Bright Nights, Not So Big City

Took the kiddos to Bright Nights right here in the ole hometown of Springfield, MA. I hadn't been since Danielle was about 2 or 3 years old. If you aren't from these parts, BN is in Forest Park... a HUGE park. You drive through and the whole place is decked out in all these lights and there is a magical forest for the kids to walk through and then you get to see Santa and have your picture taken. Its miles long and everyone drives with their parking lights on and snapping photos of the cool dinosaurs or Whoville or Toyland. Its really cool and if you go this early in the season (shutup - its early until it hits the 20s) you don't have to wait in line on Sumner Avenue for 3 hours.

JP and Seth freaking LOVED it!!! Danielle complained and Autumn was actually fun. I think she made it through the "everything is stupid and gay" phase of teenagery. Danielle has slammed into that wall and boy she is a real hoot at times. Ah well, a few more years and I'll have her back. They do lose it at 11 though don't they?? Everyone says teenagers are hard, but I gotta go with the 11 and 12 year mark. Horrible years. Horrible.

Oh. My. God. I'll have two at the same time won't I? Maybe its easier with boys. Someone out there lie to me please? Ugh.

I pissed off the owner of Dave's Soda and Pet City. I can't prove it was him, but a few folks have emailed me stating that it was him. It's kind of funny. Almost as funny as the idea of a store that seels only soda and pet food I guess. Oh, and pets. Used to sell puppies from puppy mills too. Great, reputable business right?

I was on the pet forum on Masslive* and folks were talking about gas and dog food. Someone mentioned his food (he engineered his own dog food line - which actually could be pretty cool if he left out the chemicals and corn and various forms of rice) and I had read the labels when I got Clancy. I'm always looking to save a buck and his food is cheaper than what I buy. But the reason its cheaper is simple: it doesn't have the same quality of ingredients. First ingredient was chicken meal (fine) but the next four were rice and corn products. Fillers. Things that have lots of carbs and little nutritional benefit. They make your dog feel really full and then they poop it out. Well, I said that and Woo Hoooo was he pissed! You can check it out in the archives... it started with post 7747.

Here's what I said:

Dave's food is mostly fillers. I would read the ingredients pretty carefully and
consider switching. I know its supposed to be great and stop gas, but
not sure how reliable that is?

Someone posted this:

Are you sure? Not only does dave's food stop the gas, the ingredient label (and my
dogs health) leads me to believe it is not mostly filler. Indeed the
label is quite simlar to some premium foods - canidae (sp?) for one.
Jenn - why do you say it is mostly filler? Perhaps the formula changed
or you are referring to one of his other formulas? I am speaking only
of the "Simply The Best" type. Would love to know. Thanks.

So I went back and posted that if they were happy with it and their dog was healthy, then kudos.

I looked up the ingredients online to see if maybe I was cracking up and it was actually the greatest dog food ever. Well, it isn't. In the meantime, Dave had posted this (yes a middle-aged, very successful business man with a chain of stores had nothing better to do than piss off an entire forum of his own customers... NICE!):

davepetcity: daves food-jenncurran is...hi, daves is not mostly fillers. it is extremely digestible made with a
huge amount of low ash chicken meal and egg. It and 13 other high
quality foods were sent out to a lab to make sure it could back up the
claim "more digestible than just about any other dry food". you really
should feed a little less, it is so digestible. And most importantly
don't listen to so called experts like jenncurran who have no clue what
they are talking about. the gas will clear up in a few days as the
system gets used to the food. Please don't give the dog treats,
(actually, try baby carrots). the treats or table scraps can screw up
any food.

Not one to be tossed aside and take shit from an asshole, I did what anyone would do.

I copied and pasted the ingredient list and then copied and pasted the ingredients from Wellness Core (excellent kibble, Clancy loves it). It was astounding:

INGREDIENTS
LIST:

Dave's Food: Chicken Meal, Rice Flour, Egg Product, Potato Product,
Ground Corn, Rice Bran, Brewers Rice, Chicken Fat (Preserved with
Natural Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E)), Fish Meal, Brewers Dried Yeast,
Natural Flavor, Flax Seed Meal, Calcium Carbonate, Lecithin, Fish Oil... (there are lots of words after this point that have about nine syllables. For fairness sake, I linked to the site for those with inquiring minds.)

WELLNESS CORE: Deboned Turkey,
Deboned Chicken, Turkey Meal, Chicken Meal, Potatoes, Dried Ground
Potato, Tomato Pomace, Natural Chicken Flavor, Canola Oil, Chicken
Liver, Salmon Oil, Flaxseed, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Kale, Broccoli,
Spinach, Parsley, Apples, Blueberries, Vitamins & Minerals, Chicory
Root Extract, Yucca Schidigera Extract, Glucosamine Hydrochloride,
Chondroitin Sulfate, Dried Lactobacillus plantarum, Enterococcus
faecium, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus acidophilus Fermentation
Products, Rosemary Extract. (this is it. Please note the lack of CORN AND FILLERS)

The next day he posted an apology. I had already cut my Dave's card up by then. I posted to him that I was a loyal customer for the past year. I spent on average $75 per month there since bringing Clancy home. I even said that his food wasn't CRAP that it was better than Purina (the absolute worst thing you can feed any animal is the stuff you find in grocery stores - unless it comes from the butcher shop that is!). So, he lost a few customers and gained NONE.

What a jerk.

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