My Facebook friends and Twitter followers may have noticed some unusual activity lately. I appear to be baking copious quantities of biscuits in different shapes and sizes – hearts, squares, rounds, flowers and even…bones! What’s going on? Am I going slowly mad??
Well, perhaps I am!
You’ll know that I have a slight obsession with food – cooking and eating it. Regular readers will also know about Taffy – Riff Raff, Tiff Taff, Raffy, occasionally Fatty – the family Jack Russell. Well, a few Christmases ago I received a gift of a small box containing an assortment of three dog biscuit cutters and a (pretty useless) recipe book. I imagine it was a Secret Santa present, but I can’t remember. I found myself with a little time on my hands and opened the box. Out fell the small bone shape biscuit cutter… Hmmmm!
Two hours later the kitchen worktops were covered in freshly baked small bone shaped biscuits and Taffy couldn’t believe his luck!
Our first dog bone biscuits
“Are they really all for me Mum?” he asked through his soft big brown eyes, lifting one paw off the floor in such a cute beg, wagging his tail furiously and flopping one ear.
Taffy asking (begging!) so nicely
“You can’t possibly eat all of these Taffy…but maybe you’d like to share them with your doggie friends? What do you think??”
And so the idea was born…!
Since then the kitchen has been a hive of activity as I have experimented with various biscuit flavours. Sweet potato – bit chewy! Carrot – bit bland, Taffy didn’t seem overly keen! Chunky peanut butter – big hit, especially with the addition of a squishy banana for natural sweetness. Biscuits flavoured with caraway seeds seemed popular with Taffy too, inspired by the knowledge that dogs love aniseed. Parsley and mint biscuits were devoured and left him with a pleasant doggie breath. Wholewheat parsley and sesame seed crunchy bones didn’t last long!
Chunky Peanut Butter & Banana Oat Hearts
Caraway & Poppy Seed Crunchies
Minty Herb Squares
Parsley & Sesame Seed Dawg Bones
Chicken Liver & Parsley Bites
The latest recipe – chicken liver and parsley oat bites – left Taffy guarding the oven door while they baked, sending his nose into overdrive when they came out. Impatient for them to cool enough to sample them. Taking his job as chief taste tester very seriously indeed.
Taffy thinks the liver biscuits smell delicious
I couldn’t possibly give all these biscuits to Taffy, there were just too many, so little packets of ‘samples’ were shared around the neighbours’ dogs and taken to the stables to be distributed amongst the yard dogs. My taste testing circle was being slowly expanded. Quality assurance was paramount!
Samples for our Doggie Biscuit Taste Testers
Feedback from my research activity was favourable…perhaps this idea has legs after all!
But this business would need a name! What could it be? I thought it would be apt to mention the founder and company mascot – Taffy – in some shape or form and considered the Jumping Jacks Biscuit Company. It was catchy and most definitely Taffy through and through…but sadly it had already been trademarked. Other names came and went – Artisan Pet Biscuits, Pet Bakery, Doggie Bags – but none of them were quite right. The search continued. Each time a name contender emerged I discovered it was already taken or the domain name registered.
Eventually, it was my old friend Liz, from DesignHouse NorthWest who came up with the perfect name for my new business, after a very productive evening brainstorming session with her husband. It absolutely reflects who we are and what we do – a small business, producing homemade pet biscuits and baking them fresh in our oven, to be delivered straight from our kitchen direct to those of our future customers…
…The Little Pet Biscuit Company
Please follow our continuing story as we put the wheels in motion. We’re on Facebook – http://www.Facebook.com/LittlePetBiscuitCo and Twitter too – http://www.Twitter.com/PetBiscuit
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