"IN THE RAW ", great food and really nice people, and they have treats! I should know I eat their food everyday. My name is Bart and I'm a 216 lb. Old English Mastiff. My brother, by adoption, is Rome a black lab, and he likes them too, especially the treats! We've both been on raw food for 18 months now and we really like it. I used to have tummy problems and a whole bunch of allergies. But since we got our humans to get us raw food, from "IN THE RAW", we have been just fine and super healthy. Rome, of course would eat anything from anywhere, it's genetic you know, but even he looks better on raw food, and like I said he likes the treats. My only problem is that when we go to the store the humans stand around talking a lot and sometimes forget to keep passing out the treats. What are you going to do? You train them, you take them to classes, but after all they're only human! "IN THE RAW", the place where smart dogs shop.

BIG LICKS, Bart & Rome

I've got a great success story for cat owners who don't want to take the standard insulin shot approach to diabetes. I live in North Vancouver, BC. I noticed around November that my cat Lightnin' was drinking a LOT of water. He is a senior cat, a foundling I've had for 11 years; so I am not sure how old he really is, but the vet's guess is around 15. For the past 11 years I have exclusively fed him a Premium dry food, graduating from the Maintenance to Senior brand formulas. He's always loved it and never shown any problems at his annual check-ups. He has been steadily gaining weight and was slightly over 16 lbs. at his August 2001 check-up. He is a silver gray tabby with a very pleasant and out-going nature�highly nocturnal�an indoor-outdoor cat. He also had a slight problem keeping his food down. He tended to throw up perhaps once every couple of weeks�often two days in a row�though not every meal for those days�say, once on a Wednesday morning, then again on a Thursday evening�then not for a couple of weeks. He would eat the half-cup of dry food in his bowl and then whine for more. If I gave it to him, he would throw up and still whine for more food. So, of course, I stopped giving him more until I felt he'd digested his food. Still, even after an hour or two, he would throw up the second meal. So, that's a snap shot of his history. I took him to my regular Vet in January and mentioned the excessive drinking. They ran a blood test, and informed me that Lightnin' was a diabetic and should begin insulin treatments. I called around and spoke with a Holistic Veterinarian (Dr. Khan of Mosquito Creek Veterinary) who agreed to look at Lightnin' with the possibility of pursuing alternatives. She ran a fructose test, which showed a very high level�624. We discussed trying to shift his diet from the Premium brand dry food to RAW foods with an intermediate stage of a Diabetes Management formula wet food and an increasing dosage of Chromium. Within three days he was off the Premium brand dry food and onto the Diabetes formula. I kept him on his wet food + the daily Chromium for about a month. I figured shifting him onto another diet too soon might really upset him. Then I got some organic RAW Chicken feline meals from IN THE RAW� and some very helpful advice from the owner, Jill Cherrier. It comes in package form (also from a local company, called NATURAL INSTINCT) that was really easy to combine with the diabetes formula. He immediately accepted the mixture. I noticed he didn't throw up as much, but he still did occasionally. I gradually increased the RAW food over the next 4 weeks, also adding organic Lamb. He really loved the lamb; so I moved him onto a diet of Lamb + Chicken, then added Rabbit. This weekend he became a totally RAW FOOD cat (exactly two months after we began the alternative treatment) On Friday we ran another Fructose test�after 60 days of the new approach�the results were DRAMATIC�a reading of BELOW normal at 149 (which the lab says might have been influenced by his having recently eaten)�so they estimate his true level at approximately 250�still, well within the normal tolerance. I've just got the news this morning, and my Vet suggests we cut back on his Chromium by half. I've just fed him some RAW Rabbit, which he happily ate. And so far he hasn't thrown up ANY of the RAW FOOD. I've substituted RAW Musk Ox for Chicken in his diet, and he seems quite happy with that. My Veterinarian and I are elated. This is a real success story. I don't know if this approach will work for all cats, but it certainly has for mine.

Sincerely, R. Stephens & Lightnin'

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