Yesterday we celebrated Coco's 3 year anniversary with us. I can't believe it's been 3 years already. Coco was our first rescue kid after our sweet Remmy was laid to rest. You can read Coco's story here. Like with all of our kids, I often reflect back to their freedom ride. Their first few days here. The progress as each week passed. The exhale moment. The many times they've crept more and more out of their protective shell.
Each journey is unique.
We celebrated Coco's 3 year Anniversary, as we do with all of our kids, with his 2 absolute favorite indulgent treats...grilled cheese sandwich and mozzarella sticks. These 2 foods have a sentimental history of sorts.
I also made homemade blueberry cupcakes with a blueberry compote infused butter cream frosting...topped with one of our biscuits.
When we first adopted Coco, he wouldn't eat store-bought food. We tried everything. Long story short, we learned some pups never recover from being fed table scraps for an extended period of time. In Coco's case, he lived the first year of his life in a basement, confined to a crate. This is the point when he was rescued. At the facility where he resided prior to us adopting him, they fed him one brand of food. He could take it or leave it.
I imagine he ate as a last resort when he was hungry. Coco was underweight when we adopted him. I'm attributing this to the Giardia and dislike for store-bought food.
The doctor loaded us with information from a canine nutritionist including recipes for home-cooked meals. Lean meats, steamed or raw veggies, healthy starch. He loved his meals. We had one problem, though. We had a slew of medications to give to him. Some needed to be disguised. One day, for lunch, I made Lisa a grilled cheese sandwich. Lisa offered Coco a nibble. He gobbled it with gusto. Score! From that point on, a piece of a grilled cheese sandwich was our means of administering pills.
Since then, on occasion, when we make grilled cheese sandwiches, we put a few pieces in the kid's dinners. It's a huge hit!
The history behind his adoration for mozzarella sticks, to this day, gives us a chuckle. Coco was a picky eater back then. We could have left a plate of food on the floor, gone outside for 20 minutes, come back in and the plate of food would be untouched.
He's never been one to steal food when the Moms aren't looking.
About two years ago, Lisa had put her plate on the bottom shelf of the end table. We had eaten dinner on the sofa. Dinner and a movie date night. I had made mozzarella sticks. There were 2 left on her plate. When the movie was over, Lisa picked her plate up from the floor. She looked stumped.
"Was there 2 mozzarella sticks on the plate about a half-hour ago?"
"Yep."
We located Coco. On our bed. The 2 mozzarella sticks were on our pillows. He was stretched out against both pillows. Shortly after, we broke pieces off the mozzarella sticks. He gobbled 'em up. Since then, when I bake a batch, he gets one as a treat. Sophie and Lobo enjoy little nibbles as well.
Coco is awesome and we are blessed to have him a part of our family. He's come a long way and continues to amaze us each and every day.
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