You can imagine how well my dog, DJ, eats. Not only does he get to test out new products and give his bark of approval, but he enjoys a varied diet fit for a canine Hollywood action star. There is nothing he lacks.

Or so I thought until our afternoon walk today. When we walked past the school, DJ lunged in a fit of fury into a pile of leaves. He burrowed his head deep into the golden mound of foliage and popped out with what I can only assume was a gnarly grey-hued piece of a well-aged sandwich, really well-aged.

As for me, a self-proclaimed healthy dog food guru, I stood by and watched with great interest I may add, as DJ devoured the lunch-bag debris. 

"This is as natural as it gets," I thought, knowing that dogs are what they call scavenger-carnivores, (unlike felines which are pure carnivores). As my late Great Aunt Tessie, may she rest in peace, would say, "A little garbage builds the immunity system." (She lived until 103 and ate anything that didn't talk back.)

Like Great Aunt Tess, The Lord created the canine with a cast-iron stomach, one that has a pH level of acid 9-12 times that of ours. In fact, if you would dip your hand into that bubbling cauldron of a stomach, you'd get a scalding second degree burn. A dog's stomach can digest almost anything because they are part scavenger. Accept it, embrace it.

So don't feel guilty if you feed him the odd table scrap or that unidentifiable sandwich remnant buried under a pile of leaves. After all, it's part of a well-balanced diet for the scavenger in all our dogs.