Happy Friday!

TGIF!

As always, we'll start our Friday with the ever fun Friendly Fill-Ins challenge, hosted by pawesome 15andmeowing and McGuffy's Reader.

The fill-ins that our hosts produced for us this week are:

1. I prefer _________ to _________.
2. _________ was much harder than I expected.
3. One way that I relax is _________.
4. _________ always makes me _________.

I put on my thinking cap and managed these results:

1. I prefer making baked goods from scratch to using box mixes. (I didn't really get into hardcore baking until a few years ago, when I was in college. Once I started, though, I couldn't stop. I love finding new recipes to make. I have some of my grandma's and mom's old dessert books, and I love going through those when I'm in the mood to bake. But, now I always feel like I'm cheating if I use a box mix, and I hardly even buy any mixes anymore.)
2. Acclimating Eddy to life with a dog was much harder than I expected. (I adopted Eddy just 10 days after she was pulled from the wilds of country life. She was roughly 10 weeks old, and it seemed she had never seen a dog in her life. The first time she saw Astrid, she growled and hissed and spit. I thought I could slowly get her used to Astrid well within a couple of weeks, as Astrid is a cat-friendly dog and all of our other cats took to her in no time. Eddy is Eddy, though, and she likes to be different. It took months for her to even want to be in the same room as Astrid, and at least another few weeks before she stopped stalking and slapping Astrid every time she crossed her path. Luckily, they're now perfectly good frenemies.)
3. One way that I relax is by spending an evening on the couch with plenty of snacks, Netflix, and my furbabies. (I love evenings like this. There's nothing more relaxing than plopping down on the couch for some binge eating, TV watching, and furry cuddles. Even when the furbabies are begging for my food and batting the remote off the coffee table, it's totally worth it.)
4. Starting a new book always makes me feel like I'm embarking on an adventure. (I love that feeling of opening to the first page of a new book and seeing where it leads me.)

Now it's time for your weekly fix of the resident wild child Eddy! She was in absolutely no mood for picture time this week. All I managed were a couple of blurry shots of Eddy taking advantage of my lap when I crouched down to pick something up off the floor next to my bed. I happened to have my camera handy, but the shots are none too great.

If I'm lucky, maybe I can coax this little ball of energy to sit still for a selfie sometime before Sunday. We'll cross our paws that such success is met!

Happy Friday, furiends!

***

Our Tip of the Day:
Seeing that I had food on my mind when writing this post, today's tip will be a recycled reminder to use caution when giving your furbabies table scraps. As I'm sure you all know, chocolate is off limits, as well as grapes, raisins, avocados, onions, garlic, alcohol, and even macadamia and other certain nuts. If your furbaby is giving you puppy dog eyes that you just can't resist, try sticking to table scrap treats more along the lines of carrots, spinach, bananas, and apples, as these all are not only safe but can also offer certain health benefits. When cooked, you can also offer chicken, beef, and even eggs, which are excellent sources of protein. Always remember, though, that table scraps and treats should only consist of a very small portion (no more than 10%) of your furbaby's diet. In cases like this, less is more!