Yeah, it’s better to wait until the tyke is a little older, then. But overall, if kids are fairly respectful of animals, greyhounds are wonderful family dogs. Never, ever let a kid ride one, though. It’s tempting (to the kid, at least) because they’re so tall. But they’re bred for speed, not hauling so that could seriously injure the dog. (and the kid, if the dog bites from pain)
Here’s a gripe about my female, just to even things out for you (and because this is a gripe thread). Greyhounds are largely VERY easy to house train, so don’t take this gripe as typical of the breed. It’s very Capri-specific. Some animals will hold their bladder until they burst or get infections. Capri is not one of those. She’ll hold it as long as she can, comfortably, but if there’s nobody around to let her out when things get urgent, she’ll do the best she can to let herself out. Which means her accidents are always in the same spot, in front of the sliding glass door.
We actually got video footage of her doing that, when we were trying to figure out if it was a problem of separation anxiety, or UTI or not being house broken or what. (Along with many vet tests, believe me, we went the full gamut!) She fusses for a few minutes and then goes to the door, facing out into the yard and squats. We solved the problem by implementing a few more mandatory potty breaks for her: before we leave the house and at lunchtime and after dinner. (Those in addition to two walks a day and a few other potty breaks as she needs.)
We seem to have forgotten a mandatory potty break last week because she did it again. Now we’re watching her like a hawk again. She is twelve now, so age can also start causing incontinence.
This is not mini, not in any way, but it’s also not worth starting its own thread.
A lovely young woman in my community committed suicide this week. This is tragedy in and of itself, but she attended the LGBTQ youth center that I am a board member for. One of the big things that we are working towards is reducing teen suicide, particularly among the LGBTQ community.
So, as bad as I feel for her (seeing this as the only option), and for her parents (no parent should have to bury their child), I feel just horrible for the staff. They are trained. They run support groups. They provide case management. They refer to therapists all the time. And all I can imagine is that they are going to spend days going, “Why didn’t we see this coming? What could we have done differently to prevent this? What do we need to do differently in the future to keep it from happening again?” They are loving, compassionate people, working hard for a cause they believe in. Now, they will spend their days helping other youth, while in the back of their head is guilt, sorrow, frustration.
I feel guilty, and I am just on the board. I don’t work directly with the youth, generally.
My heart goes out to your group members, Indyellen.
Depression is a potentially fatal illness. Sometimes, despite all the good medical professionals involved, they still lose a patient. The medical community - and in my book, that includes the staff and volunteers at your center - has resources to help deal with the loss of a patient. Indyellen, perhaps as a board member, you could host a staff meeting to discuss resources that are available to your center’s staff?
Here’s another look at a postvention guide, this one aimed at college campuses who lose a student, but the ideas there might give you some guidence -
And here’s a recent article about how clinicians handle the grief of losing a patient
These are mostly aimed at medical professionals, rather than staff. My reason for mentioning them though is that they do address the grief felt by people who make up the support communities when a patient or client - a friend - dies. You’re right that the grief your staff is feeling is real. Hopefully, they can find support for themselves as well.
Oh one last thought - you might want to contact your local hospital or medical university and see if they have anyone who would be willing to discuss with your staff how they handle losing a patient.
In short: My spinal cortisone shots didn’t happen. Doctor forced me into a very uncomfortable and painful position, offered no anxiety or pain meds, and after @ 15 minutes in this torturous position, with lots of complaining how uncomfortable and even painful it was, and only getting “Yes, it will be. You have to hold that!”… When the big needle finally went in and my body reacted and had to move, I got: “Oh, you moved. We’re done. Go home now.”
Why yes, I’ve filed a complaint with the hospital. My GP is giving me a referral to a completely different doctor and hospital.
Merneith, thanks. They are bringing in therapists to the center tonight to talk to the youth (and I would presume any staff who would like to do so would be welcome as well). We (the board) are looking at doing something for the youth and staff. I haven’t heard anything specific yet.
Turns out my daughter (who attended the center but has aged-out) did know the young woman. My daughter tells me she was a really good person. My daughter says she’s doing OK; sad, but OK.
As a person with depression myself, and a survivor of suicidal ideation, I know exactly how awful and insidious a disease it is. Failure is not an option…but sometimes, there isn’t any way to explain that to someone.
