24/7 startups, and unexpected pitfalls?

[Little Sherri]

I ended up going with the Elite Hybrid. It did a hell a of a job; I stumbled out of the Uber at 2 AM at a fast food burger place that's about a 10 minute walk from my buddy's house, because nothing but good decisions are made at 2 AM. The burger worked wonders with respect to distracting my stomach from the carbonated abuse it was receiving. We walked back to his place, I with what I felt was a pronounced waddle at that point, because my diaper was swollen heroically up front and down the middle. I tried the bamboo diaper liners again, and they maybe helped a bit, but the walking around caused them to abandon their post in short order. They did not participate in any failure modes, however. 

We got back to his place and I fell into his guest room, then forced myself to get up and brush my teeth, and change my diaper, out of concern for an overnight wetting overwhelming what I had on. I swapped the "Barry" for a Rearz Inspire, a tabbed "overnight" diaper (their terminology) that I find to be pretty trustworthy, and, truthfully, a good deal, in terms of what they cost when they're on sale (about $3 CAD each), versus how they perform. When I woke up, the diaper was wet, all at the front, and I vaguely recalled having a dream where I was on a bus and really had to pee, something like that. The sheets remained pristine, thankfully, but, I had created another issue for myself: I was wearing a diaper of significant bulk to begin with, and now the front was swollen... and I hadn't brought another one with me. My diaper bag was in my car, parked where we started our journey, and my friend was going to drive me over there... after we had breakfast and hung out with his family for 45 minutes.

Normally, these days, I'm not self-conscious about my diaper, so maybe it was the hangover, but, for the first time in a while, I felt compelled to tug my sweater downward and to seat myself in the corner of their couch and not get up until it was necessary. The moment passed, he drove me to my car, and I went home and spent the better part of the day in that Inspire, but it's funny how you (or I) can do something confidently 80 times in a row, and then on the 81st time, feel uneasy. In analyzing it, I suspect it might have stemmed from a feeling I had the previous night, when we were on the lash, that my not using the washroom might be noticeable - the place we were at had 120 taps but 2 toilets, so there was often a line, and reports back from the front hinted at terrible conditions, so, really, why would I bother pantomiming a trip to a hideous toilet, comfortably enveloped as I was in a top-tier diaper? But as the night wore on, and people got up, waited, came back, spoke about how "this place needs more toilets", and other people said that they'd missed a round, they'd been gone so long, etc, etc, I felt like my lack of a war story to contribute could have been noted to anyone observant enough, although the copious drinking of cognitive solvents probably reduced the likelihood of anyone taking notes. By the end of the night, some of us barely knew which way up was. 

Today, I'm sitting in my office in my usual work-from-home outfit of a golf shirt and a diaper. We are definitely flirting with fall around here, with overnight temperatures dropping to the high single-digits, but during the day, it's still getting up into the mid 20's, with some humidity. I have yet to have to dig out my little heater that I run under my desk, to facilitate wearing only diapers in my office during the long, dark months where water is a solid in these parts. 

[Little Sherri]

Here's one for you: I'm hanging out in my office, going over a spreadsheet, wearing a Rearz Inspire, and suddenly I was beset by a violent sneeze. I noted that right when I sneezed, I felt a brief "surge" from the nether-regions. I know that this is not an uncommon phenomenon for females of the species, particularly those who have born children, but this isn't something I've ever noticed before. 

It's impossible to confirm anything with forensic evidence, because the diaper had already seen a few hours of my normal pattern of use, but what I *think* happened was this: I was probably dribbling a bit already, and then the sneeze caused a momentary surge. I've sneezed a few time over the past 48 hours, and probably dozens or hundreds of times this year, and never really felt like I peed during the any such instances before.

I wasn't consciously "going" at the time, so that momentary sensation of urethral pressure caught me by surprise, and raised the question of whether I was so distracted by my dive into a miles-deep worksheet, that I was completely unaware that I was apparently blithely making use of my diaper. And if so, then, how often does that happen? 

The feeling was slightly disconcerting, but also intriguing. 

[oznl]

On 9/21/2022 at 12:36 AM, Little Sherri said:

I ended up going with the Elite Hybrid. It did a hell a of a job; I stumbled out of the Uber at 2 AM at a fast food burger place that's about a 10 minute walk from my buddy's house, because nothing but good decisions are made at 2 AM.

