Here’s Charles, my less than eager photo subject. He truly does not like to get his photo taken for some odd reason. But sunning on the deck this morning was the perfect opportunity for me to grab some snapshots of him. He’s truly beautiful!! 
He’s getting so big!! He’s 3.5 months old now.
He’s doing quite well on house training, and has settled in nicely with the rest of the pack.
Hope is also doing equally as well (photo below). She is just the biggest lump of love I’ve ever seen. So gentle and sweet. What a wonderful addition to our family!!!!!Â
And Henry will soon (July 3, 2008) be turning 1 year old and is also doing very well since joining our family in December 2007. Here’s Henry in a full run towards me, in a rare time when I actually remembered to take the camera outside with me! 
Nearly two weeks ago, I finally managed to get four of the dogs in for their neuter/spay surgeries. Since getting three dogs in a very short time-frame (Henry, Hope and George), I had added two to the house that needed to be altered soon that were not. I also had not altered Charlie, or my Shih Tzu Jack, up to this point; waffling with myself on whether or not to show Charlie and breed him.  I decided not to, and any unaltered animal that was old enough (George was not old enough) had surgery all on the same day! Boy, that was an experience for me getting them all to and from the vet; but everyone did fine. I had annual check-ups and vaccinations done and Charlie and Hope’s teeth also cleaned. So everyone is good to go for another year. Good news: all hearts checked out good!! 
For many years, I have researched dog food: what’s in it, what should or shouldn’t be and which was the best food for my dogs. I even researched different feeding methods (raw/BARF and homecooked), aside from kibble.  My researched lead me to decide that a kibble was definitely the best for our family and that there were many really good foods on the market and choosing one was the biggest problem to overcome.
Because of my more remote location, without easy access to high-end pet stores that sell super premium specialty foods, I chose to feed Flint River, which is delivered to my door.  I did this for a number of years.  My research also lead me to believe that rotating between 2, or possibly 3, foods would ensure a well rounded nutritional balance for the dogs and that there would be no nutritional gaps. So I alternated between Flint River and Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul. I did this for many years and my dogs did well.
Then there were the times that I would get really low on dog food and forget to order the Flint River. So I noticed I was feeding more Chicken Soup than Flint River. Not a huge deal. Until the day I was nearly out of Chicken Soup and none of the stores near me had any. None. I was told the local distributor was saying they may not carry it any more. This was a problem. A big one.
So I went to a newer feed store in a nearby town that’s really more of a feed/pet specialty store (think really small Petsmart), to see what they had that might be suitable to feed my dogs. I was desperate, yet not willing to compromise on my dog food snobbery standards.Â
I was pleasantly surprised to discover Taste of the Wild pet food, made by the same manufacturers as Chicken Soup (Diamonds). This is a grain-free food and rated 6 stars on the Dog Food Analysis web site.  Excellent! So I get a 20 lb bag to bring home and give it a try.
OH MY GOODNESS! My dogs went nuts! Now mind you, my dogs ate Flint River and Chicken Soup foods just fine. I could put down their food and they would eat. They might not eat all that I put down right that minute, they would eat some; leave some and maybe come back later and eat the rest. But they didn’t turn their nose up and never not eat any. They did eat it. But with this food – they wolf it down. I mean, it’s less than a minute and it’s gone and they are jumping (literally jumping!) when they hear me scooping their food. They are that excited! Such a difference in their reaction.
We weren’t having any skin, coat or stool issues before – so nothing to overcome in those areas; and changing foods hasn’t caused any issues either. If anything, I’d say I see improvement where I didn’t realize there was any needed!
Taste of the Wild gets two paws up from my crew.Â