Peanut Butter Practicality

Sometime tomorrow, I'll update with the remaining three tips for college grads, but today, given that both myself and Super Careo are fur-mamas, I thought I'd share an ingenius money-saving tip.

So, most of us eat peanut butter. It's kind of an American tradition. And a large majority of Americans own dogs. Although the in-home care for pets has gotten better over the years, there are still a number of minor health issues that many fur-parents tend to miss. A big one is the importance of glucosamine in pets, especially larger breeds and animals pre-disposed to arthritis.

My Savannah, a German Shepherd-Brittany Spaniel mix, has suffered from arthritis for about seven years. The last year has been especially rough for her, so I started feeding her glucosamine tablets at the urging of the vet. I did notice it seemed to help quite a bit with her joint and bone pain, caused by the stress of her condition. Still, my vet suggested that I switch to a specific company.

The only problem is, the tablets aren't flavored, and both my dogs are notoriously finicky eaters when it comes to treats. Seriously, my Pomeranian loves to eat broccoli, but don't count on seeing him gobble down any treats designed to address his tartar and plaque build-up. Oy.

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to take a spoon and coat the glucosamine tablets with a small amount of peanut butter. Because watching the weight of an arthritic dog is so critical to maintaining their health and comfort, I always did a very small amount, just enough to make the tablet seem like a treat. When I noticed that the jar of peanut butter itself was just about too empty to use in making a sandwich, it occured to me there wasn't any reason why I couldn't just start using the tablet to scrape a small amount of peanut butter off the side. True enough, it's worked like a charm!

So, I suppose perhaps a good direction to take this blog is conservation of resources, as well as money management. I, for one, feel great that I'm not tossing out a jar of peanut butter that is too little to put on a sandwich, but just right to entice a dog to take her medicine.