It is VERY hard for me to see how old Albert could have come up with something like E=MC2 before midnight and without 10 pints of beer and a chilli kebab on board...

[Old_PA]

On 9/22/2022 at 6:53 PM, Little Sherri said:

Here's one for you: I'm hanging out in my office, going over a spreadsheet, wearing a Rearz Inspire, and suddenly I was beset by a violent sneeze. I noted that right when I sneezed, I felt a brief "surge" from the nether-regions. I know that this is not an uncommon phenomenon for females of the species, particularly those who have born children, but this isn't something I've ever noticed before. 

I've had the prostate and inner sphincter removed and subsequently re-potty trained to some extent. If wearing protection, a sneeze always produces a squirt. At other times, care is needed.

 

[Little Sherri]

I was doing some cleaning and organizing this morning, and while rummaging through the linen closet, I discovered three bottles of baby powder and two tubs of diaper cream, where we keep the Q-tips and deodorant and toothpaste refills and such, where the rest of the 6-pack from Costco gets consigned to. Apparently, Walmart had them on sale. Plus I already have a couple in the cabinet in our bathroom. This tells me that my beloved is not of the impression that "this" is going to change anytime soon, I guess. 

So, hopefully she gives me a break when she sees that I've re-upped on cases of diapers. I'm back up to 8 cases, 5 of which are unopened, plus two totes that you could bathe a large dog in, which hold things I didn't buy by the case, bags and samples and ends of cases that I'm trying to burn through. To that end, I'm doing housework right now in a Rearz Alpaca. Not a bad diaper, but not compelling enough to make the team. Such space and money is better spent on the Elite Hybrid, Mermaid Tale or Critter Caboose, in the bulky diaper category. 

[Little Sherri]

I'm in an unusual getup this morning; I'm double-diapered. I almost never do this, for the same reason I generally don't use boosters: the operating range for most of the products I wear coincides with about the maximum amount of time I want to spend in one diaper, typically. Any of the mid-tier or top-tier products in my arsenal tend to become too large to wear anywhere but around the house, once they get toward the end of their service life, and I'm usually too busy to spend 18 hours without having to go somewhere. 

However, I have an office day head of me, and after that, I'm likely brewing (a rare weekday brewing session because I have a deadline for the final product), so I figure I can probably wear this ensemble for more or less as long as I want to. I went to bed in it last night, but, I woke up dry. 

I didn't set out to get here, but, two of my low-end slim gym diapers failed me last week, when one of the wings ripped off the body at the back, leaving me with no other way to use them, so here I am, already with a bit of a toddler walk to me, and it isn't 10 am yet. It will be interesting to see how this performs. My experience suggests that, obviously, layering two diapers (with the inner one having been perforated lightly, like a tea bag) results in a notable capacity increase, but, doing that can also lead to unpredictable failure modes, as overlapping material and unanticipated bulk frustrates the design of the outer product, in particular. But, it beats throwing the damaged diaper out. If I can wear this until I get ready for bed, I'll have gotten my money out of it, is my theory. 

[Little Sherri]

The double-diaper experiment came to an end when the inner diaper was overwhelmed and threw in the towel, or rather, stopped acting like a towel, and became more of a conduit. The perforations I added were insufficient to channel the overflow, or the stuffing was too effective at holding it, something like that, and the end result was that I started getting press-out leakage around the legs. Although by that point, the the ensemble was retaining quite a lot, and walking around in it felt a bit absurd. But the whole was less than the sum of its parts. The outer diaper was a Rearz Inspire+, and the inner one was a Prevail 360 something-or-other. They have about 20 models with "360" in the title, and the only way for me to reorder is to either retain the packaging from the last order, or look up my order history. 

The Prevail allowed the pressed-out moisture to run over the sides of the Inspire, when the inspire was at about 60% or so of its capacity, in my estimation. 60% Inspire+, plus 110% of a Prevail 360, probably adds up to about 80% of an Inspire+, so the overall range wasn't greatly shortened, by any means, but neither was it appreciably improved upon, so I don't see much value in placing that $2 diaper into that $3 diaper, to get $3's worth of wearing. But, as I said before, the wings on these 360's are prone to detaching, so, I guess it beats using one to dry the car. I have one more damaged 360 to burn through - maybe I'll be more generous with the perforations and see if I get a better result. My experience in perforating Pampers and putting them in the Prevail is that they notably extend the overall range, without the negative side-effects.

