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Worried,
When my dog became neurologically debilitated, I requested that the vet NOT inject her (age 15) with rabies. We paid the vet and received a Certificate of Rabies.

Sometimes she could not walk, we cared for her every day, often up at night. That was a difficult time for us and the dog, until we had to carry her outside and hold her up at the end. Well, both, literally: Hold her rear end up, as she was near the end.

People say, you will know if it is time to take your dog for that final vet visit.
It is a good sign that Spike can get himself up.
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Cwillie

I not only have cookbooks from other countries that I’ve visited but from both the Viking and her mother who always made a banana cake for everyone’s birthday- I have no memory of her as she passed when I was 4

I guess I’ll donate the foreign ones and keep only my favorite ones
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Thanks for that, sendhelp. I’m sorry about your dog, our good friend recently went through the same thing with his dog. He had to carry him out and hold him up. Truly heartbreaking.

I probably won’t do the rabies vaccine. In the past, with Toby & his bad heart, my vet went along with what I wanted and never hassled me on anything and I conceded by agreeing to the rabies vaccine annually but absolutely no other vaccine. I figured with Spike, we could come to a similar agreement but you’ve got me realizing that’s probably a bad idea. Some good friends 16 year old mini poodle died after a well meaning vet tech vaccinated her despite them saying NO the vaccines so ever since then, I have been afraid to give vaccines on my senior pets.
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Cali,

Bernie, my grand puppy was just diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. The vet thought it was diabetes. My daughter is such a good momma to her fur baby.

I fell in love with this dog from day one. They steal our hearts, don’t they?

Sorry about your little pooch. They truly are a part of the family. My grey was wonderful, when he took a turn it nearly killed me.

For a grey to lose bladder control is like a faucet being turned on! It was a lot different than my little schnauzer. Still, we just clean up the mess. It is heartbreaking to see them suffer. They don’t sleep through the night at the end.

The larger dogs have the hip issues at the end. They can’t move about. He was the sweetest dog. All they want is love. They certainly love us.
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cwille,

Please don’t toss the cookbooks. Someone else will cherish them. Donate them.
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CWillie, I also have a lot of cookbooks.   Debating what to do with them, I did some research and found that cooking encyclopedias (BHG, etc.) may be valuable.   With BHG, Family Circle and Woman's Day encyclopedias, I calculated about $330 worth of books, IF I can find someone who wants collectibles.
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Finding a buyer IS the problem I have too,GardenArtist.
I have some wonderful "stuff" to sell if I could just find someone to buy it~
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I have a ton of cookbooks too, some of my Mom's and my MIL's. Theirs are especially fun because they often cut out recipes from magazines and just stuffed them in randomly, so they fall out as you turn the pages. It's just that Everything is online now, and so many variations of those recipes too! Except for a few of the "Mom's" specialty recipes, I rarely ever open my cookbooks, but I do like how they look on the shelf in my kitchen, lol!

My Charlie-girl ( a Chihuahua/Maltese mix) is only 4 1/2 pounds, and she So did Awful with the Rabies shot the last time (3 years ago) , that I refuse to have her vaccinated for it ever again! I swear it nearly killed her, and I was only able to keep her alive by my medical training, keeping her hydrated with Pedialyte by the dropper full, she couldn't eat (I even pre-chewed her "human food" for her to get her to eat a tiny bit), she could barely pee, couldn't bear down enough to produce a BM for over a week, and was in so much pain from head to tail she couldn't walk for about a week.

I honestly knew that if I had taken her in with all her symptoms that she would have died, as she is so incredibly attached to me, and it took my knowing all her little quirks, and my round the clock care, that she even pulled through, plus it was nearly a year before all of the residual neurological symptoms were finally out out her system, just in time for the Vet to want to give her the next Rabies shot, so um NO, Never Again!

Did you know that they give a 4# dog and a 150# dog the same amount of vaccine? Crazy! Our Vet has given authorization that she never ever get one again, thank God, she's mostly a house dog anyways. She's tiny, but she gives us So much Joy!

