lets look at the situation.. from another angle.. that cute LITTLE tree that was planted TOO CLOSE TO THE HOUSE ... IS EXTREMELY PROBLEMATIC.. FOR MORE REASON BESIDE A POTENTIAL DISEASE.. opps.. being telephoned poled.. and looks like buried in plastic near the soil line ... not to mention a bark problem a few inches up from the soil ... very frankly.. GET RID OF IT ... its useful life is over ... no need polluting mother earth.. solving one of MANY other problems ... if you cant tell from the first pic.. the potential of this tree.. demands that it be about 6 to 10 feet further from the house.. in all dimensions .. to sum it up.. this is your front door.. on a very fine house like yours ... do NOT mess with problems plants.. where one is giving the first impression of your castle ... [if this were on the back 40.. we could mess around with it for years .. lol .. but not out the front door ...] and have no guilt.. because you will replace it.. so mother earth.. net zero ... ken ps: any hard frosts or freezes after a brief early heat wave????

I might trade you my one geriatric bladder compromised cat for two of your cute little kittens. lol My old cat probably needs to be put down but I don't have the heart. I have to keep her shut up away from the carpet unless she's right with me. I put her out on the deck or patio occasionally but I can't leave her outside long because she's a bit crippled and couldn't get away from a dog. Ok - Here's my story about Jackson: My daughter who just turned 18 is the one who brought him home. She LOVES dogs and always has from the time she was big enough to point at pictures of dogs in books. Everything she wanted for Christmas for several years had a dog/puppy theme, clothes, books, toys etc. Anyway - A few weeks ago we were in the living room.... Daughter: "Mom I need to tell you something" Me: "okay" Daughter: "I've been wanting to tell you for awhile" Me: "okay what?" Daughter: "Promise not to ground me" Me: knowing not to argue "okay" Daughter: "Promise not to take my phone away" Me: now getting a bit concerned "okay" Daughter: "You know how I said Jackson was a stray?" Me: now getting more than a bit concerned "yeah" Daughter: "Well he wasn't" Me: "What?!" My daughter has never stolen anything that I know of but that was my first thought. She didn't (thank goodness). She told me that a friend of a friend was planning to move out of state and couldn't take her dog with her. She was looking for a home for it and my daughter wanted the dog. She'd never even seen it but it was a dog after all. So they cooked up a scheme. Her friend and the dog's owner met her across three fields on another road more than a half mile away with the dog. My daughter walked, and they drove to the spot at an agreed time. My daughter MADE mud and took it with her to rub on the dog so it would look more like a stray. They scratched out the writing on his rabies tag so it couldn't be traced and she carried him home. She had been told that it was a dachshund mix which he is, but STANDARD dachshund not the itty bitty kind so he's very heavy, between 30 and 40 pounds. She carried her new muddy dog about a quarter mile towards our house and then called me out of breath from her cell phone to tell me she had "caught" a stray dog at the back of our field and could she bring it home and feed it. So after I spent a few weeks looking through every lost-dog site on the internet, posting in the paper, making signs, taking him to the vet to have him scanned for a chip, etc, we gave in and decided to let her keep him. The kids had all voted on a name for him and decided to call him Jackson. Well his name was ALREADY Jackson. My daughter had told her two sisters where he really came from and they kept her secret for a few months until she finally told me. My hubby still doesn't know. I'm not sure he would see the humor in it. I'm having some trouble seeing the humor myself. lol So...That's Jackson's true story (to the best of my knowledge) lol Here's what I posted back in June and it has another photo and a video of him. Here is a link that might be useful: Me - in the dark - posting about the

Anger is normal. I felt angry at my dad when he passed from his heart attack..for not doing something more about his health, for not taking better care of himself atleast for my sake as I still depended on him at the time and lived with him. I was angry in general because I didn't want to deal with it. I was angry at the doctors for not doing more when he had his first heart attack. I was angry at him for not wanting bypass surgery. I know its a little different because you didn't know..but you still can't help but be angry, because it always seems like it could've been prevented, somehow. Even if it couldn't have been, theres always that thought in your head that maybe if that had or hadn't have done something at some point, it would've stopped them from leaving. It's normal to want to place blame, even when there is none. You feel guilty for having to put your dad into assisted living. You weren't the one who caused these circumstances, so its normal to be angry at her for dying. But in reality, you're just angry at the circumstances. But its a lot easier to be angry at a person, than something thats intangible. The anger will fade, and some other just as equally painful emotion will take its place, and eventually in time you will get through all the horrible feelings and begin to come to terms with it all. Im very sorry for your loss, and I hope you get through this.

I'm so sorry about your Mandy. The only experiences I can share involve my parents' two dogs that were adopted together (they weren't litter mates but were raised together from the time they were puppies) They adored each other. In April the male passed away and the female (they were 12) was devastated. She just wasn't herself anymore. She didn't cry or whine, but laid around the house and just slept and wasn't interested in anything. My parents had two other dogs at the time that were both under two years old so they were still in the puppy stage. Both dogs loved their "big sis" but because they were rowdy puppies that always wanted to play they annoyed her to no end. Also since the puppies were always in your face wanting attention the older girl didn't get as much attention. She just went downhill from there and she passed away in august. She was spoiled rotten in the end though (when my parents realized she wasn't doing well they took her for walks all the time and lavished her with attention and she loved that) I think that getting a puppy might be a bad idea because it might make your older dog jealous of all the attention a new puppy receives. I agree with the others that getting an older dog is probably the way to go. Good luck and I hope your dog is ok.