Friends – the first word and accompanying pic in this post should tell you this is anything but a normal TFD moment.
In 5 years of writing my blog, I have never broken character as The Food Dictator, but today – for the first time – I write as myself, Jonathan Hirshon.
I apologize for not yet posting the planned recipe series of medieval dishes for you – but late Thursday night, my beloved therapy dog, Fenris the Basset Hound, badly injured his back.
The post I just made on Facebook is as follows:
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😔 It’s been a very long and incredibly stressful 72 hours.
Late Thursday night, I heard Fenris screaming from the other room, where he was dragging his back legs and in excruciating pain. We think he was trying to jump up on the couch when he did something terrible to his back.
This is one of the 2 worst-case scenarios a basset hound owner can face – and when it happens not just to your beloved pet but your actual PTSD therapy dog, I am sad to say I handled it poorly. Hysterical, crying, the whole 9 yards.
My wife was a champion, helping him to his bed and organizing triage with his breeders.
The next day, tons of driving all over the Bay Area and beyond. You don’t know the true meaning of stress until you try to get an immobile and agonized 65-pound, 5-foot long dog out of your apartment and in/out of the car – several times.
I drove him 90 minutes down to Cupertino to visit his normal chiropractor where he received infrared light therapy, then an hour back home to SF (less traffic), then stayed in the car with him for 2 hours while my wife got our things ready before I drove 3 hours to Davis (horrific traffic).
Davis has the country’s best vet school and if my dog was getting operated on, it was going to be there.
Now back home, he’s drugged out after a serious medical session, plus acupuncture and Chinese herbal treatment.
We will be going back to Davis frequently (at least once a week for a month is my guess) and I’m very hopeful he will regain full use of his hind legs.
In the meantime, I’m an emotional wreck, but will do my best to stay calm and focused around him.
My beloved wife was amazing – and Fenris WILL rise like a phoenix in due time!
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This has been an unexpectedly severe financial drain for our family and the emotional toll is FAR worse.
I have kept TFD free of subscription costs for the entirety of its run, only asking for voluntary donations to cover the $700/month costs of the blog – and sadly, few have stepped up.
Today, I am asking with the greatest humbleness and pressing need – if you have enjoyed this blog, the rich history and unmatched thousands of recipes I’ve created for your eating pleasure, a donation at this time would mean the world to me.
Just click the big red ‘Donate Now’ button on the top right of the page – ANY amount, even $1 would be gratefully accepted and I hope you see fit to help my dog in his pressing hour of need.
Thank you for your understanding, your support and your enjoyment of my blog – this will perhaps be the only time I will ever have the opportunity to thank you as myself as opposed to the TFD persona.
Know that writing TFD is my great joy and I am honored to have all of you as readers and appreciators of my recipes and creative exposition.
Thank you for your support – I mean this from the bottom of my heart!
My cat, Bouhaki (“Divine Ruler of the House”) sends her greetings and most puissant wishes for Fenris’ swift and complete recovery.
We have only today discovered your extraordinary website, after beseeching the gods of Google-fu for a recipe for Slippery Chicken.
All the best to you and yours, Generalissimo! We salute you!
Citizen Diana (and first pet Bouhaki!)- thank you so much for both your best wishes and kind words, they truly mean a great deal to me!!!
i have been wondering how your dear fenris is doing…hoping he is much improved—or better, fully recovered—and that your whole family is happy and well as a result.
Thank you SO MUCH for asking after him! He’s vastly improved, 90%+ back to normal but still some back pain that hopefully will be resolved with additional treatments. 🙂
Let me write first as a friend and wish your Frenris complete recovery and you freedom from stress. I donated the first time today and will do so again. Sometimes, the actor has to step from behind the mask. A mask, by the way that I really enjoy and can relate to. Isn’t every person a food dictator in her own kitchen?
It is in that regard that I need your help. I have made several versions of caponata. The first recipe with 1 teaspoon of hot red pepper, the second with 1 Tablespoon hot red pepper flakes–half of what the recipe calls for.
Where the recipe says “21/2 Tablespoons of hot red pepper flakes” that, I believe, is a typo and should be 21/2 teaspoons. I tried it with 1 Tablespoon and it was super hot though edible. Any more would have done violence to the dish.
That said, a problem has come up accessing your recipes online, Your site includes a tip jar and videos but no place to type in a recipe name. I am probably missing something as so often happens. I’ll try Facebook instead. But it would be good to be able to go to a specific site and search unmediated. Let me know your thoughts when you can.
With every good wish, Citizen Gail
Citizen Gail – first off, thank you so much for the kind words, they truly mean EVERYTHING to me! There is indeed a search box on the site – look on the right hand side of the screen on a desktop computer or at the bottom of the screen on a mobile device. There is a Google search bar where you can type in any term and if it exists on the site, the page will show up in the results!
Hope that helps and thank you again for your kindness! 😀