I've switched Prevail models on future purchases because of the tendency for the - I think it's Per-Fit 360 - to part ways with their wings when being put on. Their "regular" size, according to their sizing chart, extends well past my regular size, but, when stretching the wings into place, sometimes the seam where they meet the backing lets go. But if I go up a size, the tabs practically meet at the front, and the back goes halfway up to my shoulders. They really need a size that splits the difference. 

While waddling around my house in that doubled-up package, I got a swat on the rear from my wife as she walked past me in the kitchen at one point, indicating, I think, that she noticed the extra bulk in my equatorial district, because she doesn't generally do that. This, despite my having put on my most generously oversized shorts. Then my daughter, who was sitting at the island doing homework, looked up and said "That sounded dense." 

[BabyJilly_S]

20 minutes ago, Little Sherri said:

Then my daughter, who was sitting at the island doing homework, looked up and said "That sounded dense." 

And that gave me a much appreciated belly laugh during my afternoon tea break, thanks  

[Little Sherri]

Today may be a pants-free day. Well, a lot of my days are semi-pants free, and not just because I stubbornly wear shorts until I can see my breath outdoors, and even then sometimes I don't relent. However, for a lot of the time I spend in my office, I have just a diaper on below the waist, so that isn't particularly remarkable in terms of it being breaking news, although, if I may digress for a moment, when I think about where I was a few years ago, versus where I am today, really, the fact that I wear just a diaper for a lot of most days IS remarkable. I used to furtively squeeze into a pull-up for a couple of hours sometimes, under my jeans, and wonder the whole time if someone could tell. The only open diaper time I got was when the house was empty or I was travelling on business and had a hotel room to myself. So being enveloped in a decent plastic diaper 24/7, and often only a diaper for half of that time, is a big development. 

But I digress, as I warned I would. Today, my wife is out of the house for most of the day, and my daughter is at school and then has dance afterwards. While my wife obviously knows I dress like a toddler under my clothes, I don't wander around the house in just a diaper very often, other than in the later evening when I know the kids are out of the picture. But today, I got up, stretched, went downstairs and made myself a cup of coffee, then pulled shorts on to take the dog out, then, the shorts came off, and I read the newspaper and made breakfast in just a diaper. 

My side door affords a tree-shielded route to my office, so at the appointed hour, I made my way over here, again, sans-trousers. Passing traffic could, in theory, have gotten an eyeful, but the placement of our cars, and the fact that I can hear when a vehicle draws near to intersecting my driveway, made such an occurrence unlikely. It's an interesting feeling, being over here in my office, without backup pants. I would liken it to how I felt when I first threw out the last of my big-boy underwear. "Oh boy, I have no recourse now..." Something like that. I suppose I could fashion a kilt out of a garbage bag, or wrap myself in one of the throw-blankets off of the couch, if the place catches fire or the gas company shows up on the driveway for some reason. 

I don't know why wearing "only" a diaper (and a shirt - without a shirt, I even offend myself) is my preferred mode of operation. As a kid wearing diapers, I didn't spend a lot of time without something on over it, other than when I was in bed in the summer, since we didn't have air-conditioning until I was in my early teens. I was too self-conscious to walk around the house like that, most of the time. I almost never would, in front of my sister, because she'd say "Nice diaper", or something like that. I shared a room with my brother, so privacy in that department was nonexistent, and I do recall playing cars on the floor of our bedroom in the hotter months in a diaper, back when we were both young enough that we didn't typically leave our room until a parent was up and set us free (my brother was a sleep-walker so my parents put a latch on our bedroom door, as he had on at least one occasion attempted to walk out the front door in the middle of the night). 

I recall getting fabulously burned when I got up one morning, when we were both a bit older and the door was no longer latched, and I walked downstairs and fixed myself a bowl of cereal to eat in front of the television, early on a Saturday, without bothering to pull something on over my diaper. What I didn't realize was that my aunt and a cousin had arrived from Montreal after my brother and I went to bed. So, when I heard steps coming down the hall, I figured it was my brother... nope. It was my female cousin, who was a year younger than me, and about two years older than my brother. I ended up locking myself in the bathroom, but only after she saw me streak past her in soggy Pampers.

All of which is to say that, hanging out in just a diaper wasn't a common experience, and nor was it, at times, a good experience. Maybe what I'm doing now is part of "taking that time back", rinsing it free of humiliation, and and then putting it back up on the shelf of my psyche? 

