The first time some information about grass fed, raw, locavore, super-premium-ultra-wonderful dog food crossed my desk I said, “Hmmm, I feel nothing about this, neither highs nor lows,” and so I put the information about Restoration Raw dogfood somewhere out of the way.
But when I heard of a second spot in Minneapolis selling ultra-super-beyond-the-beyond dog food, my reporter’s instincts revved up: Scoop Moskowitz Grumdahl, on the case!
Just the facts: Woody’s Pet Food Deli opened up near the corner of Xerxes Avenue and 50th Street in Edina on July 12th. They sell fresh, raw, ground up chicken, beef, duck, elk, Cornish game hens, lamb, pheasant, quail, rabbit, and turkey.
But why?
Molly, who answered the phone when I called, explained: “We are promoting a whole food diet for pets, the focus of our store is providing that whole food diet through cooked or raw meats.”
I immediately asked the big questions: “Quail? Seriously? Quail? Who feeds their dogs quail, besides the Tsarina of Russia in 1901?”
Actually, I didn’t ask that. She seemed too nice.
The answer seems to be that quail (which will set you back $5.80 for a pound) is meant as cat food. That actually makes sense to me, not the $5.80 part, but the quail-for-cats part. I always have thought it’s pretty hilarious to feed cats beef, because what are the chances of a tabby taking down a bull in the wild? Just lean back and picture it for a minute: that Fancy Feast spokescat batting away at a bull’s jugular. Anyhoo, I always figured it would probably be easy-peasy, and cheap, to raise mice to can and feed to cats, but no one did it because, well, who’s going to buy a can of mice?
My final thought: I wonder if whole, ground up pheasant makes good stock? Anyone who tries this, please, write in! Because if three of you do it, I’m pretty sure I can sell it as a trend story to the New York Times.
Woody’s Pet Food Deli
3008 West 50th St., Minneapolis
612-208-0335
woodyspetdeli.com
