I met with the coordinator today and had a tour of the facility. It's lovely. It's warm and cozy and has a real home-like feel about it. There are approximately 40 residents, and I met quite a few of them. One of the ladies asked the coordinator, "Where'd you find this pretty girl?" and that was so cute, as it's been ages since anyone's called me pretty or a girl! ;-) From the minute I walked in the door, folks were friendly. As I sat in the lobby and waited for the coordinator to meet me, a couple of ladies (residents) were sitting out there and they immediately started chatting with me. Just so very friendly, and obviously eager for someone NEW to talk to. There are numerous activities throughout each day, and I may be able to pop in some evenings but mostly my involvement will be on the weekends. Playing games with the residents, reading stories to them, or just taking them out into the beautiful garden courtyard on nice days so that they can get some fresh air. And talking. I'm sure there will be PLENTY of talking. The facility has a photo wall where they post pictures of residents fulfilling their "bucket list." Several of the ladies had always wanted to go to the theater, so there are photos of them dressed up at a production. One gentleman wanted to go fishing, and there's a photo of him kissing the fish he'd caught. One sweet little lady wanted to ride a motorcycle, but was too scared to get on the back of one, so they found one with a sidecar and she rode in that. As you can imagine, her photo was just beyond precious. This is a Level B facility, which was explained to me to be a facility in which the residents require SOME assistance but are generally mobile and able to feed themselves. One of the women who lives there has a little dog, and two of the men have cats. One is actually a kitten, and the receptionist told me how lonely he had been until he got this little cat, which now sleeps on his shoulders. I'm so looking forward to going back and getting involved. I felt I did pretty well today in stepping outside my own comfort zone and engaging with the residents, trying not to be self-conscious or shy. I'm pretty sure I even detected a streak of mischief in some of the women. This may be interesting! Certainly it will be a blessing to me, to be able to share some time with my new neighbors across the street.

WOW a late starting college. Around here they all started this week or last. My last one left five years ago. It struck me how so many HUGE IMPORTANT worries : GPA, scholarship apps; FINALS mean nothing so fast. Keep yourself busy the next week or so. There are so many tunnels we just have to walk through and this one is HUGE. Transitions smack us when we least expect them it seems. What is it they say the hours are looong but the years are short. We decided with our first--at the brink of the cell phone age--that if he wanted his college money contribution then he had to call us once a week. We are not helicopter parents, when they launch they launch. They have to learn how to do this and so we committed to leaving him to it if he checked in EACH week.They all chose Universities too far away for weekend visits--which we encouraged.Now at 28, he just finished his Masters that his employer paid for, got married this summer and he still calls EVERY SUNDAY. The habit stuck with the daughters also. I live for Sunday and the hours these calls absorb. It helped me to remember myself at that age. I NEEDED my space, my life. I would not steal that from my own!! This year is our first to not have everyone here for Christmas. I have spent the last few days dealing with THAT emotional shock. We will see the newlyweds the weekend before..I set the bar NOW--I need us to have everyone together if not ON Christmas then near by.

I just received an order of cards from here. I have a few friends who appreciate this kind of humor, as do I. They have one that I wanted to post in this thread, because I thought it was so funny in reference to Mtn's glitter cards above, but it contains the F word, so I'll paraphrase. The card says: Glitter cards get f'n glitter f'n everywhere! I sent for this for a friend's birthday. She is an accomplished artist who earns her living from her art, but also has a great sense of humor:'https://www.mincingmockingbird.com/collections/cards

@Zande Willson Yes, the post op no running, no walkies, no stairs etc were tough! But my Whisper recovered surprisingly fast too. They said they cut as little muscle as possible with that long belly incision. If your friend’s dog was experiencing symptoms from the shunt before surgery I imagine his energy & appetite would’ve improved. My dog was asymptomatic & her ammonia levels weren’t high. Some dogs have seizures from too high ammonia levels in blood. Yorkies are now one of the breeds that these congenital shunts are showing up in quite often. The challenge is that having a very young puppy bile acid tested won’t always reveal that the shunt exists. I learned that mammals have the shunts until they’re born when they’re supposed to close off naturally. The problem arises when they don’t close completely. While in utero the mother’s liver cleans their blood. At the very least all small dogs should be bile acid tested before they are bred. This would prevent a ”shunt’ dog from being bred. The non-closure issue of the shunt is a genetic defect but not known if it’s a heritable defect. No research has yet been able to identify a gene the defect is linked to so they aren’t able to test a dog for it as they’re able to do with other heritable defects.