Today it is 12 (13 if we can't place our foster). Without our knowledge, apparently word got out on the street that if you were a dog that had nowhere to go, you should go to Run A Muck Ranch. The strays, the difficult e-lists, those with mental and behavioral problems, and one all the way from Afghanistan. Believe it or not, we have fostered, found, returned and rehomed. But what has remained are
those that dug in and refused to leave. OK, so there are 3 deliberate dogs within the pack, 3 that we actively sought out and brought home, but the other 9 - nothing could get them to leave! (And at the start of this Page, there is a foster 10 who is being coached by the best on how to make it so she never leaves). Anyway, somewhere betwen 7 and 9 - I think that was 4 years ago (?) I felt like I was not giving enough attention to each individual dog. Therefore, I began to apologize to them through their stomachs. There was A LOT of guilt back then. I cooked them steaks, hamburgers, baked them treats from book recipes, etc. All I had to show for it was a whole heaping of fat dogs. So I began researching, refining, testing and retesting using only components of previously used recipes, removing the parts that the dogs really didn't care about (i.e. I have yet to meet a dog that absolutely refused to eat a treat because it didn't have Rosemary in it, and, as it turns out, if the treat is good, you really don't need garlic as a taste enhancer). Gone also were the extras: The yeast, the baking powder and everything else in the recipes that were included simply to make the batter or dough easier to work with. What I was left with was the target flavor, and "that which holds it all together", the flour. But then I decided the flour had to go too. A dog with GI problems introduced me to the wonders of oats over flours, and the rest is history - especially the part where the treats I made for my dogs came in whimsical shapes. Oats are not so easy to work with sometimes...
After #12, and the realization that the humans of the house, both who work in manual labor, were not getting any younger, and yet still, a greater income was required to keep the dogs healthy and happy, perhaps my dog treats could be that additional income. After a few months of finger cuts and practice, I was able to make the dough workable in simple cookie cutters, and once the treats looked like something other than what would come out of the not-so-sweet part of a dog, I began testing them on dogs outside the home. Turns out they're a hit! And so, Run A Munchies, the product of Run A Muck Ranch, home to 12 (possibly 13) of the most mishmashed, fun and best dogs in the world (and 2 very tired humans) was born. Read about life at Run A Muck Ranch at http://ranchrunamuck.wordpress.com/
PS: If you can follow the blog, it would be AWSOME! I want to hunt for sponsors, but I need a whole heaping more followers before I can start romancing them. Do you have ANY idea what it costs to feed and vet 12 (possibly 13) dogs? Especially when 6 of them are special needs???
