Pander To My Taste For Candor

Today, I've been preoccupied with Topaz's labored breathing. The poor darling makes the same face people do when we have headaches. Mostly, she stays upstairs in the attic, where it's warm and she has fresh water. At the moment, she's walking around on the counters in the kitchen like nothing's up. Yesterday, she curled up on my lap for a couple of hours, which she has never done, so things are up and down. Cross your fingers, Madame just has a cold.

So I made pizza for dinner and cut the kinds of corners busy people do. Stop & Shop sells inexpensive 12" whole wheat crusts, two crusts to a package. The crusts do not have much flavor. Think of them as blank canvases that won't kick your digestive tract's ass. I brush each with olive oil, then flavor with garlic, basil and whatever rocks my boat that day. The toppings: chopped spinach, a broccoli crown, half each of a red, orange and yellow pepper, 1-1/3 pieces of turkey sausage, 2/3 cup ricotta, salt, pepper, grated parmesan cheese. I forgot the diced tomato but didn't miss it. If you can operate a pairing knife, you can make this pizza for yourself and - and here's the key - it's actually good for you. If you're a vegetarian, leave off the sausage. Still good for you. You can eat it for breakfast without regrets.

In the meantime, I devoted my time to making special chicken stock for cats. Georg recommended gravy for dogs I've had zero luck finding, but suggestions are still welcome. With boiled chicken and special stock, I'm in grave danger of becoming the Mama Celeste of the cat world.