Of Dog Food and Tax Time


Here's a photo of Freckles trying to take a nap in the sliver of sunlight that remains available this late in the year.  Oh, for a bit of sun to cure all our SAD.

All these years I have been feeding Freckles & Lucy the best of the best dog foods--meat as first ingredient, the least amount of fillers, a balance of canned foods along with dry kibble, the fewest gross ingredients, even organic when given the chance.  They certainly eat better than me and the wife. I did lots of research to find the best foods.  I read label after label of ingredients.  I special ordered things I couldn't find locally....

....but, after spending all that money on those vet bills this year--despite feeding them all that costly food--I've begun to question my sanity.  All that expensive, organic, high-quality dog food didn't seem to make them any healthier.  Here my dogs are eating caviar and all the other dogs on the planet are eating candy...guess who has the healthier dogs?  The owners with the dogs eating the "candy" food, that's who!

What is "candy" dog food, you ask? It's the cheap food you find in the grocery store--you know, the dog food most normal people give their dogs.

Could it be that--gasp!--the expensive dog food did little more besides make me poorer???

So, I gave in and purchased a bag of the "candy" food.  I figure  at this point it doesn't really matter and besides, they LOVE the candy food--what's not to love about eating candy? I eat candy.  I eat lots of candy.  It's not like Freckles is suddenly going to regain her eye sight or that Lucy is suddenly going to grow new teeth based on the quality of their food. They're old and deserve a little candy.  It's time to have some fun.

Don't panic--I'm mixing the candy food in with all that healthy, expensive food and I will continue to do so.  Even I can't live on candy alone.  I'll continue to give them that special prescription food that supposedly helps keep Lucy's teeth clean as well as the healthy, happy, wholesome food.

The only downside I've noticed is that they poop more.  I wasn't surprised by this, as many dog food reviews do indeed note that the better quality food leads to smaller, more compact, less frequent poop.  Of course, when one owns a Shih Tzu, it's not like giant poops are an issue.  I'm all good with a little more pooping.

As for the pending tax time, I've confirmed something I was hoping to be wrong about (apologies for the dangling participle).  Because we are in a civil union, we get to fill out our State tax forms as a couple--yeah!  I've waited a long time for that.  It rocks to be legal.  But, before we can enjoy the glory of being an officially civilized couple in the State, we first have to fill out the Federal forms "as if married" (that's the terminology the State uses) and then use the data from the "as if married" Federal forms to complete our State tax return on the "as if married" federal data. Meaning, the wife and I will each do our "as if married" federal taxes (separately but pretending not to be separate), then do our State Taxes together as if married, then each re-do our Federal taxes as single, as our "as if married" Federal forms are not legal. This hurts my head.  (Strangely enough, the State indicates that couples in civil unions cannot file electronically--they have to file the old fashioned way.  WTF?)  I can't say I'm looking forward to tax time--I can already hear the arguing:
Me:             "No! That's the State form! We need the Federal form."
The wife:    "Are we married or not on this form?"
Me:              "We're single."
The wife:     "Are you sure?"
Me:              "Of course I'm sure.  Is that the State or Federal form?"
The wife:     "It's the "as if married" form."
Me:               "Which is the Federal form on which we base the State form."
The wife:     "Yes."
Me:               "Then, we are single but we're acting as if married?"
The wife:    "If that's our real Federal forms, yes."
Me:              "Yes what?"
The wife:     "Yes, this is the real form which we are using to make the as if married form                            so we can base our State taxes on it."
Me:              "That's not the right form.  You've got the wrong form."
The wife:    "I've got the correct form.  You've got the wrong form."
Me:              "You know we can't file this on line."
The wife:     "Do we both have to file this or do we file one?"
Me:              "I don't know.  I just know we can't do it on line."

Thank goodness for tax-filing computer programs and for the wife being a math major. Start praying for us right now.

....hey, think all that expensive dog food is tax deductible?