With the cooler temperatures this time of year Dudley has been craving carbs (I know the feeling!). We are no longer able to buy feeder bread from the bakery due to new rules that reduce the bakery's liability by requiring all unsold bread to be compacted rather than sold as feeder bread. Apparently the prospect of humans eating this bread, getting ill, and suing the bakery brought this on. We were told that the compacted bread is now shipped off to a company to be used in making dog food. Bummer for Dudley, our chickens and who knows how many hundreds or thousands of other animals that benefited from the feeder bread. During the summer it wasn't so bad because Dudley had plenty of tender grass shoots and other plants to supplement his piggy feed, but as Fall approached and the nutritive value of the grasses dropped (I believe that they produce far fewer carbohydrates in the Fall but am no expert on this subject)Dudley felt the pinch. He grew a bit more svelte but also a bit more anxious to get more food from Toad and me, and began coming down to the veranda steps to ask for a treat whenever he, ever vigilant, noticed that we were outdoors.
I tried to put myself in his situation, facing a long, cold winter in an unheated barn, dependent upon body fat to insulate me, and felt great empathy for our boy. To give him a tasty yet filling treat that would be somewhat affordable for us I spread some peanut butter on a slice of bread for him. It was his first time to experience the wonder of peanut butter. He was surprised when I placed it before him and gave a small jump backwards, and then cautiously tasted the peanut butter. The look on his face was so gratifying! His enjoyment was so obvious as he carefully licked the peanut butter from the bread, savoring rather than gulping it, repeatedly smacking his lips as he endeavored to loosen and swallow every bit of peanut butter. And do you know what it tasted like to him? More!
He was so delighted by this new treat and so ready to taste it again that I returned to the kitchen to prepare another one for him. He savored the second one just as much as he did the first one. I told him that he could have two just this once because of the expense and the number of calories, and since that day Toad and I have provided Dudley with one peanut butter delight each day. As he has grown more accustomed to the treats I notice that he now tears off pieces of the peanut-buttered bread to chew on. Here he is enjoying his daily delight on October 5th: Buon appetito, Dudley! (click image to enlarge)
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