Dog Ranting & Hemp Curry Dressing

TGIF! I’m seriously ready for a little down time after the last few weeks and weekends being so packed with work, training and lots of little stuff in between. But I’m not looking forward to the house and yard work catch up we need to get to. There’s nothing worse than feeling like I’m running myself into the ground trying to keep the house work under control, work, work out and get in a little fun time and still feel like the house is going to hell. That pretty much describes the last couple of weeks with our dishwasher deciding to stop working last night and hubby having to turn the kitchen upside down ripping it apart. And we’re still baby sitting my dad’s large dog while he’s on a month long cruise. While I thought the job would be a cake walk, turns out I may have bit off a little more. The last few days, she’s been having intestinal issues, which is common for older dogs I guess. But I’ve been having to let her out in the middle of the night, multiple times in the morning before work and sometimes getting treated cleanup when I get home. I’ve already had my share of crap this week!

And who knows what caused it, the dog eats just about anything she comes across. On a walk the other night, she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and crunches away on something. After inspecting the slime trail and broken shell bits, I realized she  just ate a snail – fresh escargot anyone? I had to stop her from eating a large beetle the next night. My dog is such a picky eater that I’d forgotten bigger dogs can be really stupid about what they’ll consume! But this experience is reminding me to appreciate my cute, little, low-maintenance dog!

I love taking the dogs for her evening walks, but hate running into problematic, unleashed larger dogs during them. I’ve had at least  eight incidents in the last two years of being charged or chased by neighbors unleashed, out-of-control dogs. I usually have to pick my dog up, run and hope for the best. I had another incident with a neighbor last night that left me feeling a little haunted. She has a large German Shepard/great dane looking dog that is very aggressive. I first met this dog when it was unleashed and came charging after me and my dog on our street a few months ago. I had to pick my dog up and hold her above my head while I dashed to my front porch while this thing was jumping high enough to nip my elbows and very obviously wanted to make a meal out of my dog. The woman ran over to grab it, but was hardly able to get it under control not being in great shape and handicap. When she finally did, she just curtly apologized and left like she couldn’t get away from me fast enough – very awkward. Since then, I’ve had to shift and re-route evening walks to avoid crossing paths with her because that dog goes crazy every time it sees another dog.

Last night, I stepped out side with both my dog and my dad’s for a walk and she was returning from a walk across the street. We caught each other by surprise and her monster dog went completely nuts at the sight of my two dogs, absolutely crazy. She was struggling to hold onto the leash, but I could tell that wouldn’t last long and raced my dogs back into my house. As I was slamming the front door shut, her dog actually knocked her to the ground with a loud thud and broke away tearing towards my house. I got inside okay with my dogs, but didn’t go back out to help her which I kind of feel bad about. But I didn’t know how that dog would react, if it would attack  me for trying to help and/or stress her out more. I’m no Cesar Millan and that dog was ready to eat me and my little dog at our last encounter. Still I feel maybe I chickened out and should have ran back out. Am I a bad person? But why have a dog so huge and powerful when she can’t handle it? That’s a huge lawsuit waiting to happen and I really don’t enjoy feeling terrified to walk my dog. Sigh, thanks for enduring my dog rant. :-)

Moving on, I am a pretty big fan of curry and could easily have it multiple times a week. Which is exactly what I’ve been doing this week trying a new Indian buffet for lunch Monday with great vegan, curry bean dishes and making plenty of it at home. I was also reminded of it’s anti-inflammatory benefits at the women’s health event I went to Tuesday night. Last night I was craving a big salad and something creamy and curry for dinner. But I still wanted it to be high in protein and veggies, so I threw together a new dressing in the Vita-Mix.

Maybe it doesn’t look that appealing here because after I created it, I mixed with chopped romaine lettuce, avocado, cilantro and cauliflower. Not one of my best salads, but there’s plenty of good stuff in the dressing that you can’t see!

It was perfect for my mood, something creamy, but light and pretty quick to make after such a draining day. It could also work well as a dip, wrap sauce or added to food processed veggie blends.