"Seder Fare for Pets That Keep Kosher "

Tongues (and tails) were wagging recently when the New York Times came calling at barker & meowsky to discuss one of our favorite topics -- food!

While researching a story on kosher pet foods for the Business Section (April 9, 2009), they reached out to Food Expert, "Alice Lerman, who owns Barker & Meowsky, a Chicago pet store billed as "a paw firm," [who] said that Evanger's is also favored by non-Jews "who perceive kosher as being another group of checkpoints, so that the protein sources are maybe better checked than for non-kosher food." This, the article points out, is why Evanger's (like all other foods carried at barker & meowsky) was not affected by the 2007 pet food recall.

While talking about the benefits of finding high-quality foods, the reporter couldn't help to note that, "there is a certain kitsch factor, too."

"Ms. Lerman, who grew up in an Orthodox home and keeps kosher still, does a brisk buisness in quadruped Judaica in her store. She sells yarmulkes and tallits (prayer shaws) for dogs as well as plush toys by a company called Chewish Pets, including a bagel and a fish embroidered with the word "lox." The storesupplies such items, and Evanger's food, to increasingly popular Bark Mitzvahs, a cheeky canine rite of passage where, as documented in videos of the celebrations posted on YouTube, some guests utter a congratulatory "Muzzle Tov."


Muzzle Tov, indeed!