Campanula, That post was nothing short of inspirational, i'm very moved :) I am now on the look out for jonquila. lol An unfortunate coincidence, 2 days prior to reading your post I was staring jonquilla baby moon in the face, among about 50 other spring bulbs at a store. In the end, I went with hyacinth city of haarlem because it seemed to be highly regarded as a fragrant, and unusually colored hyacinth. I regret my choice.....might be going back there to pick up baby moon for that "heart-lifting" fragrance. They are really adorable little flowers. I also found that hyacinth very rarely propagate themselves, and need to be lifted and scored after going dormant if you want it to spread......among other unfavorable mentions on hyacinths. I still adore them, and look forward to the fragrance each year at a public garden. Hopefully city of haarlem will not be fussy in my yard. As my favorite daffodil, don't have one. This is my first year messing with daffodils. I picked up a mixed set of 'ice king' and 'delnashaugh'. Hope they perform well. Hopefully I snag some baby moon before it's too late. I feel a favorite coming on if I get it.

Here in Central WI, I have two pairs of Blues on their second nesting, they are both incubating at the moment. One nesting should be hatching by this wednesday and the other about five days later, both have four eggs. Not sure if any would just be starting a second nesting this late now though. The one pair started the second nest within days of fledging the first brood. The other pair waited over two weeks! This is only my fourth year hosting/monitoring Bluebirds and I have always had them bring the babies back and keep eating the mealworms I offered until they left in Oct/November. Not sure if they all stay at the feeders though, I think it greatly depends on where you live if the Blues migrate from your area in the Fall or not. Donna

Personally I think social services should take all the children put in foster homes and she should be investigated where the money is coming from and it should be put in a trust to pay bills and for the children. She should get nothing. Sorry, the press should give her no publicity. too many of the children and families in this country who really try to make it are getting nothing. Thousands are really struggling, low paying jobs, no medical and those who need help. Not this person who does nothing, even does not take care of her children at home. Just makes me MAD.

Well, I don't think your crazy... but that might only be because I did it for so long that I have to think it's OK! :) My girl had a major dental done in 2008, two years after she was diagnosed with all her problems and almost 4 years before she left us. Our vet had wanted to do the dental much earlier, but DH and I were very hesitant because we worried about the anesthesia risks to a CRF cat, as well as wondering how well she would be able to eat afterwards. We knew her teeth were bad, but she was still chomping down her beloved dry food. When her blood work had been somewhat stable for a while, I approached the vet with a load of questions about the possibility of doing it. I educated myself and they were very accomidating- we did extra fluids for the week before and after (she was on fluids as needed, which wasn't every day at that time), and we also did a course of antibiotics which started beforehand- in part to reduce her existing bacteria load. She lost just about all her teeth during her dental and it was pretty harsh. The first week after was difficult, at one point I ended up force feeding her for a day or two to get her over a hump. A friend of mine just had a similar experience with her cat post dental, even though he only lost 2 teeth- 4 days out he stopped eating and ended up at the vet again. Before we did it, we did a lot of thinking and decided that it was worth the risk for our cat, given her current condition (blood work stable, teeth awful). I have always said I am glad it was not something we went into lightly, because otherwise I would not have been prepared for the difficult week that followed, BUT after she was back on her feet fully, she obviously felt better. She never was able to eat quite as well, but the ups and downs of her illness came much less frequently. In the end, we were very glad we chose to do it for her, but it is an individual thing that you shouldn't take lightly, you know your cat better than anyone. I will say that at that point we decided to go ahead, I accepted that this might be the last thing we did for her, but her mouth looked so bad that we felt we had to take the chance, and that felt like the right time. It's a tough call, I wish you the best in figuring out what is in your kitty's best interest.