My Ongoing Food Conundrum

Anyone who knows me has probably noticed the ongoing struggle that I have with my diet and food in general.  I don't mean the eating junk food vs. eating healthy battle, but a more complex set of intertwined dilemmas what I am eating, where it is coming from, how much fossil fuel was used to get that food to me, how much am I spending on produce (probably 75% of my grocery purchases), can I sometimes eat meat and feel okay about that or not, and a lot of that comes down to "which is worse, item A or item B."  Ethics, compassion, environmental awareness, and my persistent desire to want to try every type of ingredient in the world.  Which is unfortunately obstructed my ethical beliefs and continually evolving relationship I have with what I want to eat, what I choose to eat, and what I sometimes secretly eat and feel like a horrible hypocrite about eating.  (Please to ask me to elaborate about that at this time... because I won't.  That's a different topic for another day.)

Another issue is how I choose to identify myself based upon my dietary choices.  Currently my self designated label is: ethical omnivore who eats mostly vegan.

Why?  Well, my philosophical beliefs combined with what I will admit is a slight lean towards selfish, hedonistic enjoyment of food determines "what I would eat, if everyone I would eat was available to me."  Example:  Eating humanely hunted wild game is more ethically sound than eating CAFO beef or factory farmed chicken.  The amount of suffering the animal endures in it's lifetime is the determining factor for me.  However, I have little to no access to obtaining wild game so I pretty much stick to beans, nuts, whole grains, etc. as protein sources.

Here are a few photos of meals I've prepared over the last week.  I'm a bit disappointed that I forgot to photograph the beet, caramelized onion & kale vegan quesadillas I made because they were out of this world amazing.  Next time!

Broccoli, onion, & sriracha vegan quesadillas (make with pepperjack Daiya "cheese").

 Vegan root veggies & wilted kale with Organic Seeduction bread from Whole Foods.

(Topped with sriracha and nutritional yeast, which is my mostly discovered food love.)

 Two muchrooms, two tomatoes, & a quarter green bell pepper quickly sauteed with a dash of olive oil, drizzle of balsamic, and sriracha.

Topped with raw sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast and a handful of bruised Italian parsley.

(Would have been better with added white beans, but alas my pantry is lacking.)

The Tale of Four Testicles, Part One (and Recap)

This should probably be the third installment of the saga of how having two intact male dogs in a small house isn't much fun, but I had hoped the situation wouldn't develop into a several days long epic.

Lola Lulu (black dog) meeting Valentine (red dog).

Summary of events, thus far:

- Two days ago I rescued an elderly purebred Hungarian Vizsla from the Pima county shelter.  Yes, I forgot to ask if he was neutered (entirely my fault)... I was distracted by his severely atrophied right rear hip and leg.  He was old, very sweet, and could only walk on three legs, so of course I took him home and named him Valentine.

- Initial introductions in the yard with all four dogs went smoothly.  Foxtrot (my foster English pointer, a 7 year old intact male) got kinda stiff & stared at him, but I intervened and he let it go... until we got into the house and he jumped Valentine.  Thankfully he was just being nasty/threatening (read: loud and snarly, but didn't bite down or break skin), but the dogs were separated which meant Foxtrot went into his crate in the bedroom.

Foxtrot meeting Valentine; notice the fully upright, tense tail and stiff posture. 

- To set the stage for these events, I live in a small one bedroom cottage style house.  In Arizona we call them "casitas."  There are no doors to separate the rooms, with the exception of the bathroom.  The only other doors belonging to the closet, the kitchen (leads to the backyard), and the living room (leads to the outside world).  Other than using crates/kennels there isn't any way to keep the dogs separated except outside in the yard (which is separated into two yards if you shut the gate).  Valentine FREAKS OUT in a crate: panting, drooling, trying to "dig" out of it, and he actually got his lower jaw stuck between the bars and I had to help him get un-stuck before he hurt himself.

- I tried reintroducing them in the yard twice yesterday (without my two dogs) and the first went very poorly, while the second was not too bad.

- Overnight Valentine has free reign of the living room and kitchen.  I use the sofa to block off my bedroom doorway (my dogs can easily jump over, but Valentine can't) and I'll let Foxtrot get up on the bed (with a slip lead on, so he doesn't bolt over the sofa and pounce on Valentine) to cuddle before bed.  He is still sleeping in his crate overnight.

- The daily routine involves rotating the dogs in and out of the house (which does mean either putting Valentine in the back yard by himself and giving Foxtrot house/front yard freedom or putting Valentine temporarily in a crate so that I can let Foxtrot out into the yard.

