Please Don't Feed the Daisy: Living, Loving, and Losing Weight with the World's Hungriest Dog by Beverly West and Jason Bergund


Posted on Jul 9, 2009
By Julia Szabo

REVIEW by Julia Szabo

Hyperion, 2009
208 pages
$22.99

The title of this tome, a creative hybrid of memoir and cookbook, deliberately references two famous books that got the big-screen treatment: Please Don't Eat the Daisies, the Doris Day classic, and the phenomenal Marley and Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog.

Daisy is a fraction of Marley's size, but she'll steal his thunder any day, not to mention his lunch.  A mini Chihuahua with a monster appetite, Daisy starts out as a two-pound pup, grows unto an eight-pound adult, then balloons to a staggering- and very unhealthy- 14.5 pounds.  West and her husband/co-author Jason Bergund reveal how their love affair developed after bringing home Daisy and later Daisy's beau, a Pug pup named Elvis.  Their book details Daisy's serious weight problem, which becomes a health emergency when it puts crippling pressure on the dog's tiny, overtaxed joints.

 The couple learns life-saving lessons from their dog's ordeal with food abuse.  After routinely making and eating sinful comfort food according to "Bev's Culinarytherapy" recipes, West and Bergund vow to slim down in tandem with Daisy by preparing healthy, home-cooked meals that humans and K9s may share.  Along the way, the pages are seasoned with sweet nothings about puppy love - the human and canine kind.

The book that begins with a recipe for "Go the Extra Mile Gratin" (this calls for 3/4 stick of butter) ends with a "Happily-Ever-After Maintenance Plan" including "The Bottomless Quiche", a butter-free blend of cheddar, ham and steamed broccoli.  If a slender physique is your goal for yourself and your dog, that's a happy ending indeed.

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