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Clarabelle, light of my life, apple of my eye. My dog, my soul. Cla-ra-belle: the tip of her tongue taking a trip of three steps down the muzzle to tap, at three, at the snout. Cla. Ra. Belle. For those of you, my dear readers, who’ve now stopped reading and started wondering why I’ve decided to so cavalierly swap in the given name of my 12-pound papillon for that of a famously victimized 12-year-old girl, just stick with me!
What I am trying to say here is that I love my dog very much. Those of you who know me will not be shocked at my comparison above, just as you have not been shocked to see me rock Clarabelle like a baby and hear me speak out loud to her like she can understand my words (she can). She’s a good girl and to really play into that age-old stereotype, she’s my bff.
You know that opening scene in 101 Dalmatians in which Pongo watches dogs and their humans parade down the sidewalk, a showcase of man mirroring beast in all manner of appearance? Clarabelle and I are not too far off. While I’ve yet to dye my hair black and white to match hers, we do share many similarities. We both prefer filtered water to tap. We both prefer soft surfaces to hard (this proclivity manifests itself in her refusal to lay down on hardwood floors and in my preference for memory foam mattresses). We both like to be well groomed and we both like the finer things in life, food-wise.
Just as my go-to meal on a busy weekday night is salmon and broccoli with a bit of brown rice, Clarabelle only eats food that contains protein as the number one ingredient. That is, I only buy her food that contains protein as the number one ingredient. She’s happier (and so is my pooper-scooper, ifyaknowwhatImean) when she sticks to this diet, and I guess a lot of other dogs are, too. Purina just reformulated their Beneful Originals and Incredibites food based on customer feedbag to this effect. Now it contains meat as the number one ingredient, and they’ve cut out all added sugar. Two big wins in my book.
After making the move down to Texas, I was running low on Clarabelle’s normal food stash, so I ran out to Target (Beneful is available at most major grocery chains) to grab a small bag of the Incredibites. Oh yeah, she won’t eat large chunks of anything because she is a lady—so this is perfect. Then I started to reconsider Clarabelle’s plain-metal-dog-bowl eating situation. After all, I ate my most recent meal off of a delicate robin’s egg-blue place setting, so she really deserved an upgrade. A few paint pens and plain white ceramic bowls later, my butterfly-eared bestie was eating her five-star meal in splendor. Scroll down to check out the simple DIY dog bowl tutorial, and click here to receive a free sample of the new Purina Beneful dog food.
For this project, you’ll need the following:
• two plain white bowls
• paint pens (if you’re just drawing on the outside, you can use whichever all-purpose paint pen you can get your hands on; if you’re writing on the inside of the bowl, be sure to use a food-safe paint pen like this one)
1. First order of business: select your pattern. I decided to go with this playful evil eye print, but simple geometric patterns would also look great!
2. Using your paint pens, start drawing on your pattern, letting each color dry before moving on to the next.
3. Draw a surprise message inside the bowl for your pet. I went with “good girl” and “Perrier only” but you’re only limited by your imagination. If you used a food-safe paint pen, be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging to ensure the paint is fully dried and sealed.
4. Let ’em chow down!
Update: our pals at Purina sent over a couple of delicious toys for Clarabelle to play with. Thanks Purina!
