What we're working with

It would figure that the picture I choose for the banner of this blog wouldn't include the main reason for creating the blog in the first place. That reason is new to the family; we don't yet have the albums upon albums of photos documenting his every cutesy-wutesy move; I just happened to think that photo represented a nice calm, stress-free afternoon-- the kind we hope to have again. the kind that lead to healthy, happy animals (human and canine). We honestly haven't had a lot of time for that lately.

This is the reason. This is Andre. I also just like this photo of him, though he's goofier than this.

He's usually more like this.

Andre has had his fair share of medical drama, and not the kind that includes George Clooney. I'll detail his problems in the following posts; and while documenting our journey with his care was my main driving force behind writing everything down (keeping it straight in my head was becoming far too complicated), I will also be detailing the many things we have tried for his "siblings," past and present.

Over the years, we've become more and more convinced that a holistic approach is the best approach for our animals. The name of the blog comes from our choice to feed them a raw foods diet, which we think has been front and center with helping in a number of ailments; but it's also in reference to wanting to find the cause of a problem, not merely treat symptoms; to find "simple" solutions, even if they seem more time-consuming; and the constant growth of our body of knowledge, be it from anecdotal accounts from other pet owners, input from our veterinarians (who though they aren't entirely holistic practitioners, they not only humor us, but help us), combing through clinical studies, attending dog professionals conferences.

Holistic medicine-- for humans and animals-- is not well-supported financially. It is not always viewed favorably. It is not researched like pharmaceuticals. Trust me, we are grateful for modern medicine, and we use it when we need it. But what we've learned outside of that, we have had to piece together. And I'd like to share what we've learned, where we learned it, what we're trying, and the various good and bad results to hopefully give someone else additional data points to add to their own raw materials.