Don't know about you, but this unseasonably warm weather is making me crazy. Gotta stay cool, seek shelter, stay hydrated - as should your pet. While I don't want to sound alarmist, I can't help thinking back to an unfortunate incident a couple years ago about my neighbor, Teddy (not his real name). So he's walking his English bulldog, Winston, on a hot muggy day like today, just like he's done a thousand times before. Still, it's not great weather to say the least for a snub-nosed bulldog. After less than ten minutes of walking, Winston drops dead from dehydration.

Truly heart-breaking, but - and I'm not a told-you-so type of guy, completely avoidable. Firstly, never ever walk a snub-nosed dog in the heat. They grunt and snort, huff and puff in the best of times, but take them out in 30 degree heat and they're shvitzing and gasping for air. 

Had Winston been on a raw diet, he would've been hydrated to the max. That dry kibble stuff, parched of moisture was ultimately what led to his untimely death. Understand this - a raw diet has a moisture content of 70% plus, while a so-called premium kibble might be 10%. Moisture content essentially means the percentage of water in the food, and always, the more the better considering that a mammalian body is 70% water. So it's no coincidence that meat has just about the same moisture content as the body. On a raw diet, your dog or cat remains completely hydrated.

Think about it - if you're already a raw-feeder you've noticed that your dog or cat hardly ever drinks water. He doesn't need to since he draws it from the food. Consider this: cats were originally a desert mammal and derived almost all of their moisture from the prey they consumed. And while this wasn't the case for wild canines, they too absorbed most of their moisture from the carcasses they fed on.

The upshot to all this is that a raw diet is by far and away the best food for your pet during these days of belated summer, in fact, it can even save their lives. Think of Winston, think of life.