Published: March 21, 2007 10:28 am            

Droughts and recalls

The Great Peanut Butter Drought of 2007 may be almost over.

This weekend, I saw two shelves stocked with peanut butter at our local supercenter. Now, that’s not what we are used to seeing but it’s better than seeing just two jars of organic peanut butter and nothing else. At least there were jars of crunchy Jif. That was a good thing. And there were some other varieties. I guess it also made sense that the bottom two shelves had bread on them. You didn’t have to go to another part of the store to get that item for your pb&js.

I still wonder why other brands besides Peter Pan and Great Value got pulled from the shelves during the recent outbreak of possible salmonella poisoning from those two brands. And why it was so hard to find peanut butter around town for more than a month. But, I got more peanut butter so I’m covered for now.

That was Saturday, my day to do my weekly shopping — which includes buying dry and canned food for my feline companions. I bought the usual brand — Special Kitty in the bag and the beef and liver flavor in the cans.

All was well for myself and the cats — until later that day when I read about the pet food recall. That was quite a shock to see how many brands of pet food were made by the same company — from the expensive kinds to the low-priced ones. But still I felt sure Special Kitty wouldn’t be included. Horror of horrors! Special Kitty was among the brands recalled.

I went to my pantry and grabbed a bag of the dry food and a couple of cans so I could check the labels. Then I immediately went to the Web site listed and looked to see if my varieties were included. They weren’t, thank goodness, at least so far. We don’t do pouches of chunks and gravy. My kitties just don’t like that kind. They lick the gravy off and leave the little chunks in their dish. That’s why we do the cans of solid food.

Whew, what a relief! I hate to think I was killing my cats just by feeding them what they usually eat and trying to keep them happy. My kitties trust me to feed them and keep them healthy. And I trust the food manufacturer to make food that keeps my cats healthy, just like we all do. It’s sad when that trust is denied.

I understand the possible affected products have been pulled from store shelves. That’s a good thing. I just hope our local stores haven’t gone so far as to pull all the cat food and dog food products from the shelves just like in the peanut butter drought.

My cats need to eat on a regular basis and while I did buy more food for them before the January ice storm, just to be prepared, I don’t think I’m ready to not buy cat food for more than a month.

We shall see, come Saturday, how well my kitties will eat. I hope they eat well and remain healthy.

Contact Teresa Atkerson at family@mcalesternews.com.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.