So this story is based on my furbabies dislike for vegetables. We are one of those fur-parents that stopped feeding their dogs kibble and have tried raw food, mixing it with other things, and now all the cats and dogs get cooked food. They love chicken and it fits our cat, Kili’s allergy needs as well (I cannot believe how much of cat food has fish something in it, even if it says chicken).
Chicken has been all of their main protein but getting them to eat more vegetables to get the vitamins and nutrients they need has been … a challenge. I know I can try to find a supplement for them, but personally it is not my favorite option. I would rather find it naturally in the food any of us eat.
I mentioned this issue to my dad when he visited one day, he mentioned trying chicken liver (vitamin A, vitamin B12, vitamin C, selenium, copper, and iron) and gizzards (zinc, iron, selenium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin B12, niacin, vitamin C, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, manganese, and calcium). So we went to Times to find it. They also had these items at Don Quijote and Foodland Farms. Foodland Farms is where I also found the hearts (fatty acids, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin C, iron, taurine, and zinc) this last time. So we bought it and most of them just gobble it up.
We do not want to give them too much because we worry about any issues with feeding them too many organ meats, like purine (uric acid level rise) and saturated fat. So we fried a little of each and I cut it up to create small portions for the five of them. Cutting up the hearts bothered me a little because they kind of looked like what I thought my heart would look like. This piqued my interest so I did a little search time looking up what hearts look like for other animals. Also do animals have hearts that look like mine? So the answer is basically, yes, if the being has a heart it does look a lot like mine.
The idea that all beings that have hearts, have a heart that looks a lot like mine, is something that has really stayed with me and I am still reflecting on it. I recently went a little smaller in my reflection, with the realization that the human heart looks the same in all of us. Right now I think there is something special in remembering this and I should keep it top of my mind.
Monkiyo's Musings 