angels in our midst

A Stray Hero from Hisyam on Vimeo.

4 years ago, i was afraid of dogs, due to having bad experience with them during my childhood.

but if dogs are described as man's best friend, what a waste it would be if we go through life without understanding or without experiencing why are dogs described as man's best friend? after all, life is about experiences, and not all the material things that surround us.

after adopting tonto from save a stray, tonto has totally changed our perception of dogs. slowly and surely, he gained our trust, love, and we gained his. so much so that we consider him a member of our family now!

but we understand the plights of dog owners, and living in a country where the majority of the population shun dogs.

so this video by hisyam highlighting a muslim couple who sacrifices all for dogs, totaling 700 as of today, is inspiring. it gives hope that there is still hope for humanity in us. the extent they go all out is amazing, even sleeping in their car beside the dog shelter at night.

it's difficult for us to understand the challenges a muslim couple have to go through to do what they have done. they would be shunned, ostracized, and even labeled "lunatic" by their community for dogs are perceived by many of their community as "unclean" animals.

yet, they stand tall and i salute them for all they have done. do yourself a favor, check out the video as well as pak mie's website.


Another snack for tonto...

... pig ears!

Why not?

It's cheap, flavourful and all natural!

Easy to make as well. Slice it, cook in hot water, then dry it via the dehydrator aka biltong.

And tonto absolutely loves it!

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easy chicken liver treat for tonto

we love to give treats to tonto but quality treats are so expensive! and many of those in the market are pure junk food. and the better ones also contain preservatives and flavouring, hardly suitable for dogs. so we are left to... make our own!

and making your own is soooo cheap. since people have developed an aversion to all things liver these days, you could buy 10 pieces of chicken liver (kampung chicken! - or free range chicken) for only rm1. sigh... you can't even get a can of poisonous coke for this amount!

so here is this recipe, adapted from this site.

• 10 pieces of raw chicken liver
• 2 cups of whole wheat flour (i just use our regular wholemeal bread flour)
• 2 cups of instant oat
• 2 eggs

just 4 ingredients! so easy! 

now comes the squeamish part. you need to "puree" the liver... it's like a gob of blood and oh... it smells awful!

then mix everything together, including the 2 raw eggs. believe me, it's all a gooey mess! the original recipe calls for half the flour and half the oats but i went double as that's even worse.

we shape them up in little strips and balls so that it's more interesting for tonto.

bake at 160c for 30-40 minutes. it smells quite good after baking. and tastes good too!

why i've been busy the past few weeks

the past few weeks have been really busy for me.

ahem, went to hanoi for a week. nice place but vietnamese aren't as tourist friendly as thais. anyway, the baguettes there are marvellous!

but this doesn't mean i have not been baking bread. still do and been experimenting as well.

instead of spraying water into the oven, i now place ice in the oven just before placing in the dough for baking. this ensures a steady rate of steam for at least a few minutes. the resultant crust is softer.

also, i score the dough before placing into the oven. scoring a very wet dough looks really messy but don't worry about it. just do it! cut deep say 1cm into the dough. do it just before you place the dough into the oven.

okay, enough about that. the reason we have been busy the past few weeks is that we have an addition to the family. and he's a blonde.

he's a golden retirever/local breed mix. 9 months old, err 9 and a half now actually. we adopted tonto (he was initially named coco but that's not right for a boy!) from "save a stray", an non-profit organization that exists mainly for the love of our canine friends.

tonto's right hind leg was involved in a car accident and the resultant medical bill was deemed too high, so he was abandoned by his owner at the vet. the vet fixed his leg, then passed him to jacqueline from "save a stray" and it is jacqueline who recommended tonto to us.

he's quite playful but very gentle. he's at that age where he wants to chew everything in sight so he is leashed all the time now until he outgrows this.

when getting food for him, only i realised the pet food industry is like our food - full of junk. take a peek at the contents of kibbles and you'll be shocked there's all kind of rubbish inside. the canned versions are even worst with a protein content <10% but coloured to look like meat so that its human owners are fooled into thinking they are really paying for premium dog food. sigh...

we make dog cake for him. it's really easy. all you need is good ingredients and a food processor!
http://sites.google.com/site/montanaraven/samshealthwiserawfoodcakes


why adopt? well, since we work all day, we can't take care of a puppy. we need an older dog so tonto at 9 months old is more suitable. he's toilet trained and quite independent but of course, asks for our attention all the time!

also, when you adopt a pet, you actually save a life. malaysia isn't the best place for dogs. the government bodies couldn't care less for man's best friend thus strays and abandoned dogs, if not for organisations like "save a stray", don't have much chance of living to an old age.

you could also check out pet finder.my. they do organize pet adoption drive from time to time too.

i'll add a permanent link on my sidebar.

you could also contact jacqueline at 012-2070436