I used Iams for over 17 years - then the dogs didn't seem to do so well on it any more. So 1.5 years ago I switched to Nutro dry kibble. In the month or so before the wet food recall, I noticed my dog's coats weren't as nice, they vomited on/off yellow frothy stuff, and they avoided eating it until the last moment before we went to bed. Sometimes I had to encourage them with people food on it. These are dogs that are 12, have always willingly ate dry kibble, live indoors with us, and never over eat. The vet and I attributed it to hunting dogs doing what they like to do on our long daily walks (we live in the middle of nowhere, where there are many tasty temptations on the trails). Then around the first part of March, one of mine had violent seizures for the first time in her life at age 12. There is a family history; her brother has mild seizures 2-3 times year. so mild we don't medicate for them; and I know they can spring up at any age, so truly that is the most likely answer. However, that day I stopped feeding the Nutro, and began home cooking cold turkey. That strange vomiting with both dogs ended that day (despite the fact I thought switching to such a rich home cooked diet would cause some upset). Coats sleeked back up in short order. Please knock on wood for us, but no seizures yet (I still am reluctant to connect that to the food, because of the dog family history, but need to put it out there because I do think there is something less than fatal in this food that was at the least causing the vomiting/tummy upsets. My girl had a cluster of 6 in less than 24 hours, and it took days before she was "normal", ie pacing for hours, some vision issues, couldn't sleep, wobbly legs, etc.) It was a nightmare. Then I heard about the wet food recall. I thought I was a food snob. I did ask questions, but 1) how can I know if I am not told truthful answers re QC and ingredient issues, and 2) frankly, accidents like a bad batch of X can happen - to both pet and human grade food. I don't know what to think now, except that if commercial wet food has issues with rat poison, plastics poison, god-knows-what-else is still in it that is causing problems less than death in it, too much Vitamin D (the Royal Canin lawsuit, which btw, I had tried the cat food years ago and it was simply awesome at the time, but still, they screwed up)... well, I can guarantee that as a home cooker, I can be more careful than that. I am just lucky that I can make the time to home cook - what a burden that would be in other circumstances for a lot of people. The cat would be harder to do a good home job with; so I am trying Felidae dry kibble. P.S. The store and Nutro were very stand up about taking our returned sacks of dry kibble for full credit.

Funny this thread should surface now...we finally took the long-awaited "family photo" last Friday! I had them do a group photo of all of us, one of all 4 boys, then 1 of the 2 DSSs and 1 of our 2 DSs. I even ordered a 5 X 7 of DSSs for BM! I cannot imagine DH would ever go for a photo of us and our 2 DSs w/o the DSSs. I would feel guilty even for suggesting it. Planning is still a nightmare, even more so, as you may have seen from my recent posts. Just trying to get the picture in was a struggle, giving that BM kept changing when she wanted DSSs back from T'giving visitation (which by Ct. order was to last 'til Sunday but got cut short on Friday, another story!) DH is coming around to doing things like taking trips w/o the SKs but he is only willing to do that if it is unavoidable. That is the best I think I'm going to get. Also, for the question of why was DH checking DSS's e-mail. He was checking it b/c, suddenly a boy who has been nothing but talkative, outgoing and happy-go-lucky his entire life was quiet, withdrawn and like he was in pain the whole time he was around us. We feared he might be using drugs or involved in some other destructive behavior. I have always thought that good, caring parents keep tabs on their children in ways like that in times like that. I don't think 13 year-olds have an expectation of privacy when it comes to things like that. I would much rather find out if something is going on and have him upset that we snooped than remain in the dark and accept his blanket response of "nothing" every time he is asked what is wrong. I bet every parent of a child who has committed suicide has wished they had snooped a little more (recognizing that sometimes it would not have made a difference, but sometimes it might have.) I say that as an adult who attempted suicide as a teenager almost 30 years ago. I certainly wish my parents had paid more attention to what I was doing and how I was acting and had investigated it more. I thank God that I wasn't successful. I think DH did the right thing, and I will do the same thing with my DSs if the situation warrants it. I am no expert on this, but I do feel strongly that it was the right thing. However, I would be interested in hearing other opinions.

