At the beginning of this year, my oldest dog, Rosie, was diagnosed with a form of mammary cancer, specifically, squamous cell carcinoma. She has undergone 2 surgeries and the cancer has spread rapidly. I began to do research on ways to make her remaining life as comfortable as possible. In my research, I read a great deal about holistic approaches to caring for dogs with cancer, including food supplements and diet changes. The most interesting thing that I discovered was a Bones and Raw Food Diet that is all natural. The benefits that have been attributed to this diet are many, including better coats, more energy, less arthritis, and fewer visits to the vet’s. I decided to try this diet with Rosie and a week later I switched the whole crew to raw food.

It was with some trepidation that I fed my first raw bones!    I believe I held my breathe for the entire meal—here I was, actually handing my dogs RAW CHICKEN BONES!  I believed what I had read--that this diet was a more natural way for dogs to eat, that they eat raw bones in the wild (only the cooked bones splinter), that commercial dog food is questionable at best. Yet, the first time feeding was stressful!  However, the dogs loved it!  What a treat!  They chomped happily away and quickly came back for more. The only holdout was my old rescue dog, Clarence.  He looked at me as though I had gone mad! Within a day, though, he too was a convert!