There’s a helluva lot more suck here today than I was coming in to complain about. **Chimera **I hope you get relief soon, this has been going on way too long. **Indyellen **my heart goes out to you and all who are affected. I don’t have sufficient words to express how sad suicide is for both the suffering and the survivors.
The UPS driver who didn’t buzz my apartment when I was home and left my LUSH package outside, can go pound sand at the beach down the street. I checked 20 minutes after the posted delivery time and it was gone.
So I got a pedo notification in the mail yesterday. Level three offender, sexually molested a three year old female family member, if the address listed on the notice is even 1000 feet from my kindergartener’s school it can’t be more than 1005 or 1010, it’s really fucking close. Within direct line of sight even. And I happen to have a three year old female family member living in my home who I’m particularly protective of.
But if I go over there and paint BABY FUCKER on his garage door in 48" letters I’m the criminal.
Minor: why is it so [expletive] hard to find bubble bath? I don’t exactly live in a one-hydrant town, after all.
Bigger: WTF, bicycle guy who shot out in front of a car that had the green light and was traveling at a normal speed? And while we’re on the topic, WTF with all the yowling about how said car was speeding? I’m sorry we were unable to avoid impact, very glad all you got was some abrasions, but still very much hoping you grow some brain cells and pay attention to traffic! (My husband was driving in this event, but I’m now all shaky about having to do any driving tomorrow myself, and that is the only way I have to get to work.)
I hope you called police? The bike ran a red light, he should be issued a ticket. Ugh. I have no tolerance for cyclers who can’t follow rules of the road. Around here, they’re all over the sidewalks, even when there’s a goddamned bike lane. I want to carry a big stick and spoke all of them.
Police were duly summoned, info duly exchanged. We were sent on our way, but should probably stay alert for updates.
I’m also getting very hostile toward bicyclists who insist that they have more right to the sideWALK than mere pedestrians and will seriously aim straight at anyone who dares to be walking on the sideWALK they’re riding on. Very common problem here, too.
In my town bicyclists can ride on the sidewalk when there’s no bike lane. But I live in a mountain town with a lot of narrow curvy streets that don’t have room for expansion.
I think that’s the right attitude. I did something similar a few years ago, when apparently my relatively high background anxiety flared up into something resembling a heart attack, triggered by various environmental circumstances. I don’t think there’s a charge for ambulance services here anyway, but they didn’t seem bothered by coming out, probably they rather enjoy having something that’s NOT dire to deal with for a change. They hooked me up to a wee machine to measure my heart rhythm, and that seemed fine, so when they asked if I wanted to go to emergency I decided not to.
Just having the information that there wasn’t anything obviously amiss with my heart and their educated opinion that it was probably some form of anxiety attack was enough to reassure me that it wasn’t lifethreatening and I wouldn’t benefit from the stress of sitting in the A&E. I did later have a 24-hour heart tape for ongoing heart shenanigans which turned up nothing significant, but of course the shenanigans didn’t kick up while I had the thing on me, like when you take your car in to the mechanic and it won’t make the funny noise.
Back when I worked for Doctors, they knew about that. Some people suddenly got better when they saw the white coat and some people got a whole lot worse. My fav boss would take some people outside to take their blood pressure because he knew that they really had normal BP unless they were in the office.
I didn’t take your advice, kaylasdad99. I put a library CD into the rental car player. Of course it ate it. The library lady just laughed at me, but the rental car people are saying that we owe them a new stereo. Hubs lawyer has sent Enterprise a letter demanding the instant return of the library CD and remuneration for the overdue fine. So far, its up to $2.50.
How can the exact same thing, sometimes, cause my hackles to go up and my Bitch Mode to engage, and other times it rolls off like I’m the proverbial duck’s back?
Times (and tastes) are a-changin’ and I suspect baths are falling out of style. That said, the place I most consistently see the big bottles of the candy-scented/colored old-skool bubble bath stuff is at Wal-Mart.
Oh my god, you fucking idiot! Yes, you are sitting in the library. But you’re in the CHILDREN’S section you dumb fuck. Do not sit there on a seat intended for parents to read to their children whining that my four year daughter is making too much noise for you, asshole. She was playing with literary puppets provided by the library for kids to enjoy. That’s the purpose of the children’s section of the library – to help kids develop a love of books and libraries. Go sit in the fucking adult section down the hall if you want quiet, you dumb shit.