See Spot Eat

Improving dogs' diets is no small achievement.

Dear Deborah Ellinger:

I admire your devotion to keeping our dogs healthy through healthy eating. Left to their own devices, dogs generally don't eat healthy. Left to their own devices, they generally eat anything, sometimes twice, if you get my meaning, and I think you do. Anyway, I read that your company, Wellness/Old Mother Hubbard Inc., is dedicated to providing "uncompromising nutrition." Good on you for trying to make that work. In my youth, I became quite familiar with a dog's idea of natural foods. I had a beagle named Beau. He was named Beau because all the dogs in my family were named Beau, and that was because the first dog we had was named Beau. (If I had been triplets, they'd all have been named Charles. That was the way it worked in my house.) Anyway, the second beagle Beau was fond of running around in the woods and bringing rabbits home to eat on the front porch. In the course of these expeditions, he also attempted (unsuccessfully) to eat a porcupine and came into contact with so many skunks you'd think he ran an insurance company. My mother was not fond of going out to get the paper in the morning and finding it lying atop a portion of leftover rabbit tartare. As much as I love and respect dogs, on the subject of eating, they're all pretty much idiots. They need your help. And I have to say that you're being remarkably thorough about it. I read where you have one employee whose job it is to analyze changes in canine digestion from the business end, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. This is a brave person to whom I think you should give a raise.

Charles P. Pierce
Cpierce@globe.com