Cool For Canines
Ice cream has really gone to the dogs.
Want some ice cream? Forget chocolate, strawberry and
chocolate-chip cookie dough. Try the chicken-flavored variety. Or
the beef and honey. And it's too bad you didn't know about
Kimberly Cohen's creations this past October, when the flavor
of the month was pumpkin (no, not pumpkin pie).
But Ben & Jerry's need not panic. Even if public tastes
change, Cohen isn't aiming to please our taste buds.
She's going for man's best friend's stomach. Cohen owns
Pink Belly, a Gainesville, Florida, company that manufactures,
sells and distributes Pink Belly Ice Pups, an ice cream for dogs,
to stores nationwide. She also operates Pink Belly Café, an
eatery for dogs.
Pink Belly's story began one day in the summer of 1999, when
Cohen was fretting about taking her Yorkshire terrier for a walk.
"The majority of Lucy's fur is black, and she attracts
heat like nobody's business," says Cohen, 28. "I
thought, 'Wouldn't it be great if we could go out for ice
cream?' " Because Cohen knew preservative-crammed ice
cream isn't good for dogs, she resolved to make something Lucy
could eat. Cohen asked her vet for a list of dog-friendly
ingredients and came up with a recipe that includes nonfat yogurt
and chicken. "I put it all together, and I had my first batch
of Cocka-poodle-do," she says. "Lucy loved it."
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So, what does chicken-flavored ice cream taste like?
"It's kind of bland; there's no salt or sugar,"
says Cohen. "There's really no way to describe it. I guess
you just have to say, 'It tastes like chicken.' "
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