Day 22199

We have a tendency to anthropomorphize our pets. That we give them human emotions comes from love. It’s part of our empathy toward animals.

Personally, I have a few questions for my dog. She is my sweetie and it would be nice to know if the dog food I give her really is filet mignon flavored. Even if she could talk, I wouldn’t be able to get a valid answer to that question. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to taste her food to determine its flavor. Nor am I willing to buy and prepare filet mignon so she has a baseline flavor to compare he food to.

Not only are beef prices high, but I would imagine that once she tastes the real stuff, she may be reluctant to eat her Pedigree food. Ah, who am I kidding? She eats pretty much what I put in front of her with a few exceptions, notably bananas.

I mix her dry food with pouches of wet food. The dry food is lamb and rice flavor. The wet food comes in three varieties in the 30-pouch box; filet mignon flavor, chicken vegetable flavor and beef, noodles and vegetable flavor. Notice that all of those varieties are marked only as flavors.

Looking at the ingredients, it is obvious that no one could call this food actual filet mignon. That doesn’t bother me, she likes pretty much every flavor the same, eating her meals with the same gusto no matter which flavor is used.

What amuses me most, though, is that the noodles in the one flavor are actually shaped like little bones. Why even bother doing that? She obviously doesn’t care and the shape isn’t fooling me into thinking there are actual bones in her food.

I suppose it all comes down to marketing. Dogs have no cash, credit cards or store credit in which to buy food. They have no job and therefore do not earn money. Besides, they can’t even drive a car.

So, obviously, the marketing is aimed at the humans that purchase these products. Still, I’m not sure noodles shaped like little bones makes me more likely to buy a product. Besides, you don’t even learn the shape of the noodles until you have already bought the product.

I know for a fact that if you really wanted to sell dog food to my sweetie, it would exactly like an egg or a piece of cheese. I guess the pet food makers don’t want to make dog food look too much like people food. Although, if I think about it, some of those gourmet dog food brands look a lot like some of the hash that I make for myself.

What a confusing world we live in.