Hello fellow MNFers! Spring has definitely sprung to summer today in NYC. People are in shorts & sandals with 81'F & sunshine! Begonias are out. Marigolds out. Peonies in all colors out. My jasmine bloomed its first bloom this morning - like heaven. Glad to see there were a lot of surprises in the boxes. I also thought my box would be obvious, but I guess that's what makes the world interesting, is that we all live in different gardens around the world. Beth I'm sorry I had to cut a lot of the foxgloves down to fit in the box. They weren't so big when I was planning the box, but they grew gigantuan in the weeks of steady rain we've had & I couldn't find a bigger box to send. Here's the updated status: celeegra - Grace => goes to BethB /sent & received sred98 - Shelly =>goes to Grace / sent & received veeja11 - Carol => goes to Shelly / sent & received beth_b_kodiak - BethB => goes to Michelle / sent & received just waiting for.... mchill320 - Michelle => goes to Carol We have one week left in May, which means one more game. Go to this website & there's a game for making flower arrangements. Name as many of the flowers & foliages as you can & post them here by end of Saturday May 28th. http://www.meddybemps.com/shops/arrangingflowers.html The person who can name the most will win a prize. If there is a tie in the number of flowers & foliage listed, then ties will be broken by creativity in the actual flower arrangements. You can take screen shot or print & scan the flower arrangements you make on the site & post them here. Good luck! Grace

Yes we all are different in our shapes, colors and opinions. Looking at all the replies. All your questions have been replied to. I would like an answer to my original question to you - do you own pets? What is driving this. We replied to each and every post by you. What more do you want?? I really don't care with people in other cultures think about what I personally do with my pets. The only other person who ever questioned my "over the top" treatment of my pets was a "born again" carpenter we hired to do some work on the house. I listed politely to his preaching day in and day out. He informed me that animals are not admitted to heaven, that they have no souls, etc. IMHO his diatribe was BS. Any event, is this a religious thing for you? Please answer one other direct question: Savanahrose, do you think our (posters on this thread) treatment of our animals is bizarre, or that we are eccentric (I have gleaned that you do not think we should be barred from our behavior). Since we were all kind enough to respond to your post, please answer my question directly without any red herrings like the underprivileged children in India or Irish Famine or quotes from Ghandi. While you may see our treatment of our pets as lets just say - not the way you would do it- we aren't illiterate. We read the papers, watch the news, have educations. In other words, stop acting like you are the only one who has studied history.

I prefer to adopt older dogs because I don't have the time or energy to deal with housebreaking a puppy. If I met your dog, I would not adopt him for the following reasons: 1. I don't know if he gets along with other pets. You have other pets and there must be a reason this dog is outside while your kids are inside. I assume that it is because you do not trust him with your kids. If you don't trust him with your kids, I sure as heck am not going to trust him with mine. 2. I am over housebreaking adult dogs. All my dogs were rescued as adults, one was an outdoor dog all her life (6-8 years) and she was VERY difficult to housetrain. If I wanted to deal with housebreaking a dog, I'd get an 8 week old puppy. 3. He may be destructive in the house. My Tatyana was nicely housebroken by her foster mom, and got along great with her other Husky friends, their cats, and even their children. But she didn't get along with being left alone, and destroyed several rugs and 2 pieces of furniture. I want to know the dog has at least some manners in a house. If all those other conditions were met, I wouldn't mind the jumping thing. That's easy to train. But not in addition to housebreaking, possibly not getting along with other dogs, and possibly being destructive. I know you think the dog would be fine in the house but there's no proof of that. I don't have a fenced yard so if he wasn't fine in the house I'd be screwed. That's just my own situation. Obviously if someone wanted an outdoor dog, he'd be fine, especially if they didn't have kids or other pets. The dogs that get adopted the fastest are the ones that don't have any issues and that appeal to the greatest number of people. There are several things about this dog that eliminate potential adopters from wanting him. The more you can correct, the better chance he has on being adopted.

It is possible for females to bond closely, however. Decades ago, I had a female named Tempest who I raised from kittenhood. Although Tempest eventually (and much to her initial displeasure) had to learn to live with other cats, she never bonded with any until I took her into my marriage with me as an "only cat". We rescued an unrelated female kitten shortly thereafter. I don't know what it was about Pea that appealed to Tempest (Pea was always an extremely disagreeable feline), but she took Pea under her wing. Tempest and Pea were closely bonded for the remainder of Tempest's life ... many years into Pea's adulthood. Once Tempest passed, Pea never made even the slightest attempt to bond with another cat for the rest of her nearly 23 yrs. In fact, she made her intolerance of the other cats that came into our family very, very clear up until the day she died. Come to think of it, I did adopt a typically rowdy male kitten sometime during Tempest and Pea's adulthood. He was accidentally killed by one of our dogs within a couple of weeks, but while he was with us, T & P both hated him with a passion. My current three littermates (females) and their male cousin don't have similar relationships, either, despite the fact that they are all blood-related and were raised together as one litter. Two of the sisters and the male are all closely bonded, but the third sister only enjoys the company of one of her other sisters. You just never know how any two individual cats are going to relate to each other. Laurie