saved by mr. chewy.

Want to know what really sucks? When one of the only kinds of food that your dog isn't allergic to has a massive nationwide recall juuuust after you received a 30-pound shipment of it that was special-ordered. AHHH. California Naturals, get it together!!

I spent most of Saturday researching different kinds of limited-ingredient high-quality dog food in the hope that there might be something out there that Claire could eat in place of California Naturals. Hope (and patience) was fading so I went to a local pet boutique to discuss the situation with them. They suggested Natural Balance - which is actually what I fed Claire for awhile when she was a puppy, though not the limited ingredient line. Unfortunately, they didn't have any in stock, but they said they could order it for me. The problem was that I needed to find something to give her immediately since I only had 30 pounds of potentially contaminated dog food sitting in my kitchen. The boutique did have a medium-quality brand available that would suffice in the meantime (which is basically like taking someone to Uno's while waiting for a table to open up at Lou Malnati's - but hey, it's better than the options at Pizza Hut).

As I drove home, I called my pals at Mr. Chewy's, which is where I had ordered the recalled food from. I have never had such an amazing experience with customer service before. I had the most wonderful representative in the history of customer service (her name was Andrea, so if you call to place an order, you must request her assistance). I explained my situation and she was so understanding. I listed Claire's many allergies and asked her opinion on the best food to try, and Andrea also suggested Natural Balance. She helped me place the order, gave me a discount, and fully refunded the cost of the bag of California Naturals. Oh, and my order arrived today, making Mr. Chewy the fastest delivering company in history. And hey, they did not ask me to post this or compensate me in any way for this informal review of their services. I'm telling y'all about this because I was stressing out and they were a HUGE help for me and my sweet special-needs pup, so take it for what it's worth!

I am going to try giving Claire the Natural Balance tomorrow morning, so I'll let you know how she likes it! She can hardly stand to be picky with the few options out there, but she obviously doesn't realize that - nor does she care! ;)

Also, I sincerely hope that all of your pets are okay and didn't get sick on any food made by the Evo company before the recall.