Dear Tzviling,

Last year my husband and I decided to keep kosher and our rabbi helped us make the transition to a kosher kitchen. It was a new experience for both of us, but we got used to it.

We get our meat and chicken from a local kosher butcher, and surprisingly we often find questions in the chickens.

Sometimes parts of the chicken appear to be broken with dark spots.

Our rabbi made it quite clear that anytime we encounter questions, we should bring the chicken to him for rabbinic clarification. Many times the chicken ends up being kosher; but sometimes the rabbi rules it treif (unkosher).

I recently learned that treif meat is given to the dogs as a reward for not barking when the Jews left Egypt.