The Hardest Thing

This is the hardest thing I’m ever going to have to tell my dog, and I’m not sure how to break it to him.

Rashi’s not too particular when it comes to treats.  When I initially adopted him I tried giving him Meaty Bones, which prior dogs of mine enjoyed, but he didn’t seem too keen on those.  Next I offered him plain old Milk Bones and he seemed pretty happy.  Milk Bones have become the default treat. 

I do buy him other treats.  For special occasions or times I want to give him something to occupy his time I’ll give him rawhide.  Other times I’ll get him some supplemental soft treats, any of the variety that can essentially be described as meat-flavored Play-Doh, regardless of their extruded shape.  (Somewhere there has to be a sweatshop where people are using actual Play-Doh Fun Factories to squeeze out bacon-shaped dog treats by hand.)

On his birthday I would generally get him something different from the pet store.  A few years ago I came across a treat I hadn’t seen before.  It was one of those boutique treats that were made to look like something people eat.  These were called “Festive Donuts” and were made to look like mini donuts with frosting and sprinkles on top.  Obviously it wasn’t actually donuts; it was made of some sort of oat and sweet potato dough and the frosting was some yogurt-based concoction.  (Thought I think the sprinkles were actually just sprinkles.)  I thought it might be cute to get him donuts for his birthday, so I bought a pack.  These treats elicited a much different response from him than anything save rawhides.

Usually when I give him a treat he bolts to The Spot™ and eats them.  (For those who are unfamiliar with the concept of The Spot™, it is the designated place where treats are to be eaten, selected and reinforced by the dog himself.  Truthfully speaking, there are actually two The Spots™ in the house.  I think the one he chooses to use might be based on the direction he’s facing when I hand him a treat, though I have seen him rush to one The Spot™ and then realize that he needed to be at the other The Spot™, so he ran there before partaking.)  His behavior with these particular treats is vastly different.  When he takes the treat from me he prances to The Spot™.  Once there he puts the treat down and does what I can only describe as admiring it.  He looks at it while smiling and in full body wag.  He touches it a few times: picking it up, putting it down, and turning it over.  He spends a moment just basking in its presence.  Ultimately he’ll eat it, but it is truly a ritual.

I tried a few others of the Gourmet Tails varieties, like the carob “chocolate chip” cookies, but the donuts were the ones.

A couple of months ago, when I went to Petco to pick up dog food, I couldn’t find any of the Gourmet Tails treats.  Since then I’ve been to multiple Petcos but with no luck.  Google searches have been fruitless as well.  Amazon’s page for the product reads, “Currently unavailable.  We don't know when or if this item will be back in stock.”

Finding out what happened took a bit of sleuthing.  Gourmet Treats didn’t have a website of their own, and searching by name didn’t bring up a parent company’s website either, just listings on websites that formally sold the products.  I was able to find that the Gourmet Trails trademark is owned by Doggy Delirious, Inc. of Monroe, WA.  According to the Doggie Delirious website, they’re part of Wet-Noses Organic Dog Treat Company, also Monroe, WA. 

Aha!  Pacific Northwest hippies selling gluten free, organic, locally sourced, farm to table, artisanal, carbon-neutral dog treats with a philosophy.  Now I’m getting somewhere.

I sent an email to the “contact us” email address on that site to see if they knew anything about the Gourmet Tails product line.  Today I got a reply from them.  The Gourmet Tails line has been discontinued.

While looking for more of these treats I’ve been rationing out what few I had left.  I have but two more of these treats to give my dog, then there will be no more.  This is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to tell him.

This is yet another reason to fucking hate hippies: for breaking my dog's heart.