At The End of January, I Realized that I Love My Dogs a Bit Too Much Every Day

Am I too late to say a happy new year? Of course, I am! We now step into the second week of February with 3rd level of PPKM. Covid sure really love our world don’t they? I hope you all stay safe and stay sane. If you have the possibility, please do get yourself a booster vaccine and complete the booster with a daily intake of vitamins and good food. You know good food makes us happy and happy people tend to have a better immune system. Anyway, last night I finished watching All of Us Are Dead. The idea of high school kids vs zombies turns out impressive for me, it reminds me of back in junior high school when a lot of people are possessed including my friend who sit next to me. I pray innocently to all the team but still, I have no idea what happened. Anyway, what are we up to this month?

1. As you can see from the title, yes we have dogs! Mario and Monika have been living with us and other cats for about 4 months now, and we can say that was life-changing! Taking care of dogs really is different with cats, they’re deeply attached to us and will only stay still if we’re not around. They can’t even play! Hence, we never leave them at home even for a night. If we need to, we will put them in the clinic where they are rescued, so they will see some familiar faces.
2. Mario and Monika (let me shorten to MaMon ya) belongs to a family back there. Unfortunately, the family has some internal issues, they neglected them both then gave up to the clinic. Their condition was okay, they have no issue with digestion and are physically fine. The only problem is their hair was fully matted while their skin are full of ticks and fleas. The vet spent almost two months to get rid of all of them and then let us adopt. Poor babies.
3. In the first two weeks, MaMon ate dry food. We bought them Hills i/d but I found them not have a great appetite for it. So I started to make homemade dog food and keep doing this till now. I love cooking their food, such a zen activity I enjoy doing every weekend. Most of the time I make my own recipe, I also see inspiration from famous homemade dog food sellers and some blogs. Fancy to peek at the recipe? Jump to @justinindyodirumah, I made reels.
4. Now let’s talk about our cats. We got an unexpected gift for new year’s eve. A kitten! This poor baby was only four months old and I don’t know how long he’s been living on the road between moving cars 💔 It was my friend who rescued him then asked our help to foster him. We named him Aish Ibrahim and surprise surprise, he’s the only cat that happens to be really close with the dog, especially Mario. They share the same bed, share the same food, and play along every day.
5. One of our older cats, Kiwi, now living outside the house. Every year, Kiwi will do this ritual, she will be a picky eater, attention seeker, and uncomfortable living inside the house even when outside, she’s just staying around the yard. Since Kiwi has fully vaccinated and as long as she’s healthy and wants to eat canned cat food, I can deal with this. Let’s see how long she’ll last.
6. My friend, have you ever made a bone broth? Ya? Did you find it challenging? At first, I made bone broth using the traditional method, I boiled some bones and meat for a looong long time. Sadly no one wants to drink the broth I don’t know why. Then I tried to change my bone broth world by buying Mito slow-cooker. I made chicken bone broth using chicken feet and oxtail bone and after being slow-cooked for 20 hours, finally the broth gets gelled! Wow! But again, sadly, no one wants that. They even hate it. I tried a little sip and OMG, it tastes awful! No wonder they’re rejected after one sniff. After days of contemplation, I tried once again. I swear if this fails again, I will no longer make a bone broth and throw away the slow-cooker! Click here to know how its end.
7. To make MaMon more social, we spent almost every weekend at COMO Park Kemang where every dog owner can unleash their dog and let them play along. We’ve been there about 4 times, nothing changes on MaMon. Mario is always fierce to other dogs and barks whenever they get close. The same attitude goes for Monika. They really can’t befriend dogs. Even Monika always go to people and ask for a lap. She’ll stay there ignoring everything including us. While the dogs enjoy their company, we can have ourselves a good meal. COMO is like a hang-out hub that fulfils wonderful vendors. My vegan-vegetarian fellas, please do try salad fusions in ROOTS. Their falafel was so so good! Pizza Place and Local Tacos also have the fanciest meal you can enjoy while chit chats with your gang or watching your dog.
8. Okay, enough about our furbabies. Let’s talk about other furbabies hahaha—still about the dog sorry. Weeks ago, my neighbours and I were taking care of a mom-dog and her four cubs. They’re strays and since some of our neighbours found the dogs were threatening, my neighbour came out with an idea and she made all the cubs adopted by her friends while the mom-dog now live in a shelter. I just witnessed how heartbreaking the life of a stray dog can be. Most of the people hate them, are afraid of them, want to get rid of them, some even thought of poisoning them with fake meatballs.
9. During January, I lost 2,5 kgs bodyweight. No, I’m not in a diet program. I lost my appetite quite much. I can’t finish my meal, most of the day I have no idea of what to eat and end up I don’t eat anything. I think this is a vegetarian seasonal struggle, I’m too bored to eat the usual meal like tempeh, tofu, pecel, salad, pasta, geprekan sambal, vegetables, I even feel nauseous while eating some vegan meal. I think I need to refresh my daily menu. I need something new, something unusual. I still working on it. Til this article was posted, the only meal I can finish was nasi goreng gila. Do you have any recommendations? The unusual meal? Or what do you do when you lost your appetite?