Can't Win Them All

A few years ago I read a book written by Paul Newman and A.E. Hotchner called In Pursuit of The Common Good: Twenty Five Years of Improving The World, One Bottle of Salad Dressing At A Time.

It told the story of how the Newman's Own brand of foods came about and their standards for their products. I was impressed by their decisions on ingredients and production requirements and especially the fact that they gave all the profits to charity.

I bought a bag of Newman's Own dog treats and was pleasantly surprised. I chose either the cheese or peanut flavored treats and they were small heart shaped biscuits that my dogs loved.

Feeling virtuous, I bought some of the Newman's Own dog food but my dogs didn't like it.  They reluctantly ate it but it was obvious they didn't much care for it. We went back to their old food brands, but continued to buy the treats. The Newman's Own peanut butter treats turned out to be one of Sebastian's very favorites, so we use them as his bedtime cookie.

A couple weeks ago Chewy sent me the September review options and I was pleased to see Newman's Own among the choices. I thought the selection was peanut butter. Great, we were almost out of Sebastian's favorites. I chose them and we looked forward to receiving our Chewy box.

When I opened the box, I was disappointed. It contained a bag of Newman's Own treats, but they were lamb and sweet potato flavor. Due to a personal hangup of mine, I've never fed my dogs lamb and never plan to. Now here was a bag of lamb treats and I was torn. Should I give them to my dogs despite my own feelings, or should I donate them to the shelter? Rob talked me into trying them.

The second disappointment came when I opened the bag. These treats are huge. Yes, they are scored, but they're so hard that I find it difficult to break them with my weak hands.

I fed one to Sebastian at bedtime. He took it, put it down, sniffed it, turned it over and sniffed it some more. He finally ate it. OK. The following night he did the same thing, but the next morning he refused his breakfast and then got sick. He seemed OK all day and ate his dinner. At bedtime I gave him another of these treats. He ate it, but the next morning was sick again. It may or may not have been the treat. He has pancreatitis and could just be having a flare up. Or maybe the treat is causing a flare up. Who knows? But I do know that I'm not giving him any more of these treats. We're going back to his peanut butter treats at bedtime. I'll toss the rest of the lamb treats.

I still like Newman's Own and will continue to buy them. I'll also continue my boycott of lamb dog food and treats. No harm done, we just learned a lesson, don't take old favorites for granted, things change.