Thanks for the link, Bill!

I am quite skeptical about the "thunder" shirt - why not just outfit the dog in one of your own t-shirts (one that you've worn so it has your scent) and cinch it around the dog with a knot? Muc cheaper and probably just as effective.

Desensitization training and/or drugs, rather than gimmicks, work to help dogs with noise related anxieties. I have helped retrain two such animals and it took a lot of work. One was able to remain calm eventually without the meds but the other had to take them all his life.

Jessica re Carter yes ignoring the whining is the best thing to do. You and DH are feeling sorry for (and possibly a little guilty about) Carter and he is playing you for it. Just go to bed, knowing he is secure with the baby gates, and don't let him get away with the whining (says the woman whose 12 lb. cat woke her at 4 a.m. this morning by punching her eye with her little furry paw).

DH is still working part time but now the plan is to give notice next Tuesday. The plan changes so often that I'm finally not going into an anxiety attack every time he announces a new one. Just rolling with it.

I had a lovely phone call from a client who is going in for hip surgery on Friday. I took some photos of her big lab while I was walking him last weekend and put them into a little booklet for her. Left it in her front hall today. She loved it and will take the book along with her to the hospital so she can look at the photos while she is in rehab.

And now the aforementioned cat is meowling downstairs - wants her servant to come and scoop the litter box. And off I go, ever obedient. SIGH.

Dagmar

Carter slept through the night! Woohoo! It took him a while to settle down (thanks Dagmar, we did just ignore him while he was wandering around the bedroom for 30 minutes and he finally relaxed), but he didn't get up at all until I got up at 5:30 to go use the bathroom. He settled down pretty quickly when I came back too and slept another hour and a half.

His elbow appears to be scabbed over now. I'm still seeing some blood spots on his bed when he gets up that look like they appeared during the night, but I don't see any blood on his elbow. Not sure what's going on there, maybe during the night his scab got pulled a little then reformed? In any case I am washing two of his three beds this morning since last night he kept licking the blood spots on his bed and eventually started chewing on it (the cone keeps him from licking himself, but not from licking the bed!) and we had to swap it out for one of his other beds. The scab is pretty gross-looking but it feels dry and solid so I'm going to assume it's okay and just leave it alone to heal.

My car just died this morning. Got it restarted and to the garage but it looks like I'll probably have to skip work today.

I never get a day off and rarely have a full weekend off. I can think of all sorts of stuff I should be doing around the house today.

And ya know what? I'm going to read. And then I'm going to take transit and take my client's 5 month old puppy for a good ramble on his own (something we've never been able to do together).

It's beautiful and sunny and much too nice a day to squander on housework or sitting at the computer.

Have a great day everyone!

Dagmar

Dagmar - have a great day today honey! Sorry about your car, but glad that you get a day off in the bargain.

Jessica - woo hoo! I'm glad he slept through the night, that is a good sign!

I am tired tired tired today, and that isn't good. Today is DH's birthday and we have tickets to the opera for tonight - a three hour show on a day I'm tired. I'm going to be pumping the coffee today, let me tell you!

Jessica-- glad Carter slept through the night!

Dagmar-- hope there is nothing major wrong with your car.

Shannon-- good luck with your opera! I would fall asleep there even if I wasn't tired-- sorry but not an opera lover.

So, I'm off to a slow start, but I see the future and I think I can handle it. I've decided to take baby steps to get back on track after the disaster that was last week. I had decided to try going a week without weighing myself daily and it backfired to a gain of 5 pounds. In.A.Week. So 1.5 are gone again, but I imagine it'll take the rest of the week or more to get rid of the rest. So, baby steps. I've said for a long time that the #1 thing that is hampering my weight loss is alcohol. Although I truly dislike the effects of alcohol, I do love a good glass of wine. My problem is stopping at one glass. However, taking it in baby steps, I've done one day with just one glass. That was yesterday. Today I'll attempt zero. One thing that helped was staying at work longer. I took my car in last week to have the wheels chromed and it'll be gone until next Monday, so we're driving DS's car. When he gets to the office after work, I send him home alone and wait for DH to drive me home. That means an additional 1-3 hours at the office which is good for several reasons, mainly that I don't go home and snack. Also so I don't go home and putter and eventually pour a glass of wine.