Well, looks like we have one consumer that wasn't buffaloed by the personal attacks, and more remarkably, she had the guts to stand up for her right to know about any risks. Paulines, Bill Vincents, and a few others seem to like to proclaim each others crediblity on this issue. How convenient. Paulines, I wouldn't put myself in the same leauge as Bill, he no doubt is a very talented tile guy, but doens't know much about radiation or granite. Like you, he has a reputation to uphold, and like you he participated in the installation of a lot of granite over the years. Opposition to this testing effort is all about the money and loss of reputation. After all, what expert wants the public to find out that they really didn't know everything about what they were selling or installing? Paulines want to whine about baselines, but measurements are measurements. The simple fact is that today I was measuring a slab that averaged around 5 mR/hr and had hot spots over 10 mR/hr. Think about that, a chest xray is around 20 mR... two hours on a hot spot or four hours just using the kitchen countertop gives you the same exposure. There is a difference though, the chest X ray is used to protect your health, there is public good in exchange for the exposure. A hot granite countertop is not any prettier than a low level one of the same type. Where is the benefit? And Paulines, Dr. Llope and I stay in touch constantly either through email or the rad forum I got him hooked on. The guy has become a friend of mine and I can tell you that people like you, Kevin, Bill, and Sue are the ones that made him stop contributing. He won't likely come back till comments like your side makes on a constant basis are stopped. Bill, I still see you as misguided, but basically a decent man on the wrong side from lack of information. Problem is is that you refuse to consider any info but what fits your world view, so there is no help for it. Split hairs if you must, but installing and selling isn't much different. I'm not knocking you for what you didn't know before, but from last year on, you should have educated yourself on the issues instead of spending the time and effort to try to squash the discussion. Bill, Geiger counters are go/no go devices. They won't give you a extremely accurate reading because of the inefficiencies of the small units, but they are designed to be portable and fast. Designed for the aftermath of a nuclear war, testing food and water for safety didn't require exact levels, just good or bad. That is what they can do for the fabricator. The EPA stance is not up for interpetation. Prior to mid May, they said not to worry about radiation or radon from a granite countertop. Now they say they don't really know, that some granite can have high levels, that if you have a granite countertop, you ought to test your home for Radon. That is not a 180 but it is a 150 degree turn. Once Dr. Llope gets done testing and publishing, the other 30 degee turn will happen. NORM regulations are in 33 states, from 5 uR/hr to 30 uR/hr, and I can take any fool that still wants to debate to a slab yard and find two dozen granite types that will be higher than the highest state NORM level. Lisagraz, thank you for having the courage to stand up to the bullies. There are plenty of safe granites out there, I have reported on some on both here and stone sites, but the other side doesn't dare admit that or they would lose their only effective weapon against the testing effort, using personal attacks to attempt to destroy the messanger. You see that Revans1 and I are way closer on the facts than the others, but he can't admit it or the others will stop listening to him as well. The facts are that somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of all granites are a problem. Revans1 gets this, spent time educating himself on the issues, and is now on the opposite side he was last year. It is a wonder the others haven't attacked him more than they have already. arda, will you ever understand that that cartoon is about electomagnetic radiation not ionizing radiation? Electromagnetic has not been proven dangerous, a small fringe thinks so, but it hasen't been proven. But today I worked cutting samples from a top that was 40 times background radiation, and BEIR VII said that even background radiation caused some cancers. It is open and shut on that issue. Luvmyguys, it isn't a mess to the stoners, they want this to be a mess. They will continue to smear anyone that dares mention the issue and post distortions along with their personal attacks. It is the only weapon they have cause the facts are against them. Bill, again microwaves are not ionizing radiation. Saying that they equate to ionizing radiation from a granite countertop is just plain ignorant. And as always, your argument is that it is too expensive to make sure granite is safe, better to let the consumers take the risk than the stone shops lose a few bucks. And some quarries are testing now, and some importers. All the chinese importers brag about their class A granite rating. Really, does anyone that has read the posts believe that one side of this debate is not only endangering consumers for personal gain, but has resorted to personal attack and outright lies despite haveing seen data to the contrary? And don't think for a minute that when this thread is gone that will be the end of it. People will continue to ask questions, are you going to riducle all of them?

If you test the Kashmir white, which I did also, make sure you test an oil like vegetable oil on it. I was close to getting it because it seemed to pass all my food tests until someone suggested the oil. It turned into a sponge. I could see it from the edge of the sample and it soaked at least 1/4-1/2 inch deep into the stone. It did not "disappear" on its own as some suggested it might. I can't imagine if a knife with some butter still on it was placed on the counter, a little salad dressing splashed or spilled, etc. Can you see any kind of frying around the stove? It did not take very long to stain from it. Sue