The Most Important Post I’ve Ever Made: An Apology And A Plea

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!