Now I did say that since the days are getting a bit longer, I now have a window of time where I can take Chico for a walk in the late afternoon. I didn't manage that yesterday, but depending on this afternoon (send DS home alone or go home with him a bit early) I may or may not take that walk.

This weekend we're doing a "real" round of golf with the in-laws. I say "real" because we're going to a standard golf course rather than the par 3 course we normally play at. This is good and bad. It's good because it'll help me to determine if I'm really progressing, but it'll be bad because we'll be riding in a car rather than walking 18 holes.

Sorry to hear about the car, Dagmar. Does this mean you'll have to buy a new one?

Glad Carter is sleeping better, Jessica!

Sorry you're tired, Shannon. Have fun at the opera--are you going out for dinner first?

What opera will you be attending, Shannon? I really like going to the Met, but it's dreadfully expensive, so I haven't been in a couple years. Funny thing is, when I was poorer, as a grad student, I went regularly. I'd get the cheapest, nose-bleed seat tickets or those with impeded view & move if someone didn't show up to claim a better seat. I also did the standing room thing a few times & moved up into really nice orchestra seats as the performance progressed. Anyway, I saw some wonderful things.

I also noticed that there was a gender imbalance: Men seemed more likely to sleep than women.

Get an espresso in the lobby beforehand, if they have it. That always helped me.

The nosebleed seats were terribly uncomfortable. There would be five or six of us crowded to the front of a balcony, with chairs touching. I always hoped someone wouldn't show up, so there would be more room, but everyone always appeared. The Darwinian thing of being overcrowded & trying to see often made the atmosphere tense.

Once I endured an uncomfortable & ugly evening. There was a woman who was sensitive to fragrances, by chance sitting next to a woman who'd been a little heavy-handed with perfume. Before she figured out who the source of the irritation was, she kept glaring at me suspiciously. (I hadn't even dabbed myself once that day. But I was female, so I was suspect.) Finally, after she worked it out who the offender was, she asked everyone in the box if they could rearrange their seating so the perfumed woman was at the opposite end from her. We complied (and I lost a relatively decent seat for a worse one), and even then she kept having difficulty. I felt badly for her, but there was little else we could do, as Renee Fleming was singing & the house was packed. Finally, I became uncomfortable because I was forced to witness a test of will. By liberal & showy use of her Kleenex & by nasty looks, the afflicted woman was hoping to drive out the perfumed offender. But the perfumed one held her ground. Both were pouting & looking daggers at each other. (This added somewhat to the drama of the opera.) Eventually, the afflicted woman left at the second intermission, fuming & sputtering & planning to complain to management.

Management never showed, though. What could they do? There was no place else we could move to. We couldn't very well go begging at all the nearby balcony seats for a volunteer to switch places. I just did not feel so altruistic as that. The woman's behavior had not won her a friend in me.

And I wondered how people sensitive to fragrances deal with going to places like the opera, where they really have no control over who's seated next to them, and where women invariably tend to dress up & wear some perfume saved for just such a special occasion, often a gift of love from someone.

Saef - I've seen fragrance incidents places like the movies and the theater as well, and have wondered the same thing. I see it in the workplace, a lot.

We are going to see Porgy & Bess - it is supposed to be a fabulous showing, a 'groundbreaking new multimedia presentation of the classic', whatever that means. It is sold out, and got rave reviews for the first performances.