[ppdude]

We all suffer from too much self analysis. Gotta stop doing that myself -- it is what it is.  So with all that did the need for diapers precipitate the want or did the want precipitate the need? That's a hard one to answer.

 

 

[Little Sherri]

My wife mildly weaponized the "D" word last night. We were engaged in a low-level domestic dispute over snoring, a topic which irritates me. Here's why: my wife complains that I snore if I've been out on the lash (IE, had a few drinks), or, when I have a cold or am otherwise congested. I don't dispute this. BUT, she snores like a freight train lumbering up a hill, pretty much EVERY night. The difference is, I long ago gave up on waking her to ask her to stop snoring, because I know it's not in her control, and, she has a hard time falling asleep, generally, so waking her up can set her back a couple of hours. Plus, a tired wife is a grumpy wife. So, I just learned to tune it out, most of the time. Once in a while, if I'm having trouble sleeping, it might grate on my nerves a bit, but I suck it up. 

Whereas she has no such compunction. Just as she used to elbow me awake because the chattering/clicking of my teeth that I engage in while falling asleep drove her nuts (before I discovered that pacifiers completely eliminate the issue), so it goes that, if I do start snoring, she basically yells at me in the middle of the night. 

The issue came to a head last night, because the previous night, she had done that a few times, and in fact, I believe that she was dreaming that I was snoring, and then yelling at me about the contents of her dream, because at one point she yelled out that she hadn't had a wink of sleep and could I please stop snoring, which woke me up, and then she immediately fell into a sleep deep enough that she started snoring, and then I sat there for some period of time, NOT sleeping, idly reading about the hurricane that hammered Atlantic Canada, when she sat up in bed and again yelled that she "Needed sleep, goddamn it, stop SNORING!!!". I wasn't snoring. I wasn't sleeping. But she was. So, either her snoring woke her up, or, she was dreaming about being woken up. 

So, I'd had enough. Before we turned out the lights last night, I said, in a calm voice, something along the lines of "Hey, last night you woke me up a number of times to tell me to stop snoring, and, you also made the request on at least one occasion where I wasn't even asleep yet. I don't know what's going on there - if you heard yourself snoring, or you dreamed I was snoring, or what. But, anyway, here's the thing - you snore almost every night, that's just a fact of life for me. I long ago gave up on waking you up and asking you to stop, because I know it's not in your control, and it just results in you getting a crappy night's sleep. SO, I would appreciate if you'd extend the same courtesy to me, and, if you notice that I'm snoring, just try and ignore it, rather than waking me multiple times, some of which, I suspect, aren't warranted."

In response to that, she invited me to go sleep elsewhere - that I was welcome to sleep in the guest bedroom or my office or where ever I want to. Background: her parents have had separate bedrooms for decades, with her mom having a king-sized bed and a 50" TV and an ensuite bathroom to herself, while her dad sleeps on a single daybed in a sparsely-decorated office, to the sound of a decade-old PC tower humming away. THAT is not happening to me. SO, I said, "Nope, not happening, I am not being evicted from the master bedroom in my house. If you would like separate sleeping quarters, the world is your oyster - you have an office, I have an office, we have a lovely guest bedroom, our older daughter's room is vacant during the school year... take your pick. You are not evicting me."

To which she said "Do you wear diapers?"

I was taken aback by that, sitting there, as I was, in a diaper, and in a brilliant flash of wit, said, "Uh, yes..."

She responded with: "Well, I don't wear diapers, so, I get the room with a bathroom. The world is YOUR oyster. Need to pee? Pee in your diaper." Then she pointed to my diaper, a Rearz Lil' Splash. I felt my cheeks redden. 

I had to admit that she had a point, although I did not say that out loud. But I'm not vacating my bedroom. 

[Kif]

Wow. 

Uhm.

Condolances! That sounds...frustrating. I hope you can find a solution that works better for you.

[oznl]

We have a remarkably effective noise-cancellation circuit in our brains that effectively mutes our “hearing” of noises that we, ourselves are making.  We don’t wake ourselves with our own snoring, we wake others.

Back in the day where I was living in the grey fog of untreated, severe sleep apnea, it was never snoring that woke me, it was hypoxia.  I would wake with a startle many times each night, acutely aware that I was literally, suffocating.  My beloved assured me that it was much quieter when I wasn't breathing.

