Benoni's 5th Birthday

Yesterday, June 10th, was Benoni’s 5th birthday. Well, we think he’s 5 years old. We can’t be sure since when we adopted him (see his story in "The Benoni Challenge" post), we were told that his teeth suggested he was about 1 ½ years old. We also don’t know the real day that Benoni was born. At first we just celebrated his “Gotcha” day on October 27th but Benny informed us that it wasn’t fair for him to only get one special day when everyone else gets a birthday AND an anniversary. So just like we chose Benny, we chose a special day to be his birthday.

June 10th was my grandfather’s birthday. My grandfather was the only relative I’ve ever had who truly loved me and didn’t abuse me. So I shared my grandfather's birthday with Benny. My husband took my grandfather’s Hebrew name, Isaac, when he converted to Judaism. I love to find ways to honor my grandfather.

Anyway, back to Benny’s birthday yesterday. Every year since he rescued us, we have gotten him a cake (usually something we could all eat), decorations and of course, presents. We have a stuffed birthday cake dog toy that plays the “Happy Birthday” music (which was Poochie’s and has been passed down) and we take tons of pictures. Benny adamantly refuses to wear the birthday hats so Daddy is usually the only one in the pictures wearing one.

When we became vegetarians, nothing in our birthday tradition changed. We were still able to buy a cake anywhere – Benny prefers ice cream cakes. Since becoming vegan, our options were more limited but there are many vegan bakeries in the city so that wasn’t a problem either. This year, however, we are away upstate (while we look for a new place to live) and our options are even more limited. There are NO veg-friendly restaurants here so I have to cook every meal, every single day.

There is a wonderful store, Nature’s Pantry, which has almost everything a vegan could need. They actually have a huge selection of items, including Daiya, although they can be pretty pricey. Nature’s Pantry is where I discovered Liz Lovely Cookies – gluten-free, vegan and so delicious!! Cowboy Cookies are my favorite. The ShopRite supermarket has two aisles of “natural” items which were completely devoid of people in an otherwise crowded store. They have a great selection of frozen foods, whole grains, nut butters, cleaning products, vitamins, etc. – it’s like a mini-Whole Foods. Still, between the 2 stores, neither had any cakes or cupcakes. We didn’t want to order anything online because we couldn’t be sure where we would be at any given time or whether it would be delivered on time.

We stopped into a pet shop called Pet Supplies "Plus" to get Benny some extra presents (because you can never have too many presents) and lo and behold, they had a “barkery” filled with doggie cookies and pastries made by The Lazy Dog Cookie Co., Inc. Amy Augustine, a vegetarian with a degree in Biology, created human-grade treats for dogs that are nutritious and corn, wheat and soy-free. In 2007, they created Pup-Pies, 10-slice themed pies topped with freeze-dried fruits, nuts and vegetables.

The selection of Pup-Pies includes Old-Fashioned Apple, Organic Harvest Pumpkin Spice, Organic Island Carob Coconut, Deep-Dish Pizza, Vanilla Mint Julep, Banana Nut Brownie, Chunky Peanut Butter Cinnamon, Happy Birthday and more. Each pie is organic and vegetarian; several are vegan. And Benny, who is very picky and doesn’t like many treats, enjoyed his Happy Birthday Pup-Pie very much!!

So now we had our birthday cake, the decorations (no party hats), music and lots of presents (including a stuffed chipmunk that Benny has been asking for). The last pieces were the candle – a big “5” that I used at another party when Poochie turned 5 years old in 1997 and the “Happy Birthday” scarf she wore. Now these tokens were passed down to her little brother for his 5th birthday.

It was a very special day and by the end, Benny was one exhausted party animal. He is already planning for his 4th “Benniversary” in October. At least we know where we’ll get the cake! Woof!

Note: Tom and I made a disturbing mistake. When we bought the Happy Birthday Pup-Pie, we read the ingredients and thought it was vegan. Later that night, we were reading the box again and noticed that the topping ingredients were printed in a much smaller font we hadn't seen before and that the topping contained yogurt. Needless to say, we were very upset that we had bought a vegetarian and not vegan cake. Had we seen that ingredient, we would have chosen a different pie as there are vegan Pup-Pies. We know it was a mistake on our part but we still feel horrible about it.