Our foray into making home-cooked dog food began with a vile odor in the middle of the night.

It got real bad, real fast, so my husband turned on the light in the bedroom to reveal that our dog (really, my husband’s sister’s dog, who we care for while she is on the mainland) was having a gastrointestinal episode evocative of “The Exorcist.”

The gross, smelly situation would have been less disgusting if the dog didn’t sleep on the bed.

One post-midnight laundry session and another Linda-Blair-level crisis later, Tonks was snoozing — on the floor this time — and my husband and I were exhausted but racking our brains for ways to ease his intestinal misery.

We took him to the animal hospital down the road, where the vet reassured us nothing was seriously wrong and prescribed some medication to calm Tonks’ gut down.

We also asked my husband’s sister, who recommended a recipe she feeds Tonks whenever she is home: a mixture of plain boiled chicken breast, plain rice and a bit of chicken stock to enhance the appeal.

Whatever works, we thought, and so we gave it a try. We were nervous, though, because in his advancing age Tonks has become pickier and pickier with what he eats.

We’ve thrown a lot of money at various kinds of special food, only to have Tonks down it one day and refuse to eat it the next. Even fare he did like became unacceptable after a week or two, and we would have to look for something else to keep him nourished.

While I’ve tried to not be “that” kind of dog caretaker — one who caters to the animal’s every illogical whim — I also hated to see him reject food, knowing that if he didn’t eat he’d have to wait until the next day.

If he turned down what we tried to feed him, it also intensified his begging later on, which added to the risk that he would get into something that would cause another round of gastric distress.

Luckily for us, Tonks loved the chicken-rice-broth combination. He enjoyed it so much that even after his gut issues got better, we kept him on the diet. My husband and I figured it was more economical and that we, the humans, could benefit by splitting the chicken between us and the dog.

Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. And it gets better: After noticing that Tonks was getting leaner (he’s large, but not fat), I looked up homemade dog-food recipes to figure out how we could get more nutrients into him.

As I stirred up a new combination, this one featuring ground poultry, rice and vegetables, I said aloud: “You know, if Tonks doesn’t like it we could eat this stuff.”

I guess I am “that” kind of dog auntie after all.

“She Speaks” is a column by women writers of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Reach Celia Downes at cdownes@staradvertiser.com.