by Kimberly Foster

Created on: September 29, 2009   Last Updated: September 30, 2009

I write from the perspective of a mom. I lost my beloved Buddha to cancer. I had 15 wonderful years with my angel and I can tell you there isn't anything I wouldn't give for just 5 more minutes with him. Grief is truly a devastating and unique emotion. It can hit you like a hammer at the oddest times. It's been almost two years and still there are moments that just come out of nowhere and I find myself still looking for answers. Part of the grieving process, a really useless part, is trying to figure out what you should have done. But never let it be said that I won't spend time on useless excersises.

After Buddha's passing I did a lot of investigating about cancer and what I missed. I spoke with trainers and vets, pet owners and shelters, everyone I met basically. What I found out is basically what you already know, diet and exercise, but I'll share what I was told and what I learned.

Diet

No topic for any dedicated pet lover is more frustrating than what food to feed your pet. Seriously, you can drive yourself nuts on this issue. It never fails that when I go to the store for food for my dogs I spend at least an hour reading labels and rethinking what I buy. What's more, invariably the dogs' food bill is higher than my own. Generally, everyone I spoke to had their favorite brand or type of food, but they all agree that the food should have meat protein as the main ingredient. I don't have any issues with this and fed Buddha a product with meat protein as the main ingredient all his life.

Raw food

Okay, raw food. I fed my Buddha raw chicken breast as a supplement to his dog food since he was a puppy. I jumped on the raw food bandwagon before it was popular. It only seems logical to me that you'd feed your dog what they'd eat naturally. However, it didn't prevent Buddha's cancer and I think the raw food approach may really depend upon your dog. Since Buddha's passing, I got two dogs, Molly and Timber. I began the raw food supplements with them as well to which they looked at me as if to say, "You're going to cook that, right?" They truly have no desire to eat anything raw. It's odd to me and I admit I was really shocked. We don't eat cow in my house, but I even broke down and bought some steaks just to see if it was the type of protein. They were a bit more interested in that, but they still preferred their dry food. So before you go broke buying meat or some special product for them just think about it, don't get sucked into some sales pitch. Been there, done

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