I know from personal experience that this brain-mute-feature extends to the twilight places of near-sleep. I can recall being dimly aware on some level that I’d started to snore but being utterly untroubled by it, until I got a dig in the ribs.

I sleep with a CPAP now and have done for several years.  Whilst not the primary intent, a side effect of CPAP therapy is that it is physiologically impossible to snore.  My airway is propped open by positive pressure at all times.  Anybody can buy a CPAP but it’s extreme medicine for simple snoring.

Interestingly, the neural “mute” circuit is adaptive.  Sometimes, my mask will leak air with an audible hissing sound (the machine has flow detection and simply compensates by working harder – still no snoring).  I’ve been woken by my beloved rather abruptly and told to fix it.  It does NOT wake me even though on some level I am aware of it.

My beloved snores but mercifully, not every night.  It is utterly forbidden to mention this or attempt any kind of intervention on pain of freeze-drying displeasure.  There’s some kind of mental trick to “not hearing” your partner’s snoring.  It’s still hit and miss for me.  Once I’ve started hearing it, I can’t stop though and I'm a terrible sleeper anyway.  I've had my share of wrecked nights.

I’d stand my ground with the bedroom too. 

[FretaBWet]

@Little SherriMy late husband snored like a freight train and it wasn't helping my sleep any so I complained. His first line of defense was denial that there was an issue. I took a tape recorder and the next time he woke me while he snored I recorded it along with my quiet voice telling him this is what I put up with. That pretty much ended any debate about snoring nor who was the snorer. He did a sleep study and they said his sleep apnea was really bad so he got a CPAP. That probably would be good for most people but I sleep best with quiet. I have never slept with a radio or TV on in the bedroom and the drone of the CPAP machine made sleep difficult. Sometimes the easiest way to diffuse an argument is to provide irrefutable evidence.

Hugs,

Freta 

[Little Sherri]

1 hour ago, FretaBWet said:

Sometimes the easiest way to diffuse an argument is to provide irrefutable evidence.

Yup - the funny thing is, she recorded me snoring and played it for me years ago... but I never denied doing it. I know I snore when I've had a few drinks. So I'll probably have to do the same thing for her, to prove that I'm not making it up. I believe she probably could use a CPAP - she often sleeps intermittently and doesn't get a good sleep. I generally sleep like a baby, so I don't think I have sleep apnea, other than maybe when I self-induce it via a couple of vats of red wine or a string of IPA's. 

[Old_PA]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

Yup - the funny thing is, she recorded me snoring and played it for me years ago... but I never denied doing it. I know I snore when I've had a few drinks. So I'll probably have to do the same thing for her, to prove that I'm not making it up. I believe she probably could use a CPAP - she often sleeps intermittently and doesn't get a good sleep. I generally sleep like a baby, so I don't think I have sleep apnea, other than maybe when I self-induce it via a couple of vats of red wine or a string of IPA's. 

Sleeping in a different room solves most problems. One might be emotionally deprived but the quality of the sleep is sooooo much better.

[oznl]

10 hours ago, FretaBWet said:

I have never slept with a radio or TV on in the bedroom and the drone of the CPAP machine made sleep difficult.

I've heard this elsewhere too.  I'm wondering what type of CPAP it was?  I'm on my second Resmed device, current a Resmed Airsense 10 and they are almost literally, silent.   They are an automatic CPAP device meaning that they modulate air flow in accordance with measured back pressure.  A leaking mask will hiss slightly but that's about it and if the mask is adjusted correctly, the leaking is so minor as to be inaudible.

The #1 fan of my Resmed is my beloved, she's a HUGE supporter of it ?

[Little Sherri]

Well, the snoring issue seems to have receded into the rearview mirror for now. She didn't elbow me awake at any point last night, although I hadn't had anything to drink yesterday. Saturday night, though, I got quite sauced on glorious double IPA's, so I'm sure I snored that night, but I was too comatose to register it, if my beloved tried to awaken me. My diaper took a beating that night; I wandered into the room in a NorthShore AirSupreme, which is a high-capacity cloth-backed diaper with mediocre hook/loop tabs. When I dropped my jeans, the diaper reached lovingly for the ground, but I almost rejected its entreaty, thinking, ah well, who cars if it sags if I'm lying down? But, in a moment of clarity, and I dropped the thing into my diaper can and hastily got into an Inspire+ before collapsing on top of the covers. I'm glad I did that, because in the morning, the front it had taken heavy fire, and I don't think that near-to-saturated AirSupreme would have stayed at its post under such an assault. Plus, the Air Supreme does that thing where the cover starts registering as vaguely damp, even though it's not "wet" and it doesn't make your clothes wet. The Rearz Active Air is less prone to that, and I believe this is because they actually integrate a plastic sheet into the business area. 

