Having worked in the veterinary field for the better part of 6 years, I’ve scoffed a lot of silly doggie products.

Now having a little dog who needs heart medication twice a day until his forever is up, I decided to give the above mentioned silly dog product a shot.

Why?

I have 2 dogs, one big, one small. One sweet & sensitive, who perceives herself (as I like to anthropomorphize) as a delicate flower, not realizing she’s going on 60lbs. these days. The smaller of my odd couple is fiesty, bordering on crotchety most days, & could get away with murder just for the sake of being a mama’s dog. But it’s actually for the bigger of the 2 that I got the pill pockets for– sort of.

Sake, my 9 year old Japanese Chin, & owner of a whopping chronic pulmonary ailment typical of his breed, has finally graduated to needing pills to keep his lopsided ticker ticking. I started off hiding the pill in a bit of wet dog food that he nibbled off of a designated spoon twice a day, like most people might do.

Pixel, our Border Collie/Australian Shepherd cross (although cross sounds purposeful & I’m sure she wasn’t), would watch with baleful golden eyes while Sake gobbled up his daily doses. They’d both get their kibbley rations afterward, to which Pixel decided one day recently to decline. Where was her nibble of wet food from a spoon every morning? she seemed to ask, looking down her spotted nose into her bowl of kibble.

“It’s good kibble,” I tried reasoning, “it’s made from bison! That’s exotic meats, missy!”

She wasn’t sold &  would collapse miserably into her dog bed, watching Sake attack his small bowl of equally exciting dry dog food, from afar. I let it go for a few days, since Pixel’s a couch potato like her ol’ mum here, & could stand to miss a meal or two before the situation becomes dire. Enter ‘Daddy’, my beloved & new to being a pet parent, husband.

“Pixel’s not eating her breakfast!” He announces one Saturday morning, his day to feed the dogs in the morning.

I explained she was rebelling, because Sake was getting wet food & she wanted her share. We wouldn’t be giving in! I come back into the kitchen to find he’s hand feeding her kibble, as in piece by piece, from the palm of his hand.  This would not do, I declared.

That weekend, we had some out of town guests visit, so of course we went to Lexi Dog to say hi to Cindy, & inquire about her kitty cat. I remembered to grab some of the Greenies pill pockets I had seen, hoping to alleviate our morning stand offs.

Not one to take change lightly, I hoped Sake would do me the favor of absolutely loving these things. Dinner that night was our first test. I offered a pill pocket sans pill, & Sake gingerly took it in his crooked little mouth. Padding a safe distance away, he dropped it & gave it a thorough inspection before noisily eating it.

Success! You sold me, Greenies people.

And Pixel? Well, she gets a spoonful of wet food mixed with hot water in her breakfast now, to be fair. Not spoiled! Just fair.