Angel and Mai Toy
Angel and Itt
Angel is a pit bull and (we think) Rhodesian ridgeback mix who absolutely adores squeaky toys. As sweet as she is, she’s no wilting wallflower of a dog. She’s a rough, tough tomboy who will rip almost every toy to shreds in a matter of minutes.
Not surprisingly, we don’t let her have those rubbery playthings for fear that she’ll swallow the pieces. That is, except for “Itt.”
About five winters ago Angel found a toy buried in the snow at the dog park. She was over-joyed with her treasure and, as no-one else was around to lay claim to it, brought the toy home.
We called Angel’s plaything Itt, in honor of Uncle Itt from the old Addams Family TV show and Itt has been Angel’s favorite toy ever since. She is incredibly gentle with Itt and extremely protective. When she’s not loving Itt we keep him on the mantle where no-one else can reach him and risk destroying him.
Anyway, I’m telling you this because Angel and Itt were the inspiration for the Mai Toy dogtail recipe in The BARKtender’s Guide, which I’m sharing with you here. I used a stand-in for Itt in the book. Not only is Itt looking rather ragged these days, but I just wasn’t sure whether Angel would be happy about her precious possession being used as a glamour model of sorts.
What you need:
- 1 cup frozen chopped seedless watermelon
- ½ cup low fat plain yogurt
- ¼ cup pure pumpkin (NOT pie filling)
- 1 tsp carob powder
- 1 tsp rice syrup (optional)
- watermelon slices or blueberry stick for garnish
What to do:
- put all the ingredients in a blender, except the garnish
- add 6 – 8 ice cubes and blend ’til slushy
- pour into dogtail dishes (Fido’s fave bowl)
- for the blueberry stick, thread fresh berries on a rawhide strip
By the way, if you haven’t already figured it out, the name of the drink is a spoof on the popular rum cocktail, the Mai Tai,