Hey readers! If you haven't guessed yet, this isn't a book review! In honour of our first major hurricane of the year, I wanted to share a dog owner pro tip for hurricane prep or fireworks or really any situation that might stress your pupper out.

When I first moved to Florida, I had to have actual pharmaceutical tranquillizers for my dogs because of our messed up lives. Storms, firecrackers, and a veritable bevvy of other things were traumatic for them. When Hurricane Irma came through, we didn't have a new vet yet and no refill of their prescription. I took myself to Petco and asked one of the clerks for some advice on their calming agents. And they suggested Isle of Dogs' Chillout Treats. We braced ourselves as best as we could, muzzles, separation for the more reactive two so they couldn't get into a fight if it got bad, and we waited. And, even through the worst of it, none of my dogs had a freakout.

They're good for the dogs and even "Picky Nikki" will gobble these down, we just have to break them up for her because she has sensitive teeth. That's another thing, these treats are easy-to-break for dogs with soft teeth or small mouths. Nom! The actual size is a 1.25" x 1.5" heart-shaped biscuit, FYI. 

Because of mine and my dogs' food allergies, I have to be careful with what the dogs eat. These treats have oat and rice flours, cane molasses, flaxseed, whole rolled oats, canola oil preserved with tocopherols, natural flavourings, apples, carrots, lavender extract, vanilla extract, dried kelp, lemon balm extract, brewers dried yeast, parsley, and yucca schidigera extract. There's no added sugar or salt and no synthetic or chemical additives. They're also corn-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, soy-free, and gluten-free. That's right, no peanuts or sweet potatoes or tomatoes or any of our other allergens! Just call me their biggest fan, okay. Because I am. I'm that rabid fan you see on ESPN who's painted in their team colours, wearing a matching wig, and waving a giant foam finger. Or Drake. He was my top result for a sports fanatic gif. *walks away singing the Degrassi: The Next Generation theme song*

Now, I always have a few boxes of Isle of Dog's Chillout Treats in the dog cupboard. I always give my girls a couple an hour before we go to the vet. And Manny always gets one or two if I have to go to the medical centre for any long periods of testing. That's right, I give the service dog chillout treats. In some of the spaces I have to go in for testing, I have to leave him in one spot or with my mum if she's with me and he's not happy about being separated from me when he knows I have a lot of issues with medical personnel.

I'm giving these all my 5 bright and shiny stars because do you know how rare it is to find something like this? My dogs love them, nobody allergic to them, and they work!

Popular Purchase links!!

Amazon•Chewy•Isle of Dogs

I'm pretty zonked so I'm being lazy on my exit paragraph. Do good things. Hate less, love more. Help others. Appreciate those bright stars in your life. Until next time, have a happily ever after!

A Review of Purina One Smart Blend True Instinct

Am I adding product reviews to my book blog? Yep. It's my blog according to my credit card so if you don't have a dog or a cat, feel free to ignore this. But hey, I have three dogs and I write reviews. I was also hella lazy and pasted this from the pet site, so things are shorter and names are redacted. It's aimovig day. We're lucky my brain is on at all.

PurinaONE Smartblend True Instinct

★☆☆☆☆

I know, I'm a regular book blogger and reviewer so this is my usual thing, except it's a product review and y'all can sit down, grab a cuppa tea and a cookie, because this review spilling it. I have a service dog and two dorkdogs and they're all spoiled rotten. Ages 10 (M), 7 (N), and 6 (S). This review is a smidgen different from the regular explicitly honest reviews on my site because public forum. Also, according to FTC guidelines, I get to say "I wasn't given a product in exchange for an honest reivew", I was given a sample to try to get me to come over to their side. Now, this is me seeing the results of this product and deciding to spill all the tea into the harbour, colonial style.

Why did I give this new shiny product 1 star when everything else is 4 or 5? Because this stuff was trying to kill my dogs and well, I don't take kindly to that. If I could, I'd give it 0 stars and certain gesture, but I'm a good Southern girl. So, bless your heart, Purina One.

I decided to try this product because I was looking to upgrade my dogs' food since I try to give them the best I can afford (or not lol). A certain yellow bag that sponsors dog shows has been our tried and true brand for roughly 10 years and well, now that I can afford better, I've been looking and this was the first thing I encountered that didn't have any of the dogs' allergens or my family's allergens. (spoiler - we have a lot)
Moving on. My trio liked the sample packets of the kibble so I went out and bought a proper bag to start their 7 day integration period. And they had their fun eating it and chowing down, cleaning their bowls properly instead of the lackadaisical grazing.
Then we hit the first week of pure feed. N and S are pickier than my omnivore M, N being the pickiest of all. N and S would empty their bowls by the mouthful across the floor, lego-style, and pick what they wanted to eat and leave the rest. Only if I pushed a 'clean up your mess' command, did they pick it up. Then this past week, my dogs have steadfastly refused to touch their food. We've been mixing in beef broth, pumpkin soup, and cans of wet feed, and, even Chinese takeout. to convince them to eat. But enough is enough.
In the past 3 weeks of their being exposed to PurinaOne, my dogs have developed a complete loss of interest in play, they barely drink water, we're feeding them popsicles to keep them hydrated, they have recurring bouts of explosive diarrhea, rampant hair loss, and their skin is so dried out that they're constantly scratching and chewing and licking. Yesterday was the 14-day mark of the 28 Day Challenge, but I refuse to continue since I value my dogs. I swung by the store today and we're doing a hard switch to another brand tonight, no integration period, just to get my dogs off of this garbage.
My advice to any readers is to keep their dogs (and cats since they have a cat food line) as far as possible from even smelling this toxic waste. If I had it within my power to give negative marks on a review, this would be the product I'd do it on. I have 3 dogs that need serious TLC and a vet visit to recover from their experience with this food.

Until next time, y'all, have a happily ever after and hug your pets!

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