"By "uninvited guest" do you mean the 7 year old kid visiting the neighbors house who accidentally throws a Frisbee too high and it land in your yard and innocently runs over to get? And by "licking" do you mean the child having their face ripped off?...It makes no difference in the dog is in your yard and the their are signs everywhere, that's not the point. Using a dog to attack would be trespassers amounts to the same thing as (or at least it should legally) mounting guns around your house with triggers attached to trip wires. The dog, like the trip wire, can not differentiate between a would be burglar or a 7 year old looking for his Frisbee. The owner of the dog should be totally and solely responsible for the outcome, just like the person who set up the booby trapped guns." What a crock? Parents should be held liable for their children actions. Those kids KNEW they were wrong to go into someone else's yard, it is called trepassing! Everyone has to learn their actions have consquences while unfortunate (same as if they had been hit by a car running into the street to get the Frisbee) it is still their own fault. And now they have to live with those consquences. Now you can blame the dog or the owners of the dog, but face it the kids made a bad choice. They are lucky that choice didnt cost them their life. And those parents who weren't around to tell their children not to go into their neighbors yard should be charged with neglect.

I would say that there are about twice as many adoptees searching than birthparents. Many birthmothers feel that they have no right to search, that they gave up that right when they signed over their children. That does not mean that they don't want a reunion. Birthparents are more afraid of looking also because the adoptee might not even know they are adopted. A birthmother knows that she is a birthmother. It is far better and easier for the adoptee to search. Birthparents usually just came to our meetings just for support or in case their child was there. I also believe that unless it is an open adoption, it is best to wait until an adoptee is an adult and better equipped emotionally to do the search. Teen years are hard enough to survive. Yes, the truth is worth knowing. Honesty is important. Done correctly even though the news may be bad, it doesn't have to mean sad ramifications that can't be dealt with. LOL If I knew all you wanted was a huge inheritance, I would not help you with a reunion. We are talking emotional well-being here. When I did a search with an adoptee, we had many a talk on all of the what if's, I made sure that an adoptee had someone to go to for councilling if necessary. There was follow-up. It is your sister's right not to do a search. I respect that immensely. Just as I haven't passed on much in the way of information to my twin because she doesn't want to know. I have a scrapbook made for her about our birthparents and how I have done the search and the details. If she ever wants to see it, it is hers. I did it just in case something ever happened to me and she changed her mind. If she never wants to see it, so be it. It is her right not to know. BTW, Birthmothers are very special people. They did the best they could at the time. It isn't an easy decision to make, and for all the birthmothers out there, I give you a huge hug. It is far easier nowadays to keep children and far more accepting. Years ago, there was no support.

Again, a newby here. Hope you don't mind my jumping in. One of my friends was also my vet for many years, like ten or twelve. She went into Holistic medicine and began recommending a raw diet and changing treatments; I love her to death and was more than happy with her vet services but when she went Holistic that just wasn't a choice I wanted to make. Nancy, the vet, really became a believer in the raw diet and put all her dogs on it. If my dogs really needed it for health reasons I would have to do it but my dogs have always been healthy and have usually lived past the normal life cycle. The shortest life span of my shepherds was eleven years which is about average; he had a tumor, which hadn't shown up in any exams, burst and was dead before I could get him to the vet. The oldest one lived to be almost sixteen. My mixed breeds have all lived to be from fourteen to seventeen. I have no problem with people who want to use the "raw diet" but I just can't handle it........might have something to do with my being a vegetarian.............. just can't cope with that raw flesh. I do cook chicken for my dogs to mix with their dry food.

gemini, I don't know if it was my question that got your goat, but mine was a genuine, out of curiosity, wanting to learn question. If you choose you can go back up and read it. So far nobody has responded to it. Briefly, my question is - other than perceived expense or desire for a litter, what is the reason a person would choose not to have their pet neutered? I'll answer it for myself in reverse. I choose to have my pets neutered because I don't want any litters, it is healthier for the pet, it is more happier for the pet, it makes living with the pet easier (not going through those heats of a female or frantic humping by the male). I believe it's ethically and healthwise the better choice. So that's why I choose to neuter my pets. I really, really am interested, without judgement, in hearing what factors people who choose not to neuter considered and what kept them on the "not neuter" page. "Because I choose not to" doesn't answer that question. Can anyone?