My Sous Chef Rosie

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Allow me to introduce a very important family member. She is my sous chef and a cancer survivor. She is our sweet, furry 4-legged child, our 15-year-old yellow labrador retriever named Rosie.

As a food blogger, I write about food for our family. However, our family includes our 4-legged family member, Rosie. As my Sous Chef, she helps by supervising while laying on the kitchen floor when I cook. I think secretly she is hoping I’ll trip over her and drop the food on the floor, then it will be fair game for her.

Rosie has quite an incredible story. She is a rescue dog, a cancer survivor, and a very happy go lucky girl. We adopted her over 6 years ago.  I fully expected her to have already been adopted. But to my surprise, she was still available! After a phone interview (because Rosie was in another town) and reference check, they agreed to allow us to adopt Rosie. I picked her up 2 days before Christmas.

Rosie was introduced to our extended family on Christmas day. My Mother-in-Law who emphasized how much work and responsibility it was going to be to have a dog, really did her best to talk me out of adopting her. However, once they met face to face, it was love at first sight for both of them. Above is a picture of her and Rosie on the first day they met. The two are inseparable now.

Rosie can be quite a character. While we were enjoying Christmas dinner, I saw Rosie behind the dinner table, with her head in the air, wearing a large red gift bag over her head.  She had found her Christmas present inside that bag … a large chew bone. I wish I had snapped a photo of that.

We took Rosie with us on car trips and to the beach. In a very short time, we fell in love with her. That is why when she was diagnosed with Mast Cell cancer in 2009, only 6 months after we adopted her, we were in shock. She looked healthy. The only sign was this tiny lump that looked like a bug bite. We knew Rosie was sick. However, she had no idea.

In 2009, based on her very aggressive type of cancer, the veterinary oncologist gave Rosie only 2 months to live if we did no treatment. We were devastated. However, amazingly a new drug just came on the market a few weeks before Rosie’s diagnosis, and it treated Rosie’s type of cancer. Long story short. It worked!! Rosie is our miracle dog!

After the cancer diagnosis, I learned how important it was to feed Rosie a grain free dog food. The first brand we tried was too hard on Rosie’s stomach. So our Veterinary Oncologist recommended we feed Rosie Wellness brand dog food. It had the right balance of nutrition without the grain. We have been feeding her Wellness grain free dog food since 2009.

I told Wellness about Rosie’s cancer survivor story, and they asked if we would be interested in trying their new line of grain-free dog food and treats called TruFood. Of course, I said yes.

TruFood is made with 70% more raw protein than typical dog foods, and is slow-baked in small batches.   In addition, it has antioxidants, and is grain free, potato free, and wheat free, all of which help support your dog's immune and digestive systems as well as their joints, skin and coat.

But the real test, of course, is will Rosie like it? She tried the Salmon, Turkey Liver & Flaxseed recipe with salmon, turkey hearts and livers, chickpeas and lentils, beets and blueberries and real air-dried fruits and veggies. The result?   She loved it! She gobbled it up in no time flat and was looking for more.  It will be Rosie’s food from now on.

I trust Wellness. I believe it is one of the reasons that Rosie has lived cancer-free for over 6 years after her cancer diagnosis. And Rosie has let us know that she loves it.

Be sure to visit Wellness TruFood web site for more information, including where you can find Wellness TruFood in your area.

Thanks to Wellness Pet Food for sponsoring this post to share Rosie’s cancer survivor story and share our enthusiasm about Wellness TruFood pet food.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.