by Marty Brown
Northern News Services

NNSL (Mar 21/97) - Tucked away in the second aisle of the Borealis Kennels' shop, visitors make a grizzly discovery -- there are animal parts for sale here!

Huge sow ears, pig ears, pig tails, pig noses in different sizes, cow ears and hooves sit on the shelves.

Why are they here? Props for a play? Science experiments? Parts for satanic rituals? No, they're dog treats!

"I ordered them on a lark in the beginning of November," said owner Jo-Ann Cooper. "Now we're selling 300 pig ears a month and 500 porkettes, the bottom of pig ears."

But the chewy, gooey goodies don't stop there, no way.

There's dehydrated animal kidneys, lungs, hearts and livers. There's dried tracheotomy tubes for chewing on as well.

And dogs aren't the only pet to get titillating treats. Although not quite as grizzly, there are more treats -- gourmet and otherwise -- for pets of the feline persuasion.

There's grass. Yes, Kittycat Grass is an indoor lawn for cats who aren't allowed outside. Just add water to the plastic pot filled with soil and seeds and presto, green grass.

Or how about Kittyherbs: a nice assortment of barley, oats and wheat, grown fresh for your cat?

And then there's puperoni, processed raw hide pretzels, piggy puffs and more.

There's even gourmet sauce for dogs and cats who like their meals with that little something extra.

And yes, kitties can eat shrimp alfredo flavoured gravy on their dried food.

Dogs get a choice of roast turkey, rack of lamb or chicken teriyaki sauce.

The sauce comes in bottles, attractive enough for pet owners to mistake it for barbecue sauce. In fact, on more than one occasion humans have put it on steaks.

Also, there's Roll Over, which is a training treat that looks like salami. Dogs will do anything for Roll Over, said Cooper.

And apparently more than one husband has been fooled into eating Roll Over sandwiches with no harmful effects.

Is there no end to where pet owners will go to please their pets? What's next? "The stranger it is, the more I want to bring it in," said Cooper.

Next year maybe the store will see ravioli for rats, gumdrops for gnus or even salad for salamanders.