All this natural stuff

["odd farm" <jsalas@tampabay.rr.com>]

Natural foot care, natural horsemanship, all this stuff has to be taken with common sense. And just because science says it is so, doesn't make it always so. We were told to put our greyhound down because she had broke her back and would never (less than 15-20% chance) walk again. She did. When the rod slid out of her spine, again she was paralyzed, again we were told to put her down. She walked  and lived to be 14 years old. When I took our dogs in for their check ups the assistant mentioned they were considered geriatric dogs and needed "special" care. She tried to tell me we needed to come in twice a year now and feed the "special food" that they sold. At this point she could tell I was getting real annoyed with the sales pitch (hell, we had already paid for one wing at the clinic) and said she was only trying to help my dogs live long happy lives. I said "Honey, we have a cat a home who is 21 years old, one that is 19 and one that is 18 and I don't think they will ever die!" The one that was put down at 20 didn't die of rabies or feline leukemia or any other cat disease. He died of old age!! Heck, he didn't even have his shots for the past 5 years. Then she went on with the questions about the dogs. "Do they ever have bad breath?" I said yes, after they eat horse crap. She was appalled. Then she asked if they ever had blood in their stool. I said "Only after they have eaten a 50 pound bag of bird seed and can't poop it out and end up ripping their behinds up." Now the good Doctor's and all their science tell me I have to feed and care for my dogs one way. But nature tells those silly dogs to go ahead and eat poop, eat bird seed, rub on dead things and life will be good. Common sense tells me to feed the dogs a regular diet, try to keep them up to date on shots, keep them out of the barn and garage as much as possible, play with them and love them and they will live forever. Or until we run out of money. If my boy Dinero (horse) lives to be 30, I will be 70. If he lives to be 40, I could very well be dead. I ask you, is this such a good thing?? :) Our worst nightmare is that our horses will be grazing on our graves! Lisa Salas, The Odd FArm     Live life like you mean it.