2 days ago it was Cuddles' birthday! We've been buying her birthday cakes for many years and always from the same doggy bakery. 

Hahahaha. Cuddles hates Petals. It sort of reflects my relationship with my sister at times. LOL

I really hope there are many many more cakes that I can buy every year because the reality is my dog is old! She's been with me since I was 12. We've started her on her yearly blood screening and she is great!

Cuddles is the sweetest dog I know. When you are angry or upset she will look for you to see if you're ok! She'll jump up and scratch you till you give her eye contact and them mesmerize you with her puppy dog eyes that you simply can't resist and it literally melts the anger you have away. It's so amazing!! 

How to resist this face?!?!

My sis and I considered making her a therapy dog, those that you can bring into old folk's home or hospitals for the patients to interact with them however, we never really had the time to do so. Besides our public transport systems are not dog friendly so taxis will be really costly!

I would be really sad if Cuddles died and she almost did while eating her cake......

When I was cutting the cake I felt that it was quite hard so I thought okay maybe the knife sucks, y'know those plastic ones that don't really cut well? I also thought maybe the cake was a little hard due to refrigeration. I cut a small piece for her and my sister said I cut very small and that normally she would cut a much bigger piece (about a quarter of the cake).

The dogs started eating the cakes and about 10seconds later, Cuddles suddenly lengthened her neck and just fell onto her side. It was like time froze as she fell, her arms even crossed when she was recumbent on her side. 

I FELT SO SHOCKED!!!

I couldn't help myself but panic and exclaim OMG in a very high pitch and I immediately ran towards her and the vet tech in me just kind of took over and I pulled her up and placed her in between my legs and sorta flung her forward to try to dislodge the cake. 

The whole time I was really freaked out and I had to calm myself down all in the same second. I placed her back onto the floor after 2 swings and she started walking around. You could hear her wheezing with a lot of effort and trying to regurgitate. After about 1-2 minutes, which felt like an eternity, she vomitted out the 'cake'. ( I did not attempt to open her mouth and remove the obstruction because her muzzel is very short and I was afraid I'd make things worse.)

When I picked up the vomit, the cake was not of sponge cake consistency. For many years it had been like a cake we could buy from Four Leaves or Star Bucks, just cream sponge cake made for dogs. This time round the cake was smaller but heavier, you know why? Because the 'cake' was like bread. Stale bread. I think she couldn't chew the cake much and try to swallow it. You really can't fault a dog for trying to swallow something that could potentially kill it.

She managed to regurgitate 2 pieces of the cake and they are much bigger and thicker than a 50cent coin. This was the size I had cut so it goes to show that the cake was really hard to chew and previously the cakes we bought from the same bakery were way softer and could be chewed. I know cos I ate it before to sample the taste.

They felt very dense and I really regretted giving her the cake. It'd be a total irony if she died from eating a cake celebrating the day she was given life.

During the whole ordeal I had a billion thoughts in my head and I felt fear that I never felt before. I'm really glad it's over now and there's nothing wrong with her. My sis made a call to the management and they've agreed to give a refund. We have the whole scene on video but I think it's very traumatizing to watch her collapse the way she did. So I don't think I will post it online. I will not name the company but just make sure when you buy a sponge cake it really is a sponge cake and not some dense cake/scone type of cake.

So in the end I decided to bake her biscuits. I don't think I will ever return to that place to buy any more things because it's really traumatizing to see your dog suffer so much from a piece of cake.

How to prepare:

1. Boil carrots and potatoes till soft and mash them.

2. Beat the egg and combined with flour and olive oil using a wooden spoon.       

  3. Add the mashed carrots and potatoes when cooled down and mix.

4. Roll out the dough and  cut out the hearts or any shape you like.

5. (I didn't preheat) Bake at 180 Degrees for 10 mins if you want them chewy and 17 mins if you want them hard.

*You may modify bake time according to size of your biscuits*

Makes about 100-120 of the hearts.

May freeze batter or already baked biscuits to keep them for a longer time!

Original recipe from here. They used peanut butter instead.

I don't have smaller cookie cutters so I made sure I broke the biscuits into halves before I fed them to Cuddles.