I'm praying for all of you who are being affected by the Dorian, and all the havoc that it is bringing with it! Take Care Everybody! Animals too!
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The 80-pound file drawer I ordered on Amazon was delivered upside down, despite the warning labels all over the carton. It was blocking my neighbors’ door. I had to huff and puff to push the giant box past my threshold into my apartment. Did I mention that it weighs 80 pounds? My housekeeper is supposed to be coming today, so I’ll need her help.
Though pushing that box did make me feel like a badass. 😛
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Well last worse was the worst yet! Something definitely affects him around 1-2am! I took my melatonin and went to bed around 12:20am and was having a heck of time falling asleep. Spike kept cleaning himself which was loud (partly because of collar) so that wasn’t help. He finally got up and I let him outside. He came back in and usually on our way back to the bedroom, he goes in to the kitchen to drink some water, only last night he went over to the couch, started to follow me toward the kitchen but then he ran back to the slider and indicated he wanted out again! Like he forgot he just went out. So I let him out, he ran about 5 feet on to the patio, stopped for a second and came back in and went back to bed. He let me pick him up so I put him on the bed, and the loud cleaning commensed. He seemed restless too. Don’t know how much time passed but he got up again. I put him back on the bed and he jumped down again. Eventually, before I ever fell asleep, I had to let him out again, take off his collar (because it is so noisy!!!) and allow him to wander around for a bit, all while I lamented on how much I hate these G-DAMNED hardwood floors and the sounds of his nails hitting them! At one point I put him out of the room and shut the door but he just scratched at it so I let him back in. He wouldn’t let me pick him up so I got in bed and let him do his thing. It doesn’t matter what I do, it’s a lose lose situation. If I lock him out of the room, he’ll keep me up by scratching the door. If I leave the door open so he can wander, he keeps me up with the sound of his nails hitting the floor. If I put him outside, he’ll scratch at the slider and bark, keeping me up!!! Eventually he wandered back in to the room so i picked him up, put him on the bed and he curled up behind my legs and went right to sleep!!!! I just wish I knew what was causing this and how to stop it! I wish there was a magic pill that would let him sleep all night.

Stacey, I experienced something similiar with my cat Toby. He was very attached to me (and me to him). He had a bad heart and a couple times a year he would go into these episodes where he was literally dying in front of me, it was like his heart was giving out. I would just give him a strong dose of his heart failure meds and hold him and talk to him and he always bounced back!! If I took him in to the vet, I KNEW he would die!

Needhelp, we really do get attached to these guys don’t we? Our last dog Roxbury, a corgi mix, went through loss of bladder control too. And she started to wander at night only I would find her in the hall way going in circles usually AFTER I stepped in a puddle of pee! It was so heart breaking! It went on for awhile too.
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To those wanting to sell books. It is hard to get decent money from collectors. I know because we tried with many my mother had. If you see a price online you have to realize you are most likely not able to get that price. I am not trying to be negative just realistic. If one is savvy about selling online you might do well but that can be time consuming. Even used book stores give you generally a pittance. Good luck to all with this. I can't fully describe the exhaustion my husband and I experienced trying to get rid of books my mother and grandmother collected. We donated,threw out,sold a very few and kept others. Now I'm down to unused toiletry items. It just seems as though it never ends.
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Old people want to keep everything! Can’t throw anything out because they keep a freakin inventory! Grrrrrr.
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Guess I'm getting old then...🤔
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Dizzy,

What a shame! Can’t they read? You’re strong. I’m impressed! Where there’s a will there’s a way. You got that 80 pounds out of your neighbor’s way.
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cwille,

Hahaha. We all are getting old! My mom keeps stupid stuff. No value at all. Is that boredom? Who knows? Sometimes I think her entertainment is to drive me nuts.

I have to walk off more and more because there is no reasoning with her once she has an idea in her head.

Her latest thing is holding onto things that don’t fit. She can’t possibly wear it. Would fall off of her but she keeps it! Her clothes are baggy. My clothes are baggy. She doesn’t eat much. Nor do I.

