In 2007, Mr M and I moved from NZ to Melbourne for the music scene.  Pethaus make dog gear that even we would wear, and as avid heavy metal listeners, we HAD to get Violet into one of their battle jackets!  I scored a raw denim jacket in their online sale and also added patches of our favourite bands, with a dog spin on them, to the cart - Judas Pooch, Muttallica, Pawtera & Bark Sabbath.  The lovely Pethaus folk will also shorten jackets for twenty bucks if your pooch is wide, but short in the body.

One week in as a member of our family, I dragged both loved ones to a Japanese clothing store for dogs where Violet quietly modelled a red puffer jacket and a gorgeous knitted letterman cardigan (that was out of our price range), she has since developed an aversion to clothing and turns into a bucking bronco if a bandana so much as comes near her.  I will have to persevere with treats and distraction to get our little rock star out and about to show off her serious attitude. Not too many treats though as we don't want her getting too wide for her new threads!

Since we got Violet we've been making her food using the ingredients recommended by her breeder. Meals consist of blended vegies mixed with pet mince and topped with chopped chicken necks, followed by one Best Care baked biscuit per meal.  We've got the prep down to 45 mins every fortnight!  If we're feeling particularly lazy or life gets in the way, she gets kangaroo mince and/or chicken livers and mashed pumpkin (insert nom nom noise here).

While Mr M and I have our dinner, Little Miss has her hobbit dinner so we can eat in peace. Prepared like a dessert, it's either a sliced banana or apple and natural yogurt with the occasional topping of either a spoonful of peanut butter or coconut oil.

I'm always on the lookout for healthy treats, even attempting my own (here), so when I found Mister Riley, a Melbourne based company that has created five easy DIY low fat treat kits packed with vitamins, antioxidants and fibre, I didn't muck about choosing just one DIY kit, I bought the whole she-bang.  The Mister Riley Box Set has four baking mix packs and one dog treat mix, which is the one I chose to make on the weekend as there was no baking involved.  I simply added peanut butter and honey and rolled them into balls to refrigerate. Voila, Roarrr Balls - Violet gives them 2 paws up!