Cucumber Dill Soup

I’m still here, a little discombobulated after a few days of stress and trying to figure things out. Things have been a bit chaotic since Skipper, a lost/abandoned rat terrier, walked into our garage last Friday night looking for help. And he’s still very content here.

And loves spending time with hubby on the couch.

But the last few days have been stressful as we’ve been learning about his health challenges and trying to make the best decisions. Last week I discovered that Skipper has an insatiable thirst and constant need to pee. He should be able to hold it for 4-6 hours from everything I’ve been reading, but this poor guy often needs to go multiple times an hour and usually large amounts that create large wall-to-wall puddles for me to clean up many times last week while hubby was out-of-town. It was just a little stressful cleaning up while scrambling to make it to work on time.

I took him to the vet on Friday and learned he has diabetes after urine and stool tests, a genetic kind that can show up in older dogs and is incurable. It can be managed with a high fiber diet and insulin shots two times a day, which isn’t cheap and can take awhile to dial in the proper insulin dosage to stabilize him. I also learned he’s at least 12-years-old and has pretty serious cataracts affecting his vision, probably from the diabetes, and an irregular heartbeat. All this news has been pretty heartbreaking because hubby and I are stuck making some tough decisions on how to proceed. I’ve been researching dog diabetes a lot and a little overwhelmed at all the information and treatment options, yikes! Our situation is more complicated since Skipper’s diabetes has not been managed by his previous owners for who knows how long and he has some resulting health issues such as the cataracts and weak leg muscles. We’re suspecting the poor guy was abandoned because of his health issues now. Again, it’s heartbreaking since he’s such a sweet and otherwise happy dog.

Because he has to pee so much, he’s been sleeping in the backyard at night which has been working out fine the last few nights, he’s been quiet and happy to see us in the morning and the weather has been perfect. But last night he started barking around 2:30am. I got up and got him to quiet down before disturbing our neighbors, but it happened again around 3:30am and again at 4:30am making for a crappy nights sleep for me. He didn’t seem to understand that we have a perfectionist neighbor with a new baby in the house.

We have some tough choices to make in the near future and it’s already been tough and draining. I hope to talk to the vet again tomorrow about the insulin options and the costs involved, it could be worth it if we could get the urgent peeing under control and him sleeping inside before the winter because barking all night in the backyard is not an option. Any advice from dog owners with dog diabetes experience would be greatly appreciated, this is new grounds for me! And advice on dealing with the night barking too please. :-)

On a lighter note, hubby and I did step out for dinner last night for a late anniversary celebration at The Chef’s Table which is always a unique experience for me. They have a small rotating menu that the chefs prepare in the center for a small dining room, you can either sit at the bar and watch the chefs in action, or one of the tables around the bar. Usually there isn’t a lot of vegan friendly options on the menu, but they never have a problem preparing a custom vegan dish for me. I usually tell them to surprise me, I’m not picky as long as it’s vegan. Last night’s dish did not disappoint – a citrus brown rice dish with purple and orange carrots, grilled portobello strips, pretty local tomatoes, onions, and greens.

The citrus rice was divine, a flavor combo I’ve never tried, but must create my own version now!

Today I needed to go grocery shopping, but didn’t since I was a little tired and cranky with plenty of catch up chores to get to. So I raided the garden for a white cucumber and mint leaves to try a new raw soup recipe perfect for the August heat.

The ingredients are simple to toss into a blender container.

I left the texture a little chunky to enjoy the fresh mint leaves almost like a chutney soup.

The dill and mint flavors come together nicely in this crisp soup and celebrate hot summer nights because despite the Halloween decorations already showing up in stores – it is still summer!

And nothing says summer to me like cool dill and mint flavors. The cucumber adds a crisp freshness while the hemp seeds add a slight creaminess for a hearty soup.