Chance's Anniversary

Part of being a fit for life wife is being a fit mom. Now, I may not have a baby with two legs, but I do have a baby with four legs, and he is just as special to me.

Welcome home, Chance!
We adopted Chance Nov. 19, 2010 from Second Hope Rescue. We had just lost our beloved cat, Cowboy, to feline leukemia, and I could not bare to have another cat replace him. Cowboy had such personality swagger. He was loving, thoughtful (he never pooped outside his litter box), comforting, and above all things, he was an excellent companion. I swear to you that this cat would talk to us... but that is another story. The point is, without Cowboy in our home, there was a void. A gaping, icy void.

That being said, my heart melted the moment Chance came into our home. He has a pizazz unlike any pooch I have ever met. His energy is phenomenal, albeit annoying at times like when I want to sleep in on Saturday, but oh no! Puppy wants to play! He is a proud dog. He prances like he is in a showplace arena when we walk him down the street, and struts when the lady pups are nearby. (Sorry ladies, his heart belongs to a Boston Terrier named Ava).

He is also a protective pup, which bodes well for me when hubby is away. The neighbors affectionately refer to him as killer. People unknown to us will cross to the other side of the street to avoid his bark, and comment "he is going to be vicious when he grows up." Little do they know...

The vet estimates that Chance was a healthy five-year-old pup when we first adopted him, making him nearing six now, and is full size at 14 pounds. But do not be fooled, he is 14 pounds of lean muscle mass. We never feed him table scraps and have him on a regulated diet.

We give him treats for good behavior fairly regularly, but I wanted something special to mark the anniversary of the day that our furbaby came to his forever home; so I decided to bake!

A fellow Nesty shared this recipe with me from her blog, Does Not Cook Well With Others. She has a few other dog recipes on there that I am eager to try in the future, but for now I stuck to what we know Chance loves: peanut butter and carrots.


Peanut Butter Delight
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup shredded carrots
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray an 8-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray, or line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
3. Mix the flour and baking soda. Add the peanut butter, oil, carrots, vanilla, honey and egg; mix well. This will be a very STIFF dough.
4. Spread in cake pan or drop into cupcake liners.
5. Bake 8-inch cake for 40 minutes. Check pupcakes after 20 minutes.

I used a paw shaped pan for this special treat and left it uniced, but the original recipe recommends spreading low-fat cottage cheese and decorating with carrots. As Chance is a very tiny pup, he doesn't need those extra calories.

Happy Anniversary Chance!