First Bone

Emme had a fresh bone for the first time last weekend and she loved it. We had a family picnic at the lake house on Memorial Day weekend and I thought a bone for each dog would keep them busy and out of the way.

We have always been very careful about giving bones to Rudy. One of the books we read when we first got Rudy was Daniel Pinkwater's Super Puppy. He cautions to use no bones except beef femur bones because all others shatter. I go to the market and ask for beef femur bones with the joints cut off and the middle of the bone cut into 3 to 6 inch pieces. The meat department does not always carry these so I sometimes need to check a few times until they are available. I think people use them for soup, so they are more available in the cold weather, fall and winter. Then I take them home and boil them for 20 minutes, as recommended in the Pinkwater book, to kill any bacteria and to make the bones more dense. I wrap each in foil and put them in the freezer until I want to give one to Rudy.

Emme has never had a fresh bone. They have marrow in the middle and a small amount of meat on the outside. For this reason, I like to give them to Rudy on the porch or in the garage so nothing gets on the rugs. After he has chewed them for a while, they are clean and can come into the house. These old bones last about forever. Some of the bones Rudy has are two years old. Rudy and Emme both love to pick one up and chew on the bone.

I have had some bones prepared and waiting in the freezer since last fall and brought two of them to the lake last weekend. It was a rainy day so we set up the big table in the garage for lunch. I gave a fresh bone to both Emme and Rudy who cheerfully chewed for hours while we were eating and visiting. It didn't take Emme a minute to figure out what she had and to begin to chew. There didn't seem to be a trouble with ownership of the bones. Periodically, they would switch bones and chew on that bone for a while before switching back. The combination of the greasy bone marrow and the garage floor turned our white puppy into an awful, dirty, but happy, grey puppy. It was a shame that I didn't have my camera with me then. She was so dirty that she needed to ride home on Eric's lap on top of a beach towel. As soon as she got home, I gave her a bath and our clean white puppy made a return appearance.

Rudy brought one of the bones back to the Wooster house and Emme is still in love with it. This morning Emme was chewing on the bone and decided to find a comfortable place to chew. Of course she selected the neighborhood watch couch. She sat on the couch on top of a pillow and proceeded to chew contentedly. Emme likes bones.