Just typing this all up is exhausting...

Fast forward to this morning:  Valentine is in the backyard, Lola & Gatsby are in the front yard and I brought Foxtrot out on a slip lead.  He didn't posture or behave nastily toward Valentine at the fence, so I opened the gate.  Foxtrot mostly ignored him and paid complete attention to me (being somewhat of a nuisance, but I'm letting that slide for now).  Only the smallest incident occurred when Valentine sniffed Foxtrot's rear and Foxtrot stiffened up & whipped his head around... I said his name and he swung his head back around toward me, relaxed instantly, and I praised him.  He then happily followed me into the house and I shut the door behind us, wanting to end this "exercise" on a good note.  We also had some cuddle time on the couch and he got to hang out with me in the kitchen while I got breakfast started, before he went back into his crate and I let the other dogs into the house.

Babysteps!

We'll try again this afternoon and see how that goes.  Foxtrot's intense bond with me is working toward a positive end.  His choice is basically between getting love & attention from me or fighting with Valentine and this morning he chose positive attention from me instead of the latter.

Progress!

Backsliding and Becoming Buried

Once again I have been neglecting both my blog and my constant inclination to write.  To say my life has gone to the dogs is something of an understatement.  We're rescued five more dogs since my last post and I think I might have shaved my legs once or possibly twice since then (honestly not sure about that).

My spare time is usually the several hours past "bedtime" that I'm unable to sleep and I spend it watching social/cultural/food-related documentaries or British mystery TV shows on Netflix.  The former of which sends my mind churning and gives me plenty to write about, but by that time of the night I'm too unmotivated to do more than write out an outline that inevitably gets lost under pages of notes about dogs, potential fosters, shelter contact info, etc.

I've been cooking less or at least cooking less interesting things.  Mostly peanut butter and raspberry preserve sandwiches (usually with sliced jalapenos in the mix) or some concoction of brown steamed rice with veggies, beans, etc.  My home has also become almost unbearably cluttered, which doesn't help my mental state (which is already overwhelmed as it is).

The combined symptoms lead me to believe that I am:

A.   Over-worked

and

B.    Becoming depressed

My solution to that is to drink a lot of coffee today and start sorting things to donate & get rid of.  That might sound like an odd place to start, but it's mentally refreshing for me to get rid of "stuff."  Over the years I have become less and less a fan of "stuff."  Having too much of it around actually annoys me, but I often don't have or don't make the time to get rid of it properly.

More later today about better and brighter things, but for now I need to get to work...

Meet the Newest Stars!

Curious about the first four dogs we've saved in 2013?  I mentioned Sherlock in the last post, but here is a little bit about each of them.

Victor is a lemon & white purebred English pointer between around 7 years old that we rescued the day before he was going to be euthanized at a rural shelter in Georgia.  Victor is heartworm positive and even though he exhibits no outward symptoms (which means it is probably a low level infection) no one was interested in adopting or rescuing him.  He sat at the shelter since the end of November, waiting, and now he is en route to Tucson.  We will be driving out to meet a Pilots N Paws pilot in Las Cruces, NM to pick him & Sherlock up from the airport tomorrow afternoon.  I am fostering Victor in my home while he goes through several months of treatment.

 Sherlock is the dog I mentioned in my last post.  He escaped euthanasia at the shelter in Ft. Worth, TX for two days before we were able to coordinate his release.  Sherlock is also a heartworm positive English pointer (his colouring is orange & white) and he's around 6 years old.  He's spent the last week getting some R&R at Paige's home in Dallas and will be flying with Victor tomorrow.  Sherlock will spend the weekend at my house so we can get him & Victor to the vet for their heartworm antigen tests and chest x-rays before Sherlock goes to his foster home.

Artemis was found scavenging for food at a dump outside of Mammoth, AZ.  Skinny and very scared, she was rescued by two good samaritans who took her to the vet to get checked out, vaccinated, and spayed.  At only about 3 years old the vet determined she was very over-bred and had probably had a litter every time she'd gone into heat since she reached maturity (between 7-8 litters).  She is very gentle, but is still very timid and we're looking for a foster home to give her the one-on-one attention that she needs.  Artemis is a purebred liver & white German shorthaired pointer.

