Beech Tree News Network

I have insomnia—often—and usually after a day of strenuous physical labor.  We painted our barn this week, and my carpal tunnel kept me awake, long into the a.m. hours.  When my body is too tired to move, but my mind is still racing, I use the time to think about life’s really important questions, which have taken a back seat to urgent issues that tend to push their way to the front during day-to-day living.
One of the questions I’ve asked repeatedly, but have never gotten a satisfactory answer to, from anyone is: Why don’t they make dog food taste like cat food?  The question came up again this week when I stopped by my neighbor’s house to feed their dog, Tess, while they were on vacation.  My neighbors also have a cat, and both feed bowls were on the back deck.  I stopped by in the mornings, filled both bowls then stopped back by in the afternoons to make sure everything was going alright—I love dogs, and Tess is a beautiful Golden Retriever who loves to play, and the interaction is therapy for me.  Inevitably, the cat food bowl would be licked clean, but Tess’s food would still be topped out in her bowl.  When I talked to my neighbor, she suggested putting the cat’s bowl on the deck table.  I did.  Tess was deterred, the cat was happy, and both bowls were empty when I checked back.
I have watched this phenomenon of dogs preferring cat food play out my entire life—or at least, since they’ve been making dry versions of pet foods.  And it doesn’t have to be expensive cat food, either.  You can put out any old generic form for your cat, and a dog will come from two farms away to get a taste of it.  I feed my cat, Figaro, in the sun room, and if I leave the door ajar, my two Beagles will bypass their Beneful brand in order to gulp down Figaro’s Special Kittty—one of the least expensive cat foods on the market.
You might think the whole thing is a power play; after all, dogs and cats are natural enemies.  They’ve fought and chased each other and taken things from one another since the beginning of time—just check out the YouTube videos. That’s not the whole story, though, and I have the scientific evidence to back me up.  I’ve conducted my own blind taste test, putting side-by-side bowls of both feeds out for my dogs.  The cat food wins every time.  You can even use one of those fancy brands of dog food, like Blue Buffalo, which has real meat—no by-products—and the cat food will still disappear first. 
 I’ve posed this question to my husband, Garey, and he always gives me the same answer.
“There’s more protein in cat food,” he says, “and dogs love protein, but that much protein isn’t good for a dog.”
 “That’s not what I asked,” I always say, “I asked, why can’t they make dog food TASTE like cat food/”
 I’ve even googled the question, and you know what, there’s no viable answer on the internet, either, just a lot of speculation, like my husband’s.  One person answered they just feed cat food to their dogs, because cat food is cheaper.  Another said they noticed when the raccoons showed up at night, they would raid the cat’s bowl and leave the dog food just sitting there (Yahooanswers.com).  It would probably be the same with bears, coyotes and pole cats.
 I wish I knew how to formulate dog food, and I would create my own brand.  I’d call it “Dog Fight.”  The byline would announce, “Tastes just like cat food.”  I’d make a gazillion dollars.