Me & the Wolf (and Watercress Sandwiches)

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I used to walk from 3 to sometimes as much as 10 miles a day with my dog. But since he got hit by a car, long walks like that tend to bother his leg a little bit. Not only that, but he likes to chase trucks, well, not chase them actually. He gets right up at their front tires and barks ferociously at the tires (he used to bark like that at piles of cow sh!t). He almost caused a trucker to drive his logging truck full of logs off the road into the river! So instead of walking on the roads I started hiking up into the mountains with him, where he could chase whatever he wanted to chase without creating any problems between us. But lately I've been too lazy to make that climb. It tears my lungs up. I'd much rather sit here on my computer - drinking tea and smoking cigarettes. Then I cut the walk down to the short hike up to Oscar Driver's old family summer home, where I feed a couple of kitties (that Oscar left when he sold the property). And my dog hates cats. Not only that, he is allergic to them. He only wants to kill them. His eyes get red as the devil's own eyes - swirling orbs of malevolence & blood thirst. That has created another problem between us, and he doesn't like to go with me at all when I take that walk down to the river and up the mountain. Which p!sses me off because it is a perfectly fine walk. I used to make him come anyway, but I would just end up more p!ssed... turning around just in time to see him trying to slink off back to the house. Now I just leave him in the house, where he rips his fur out with his teeth in huge clumps. His a$$ is bloody and bald. About 3 days ago I broke down and decided to give the dog his very own walk. The first day I walked the mile up to feed the kitties, by myself, and then came back and picked the dog up and took him a mile down the road in the opposite direction (and boy does he change his tune when we're going in that direction!) The next day I walked him a mile and a half. Then yesterday I walked him all the way down Possum Holler Rd to the stream where the watercress grows. It's about 3 miles from the house, and I wouldn't have taken either of us that far except I had a craving for watercress sandwiches. So, he ended up with a 6 mile walk, and I walked 7. My hands froze solid in the icy water gathering the cress, although my boots did a good job of keeping my feet dry. Then I had to stand there in my freezing kitchen prepping it. (I don't know which is worse, prepping watercress or prepping cilantro.) I whipped it up in my food processor with some hand-churned butter that I get from the Amish, added a little salt and some garlic... Mmmm mmmm. The dog might be limping around, and I feel like limping myself, but when I sank my teeth into that biscuit smothered with watercress butter.... aaaahhhh! The things we do for love! Today I rode my bike back there again to take a photo for this discussion (I left Wolf at home). He needed to give his leg a rest anyway. And since I've been taking Wolf on his own personal walks he does not seem to be tearing himself up anymore, and last night I came out in the living room in the middle of the night, to get my water or something, and caught him (begrudgingly) sharing his couch with one of the cats! So, is there anybody else out there in the MyLot world who enjoys foraging for wild food, or has a dog with deep psychological problems? Hehehe, reminds me of that Mitch Hedberg routine where he was going on about some of the questions they put on certain forms, where you have to answer yer or no to questions like "Have you ever tried sugar, or PCP?" Mitch Hedberg died not too long ago, and I would like to include these links to a couple short videos of him on YouTube... my salute to him. (He is very nervous, but even that makes me smile, and man can he ever make me laugh!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDxBUoCN6MQ YouTube - Mitch Hedberg - On Letterman #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bESBs3Lg7M YouTube - Hedberg, Mitch - Just For Laughs: On The Edge - 02