I just wanted to express my appreciation for your Newsletter entitled “Why we don’t carry certain dog foods at SitStay.com.” I read your newsletter every week and always enjoy your stories and insights, but this issue had special meaning for me.

As a dog owner, dog foster home, and shelter manager, I frequently witness first-hand how important is for dogs to be fed high-quality food. For many dogs, it is absolutely critical to their physical and emotional health. My most recent foster dog came to me with severe dandruff and a dry, brittle coat – most likely caused by the food she had been eating (horrible stuff purchased from the Dollar Store). Within just a few weeks of eating a healthier diet (raw food along with high-quality grain-free food such as Orijen and Wellness Core), her dandruff completely disappeared and her coat became glossy, thick, and silky-soft. (And she just got adopted to a wonderful home!)

I see cases like this constantly, and unfortunately the effects of poor food can be both physical and behavioral. So at our shelter we try to educate every adoptive home about the importance of healthy dog food. The truly sad part is how many owners think they are doing their dogs a favor by buying those heavily-advertised, over-priced “name brands” like Science Diet, IAMS, Beneful, Pedigree, etc. … when what they are really doing is causing disease in their dogs. Those companies should be ashamed of the scam they are getting away with.

Thank you SO MUCH for helping to spread the word and educate consumers. I am grateful that your company maintains high standards, and that you don’t “sell out” to Big Industry by selling inferior and dangerous brands of dog food.

You are my heroes this week!

Sincerely,

Karla Gansmuller

P.S. My dogs are grateful too … they really love your high-quality treats, such as Wildside Salmon!

Hi Diane, Pretty incredible, isn’t it? Diabetes can be turned around in people too. With the right diet and exercise, great changes are being made in this world.

The chocolate lab simply started a raw food diet. Within 5 days her blood sugar was returning to normal. I see it over and over. When we feed dogs the diets that Nature intends for them to eat, they get well. It generally happens pretty quickly.

Processed foods are the culprit behind most illness: cancer, diabetes, kidney and liver disease. The dogs and we humans simply can’t process those kinds of food without diseasing our bodies. Since the 1950s, dogs and humans have suffered a great deal of illness and early death. That’s when dry dog foods, McDonalds, Kool Aid, and the TV dinner started being sold in the US.

A local breeder came to me just a few months ago. He’d started having dead puppies in the womb. The vets couldn’t figure it out. I suggested that he stop feeding processed dog food to his dogs and go to a raw food diet. Within just a few months, the animals are strong again. Crazy.

The thing I find most amazing in all of this is that our veterinarians continue to sell foods made of corn, they sure do keep a nice clientele that way. Three vets told me to my face that if they didn’t sell that food, they wouldn’t have a practice. They know what keeps dogs sick. It happens in our human medicine too. When doctors prescribe medicine for people without diet and exercise changes, they are simply keeping that person sick. Money talks. Just nuts!

There is a website you might like http://www.maximizedliving.com/story.aspx

I follow the Maximized Living nutrition plan and daily exercise and it works! (I don’t recommend things that I don’t experience first.)

The information is the same for our dogs as it is for us. We are all made the same way. A dog and a human digestive system have not changed from the very first of us on this planet. We were not intended to eat corn and certainly not in the quantities that it’s available to us in processed foods. It’s in nearly everything we eat. A cob of corn at a picnic is a nice thing. But corn is in nearly every label of processed food. Look for corn, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, anything ending in ose is a sugar of some sort…it’s not good for us.

People and all animals are intended to eat things that rot. Simple foods that grow, including meats, birds and eggs. Not processed foods and sugars. Corn is an exception, if you study how corn came about, you’ll get a better explanation about why it should NOT be in our diets. When we do it right, we get well and stay well.

Corn is cheap. Why are people paying huge amounts of money for dog food or breakfast cereal that’s basic ingredient is corn? You’re paying for the advertising, marketing and the box or bag. Cattle growers feed corn to fatten a steak for us but those cattle are killed early before they start showing signs of illness. How can anyone expect a dog to eat corn twice a day for it’s whole life and still be well? It can’t.

Speaking of corn fed cattle, I have stopped eating it. I eat only grass fed beef. It’s good for me and it tastes so much better! No hormones or antibiotics in the meat I eat. Ever wonder why our human girls are starting their cycles earlier and earlier? Think hormones in our food.

I personally try very hard to eat right, I exercise daily. I treat my dogs the same way. I’ve helped turn dogs with illness into dogs bursting with health. Rewarding. That’s what we want for ourselves, our families and our animals. It’s a simple change.

Something that dogs need to eat that people don’t is raw bones. Dogs simply cannot be well unless they are ingesting the raw bones that Nature intends for them to eat. Don’t let your vet or the massive dog food marketing machine scare you away from what your dogs really need to be well.

SitStay.com carries the book Raw Dog Food. It’s a simple explanation for how to feed our animals. There have been wonderful books written about the raw food diet and SitStay has sold them all. This one is the simplest to understand and start with, get it to give yourself permission to start feeding your dog the way Nature wants them to eat. I think you’re going to be incredibly happy when you see the changes in your dogs.

I’ve been on a mission for over 15 years to help people keep money in their pockets instead of paying vets to diagnose and treat things they don’t even know about. My opinion is backed up by dogs (and people) who have found wellness.

I hope this helps.

Hugs to your dogs (and the cats too),

Darcie (Founder of SitStay.com)

Dear Lynne, Please don’t send us your vest or badges. I just want the information about the company if you find it.

