Think Like a Dog

Last week, I was out on the riding lawn mower, cutting the acre of grass that encompasses our domain. The dog was outside. I was about as far from the house as I could get when the neighbor behind me, also mowing, stopped to chat briefly. I turned off my Ipod, stopped the motor and was talking about development business, mostly our decreased water pressure, when the dog, who had moved to the deck started barking. Not willing to make the acre trip up to see to the DOG, I let her bark. When I finished mowing, I returned to the deck only to find she had dumped out one of my large planters on the deck that was filled with 2 different varieties of basil. Not just tipping over the planter, she dug through the dirt, effectively destroying the root system and leaving the basil, wilting in clumps all over my deck.

I tried to salvage the basil, pulling it out of the dirt, which was very wet and clinging to all the leaves (and spicy globe basil has A LOT of VERY SMALL leaves) when I found Remy's black kong, buried in the dirt.

Now, I'm not Cesar the dog Whisperer. Heck, I'm not really a dog person period, but I tried to reconstruct what happened:

Remy had her kong over by the planter and accidentally dropped it into the planter. She then barked at me to come get it in a very Lassie-like, hurry, Timmy's fallen down the well, fashion. When I didn't respond she decided that Timmy needed help RIGHT NOW and went into the well on her own and attempted to bring Timmy to safety. Thus, effectively destroying my basil.

I was going to make pesto with the salvaged basil but I couldn't get the wet dirt off most of it AND...do you know how many leaves are on a stem? Like a BAZILLION. I don't have the patience for pulling each 1 in long by 1/2 in wide leaf off the stem, and washing thoroughly. I'm a fast and easy kinda gal. So, I'll be off to the farmers market this weekend where I'll spend $3 on 3 gigantic bunches of basil and have my pesto put away for the winter in a fraction of the time.

So, the reality is, Remy DID save me...save me from the tedious task of attempting to make pesto with spicy globe basil...by channeling her inner Lassie.