Happy Easter!

First half: Cheesecake...
Second half of posting: Dog Bites-What can Happen. Why they're so serious.


Pictures of the Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake.

(Well, after delivering chicken soup and cheesecake to some of my neighbors, I forgot to post the pictures, initially. Sorry. I'll post the 10" Spring form pan w/ the cheesecake in it, above, but I'll have to show you the presentation w/ a chocolate leaf and a raspberry on top of some whipped cream. It turned out dreadfully scrumptious! Looks like I'll have to share the recipe, too. That will be tomorrow-Tuesday, as I'm painting in the bathroom still....tonight.) (Finally, I share it below.)

So, today is Easter Sunday. Amid mowing the lawn and painting, I get to try the Chocolate Cappuccino Cheesecake I made last night. It's my first cheesecake. I'll share my recipe below later, after I've had a bite. 

(I really should remove the picture of the Easter basket with the candy, as I don't trust that it's not a GMO sugar beet, aspartame or Splenda product, and I put the whole basket in the Rec room in case other people wanted it. I should have never bought them, even if they were very cheap. They deserve to be thrown away....) Only homemade stuff from now on..... I already shun 99% of the food in grocery stores. Even the tomato that a friend brought me from Costco, is still looking intact weeks later. It must be irradiated or gassed or something. Yuck.

I made some chicken noodle soup w/ homemade noodles yesterday, so I could bring a ray of relief to a neighbor who has had a string of falls and medical mishaps with hospitalizations. Her husband could use a caregiving break. It was fun bringing her an Easter Basket. I hope she gave it away, as she doesn't need the sugar. It was just a gesture. She loaned me (well, gave me, because she had never used it in all the years she owned it) a 10" Springform pan. I didn't have one, and the rusted or crooked ones I'd found in the Thrift stores lately, didn't appeal to me. So, after I whip up some cream, and maybe paint some melted chocolate on some non-toxic leaves to freeze and pop on top of the dollop of cream, I am going to deliver a piece of heaven to her and her husband.

With cheesecake, it has to sit for 12 hours. (I notice my grammar has deteriorated to some country brogue in the last few years...) The flavors meld, etc.
I thought I'd put a frozen raspberry on top of the whipping cream dollop, and two chocolate leaves. I used a touch of cinnamon in the graham cracker crust, and would like to try some orange zest next time. I read in the recipe's comments where someone put an Oreo on the bottom of a cupcake wrapper and made 30+ mini cheesecakes. I chose graham crackers to keep it simple, but was upset to find High Fructose Corn Syrup in the ingredients. To understand how upset, see the pictures in the previous posting on GMO corn. I can go through the entire grocery store and find only a handful or less of food that I feel good about buying. I'd rather live in Europe or another country instead of this polluted wasteland, to be perfectly frank.


The recipe for this cheesecake is here:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-cappuccino-cheesecake/detail.aspx

I used 1/4 c. of strong organic coffee, and 1/2 c. brown sugar/1/2 c. white sugar. I used Mexican Sour Cream for regular sour cream, and for the crust, I used graham crackers as mentioned above instead of the chocolate cookies or grahams. 
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Dog Bite of an Elderly Person. Why Dog Laws Should be Respected.

Earlier this week, a friend of mine was riding his bike home and came across a large dog running loose, having been let out of the gate by the owner's kids. The owner admitted her dog was the 'town dog', running loose often. She also pleaded no contest to negligence when it bit my friend. My friend was just a couple of blocks from his house when he passed a group of kids out front of the house, and slowed down so he wouldn't run into any of them. The kids were outside, and assured him the dog was friendly. The dog was out of the fenced area of its yard. Well, it slowly walked over to my friend, and bit into his left leg, just above the ankle. Blood gushed out, and probably because he's 67 and his leg isn't as meaty as in his younger days, it felt like it hit the bone in the front. 

What a dog bite can do for an elderly person.
Infection. Antibiotics. Swelling and Pain.
Pain prevents sleep. Immune System Fails.
Antibiotics cause Urinary Tract Infection.
One side effect of Antibiotics used: Death
Second dose of Cipro for UTI=Shingles.
Shingles=possible lifetime recurrence

So, my friend calls me that evening, and was going to wait till the next day to go into his doctor's at Kaiser. He was upset and exhausted, in shock. I insisted he call an Advice Nurse at an Emergency Room, as I knew he needed to get it cleaned up immediately. The germs in saliva of an animal are not anything to ignore till morning. 

He ended up going to the ER at St. Vincent's, where they cleaned it out and then gave him some Doxycycline and Cleosin. I was upset, because I couldn't be there to protect him from the malpractice that seems to be the norm any more in the medical field. Taking pharmaceuticals without consulting with a good Pharmacist or reading and being informed can be fatal, itself. Happens every day in the US. He didn't want me to travel an hour or so to meet him at that late hour. Sure enough, when I looked up Cleosin on askapatient.com, etc., I found it to be very dangerous, and the first side effect listed was Death. Another person had diarrhea for 10 months, etc. The rating of this drug was very low, and the comments frightening. 