Shannon, have fun at the opera! Typically when DH and I go out to the symphony, I stay awake and he falls asleep (during the first half anyway, he always manages to stay awake the second half). For some reason opera is the other way around. We've only gone to a couple of them since there is no opera house here in Indy (although there is an opera company, but they only put on two shows per year). One was in Sydney on our honeymoon, during which I was still jetlagged and started popping altoids to try to stay awake but fell asleep anyway. The other was in Cincinnati. I think my problem is that operas typically run until after 11pm and I'm usually in bed by 10, so I have a hard time staying awake much later. The symphony's latest performances always end by 10.

Saef, I can totally imagine the fragrance drama. I also wonder why people who are sensitive would put themselves into crowded situations like that, but on the other hand I can't stand it when people use perfume excessively. A little touch is all that you need, you don't need to smell like you bathed in perfume! DH was annoyed when we were at the symphony last weekend because we were surrounded by old ladies who smelled strongly of baby powder and the underlying "old lady smell."

Dagmar, have fun on your day off!

Allison, maybe you should try spending at least a week with the baby step of just having one drink before you cut back to zero.

Carter managed to somehow tear off his scab again. Sigh. At least I know he didn't do it on purpose since he's been in his cone and couldn't possibly have licked it off. It must have come off when his elbow rubbed against his bed while getting up or laying down, but I haven't found it yet. I cleaned it up and used tweezers to pick out the hairs and such that had gotten in. Tried bandaging it again but no luck, the bandage was off in five minutes sliding down his leg. How is it possible to bandage an elbow such that it actually holds? It's beyond me. In any case the wound is smaller now so that's good. He's sleeping again, and barking and growling in his sleep.

saef - Do your remember what Renee Fleming was singing?

It's difficult but we have to be allowed out sometimes!


Have a great time at the opera, Shannon.

Jessica Use gauze strip and wind it around the elbow. Then wind a large loop of it up and around Carter's shoulders, across his chest in front and back down. Finish with a final loop around his elbow and tie off.

silverbirch My DH is not a perfume lover and he finds it difficult to be in enclosed spaces with those who are. He usually has a stuffed up nose afterwards so it's not so tough. People who suffer from asthma, etc. must have a really difficult time going out.

saef I love your phrase "where women invariably tend to dress up & wear some perfume saved for just such a special occasion, often a gift of love from someone." Very romantic. DH gave me some Chanel years ago and then sneezed and complained whenever I wore it.

I had a quiet day but apparently I am now an "essential service" to some of my clients. One called and offered to take me, her dog and one other dog who is her dog's "friend" to the offleash and pick us up when we were done. I was napping when she called and didn't get the message until much later. She works from home. Wonder why she couldn't take an hour (gorgeous day) and walk the dog herself?

My mechanic couldn't find anything wrong with the car. It's going to DH's mechanic tomorrow and I'm driving DH's car. Last time we did this DH's car failed. Since our economic situation doesn't allow me to buy another car I'm hoping one of the mechanics has a brainstorm and figures out the cause.

DH finally ordered me a "normal" keyboard. Tomorrow I should be able to type without having to correct a gazillion typos -

Dagmar

I agree with silverbirch. As someone who is sensitive to some scented products, I'd rather not have to avoid every concert, restaurant, gathering, etc. It's not that I "don't like" those products, it's that they trigger a reaction.

It's just life on the planet. I'm lucky in that there are only a small number of fragrances (like under 6) that I just can't be around. Rose scent is one of them--brings on an asthma attack.

Imagine if people were still allowed to smoke in theaters. Yes, they used to be, and yes, they did. And there was nothing nonsmokers could do about it.

Jay

I was a smoker many, many years ago. Back in college we were allowed to smoke in the classrooms. Teachers too! Boy the one or two non-smokers in our course must have hated the rest of us for that. One of my clients is a smoker and both her dogs smell of it - poor things!

I think those people who wear a lot of scent probably don't realize how much they are affecting those around them. The nose shuts down after a couple of minutes. That's a real bonus in my line of work!

Time to go and figure out something for dinner. Since I was "avec loisir" today I'm sure DH expects me to actually cook something!

Dagmar