Many years ago I heard an herbalist talking about pet food. It was her opinion that giving our pets dry food was the equivalent of giving them potato chips. Though I didn't immediately change my pets diet after hearing this, it certainly started me on a big and broad exploration of the topic. Sometime after that I was at a workshop where a homeopathic vet talked at length about raw food diets for our pets. That sold me. I remember trying to convince my cats it was a good idea for them to eat raw meat. It took them a bit before they agreed!!! Liza, in particular, really ended up loving her turkey meaty balls (and most other human food as well...she was a hard core foodie!)

Simon, on the other hand, has always shown more interst in love than food!

Well, except for hunting...he does love his gopher and mice friends!  

So, for years I've been feeding him wet cat food. It felt like a good enough compromise. And he seemed to enjoy it. That is, until recently.

When Simon and I moved to our new digs in July, he showed great interest in our neighbor cat's crunchies. It got to the point that when I would go to my neighbor's house Simon would dash inside as fast as he could and start wolfing down Max's crunchies. Both my neighbor and I would try to put the crunchies away when Simon was around...but I think it was too late. The boy had already developed a habit! He was hooked. And then within the last couple weeks he gradually quit eating his wet food. He also started wanting to be let out as early as possible in the mornings so he could race down and get his fix! No joke. It was clear he wanted his junk. As his person and caretaker, I couldn't figure out what to do. Finally, I had to put aside my moral, ethical and health concerns and switch to feeding him dry food.

It gave me compassion for parents who really want to do right by their kids but find themselves compromising what they believe to be "right" because that's what life asks of us sometimes.

However, at 4 a.m. When Simon was pawing loudly at the crunchy bag, it gave me pause to reconsider my decision!

"See, I don't NEED my crunchies. I'm just as happy chillin' with the closed bag. Really."

"Sometimes I talk to the bag...see if I can get it to open. It's just for fun, though."