If Fido goes into a frenzy over fast food, you can always pick up a dog biscuit shaped like a cheeseburger at a drive-through window that caters to canines. When Maggie Patterson opened her Doggie-Drive-Thru in April, her idea was met with skepticism. ``People told me I was crazy,'' Patterson said Tuesday. ``But now that I'm open, they tell me it's the greatest idea since sliced bread.'' Now besides her homemade dog biscuits in the shapes of french fries and cheeseburgers, she's trying to develop a pizza-shaped biscuit and a ``diet'' puffed rice treat for the pooch with a paunch. She mixes and bakes the biscuits using her own recipe of minced garlic, wheat germ, margarine, eggs, cheddar cheese, molasses, dry milk and whole wheat flour. She works with a veterinarian and a hospital dietitian. When the owner drives up, Patterson asks the dog's name and then offers a sample. If the dog seems too shy or aggressive, she'll have the owner give it the treat. After telling her biscuits' ingredients and the prices (45 cents for a cheeseburger biscuit the size of a large cookie), she gets the owner to talk about the dog _ something she finds people love to do. ``Meanwhile, the dog is freaking out. He's getting all the attention and nobody but him is getting anything to eat,'' she said. Sometimes, owners take their dog through as a birthday surprise, and Patterson accommodates by taking the dog's picture as a memento. On a busy Saturday, she said as many as 100 cars pull up to her window. The 9-week-old business has created such a craze, Patterson said, she has received dozens of requests for franchises. Patterson, 33, said she owes the idea to her three dogs and their love of fast-food _ the people kind. ``I used to give them cheeseburgers when we'd go through McDonald's, but they started getting fat,'' she said of her Labrador, cocker spaniel and poodle. ``But every time they'd see those golden arches they'd still go crazy.''
