Stormy's Bowl

Amy's dog Stormy is a vegetarian. Yes, dogs can enjoy a healthier meat free lifestyle too! Click here to visit Nature’s Recipe, the brand that makes Stormy’s favorite vegetarian dog food.

> The Story of How we got Stormy!

Here is Stormy with the whole family

Dear Amy
I've been enjoying your soups for a while. I have two African Grey parrots, and I make a "mash" for them that contains chopped up organic fruits, veggies, grains, etc. Sometimes they get tired of it, so for a while now I've been buying your soups for my birds! I add a tablespoon or so to their mash to give it a different flavor and texture. Their favorite is alphabet, which isn't always easy to find. The other day I was getting ready to mix up some food for the birds, and my Congo Grey 'Fawkes' decided to help herself to your soup right out of the can! I thought you'd enjoy these photos of her chowing down!
Debbie

Pet Owners Relax With 'Doga'!
In New York City, dog owners are enjoying yoga class with their best friend. Click here to see more!

Dear Amy,
As I sit her at work, just having finished an Amy's enchilada, I decided
to go to the website. I recently decided to give up meat for a month to see if I could do it. I'm only in my second week but have found it to be quite easy thus far.

But anyway, I saw the picture of your dog, which looked a lot like mine and as I read on, I can't believe the similarities. We got out Tilly 10 years ago, at an adoption agency just like the one you described. Tilly was rescued from the local pound.

She was 4 months old at the time of adoption. Honestly, we think she is a gift from God. She is the sweetest, most soothing, and most loyal dog I could ever imagine. No one other than our family and a few people in her fan club know this because she barks a lot, nips, and gives the evil eye to everyone outside of her family and fan club. Others are afraid of her and I don't blame them. So, she often has to wait upstairs when we have visitors and need to be very careful on walks.

She watches over us like it was her only job in life and follows us everywhere we are in the house. She helped me stay grounded while suffering from post partum depression and keeps us feeling safe in our home. 

We also came by her by accident. We already had a new greyhound who was having terrible anxiety. We thought another dog would calm him down. We never would have thought about having two dogs but we had to either give the hound up or try another dog. So, she came to live with us. She did calm the hound down and had a two dog home for many years until the hound passed. Now, Tilly is an only dog and I think she likes it. She has the cat to torment (actually be tormented by) and us to watch over. 

I heard that the oldest living dog on record was an Australian Cattle
Dog and died at 29. May we both be blessed with our dogs for many more years to come.

Sincerely,
Kim from Rochester, NY

What does Stormy eat?

Hello All,
I am a huge fan of Amy's products and have passed on my enthusiasm for your products to my family and coworkers. I am a vegetarian myself-now for about 20 years and read on line that the family dog, Stormy, is eating a veggie diet. I cook for my dogs every day, but it's not the diet I'd like them to have. They are eating chicken or turkey with brown rice and veggies. I would REALLY love to leave the meat out as I know it's not healthy and I feel guilty buying it. Could you please tell me what "Stormy's" diet consists of? Thanks so much!

From Patricia Vaughn

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Hi Patricia:
Thanks for writing to us. Stormy eats Nature's Recipe vegetarian canned dog food and different vegetarian dog snacks. Her favorite is Mr. Barkeys. You can get them at Natural food stores like Whole Foods and at pet stores. We also feed her people food. She likes peeled broccoli stems. We call them broccoli bones! She gets veggie burgers and quesadillas when we eat them. She likes potatoes, salad, carrots and really all veggies, soup, beans and an occasional cookie. Her breath is always sweet and her fur smells like we just gave her a bath.
 
In fact people always say, " She looks great, you must have just bathed her", which we never do, except when she gets skunked or rolls in something rotten at the beach. 
 
Sincerely, 
Rachel Berliner, Stormys' owner 

Dog Bite Saves Owner

Source: Boston.com

ORLANDO, Fla. A 17-pound beagle named Belle is more than man's best friend. She's a lifesaver. Belle was in Washington, D.C., on Monday to receive an award for biting onto owner Kevin Weaver's cell phone to call 911 after the diabetic Ocoee man had a seizure and collapsed.

"There is no doubt in my mind that I'd be dead if I didn't have Belle," said Weaver, 34, whose blood sugar had dropped dangerously low. Belle had been trained to summon help in just those circumstances.
She was the first canine recipient to win the VITA Wireless Samaritan Award, given to someone who used a cell phone to save a life, prevent a crime or help in an emergency, the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday.
Weaver first heard about service dogs while he was working as a flight attendant after befriending a frequent passenger who taught dogs to help diabetic patients. Using their keen sense of smell, the animals can detect abnormalities in a person's blood-sugar levels.
The dog periodically licks Weaver's nose to take her own reading of his blood-sugar level. If something seems off to her, she will paw and whine at him.
"Every time she paws at me like that I grab my meter and test myself," Weaver said. "She's never been wrong."