She wants to stay stick thin. Why? She’s almost 94 but vain! I can’t eat due to stress and depression. People complain about being overweight but it’s no fun being asked if I am sick because I am thin.
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To be honest, after all the stories I’ve read on here, I feel very fortunate that my parents aren’t intent on keeping things? They’ve gotten rid of so much stuff over the last few years. It’s already been decided and written in their wills who gets what-there are a few furniture pieces my brother and I each picked out. My daughter will get my moms jewelry. My brother can take what he wants out of the household stuff, everything else can be junked. There’s nothing of value, nothing even garage sale worthy!

Needhelp isn’t it something the way our old folks get these ideas in their heads and the things they latch on to? The only reasoning I can come up with is that at this point in life, their world is so small and these things-like you mom wanting to stay stick thin-become a big importance to them because there’s really not much else going on for them! I don’t think I worded that right, I am trying to say that things like that may seem petty and silly to us younger folks because we have other priorities and things we want to do, but for our elders, this is their life? My husbands best friends parents are 83 and it is beyond time for them to downsize and liquidate some of their properties and get rid of stuff and they refuse! They’ve got condos full of their PARENTS furniture! Again they are 83 LOL and the stuff has just sat for years and years! His mom is always replacing carpet, remodeling a bathroom and getting new window coverings! They don’t even have a trust or living wills or anything yet! And of course they could live another 20 years but dad has symptoms of dementia most of their assets are in his name only! In a twist of fate, he was adding our friends name to the feed of their Florida house and he checked the wrong box and our friends name was added but his dads name was taken OFF! I told him, well that’s a good thing because if something happens to your dad, that’s at least one asset that won’t be included in probate! Probate fees will easily be in the hundreds of thousands! Anyway he complains about his mom doing all this stuff and I tell him, this is her life now. All her friends are dead or in nursing homes (sad but true).
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Cali,

Oh my word! Geeeeez. Yes, it really does boggle my mind at times. I’m constantly telling my girls if I get crazy when I am old to take me out back and shoot me! Hahaha
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Worried...does your dog have a UTI?
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Dad1, he has no symptoms of a UTI. I never thought about a UTI to be honest.

Spike slept through the night last night! Woo hoo! He stayed out in the living room with me until around 10:30. He was restless and kept asking for treats. I gave him half a treat (those little milk bone soft filet mignon flavored things) each time. By 10:30 he was scratching at the bedroom door so I let him in there. Hubby got annoyed and said he wasn’t going to tolerate the shenanigans we had the night before. Spike went right to bed and didn’t get up until around 6:30 this morning! Funny enough after he went to bed, I started researching anxiety and restlessness in senior dogs, and CBD oil for dogs. He does have some of the symptoms of doggy dementia but not all. And his symptoms are normal in old dogs. There is a medication the vet can prescribe but it is expensive! Chewy.com sells it for $84!!!!! That is out of the question, my husband would flip a lid if I spent that much on a prescription!

I am hoping that keeping him up later (he usually goes to bed with hubby at 9:30, last night he chose to stay out with me) and letting him do his thing, is why he slept all night. Maybe the fact I didn’t given him as many treats helped too? I’m gonna pick up some calming dog treats at PetSmart later today.

LOL Needhelp! The thought of getting old and losing my marbles scares me too! Spike has displayed a lot of anxious behavior toward my daughter (probably because she is the one who feeds him) and she got upset because he was anxious and trying to get her attention yesterday. As a result we had some talk of “broken brains” as I told her his brain isn’t working right anymore because he’s so old. I told her when I’m old and my brain is broken, just let me go. Don’t let me suffer.
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DH just broke my KitchenAid mixer; I've had it for 17 years. Needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of a batch of bread. Asked him to hold down the mixer so it wouldn't buck. He pressed down hard on it and it's gotten warped or something.

