For the Animals

Honest note: no ads, no Amazon affiliate. Affiliate and referral links are always marked. Full disclosure.

This house runs on the say-so of one allergy-prone pit bull and two opinionated cats, so this page is exactly what keeps Remy, Finn, and Callie fed, comfortable, and entertained. None of it is a wish list or a sponsor’s idea; it’s our actual autoship and the toys that survived. A few of these are affiliate links through my Chewy storefront, marked as such, and adopting or fostering when you can beats anything you’ll buy here.

Shop it all in one place: my Chewy storefront. That’s the affiliate link that sends a little back to the blog (and on to FurKids). The individual products below link straight to Chewy so you can see exactly what we use; if you want the purchase to support KaraCooks, start from the storefront.

Remy’s food — Merrick chicken-free

Remy came to us in 2024 with a coat full of itch and a gut full of opinions, and chicken turned out to be his trigger. This beef-and-sweet-potato, grain-free, chicken-free formula is the one that finally calmed his skin down, and it’s the anchor of his whole routine. Big bag, because he’s a big boy.

Where to buy: Merrick Real Beef + Sweet Potato Grain-Free Chicken-Free Adult Dry (30-lb) (on Chewy)

Remy’s skin & gut — the supplement trio

The three things that keep the itch and the digestion in check. The omega-3 salmon chew is for his skin and coat (he’s convinced it’s a treat, which makes my life easier); the probiotic was our vet’s suggestion and steadied his stomach; and the pill wrap is the unsung hero, because Remy’s smart enough to spit out a bare tablet, so this is how anything medicinal actually gets eaten.

Where to buy:

(None of this is veterinary advice; it’s just what works for one itchy, beloved pittie. Your vet knows your dog; I only know mine.)

Remy’s treats — dental every night, blueberry for high days

Everyday dental chews, kept simple with the sweet-potato ones; big-dog size, good teeth, and one predictable moment of joy at bedtime. The petite blueberry ones are the special-occasion treat that made it past our chicken-free label check: birthdays, vet-visit recovery, and shameless bribery.

Where to buy:

Remy in the truck — the RuffRover back-seat extender

The single best thing we bought for road trips, and the one non-Chewy item on this page. The hard bottom gives Remy a stable, flat platform across the whole back seat, and the day it went in the truck was the day he stopped getting carsick. If your dog turns green on the highway, start here. (Linked straight to the folks who make it.)

Where to buy: RuffRover 2.0 Hard Bottom Back Seat Extender (+ free dog bed), direct

Remy’s one surviving toy — KONG Cozie Ali the Alligator

Remy is a professional de-stuffer; most plush toys last about an afternoon. The gator is the lone survivor: he’s had it long enough that it’s mostly stuffing-free and gone completely limp, but it still looks like a gator and he still hauls it around like treasure. If your dog is also a demolition expert, my honest advice is to buy the survivor in multiples and skip the graveyard of everything else. Comes in a couple sizes; we run the bigger one.

Where to buy: KONG Cozie Ali the Alligator · other size (on Chewy)

The cats’ food — Royal Canin

Finn (orange, tabby, runs on pure chaos) and Callie (torbie, my Garden Manager, runs the household) are particular little tyrants, and Royal Canin is one of the few things they both signed off on without a standoff, which in a two-cat house is basically a peace treaty. The appetite-control formula is for the one of ours who’d inhale the whole bowl and then ask, wounded, for seconds.

Where to buy:

The cats’ contraband — Churu, the Big Dill, and a tower

Three things the cats would list themselves if they could type. Churu is the actual currency in this house (the lickable tubes, one box of tuna and one of chicken); veteran move, wait for the big 120-count boxes to go on sale a couple times a year and stock up. The Big Dill is a crunchy pickle toy that was a Christmas gift from Uncle Dave and Aunt Barb and such a hit I had to buy a second one because they kept fighting over the first. And the cat tree owns the living room: sixty-one inches of prime real estate, Callie on surveillance up top, Finn napping on the middle.

Where to buy:

For the colony cats & fosters

Not every cat we help lives with us. This is the workhorse stuff I ship to the folks doing the hard, unglamorous work of caring for community cats: Ari’s TNR colony, and family keeping their own strays fed elsewhere. It’s bulk, it’s cheap, and it vanishes fast, which is the whole point. If you feed ferals or foster, you already know the math; if you’re looking for a way to help without taking one in, funding the people who feed and TNR is its own kind of rescue.

Where to buy:

Where I’d rather you spend a dollar — FurKids

If this page nudges you toward anything, let it be this: the best money in the pet world isn’t spent on stuff, it’s spent on the rescues doing the work. FurKids is our local one here in metro Atlanta, and they’re where our donation dollars and our leftover-gear go before Goodwill ever gets a look.

Where to give: FurKids