Right now, I'm in an old friend of a diaper, a Rearz Lil' Monster. These, and their Lil' Splash twins have, along with the NorthShore Megamax, formed the backbone of my diaper wardrobe over the past 3+ years. These Rearz are slim enough to wear away from the house, but robust enough to be trustworthy, and, critically, when they're on sale, they can be had for less than $3 CAD per unit. The print is a bonus. 

[Little Sherri]

Well, we seem to be approaching one of those crossroads in life when you have a pet. We have an elderly German Shepherd who has been a great companion, and who was infinitely patient with the kids when they were little, but he's approaching 14 years old, which makes him a senior citizen by any measure. Even this past summer, neighbours of ours remarked on how they couldn't believe how hold he was, because he looked so good, and was always running around. But, he seems to be winding down now. He's been to the vet three times this week, but there doesn't seem to be much they can do. They suspect he has some kind of tumour, but at his age, operating on him would likely be futile, an exercise in spending thousands of dollars, in order to diminish his quality of life for whatever time he has left. I appreciate that our vet said that if it was his decision to make, he wouldn't do it, despite him having two kids in university. 

There's a chance that he could shake this latest episode off, but the writing is on the wall, sadly. I want to look into cloning this dog, he's been so good. 

As usual, I will now navigate this topic back towards magnetic North for this venue... because he's been so lethargic, he struggles to navigate the stairs, but, he still weighs 80 lbs, so I am the only one who can carry him anywhere. I have some pending travel on the docket, which is going to make things a bit more complicated, if he makes it that far - he'll probably have to sleep on the main floor of the house, rather than upstairs, which is his preference. My wife, not missing a beat, said "Maybe we should try to get him into one of your Pampers." 

[~Brian~]

@Little Sherri

I just wanted to chime in here: I've had pets most of my life, but ever since I was about 7, I didn't have pets that you had to maintain by walking them, like when we had dogs when I was younger. If you can find the right pet, and he becomes a member of your family, he does a lot of different things, probably goes everywhere you go, wants to emulate you or make you feel good, plays with you and enjoys the fun times, and you also enjoy the time with your pets.

I've always dreamed of having a place where I could have pets like that, but then of course I'd have to take care of them. One thing that I really don't like is the fact that there are dogs that are out there, and they are chained to somewhere, and then they are not allowed to go places without being socialized, because they end up outside all the time and they don't get a chance to interact with the family. This is not really what a dog is for.

Pets are supposed to be companions: I see many dogs that are well taken care of, and they become like a part of you. My late grandmother had a toy poodle, and she called her panda bear. Everybody else called their panda. Panda went everywhere the Gram did, and every single time my stepfather would pick up the car keys, if she heard it, she'd go to my stepdad and bark. She wanted to go with him. Several times my stepdad would take her where he was going, so my step dad would take her places as much as possible.

my grandmother also was very awesome. We've had a lot of fun with her over the years, before she passed away, but I still remember to this day, every single time she would pick up her keys, panda would respond and would be barking, and Gram would tell her: yes you're going home! She was an awesome dog, and I believe she lived for at least five more years before Gram passed, or I might be wrong and she passed first.

When you have a dog like that, you want it to enjoy a good life. Pets are like family members, so if they are sick, or they don't feel good, or they don't feel happy, or they notice that you aren't happy or you don't feel good, they know the difference. They can even smell differences. By this I mean, if you smell one way, the dog probably thinks that you're doing OK, but he knows when you don't feel good, and I've heard of people saying that dogs can smell the difference between when you feel good and when you feel bad period there's a difference in your smell to a dog, and it is incredible they know what's going on. I've even heard of dogs that are trained to be able to sniff out cancer, and they can detect it, it is incredible how dogs and cats and other animals can do things like this.

I've had dogs from the time I was born until I was six. We got rid of all of our dogs, because we're moving to the city, and we didn't have room for them all. We took them to the shelter, and humanely dealt with them. Not sure exactly what happened to all these dogs, but I certainly hope that they left a legacy and they lived a happy life. Since they probably are long gone, all I can say is that they were awesome, and they took care of me and my brother very closely, and they wouldn't let anyone get close to us unless it was mom dad or our family members.