Sigh.
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Wow! It takes some strength to lick a KitchenAid. Is it not trying to turn, or trying and stopping after a sort of "grunt"?
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DH will be off buying a new Kitchenaid, yes?
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As far as old cookbooks go, I have seen these going for several dollars in antique malls. Sometimes the antique malls have a website where you can let dealers know what you have for sale, and they will contact you if they are interested. The trouble is when you have so much stuff and you want it done fast. I called an auction house and they bought most of my mom's furniture and even dishes, paintings etc. You can sometimes get people to come faster if you tell them you have a deadline to meet for selling a house.
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Katie22, thanks for that information.   I don't want to deal with e-Bay, but I'd thought of Pinterest.   I hadn't thought of auction centers other than for larger items (which I also have, dating back to the 1950's, which I wouldn't consider old enough to be an antique, but life has changed so dramatically that things we used then are obsolete now - e.g., wringer washers, mangles, jukeboxes.

I like the idea of finding out if a dealer is interested before lugging boxes of books to the car and over to a shop.

One of the potential dealers I contacted was more interested in going through everything, "helping" me decide what to keep and what not to keep, but balked when I asked about specifics, including rates and whether or not  they had someone on staff knowledgeable about non-antiques, i.e., woodworking tools.

That place didn't buy anything outright; they arranged for an auction, managed it, then gave a small percentage to the seller.   One of my friends did this; she got about 1% of the value of her father's possessions that were sold.  

For that, I'd rather ask the good neighbors to help and pay them.

I'm adding your suggestions to my "auctioneer" section of estate management!
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My autistic friend is driving me crazy. When I couldn't get a hold of him the first time, he finally called me and said he had to change his number because of all these telemarketers calling. I showed him how to block those calls and hoped that would be the end of it. Nope, in the past month and a half, he has changed his number a grand total of 5 times already. When I got his new number through a text this morning, I didn't respond because I am annoyed. I am incredibly tired of changing his contact profile on my phone and then have to do it on my parents' cellphones. I want to tell him flat out that I am tired of changing contact information and he knows how to block telemarketers on his dumb phone. Telemarketers are going to find his cell number any way, so why keep changing the number.
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Yeah, scam callers are robo dialing every imaginable combination of numbers hoping they land on a live one and that somebody will pick up, I don't think there is any way to completely protect against that. The do not call list does work for legitimate reputable businesses though, at least it has for me.
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Some of you may remember tug of war I've had with my neighbour over blowing grass on my driveway and entrance and how I now have been mowing a strip along the driveway - my property does extend a few inches along the drive and I'm happy to mow it if it brings peace, and mostly it has. The weird passive aggressive thing is that he leaves a ragged strip of grass not mowed between us - OK, it looks worse for him than me, so whatever. Today I was feeling all what the heck, this is stupid and mowed the longer grass and he has now left a strip beyond that uncut, plus he blew grass over by my doorway. WTH? I just don't get it, did he see capitulation as a signal to go into the offensive?
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CW, there's nothing for it - if only out of sheer curiosity, you're going to have to ask.

Start with, I don't know, something like: "this 'ere lawn we both want to keep in order, what's the best way to go about it do you think?"

The trouble with inter-boundary things like this is that misunderstandings and honest oversights (or cluelessness - my SO was perfectly capable of coating ALL of my drying laundry with grass clippings without the least idea he'd done wrong) can fester.
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That's the thing CM, last year I did go over and point out about his blowing all his grass toward my place which meant I had to go out and sweep grass every time he cut the lawn, when he made excuses I told him I wanted him to do was walk so the mower blew the grass the other way. A few weeks later he hammered a stake in the ground I imagine meant to be on the property line, but I'm not sure how he came up with the placement. The thing is I'm now mowing beyond that, and the width gets steadily greater in the 20' along the drive... it's obviously some kind of passive aggressive power game that I just can't comprehend. There are many more petty little things - It hurts my feelings and I feel as though I'm walking on eggshells.
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We mow a portion of grass that my absentee neighbor's lawn people leave untouched even though her mailbox is right on top of it. I understand all your frustrations. I don't know whether you could afford to put in a fence. I know that may seem drastic but this neighbor does not seem to have neighborly inclinations of a positive nature and his behavior will likely be a cause for stress unless you live where it snows for half the year. Hope it gets better.
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