Friday was a dog's day

Both of our dogs are rescues.  Our prissy, high maintenance Pomeranian was literally rescued out of the street in the middle of rush hour traffic one day when I was driving home from work.  I found her owners the next day, who claimed that hadn't realized that she had gotten out of the apartment.  They said I could keep her if I wanted, and there was no way I was going to subject her to a smoke-filled, overcrowded (5 roommates, 2 bedrooms) apartment, so I obliged.  Our other dog, Cosmo, is our best friend.  Not that Nina isn't fabulous... she earns her keep well by keeping my feet warm at night and by being a pleasure to look at in her cute little bows and sweaters while perched on the sofa.  But Cosmo has been with us through it all.  He was our first "joint purchase" in college and then stayed with me while Mr. Maurice spent time studying in Europe.  We got him from one of those slightly icky nonprofit rescue organizations who have all of the best intentions but little organizational skills to back it up. It has since closed, and our German Shepherd/golden retriever mix has gone from being a clone of the Tazmanian Devil (tornado and all) to the lovely, laid back watcher of the house that he is today. 

Well, yesterday morning we woke up and realized that it was somewhere around Cosmo's tenth birthday.  We aren't entirely sure when his birthday is, but we've been able to guesstimate because we know he was around 12 weeks old when we brought him home.  Of course we had to throw a party for him!  We called Dr. and Mrs. R (my parents) and our good friend H, who is always ready for some fab wine as long is there is fab (and often unfiltered) conversation to go along with it.  Everyone needs someone like H in their lives.  If you don't have an H, go find her right now.  She will make your life infinitely more interesting.

We decided that all of the meat served would have the bone in, in honor of Cosmo.  Of course he didn't get to have any of the bones because we would like him to stick around for a while.  So, Mr. M whipped up one of his famous grilled feasts, which included a bbq chicken recipe that was completely new to me and I can't begin to tell you what was in it, but the table was completely silent while we ate, if that is any indication of the quality.

I set to work on my first ever doggie birthday cake.  After doing a little research, I combined:

1 cup of flour

1/3 cup of honey

1 peeled and shredded carrot

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup vegetable oil

I put it in a round cake pan, baked it at 350 for 30 minutes, and "frosted" it with sour cream and dog food sprinkles.  Cosmo was in heaven (poor Nina couldn't have any because she has a very sensitive digestive system and can only eat a very specific brand of holistic dog food.  Like I said, high maintenance).  Yes, I may have lost my mind.  And no, it didn't look very professional.  And yes, it gave us a great excuse to have a toast with friends and spend the evening catching up on what's new in town!