23 Mar Water
Years ago my father-in-law told me that water would become a precious resource – I thought he was a bit mad. Let’s face it, the stuff falls out of the sky. Turns out he was absolutely correct. Most of us still take it for granted but it has become a contentious and precious resource. In fact it has been predicted that one day war will break out over water!
Monday (the dog) always has access to clean fresh water.
Ideally, the dog’s water should be changed every day, I find that hard to achieve and think every couple days should be OK. It’s easy to waste precious water. I try only filling the bowl ½ full during the cooler months, when Monday isn’t drinking a great deal. When the weather is hot she needs loads of water to re-hydrate that great big 45kg body. I keep a jug of filtered water in the fridge and top up her bowl every time I notice it needs a top up. She loves drinking it as it pours out of the jug.
I really don’t like plastic bowls for water or food, we use a good quality stainless steel bowl for her food – it’s super easy to keep clean and won’t leach any nasty chemicals into her food.
Outside we use a heavy ceramic bowl for her water, it’s on our deck which can be a bit windy and the weight makes sure it doesn’t blow off the deck. Bonus is that the water doesn’t tend to heat up when the sun catches it in the afternoon.
We always carry water and a small stainless steel bowl when we take her out in the car. The water container is also stainless steel, it can get blisteringly hot in the car and plastic bottles can leach harmful toxins such as BPA when they heat up. There is heaps of research to show that BPA can cause serious health effects.
Plus I worry about the mountains of disposable plastic bottles that make their way to the landfill each week. A stainless steel bottle can seem like a bit of an investment but they last for years.
I’ve also heard good reports on Binchotan Charcoal which is made in Japan by burning oak branches at high temperatures – it’s purported to be the highest quality charcoal for water purification. If you don’t have a water filter, pop a stick into your water container, hey presto purified water!