The next day, his Doc at Kaiser gave him a prescription for Septra DS or Bactrim. This drug had a lower rating, and was just as dangerous. I feel furious at the allowance of this Medical Field/Pharmaceutical Guinea Pig approach. How unnecessary and alarming. A dog or cat bite can entail cellulitis, blood poisoning or worse. Looks like the antibiotics out there alone, can kill a person.

This dog bite sank to the bone in front.
Xrays to see if a tooth or fur imbedded.
Pain level 8 of 10.
Tender to the touch 3 months later.
Cellulitis and lancing of infection.
Possible nerve damage. Urinary Tract Infection
and then Shingles from Antibiotic Use
and lowered Immune System.
All of it unnecessary if dog was leashed.
These pictures are one week after the bite.

On top of this upsetting part of this event, my friend had no confirmation the dog had a rabies shot, and the local Police and Columbia County Animal Control had not quarantined the animal for the 10 day protocol, to ensure the best protective outcome for my friend. I called Chief Conner of Vernonia, and left a message for him to return my call. I told him even if my friend's bite became infected further and he got blood poisoning, it could cause him to lose his leg and possibly die. Dog bites are serious. I wanted him to take some action about the loose dogs in his town.

This morning, my friend tells me an elderly woman was attacked and bitten by this same dog a while ago. The owner told my friend at the time of the bite, that State Farm wouldn't pay on her insurance, because she already had 3 claims. Hmm. Were any of those claims for dog bites? My friend usually carries a pocket knife, but he will carry better protection from now on. Since the dog slowly walked up to his bike, he didn't expect a bite, so even protection probably wouldn't  have helped.

Another strange fact about Rabies is it's symptoms can show up 1-3 months to 7 years in strange cases, after a bite. Since a Rabies vaccine isn't foolproof, like flu vaccines, etc., and in some cases can give the animal Rabies, and since there are cases of different strains from animals from different areas, the casual way my friend was treated brought me so much stress in worrying for him, that I felt like I could have 'emotional Rabies' with some of these 'professionals'.

Back of leg. One of the Deep Puncture Wounds.
Shows bruising and some surface scratches.

I'm looking forward to this day settling out. I wish I had grandbabies nearby to hide Easter eggs for and make a family dinner. Such is life. I'll share with my neighbors.

Update on the dog bite: Instead of collecting the dog for observation for ten days, and making sure he had a current rabies shot (he obviously is running loose in the country with wild animals and the bite was unprovoked), a Vernonia Policeman called my friend to say the owners reported the dog had now been run over the next day, and he could pay $100 for it to be tested for rabies, if the owners gave him permission, but the brain might be deteriorated now. Do I need to say more? 

Not one agency -Health Department, Animal Control or the Police ever got proof of this dog's death for Roy's peace of mind to eliminate the possibility of Rabies, or for the next victim. To excuse their lack luster performance, they said it was a 'minor bite' before even seeing the bite or taking pictures of it. His Kaiser doctor seemed to be annoyed when my friend wasn't comfortable with the antibiotic he was taking after getting more information about it and asked for something else. He wrote: "No deep puncture wounds, mostly superficial lacerations on the anterior and posterior portions of the shin." ??? Cellulitis alone can kill a person, or cause complications like amputations. Puncture wounds to the bone are not "superficial". The ER Room "irrigated" the puncture wounds. Thank goodness for photos and other medical observations in my friend's records. This doctor may be facing punitive measures.

Not until I told the Animal Control officer that I was posting pictures of it and writing about it on my public blog did he bother to move forward to write up the necessary City and State Citations of Dangerous Dog for the next poor victim. Without verification of the dog's death, the next bite victim would be in the same place as my friend without a police report or Citation record, as if this dog had never bitten before. Now with the Citation conviction, the owner has responsibility to inform the agencies involved if the dog changes owners. ...if it's still alive.

My thoughts: All three public agencies collect tax dollars to serve and protect in their professional capacities. It is fraud to be paid for services they are not providing. Animal Control only came out along with the Health Department a week later because I kept calling them. They never viewed the bite or took  pictures of it. Only putting it on a public blog and me sending the photos of the bite made the Animal Control officer do his job. Each agency passed off the responsibility of digging up the dog and having a Vet wear protective gear while getting the head (Rabies goes airborne) to send in for testing, so my friend would know if the doctors made the right decision on not giving him Rabies shots, and what his fate is. Pain and itching at the site of the bite does not bring me peace. Rabies shots are not foolproof, just like any vaccine, and sometimes infect the dog. There are also various strains from other areas possible, as mentioned. A dog training exercise in the South brought in coyotes from another area who were infected with Rabies. The dogs, though vaccinated, became infected and all had to be put down. 

The morning before the dog bite, my friend and I had discussed the irritation of dogs running loose in his town, cats invading my gardens and landscaping, how Ashland forbids any dogs in their Lithia Park and some of the comments on their local forum, and how animals too often were being put before humans, in consideration and safety. 

Questions? Contact me at leangreencafe@yahoo.com