Fido is a gourmet, I guess

l was passing by the pet supplies aisle in a big-box type store recently when I overheard a young couple breaking into a fit of the giggles. The sentence I could make out (horrible eavesdropper that I am) was something like, “So, do we get the beef or the chicken Florentine?”

I assume they were talking about two varieties of pet food, and if they were, then that is pretty giggle-worthy. If I’m not mistaken, “Florentine” means something served with spinach. Why it should be a pet food flavor is beyond me. Now, I am aware that our furry friends, especially dogs, need balanced diets just as much as people do. But why put a fancy title on "pet food with vegetable flavoring?"

I can’t imagine a dog that would actually care if its food had been florentined or not. The dog attitude toward food tends to be along the lines of, "More, please." A cat might try spinach, but whenever I’ve seen a cat eat greens, the results always involved cleaning the carpets.

And then there's the part I try not to think about - how do the pet food people even test that kind of product? How would you really *know* the food tastes like chicken Florentine? Ew. It's probably all an attempt at making pet owners feel good about themselves for buying the food. Or some kind of weird campaign for food-snob pets. You never know.