Dear Amy,
I am the owner of Tykie's Long Life - Homemade Vegetarian dog food. Please feel free to check my website - My dog lived to be 25 years old and I have fed him my homemade food all of his life.  It's very healthy, simple and organic.  I make it dry with grains, healing herbs and veggies.  Business is good and I wish to share the fact that vegan dogs will live a very long and healthy life and have minimal health problems! 

Thank You,
Stephanie Burns, owner

Dear Amy,
I've checked and double-checked the ingredients on your lentil soup, but because my cat goes simply berserk for the stuff, I've got to ask - are you sure there's no meat or fish in there?

Really, he doesn't act that crazy even for catnip. I'm lucky he left the pattern on the bowl (yes, I let him lick it when I was done).

From Sharon H

STORMY, Amy’s dog
Getting a Second Chance at Life…
Source: Amy and Stormy

My beloved dog, Stormy is an important part of our life. Stormy is truly a member of our family and even has her own seat on the family-room couch. However, Stormy traveled a long road before we finally found each other. Here is what happened before I met Stormy.

The Rescue:
“Please won’t you take this one too? She really is a wonderful dog,” said the woman from the animal shelter.

Jane Smith* from Second Chance Rescue turned to the woman who held in her arms a Blue Heeler/Australian Shepherd mix. Jane eyed the puppy and considered whether or not to take her. It was a cold, wet night and Jane already had a dozen or more dogs in her van that she was taking. Jane had come to the Animal Control Center to rescue dogs that were soon to be euthanized. Second Chance Rescue is a Bay Area organization that rescues stray and abandoned dogs and puppies from high-kill shelters, placing them in caring foster homes and facilitating adoptions into loving, life-long homes. **

This puppy was blind in one eye, and Jane had thought it might be difficult to find her a home. She needed to choose dogs that were easily adoptable.

“Please take this one last dog,” pleaded the woman.

“OK, sure,” Jane relented, giving the dog a second chance at life. This was just the beginning of Stormy’s long journey to find the perfect home.

The Meeting:
It was one of those lazy Saturdays with nothing to do and no place to go. I was eleven years old, and in those days I didn’t have homework on the weekends.

My grandmother Nonny and I decided to take a walk with no particular destination in mind. We ended up at the neighborhood park where we spotted a little girl and her father playing fetch with their two dogs. Suddenly one of the dogs brought a ball and dropped it at my feet.

“Go ahead and throw it,” the man told me. I did and the dog brought the ball back to me once again. After that the dog kept returning the ball only to me, not to the other little girl.

“What’s this dog’s name?” I asked the girl’s father.

“Stormy…because she’s black and white and gray like a stormy sky.”

“How come you have two dogs?”

“Oh these aren’t mine. We’re fostering them until somebody adopts them.”

“Adopts them? Could I adopt Stormy?” I asked.

“You can if your parents want her, and if the people at Second Chance Rescue believe you can give her a good home.”

Stormy jumped up and licked my face, and I knew that she and I were meant for each other. I had wanted a dog for years, but my parents had been against it, partly because we already had three cats, one of them almost 21 years old! This time, though, I was determined. This dog had found me, after all.

The Adoption:
The first time Stormy came to our ranch, things did not go well. Stormy immediately made herself at home and ran all over the house and yard acting like a wild dog. Unfortunately for me, my parents did not want to adopt such an ill-mannered dog.

I was still determined. I convinced my parents to meet Stormy again. The next time Stormy visited, she was another dog altogether. She didn’t act wild or hyper. It was almost as if she knew that she had to charm my parents into falling in love with her. And she did. It seemed Stormy had finally found her new home.

Then there was the matter of arranging for the adoption. Second Chance Rescue requires that all prospective families go through a rigorous screening process. In Stormy’s case, we also had to convince Jane that we were the perfect family for Stormy because Jane herself had fallen in love with Stormy. Jane had a hard time giving her up, because Stormy had become her favorite of all the dogs she had rescued. Finally, Stormy was officially adopted and became a much-loved member of our family.

Stormy’s Second Chance:
Stormy very quickly took to her new home, our large ranch in Sonoma County. She was 5 months old when we adopted her, and has become a vegetarian. She eats canned vegetarian dog food, and “people food” whenever she can get it. She loves “Broccoli bones” (the thick stalks of raw broccoli). Amy’s Pizza is her favorite, of course. She doesn’t get too much pizza, though, because no one wants her to get too fat.

Stormy is very intelligent and loving, and an all-around great pet. She is also extremely happy with her life at the Berliner Ranch. She says so when she smiles at you.

*For privacy, her name has been changed for this story.
**For more information on Second Chance Rescue, visit their website at www.secondchancerescue.com

A horse named Molly

Meet Molly. She's a gray speckled pony who was abandoned by her owners in the wake of Katrina. She spent weeks on her own before finally being rescued and taken to a farm where abandoned animals were Stockpiled. While there, she was attacked by a pit bull terrier, and almost died. Her gnawed right front leg became infected and her vet went to LSU for help. But LSU was overwhelmed, and this pony was a welfare case. You know how that goes.

Read Molly's happy ending >>

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