Now, I just have my stuffed orangutan Amy as my friend. She is like a companion like your dog is to you. When I need somebody to hug, she is there. When I need somebody to talk to, she is there. When I feel down she is there to help me get through it. She even helped me get through my appendicitis attack 30 years ago, because I was in a lot of pain, so my mom brought me her and told me to hug her when I felt bad. She's always been by my side ever since, and I'm 50 years old, and she is 20. I always try to take good care of her and I love her like a daughter and I treat her as such.

Pets are amazing creatures: they help us in ways that sometimes we understand very well, and sometimes we may underestimate our pets, but they are there to help us through times when we need help. I miss my dogs and all of my pets, but it is impractical for me to have pets now, because I can't take care of them the way I would want to. However, my dad has had dogs before, and one of the dogs was very protective of dad, but he would let me hold him on my lap, and because of his prior abuse, we just babied him and let him do almost anything. My dad did this because the dog was abused and caged at all times, and my dad gave him a chance to be a dog, and be able to be in an environment where he doesn't have to worry about abuse, he can have fun, and my dad could hold him and just be therefore him, loving him up like I would love Amy. That dog died, but my dad ended up taking him home because he thought that it was wrong for the dog to be in a cage all the time period.

Now, the only pet that they have is my stepmother's cat. Her cat is her constant companion, and will find her and will jump up in her chair and lay beside her, or we'll curl up at the foot of her bed and allow her to pet her. It is also cool that it helps my stepmom because she has a constant companion, because my dad sometimes is not around, so she needs a friend when that happens. Pets take care of us, so it is our responsibility, like you said, to take care of those who do that for us.

It is my hope that your dogs and other pets continue to enjoy the life that they can enjoy, because they're not just a dog or a cat or a fish, they are your friends, they are your sons or daughters, they are your family. I have friends of mine who don't have kids. Instead of kids, they have dogs, so they are furry parents: and I know for a fact that my friends will spoil them rotten, and that is the best thing that you can do for your furry friends. Allow them to live the life that they can to the extreme fullest, being there to help them if they should need it, and God forbid if the time comes that it would be better to put them down, you are there to help them through that as well.

Brian

 

[Vulpix77]

I lost one of my dogs tragically this summer and it's looking like I'm going to lose another this fall. Cherish the time you have with your pets and you will never regret it.

[WetDad]

@Little Sherri -

I am now on my fourth GSD, and she is getting rather old. She is still my companion all day at work, and keeps my company around the yard or in the shop, too. Having seen this before, I know when the right time will be to let her go, but it's not that time yet, so I treasure the remaining time we have together.

In addition, I have raised hounds, which last much longer. I don;t know why. That's one of those burning questions I will take with me to heaven's gate.

[oznl]

7 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

We have an elderly German Shepherd who has been a great companion, and who was infinitely patient with the kids when they were little, but he's approaching 14 years old, which makes him a senior citizen by any measure.

I’ve always been a sucker for a German Shepherd.  My sister has a few and spent many years breeding them.  She was constantly trying to foist a free German Shepherd puppy onto me (despite the fact she could sell them for vast amounts of money) and I always pushed back because I knew I’d be the only one who would walk it and I spent most of my waking hours on zoom meetings or aircraft.

I was deeply impressed by the stunningly good temperament of her Shepherds.  Even though back then I saw her only occasionally due to living in different cities, her dogs always seemed to sense that I was “family” and were unfailingly pleased to see me.  I swear they could grin.

Despite the fact that they looked like 40 kilo fang-and-muscle killing machines that should have been terrorising prisoners of war in the 1940s, I have photos of my daughter as a toddler, asleep with her toddler cousin on the floor using an available fang-and-muscle killing machine as a pillow.

I think part of my present day reluctance to have one is that I couldn’t bear to say goodbye to it.

Instead, I have an ungrateful and perpetually hostile rescue-kitty who has spent the last 14 years slowly inoculating me against the pain of losing a pet.  I invite her to “move towards the light” every rubbish night if there’s space in the bin…

[Little Sherri]

5 hours ago, oznl said:

Despite the fact that they looked like 40 kilo fang-and-muscle killing machines that should have been terrorising prisoners of war in the 1940s, I have photos of my daughter as a toddler, asleep with her toddler cousin on the floor using an available fang-and-muscle killing machine as a pillow.