  "Shy Girl" doesn't yet have a name, but at least she has a safe, loving foster home to go to.  Rescued at the 11th hour the night before she was going to be euthanized at 5am for being shy.  Yes, that was actually the shelter's reason for putting her down.  Thankfully we got her taken off the e-list and are picking her up this afternoon.  We're not sure if she's a solid black German shorthaired pointer, maybe mixed with Weimaraner... it remains to be seen, but there is no question there is a lot of pointing breed(s) going on in her DNA.

You can check out our website at www.arizonabirddogrescue.org or "Like" us on Facebook by clicking here.

Oh, January Where Hast Thou Gone?

While I can believe that it's taken me a week to find the time to write another post, what I can't believe is that January is already nearing its end!  I didn't make any formal resolutions for 2013, but I did hope (somewhere in the back of my addled mind) that it would be a successful, happy, productive year and so far I've gotten that in spades.

World's most handsome office assistant: Gatsby!

probably brushed my hair and gotten dress a total of three times.  Most days are spent in front of my computer (laptop on a vintage TV tray), on the sofa, with the dogs as bookends, while trying to coordinate 4 rescues, 3 transports (2 from out of state), and 2 adoptions between messages/comments on Facebook, the rescue email, and texts on my iPhone (plus FB and email there, on the rare moments I escaped from my home office to do exciting things like buy dog food and pick up a cute pair of librarian-esque green loafers).

I feel a bit like I am reneging on my promise to myself that I would only buy garnetscarabin.com for my blog if I kept at it until the end of 2012.  Admittedly, post-layoff from my job, I found it hard to find both the energy and the time to coincide.

Hopefully after weekend my life will slow down just a bit.  Enough to take a breath, do some laundry, drink some tea, and knit while watching Netflix while attending to my responsibilities as the president and director of a dog rescue that has tripled in size during the past year.

Shoes worthy of Nancy Drew.

I'd like to write more about the books I'm reading, food I'm cooking, projects I'm doing around the house, the biggest "secret plan" for this year, and my attempt at remembering that "I'm a Girl!" etc. but the last couple of weeks have really been all about the dogs.  And yoga pants.

This is the nature of rescue; it fluctuates between non-stop chaotic activity interspersed with downtime where almost nothing seems to happen.

Also: check out my next post to meet the four above-mentioned recently rescued dogs!

Welcome to a Typical Day!

This morning I woke up with a great plan.  I would feed the dogs, let them outside, make coffee, and then sit on my new sofa to watch this week's episode of "Castle."

The first two items went off without a hitch and then I made the mistake of checking my Facebook messages before I got up to prepare coffee.  Half asleep and fairly vulnerable to committing compulsive, compassionate acts I saw that I was part of a group message/conversation/what-have-you regarding a very skinny and absolutely adorable orange & white purebred English pointer who was going to be put down at the shelter RIGHT NOW.  Literally.  It was about 7am here in Tucson which meant is was 8am in Ft. Worth, Texas (where the dog is located)... and the shelter starts euthanizing at 7am.  A small group of us put our heads together, found a temp foster (the lady who will be babysitting Victor once he arrives in Dallas from Georgia... more about him later!), contacted the shelter and spoke with shelter volunteers.  He doesn't have a name yet, but he was saved on a wing & a prayer and will be getting out of the shelter tomorrow at noon (CST) when the shelter opens for adoptions.  YES!!  (I know the shelter says "mix" on the photo below but most shelters do that.  He is without doubt a purebred English pointer.)

Around 10am I finally made coffee, heated up leftover tomato-red pepper soup, and reheated the toast I'd made an hour before and entirely forgotten about.  Somewhere around this time I also got word from Southeast GSP Rescue that Victor was safely out of the shelter in Coweta County (yes, more about him later).

11 o'clock this morning marked the most shocking and surprising event of the day, thus far (please, please no more shocks today!).  Yesterday I discovered that both of my bikes, which had been locked to a pole in the carport next to my house (which is set back and not visible from the street), had been stolen and the heavy-duty cable-lock had been severed.  As someone who doesn't own a car, I rely primarily on my bicycle to get around town and being unemployed at present I cannot afford to replace either bike.  Last night, a dog rescue friend offered to loan me a bike until I could get another.  Wonderful!  I was so touched.  Two other friends also offered to give me bikes they weren't using.

So... today she was going to drop off the loaner bike and instead shows up with a BRAND NEW BIKE.  You could have knocked me over with a feather!  I am still a bit in shock.  All I could do was babble, thank her repeatedly, and hug her several times.  Not sure if you can tell from this photo, but it's a beautiful turquoise colour!  (The same colour as my kitchen, my iPhone case, my dining room set, etc.!)  The front wheel is currently hanging out in my kitchen and the frame/rear wheel is locked up inside my side yard (not visible from outside because of the bamboo).  My brother also ordered me a new headlight to replace the one that was stolen.  (My brother is awesome.)

