do it, but we did. I about died, I need to get in better shape. Herding ducks and building duck houses isn't going to do it.

Until later ...

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