        My name is Kathy Cochran and I do Sheltie Rescue in Longwood, Florida. I thought you might be interested to know about our little Rescued Sheltie named Hope that has been eating your food for about 2 months now.
      Hope is a 16 yr. old Sheltie that was thrown out of a moving car. She has basically lost one eye due to head trauma and is dying of kidney failure.....at least that's what my Vet (of over 10 years) told me last December.
      A good friend of mine, Kathleen Prince, introduced me to your food after a store recently opened up here in our area (Louise's Pet Connection in Lake Mary, Florida). I immediately went up and purchased 4 of the 10 lb. bags (we have 8 Shelties). I put Hope on the food right away and after only about a week, noticed that I wasn't having to do Sub-Q fluids as often as I had been. She had more energy, wasn't drinking as much water and just seemed to be more alert than we had ever seen her (we just rescued her last July).
      After almost a month on the food, I took her back up to our Vet and had her kidney levels re-checked.  There are 3 tests performed to determine kidney function in a dog (BUN, Creatinine and Phosphorus).
      Please keep in mind (according to Dr. Marrinson at the Longwood Vet Clinic) that the BUN levels in kidney tests are "not" the most important factor when determining kidney function. BUN levels can change according to what a dog eats, the time the dog eats, etc. The Creatinine test IS the MOST important test in determining kidney function and Kidneys do NOT repair themselves.

Normal kidney function levels should be:
BUN = less than 30
Creatinine = 2
Phosphorus = low, normal, high ratio

Hope's Before Steve's Real Food, 12/2003:
BUN: 79 (failure)
Creatinine: 2.25 (failure)
Phosphorus: high ratio (failure)

After approx. 1 month on Steve's, 4/ 2004:
BUN: 107 (failure)
Creatinine: 1.5 (normal)
Phosphorus: normal ration (normal)

Her Creatinine and Phosphorus have virtually returned to normal!!!!!!!! The dog is coming out of kidney failure and my Vet wanted to know if I was doing anything different than I had been over the past few months. I simply told him that I am now feeding her Steve's Real Food .... all natural. That is the ONLY thing I have done different for her.
I just wanted to say a BIG thank you to all of you. This little girl deserves every bit of happiness that we can give her. Her life has been miserable for a very long time and I firmly believe that without your food, her life would be MUCH shorter. She had been given less than 6 months to live in December of 2003. It's now the middle of May, 2004 and she going strong.