There are a lot of scam artists online and they prey on people who have service dogs, they are making money most people can’t afford to pay and shouldn’t have to part with. The ADA does not require a dog to be certified or licensed and they do not require special photo ID of the dog. Please go to ADA.gov search there for the words service dog to get more information.

I fear that you’ve been scammed in our name. Please do send me that store’s information if you find it.

Thank you. – Darcie

Dear Darcie, Let me take this opportunity to tell you what a bright light you’ve been in my life this last year. I have a number of similar things going on, and lost my terv at 14+ last Jan. Seeing Kate’s pics and hearing about your process has been amazing. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your process and I hope all the changes will bring only good going forward. I first got to know you and Kent via Belg-L many years ago, and you were generous with great advice on books when I adopted Conor. So, we have a long history . Kristin

Dear  Kristin, Life is good even when things may seem really bad. Life just is. I know that it’s true. I think that God directs us to a new path with happenings that seem to us at the time as bad things. Perhaps we weren’t listening to His gentle guidance so he put real brick walls in our path to get us to change our life journey. In my case, I was staying with my husband until death do us part no matter what. He wanted to leave everything he knew, the good and the bad, and all that he’d worked for and go make his life somewhere else, he said, and he did. That’s all I’ll say about that here.

I read my Bible every night before I go to sleep, a chapter or two and I sleep well. I’ve read it all the way through 2 times in my life and I’m doing it again. I don’t pretend to understand how peace is given to me so deep in my being, I sure am glad that it is. I simply believe that life is good. Faith. The Bible is a pretty interesting book and just the reading of it adds to my peacefulness. Even in the hardest of the times it gave me comfort and I didn’t lose a night’s sleep in the whole time my life was changing…that’s a pretty powerful statement for the words.

You know, the one thing that tells me the most about my big life change these past few years and that it was instrumented by God’s hand is that…Dancer’s passing in June 2009 was the thing that hurt me most in the past four years. That tells me that my heart had been being blessed with a readiness for what was going to happen. I miss Dancer less and less these days and I’m glad about that. I sure did love that dog to pieces. Losing her really hurt.

I think Everyone should have a higher being, a universal oneness, a higher self, some kind of strength of a wonderful and good kind to rely on in times of good and bad. It makes life so much easier.

Nothing gets me down for long, I believe that all things happen for the good.  My home is peaceful and it’s lovely and clean. If I lost my house tomorrow, it would still all be good. A house isn’t a home. It’s the heart and the love that make a home and that can be wherever you are.

Kate and I are happy and doing great. She fell off the bed last night! Woke me out of a sound sleep. I think she was sleeping so soundly that she wasn’t sure what happened either. She got back into bed and we went back to sleep. – Peace Everybody. – Darcie

They gave me the strangest look and angled away from me toward their car. “Hi!” I called. “Hold on a second.” When I caught up with them I introduced myself and asked if their puppy could come and play in the backyard with Kate. They smiled and said okay, still a bit wary of me, a total stranger.

Mom went to get the car from the lot, the boy and I went to my house where I put the black lab pup into the backyard. The boy decided he’d wait for his Mom in the front yard instead of going on in. I smiled at him and went into the house to get Kate.

Kate and the 5 month old puppy played for about 45 minutes. The Mom finally told me that she thought I was coming into the park to give her heck that her dog wasn’t on leash. I told her, “Not me. I think that all dogs should get to play in the park if they’re under some semblance of control.”

When they left it seemed that they were still wondering who the heck I was and why I felt so comfortable approaching them.

Funny world, isn’t it? Well, Kate had a wonderful time and so did the pup. – Darcie

Kate and Darcie 2011

- Darcie

Oh my gosh! That was a long time ago wasn’t it! Yes, I was Darcy Turner and yes, I was a cheerleader for a short time but I didn’t want to be one. I was roped into tryouts with some girls from my class, they “needed” a third girl in their group. So I said yes, I’d help them. What I didn’t know was that the whole school was voting on each person who tried out, I think I won third place in my age group or something like that.

Why didn’t I know about the voting assembly before we got there? Because I lived for horses and dogs on our ranch…I didn’t pay much attention to what was happening at school if it didn’t have something to do with a book. I was extremely shy as a child with people I didn’t know and I wasn’t much of a joiner, extra curricular activities were an intrusion into the life I loved best. I could generally be found working on the ranch, riding horses, playing with a dog, hunting with my brother or with my nose stuck deep inside some wonderful, incredible book.

There were a few boys who tried to talk to me after practice so I’m not sure who you are. Maybe I should have paid more attention to boys then. I hope that the years have treated you well. LOL! – Darcie

My friends are still trying to line me up with dates and I keep saying no thanks. I keep refusing. One of my best friends tells me, “It’s been a long time, Sweetie. You have to get back out there. Although if anyone could seem more happy, I don’t know who it would be. I think you’re more comfortable in your own skin than anyone I’ve ever known.”

I love my life no matter what turns it’s taken. There are many things that I wouldn’t trade for anything, happy times and thrilling times with people and dogs that I love, and then there were some things, some people, and some hurts I could certainly have done without but who knows, if some of the things that I wish wouldn’t have happened didn’t happen, maybe some of the really good things that did happen wouldn’t have.

Sometimes things go just the way we want them to, sometimes they don’t. The good thing is that the sun still comes up in the morning and we get to make new choices every day if we want to. I believe that it’s all good. I choose to keep right on going, keep on keeping on to see where 2012 and the rest of my life leads me. I’m in the prime of my life. There’s so much yet to do.

I have no new year’s resolutions. I’ll keep trying to eat right, stay fit, and keep loving living. It’s who I am.

Kate and I wish you all the very best. Happy 2012, Everybody! – Darcie