Yup, I have similar photos of my kids. Also, they learned the basics of anatomy by probing the dog. "Eyes!!!" (poke poke). "Tail!!!!" (pull pull). He could have killed all of us and then lived for months devouring our remains (if a couple of toilet seats were left up, anyway), but instead, he let my daughters put sweaters and hats on him. He knew intuitively that "the Gods favour these ones." Their relationships were forged when my youngest was in a highchair, perpetually raining treasure onto the floor. Toddlers and dogs are a fantastic pairing - you so rarely have to sweep up after meals. 

About three houses ago, we had someone kick in the front door; this is the only time anything like that ever happened to us. We lived across from a big park so I assume it was a crime of opportunity. Anyway, we had just got both kids new iPads, and both of the devices were sitting on a table where we put our keys and such, agianst a wall in the foyer right inside the front door. We came home from somewhere to find the front door wide open, the doorframe splintered... and, two gleaming new iPads sitting on that table, about 10 feet from the door. Nothing was missing from the house. The cops gathered that some idiot had watched us leave the house, from a vantage point in the park, then sauntered over and kicked in the front door... and met our dog. And had a moment of clarity. 

[Little Sherri]

Here's a new one, which demonstrates the danger of wearing an unfamiliar product into an unfamiliar situation... I helped good friends of ours run a very large anniversary celebration for their parents; it was almost a second wedding, really, with people coming in other countries. They rented a hall, and I assisted with setup, bartending, and the teardown. I walked about 30 kilometers that day. I started out in a Megamax, but once it swelled up, it became less compatible with my dress pants, so I reached way, WAY back into my car for my secondary go-bag, because my primary diaper bag was in my wife's car. In that bag in the spare tire well, I was amazed to find... an ABU Super Dry Kids. This is a single tab-per-side vintage Pampers replica that I bought a bag of years ago, certainly before I was 24/7. They were on the shelf back when Rearz had a walk-in store, if memory serves. I didn't realize I had any of them left. 

So, I had worn these before, but only recreationally, whereas now, it needed to actually function as a diaper. They're not particularly bulky, and, I seemed to recall that they held up okay. Since I was nearing the end of the evening, and, my wife's car, and hence my primary diaper bag, were due back at some point, I thought I could chance it. 

What I didn't anticipate was the amount of walking I would undertake, in the last quarter of the evening, stacking up tables and chairs and cleaning out the bar area and carrying things out to waiting cars, as they needed to vacate the hall completely, before locking up. 

The diaper didn't feel like it was in danger of betraying me, so I put my head down and went to work. At a point right at the end of the evening, my friend's wife said "You sat in something wet!" Thankfully, she had watched me crouching on the floor behind the bar, disposing of wine and beer bottles etc, so it was easy to see how she'd come to that conclusion. However, I had not, so far as I knew, sat in anything wet. I waited until I had a private moment, and ran my hand over the back of my pants... and felt nothing. No wet spots down around the thighs. What was she talking about? I felt higher... and, indeed, there was a damp patch, not really "wet", more "humid", that her hawk-eyes had somehow discerned. It was located in the MIDDLE of my derriere, up high. What failure mode was this???

Things wrapped up and I drove home and headed straight for the washroom, to change and see what the hell was going on. It turns out, I had somehow walked a hole in the middle of the rear of the diaper. The inner liner was worn through, some stuffing had come out, and the outer plastic cover had a tear in it the size of a quarter. Seeing that caused me to go examine the back of my pants and my onesie - had I sat on, or bushed against, something sharp, instead of something wet? But, my clothes were undamaged. 

Thankfully, the failure occurred high enough up that unless I had been lying down, no actual liquid was likely going to make it to that region, just dampness. Looking at my pants, I could not fathom how anyone had even noticed it. The dark grey pants looked just *slightly* darker in an area the diameter of a tea cup. It was like a mouse had gained access to my trousers, had then chewed a small hole in the back of my diaper, and then escaped. The engineering side of my brain boggled. Had it been torn while it was in the car somehow? I actually went outside onto the driveway and opened the trunk and examined the bag it had occupied, but there was no damage to it. Did I tear it getting it out of it's original packaging, years ago? Possibly? But how had I not noticed the damage when I put it on, in a well-lit bathroom, after actually turning the thing over in my hands a couple of times, only because I hadn't seen one in such a long time that I wanted to refamiliarize myself with its construction? 

I remain confused.