My new bike, Myrna!

I also bought Myrna (doesn't everyone name their bikes?) a present to keep her safe.

...and my day isn't even half over yet!

2012 In Retrospect

The 365 days which make one year don't seen sufficient to hold the enormity of change and personal progression that occurred during 2012.

My dog rescue saved 41 dogs since November 2011.  I moved from a second floor studio apartment to a studio in a duplex to the adorable little one bedroom casita (sort of like a cottage) with a yard that I live in now.

I got a "regular" full-time job, then got laid off because the company is run by a bunch of 25-year-olds with no business acumen.

Lola Lulu turned 2 in January and Gatsby turned 7 in August.

I rescued Jack Lemon on May 29th.  He died of cancer on October 17th.  From him began my new-found and surely lifelong love of English pointers (especially the lemon and white Elhew ones).

A lot of other things happened that already seem firmly in the past.  I finally sought professional treatment for my bipolar disorder and am doing really well on medication.  I have even been dealing with the post-losing-my-job-right-before-the-holidays depression fairly well.  I also wrote about my illness publicly for the first time ever and feel a lot more comfortable about it in general.  I started biking, running, and moderating my caffeine and alcohol intake.

But some of the most meaningful the things I will take with me from 2012 are not even things that I experienced myself.  They are all events experienced by friends of mine in that last week or two and I think they reveal that which is real and true about people and life far more than the my personal triumphs and hardships.  I may not get all the details just right, but I don't think that will impair the message.

A very good friend of mine is a prosecutor and had to work on Christmas Eve, which she was not at all happy about.  It was nearing the end of the day and the last case she had was an older man who had been charged with theft.  For stealing two hot dogs from a convenience store because he was hungry.  He was quiet and clearly very embarrassed.  The police report stated that he broke down in tears when talking with the officers and explaining his circumstances.  And here he was, on Christmas Eve, waiting for what would likely be punishment for his "crime."  Instead, she dismissed the case, hugged him, said "God bless" and wished him a Merry Christmas.

Another friend was at an arcade with her children and noticed a young boy by himself who seemed to be enjoying watching them and others play the various games/video games.  He didn't take a turn at the games himself and didn't ask anyone for money.  When they were ready to leave, she put money into the machine and told him, "it's all yours."

Outside of a convenience store another friend saw a college aged man sitting on the sidewalk in shorts and flip flops.  In the middle of December!  When she asked if he was alright, he told her he'd been evicted from his apartment and while he had friends who would let him shower or stop by to eat or sleep on occasion, he didn't have anywhere to go.  He asked for some money because he hadn't eaten that day.  Instead, she took him inside and bought him lunch.  Guess what he wanted?  Two hot dogs.

If there is a moral to these stories it is probably something along the lines of how a small kindness when given is a large kindness when received.

Just In Time for Christmas!

It's been a long month or so since my computer screen went on the fritz.  A month of trying to look for a job and run a dog rescue via an iPhone and Kindle Fire was daunting, to say the least.  Somehow I managed to slog through it, complete an adoption and rescue a couple more dogs.  We're currently at a total of 41 pointers rescued since November 2011.  The next several days will be spent on catching up on rescue work, paperwork, and other tedious administrative tasks.  However, I will also be able to catch up on my favourite blogs, TV shows I haven't been able to watch on Hulu, and many other things that when lacking I became increasingly grateful for.

Our Christmas tree!

Although it is not yet Chirstmas, I've already received a number of gifts.  London Fog luggage, a Cath Kidston purse, and a vintage inspired floral quilt from my mother; a really keen bicycle headlamp and tail-light from my brother, homemade baklava & chocolate truffles from my friend S.'s mom (who has become like another mother to me, since I have no family in Tucson), and a 2013 German shorthaired pointer calendar (and some GSP related decals!) from my friend S. in Colorado.

Over the course of my limited internet ability, I've handwritten and outlined posts, as well as taken plenty of photos to share what I've been up to during my second and most recent hiatus (lots of food and dogs, of course!).

Here are a few snapshots of what I have been doing to keep busy: decorating for the holidays and rescuing two more dogs!

Yes, we have icicles in the desert!  (Or at least in my kitchen!)

Watson (#40), an 11 month old English pointer mix. 

Cooper (#41), a 1 year old purebred German shorthaired pointer.