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I have been doing folk dancing on Zoom during the pandemic. When there is a waltz, I dance with my stuffed bear.
The first time I did that, half the people on the screen disappeared and I was confused. They all came back with stuffed animals and one guy had a plastic Godzilla toy.
Somebody just sent my stuffed bear a Christmas card. LOL
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😍😂😍
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My wonderful MIL knitted our cats Christmas sweaters. We put them on and they hated them, sulking and cringeing, but they were too tight to get off again. We had to cut the cats out of them! On a separate note, we wasted several hours yesterday, looking for one of the cats who had gone missing. Turns out he was asleep under the Christmas tree. Grrr....
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"Chriscat83,"

Ohhh, how cute that your MIL knitted your cats Christmas sweaters but, not so cute that you had to cut them out of the sweaters! Our doxie never liked us putting anything on her. I had bought her a dark green plaid coat to keep her warm on walks - no go!

I'm glad you found your cat - how can you be mad at him when he was "innocently" sleeping under the Christmas tree???

On a sad note - for the first time ever I opened up our mailbox the other night when we were walking our dog and in it was a glossy 5x5 postal card of someone who did a "special mailing" for a fairly large area regarding her cat still missing with two pictures, description and a reward. She wrote some other things and I felt her desperation. I felt bad all the way home. She even said "PLEASE KEEP THIS CARD."

I would love to have found her cat, give it to her and say "Merry Christmas" (I would never take a reward - how sad that people have to be bribed). I've been tempted to text her and ask if her cat was ever found. :(
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NobodyGetsIt, always very sad when you hear or read of a missing pet. I've had this happen to me before and it is very distressing. I still believe though that the joy of having animals outweighs the pain of losing them, whether that's wandering off or just through old age or illness. And I love my cats even though they drive me crazy at times!
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"Chriscat83,"

It is sad and I always get upset when I see signs posted on light poles, on the cluster mailboxes and even sometimes when we would go to coffeehouses (pre-COVID days) and see them on their bulletin board.

Our dog being newly deaf is now having separation anxiety whenever I leave the house or room and my husband has to work from home and put up with her barking for me - so he's being driven "crazy" at times too. In fact, he's complaining about her as I type!

Your statement is true about the joy of having animals outweighing the pain of losing them and I think that can be applied to loved ones as well. As the saying goes "better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all."
I've never had to put down a pet as my childhood dog drowned in our backyard pool. I just hope our dog, whose bed is beside ours, will go peacefully in her sleep while I'm there.
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NobodyGetsIt, yes, my two cats are elderly and very clingy too, plus the clingy elderly mother, so there is not enough of me to share round! You will be sad when your dog does go, but she will have had a good life in a loving home...
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"Chriscat83,"

Were your cats always clingy or is it because they are elderly? Like Chloe will be 14 in January - I definitely think it's her being deaf but what I'm wondering is if with the pandemic and a lot of us being at home more than ever if that's what part of the problem is. Prior to COVID, I was always running around doing stuff, going places etc. and she was home by herself and usually was in her bed whenever I got home (I do feel kind of bad for being gone a lot now that I look back). It'd be interesting to know if the pandemic has caused some of this plus I know they pick up on our stress and anxiety too!
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NobodyGetsIt, my cats have always been high maintenance but think that's because I worked from home, so they knew I was always around to cater for their every need!! I definitely think if you're out at work they are more self sufficient and I do feel they pick up on any home stress, so I'm sure the anxieties and home working during the pandemic have made them clingier than ever!
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Maybe I have been "enabling " them!
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"Chriscat83,"

Yes, I can see always having worked at home and your "catering to their every need" creating little high maintenance prince and princesses - lol!

An "enabler" - now there's a thought :0

Like you said and I know I've read many times how much animals are in tune to how their owners are feeling. Mine is so sensitive that when I rush around like a "pinball" as my husband likes to call me when I'm multi-tasking, she feels it. I've been trying not to do that as much so as not to cause her stress.
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Oh, and my two little cat "princes" have heated beds. Am I going too far? Or just crazy?
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"Chriscat83,"

WOW, they have it made with you and it's no wonder they are clingy! Going to far? No; crazy? meh - lol!

I like the idea of a heated bed. I made a mock one - I got her two deep beds one for the daytime by our computer and one for the nighttime when we go to bed. Each one has those two really soft plush blankets; one I put on the bottom and the other one on top of her. Then I bought a mini heater to keep the room itself nice and cozy warm since this side of the house gets colder.

However, before I ever knew of such a thing, years ago I sketched out a drawing of creating one. Since our Dachshund is often called a wiener dog, I call her a "Chili Dog" in the cold months and a "Hot Dog" in the summer months and therefore I wanted to create a "Chilly Bed" and was still trying to figure out how to make a "Hotbed" - one day I was at a store and saw that there were already similar types of items on the market. I guess we won't be retiring until we're 90!
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Here's a silly but probably accurate dog/cat joke... Every day the owner fills up the pets' food bowls. The dachshund is very grateful. As the owner approaches the dog and fills his bowl with kibbles, the dog thinks” Wow, you do all this for me, every day. You must be god.”
The owner then walks over to the cat and gives her daily food. The cat thinks to herself” Wow, you do all this for me, every day. I must be god.”
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That's funny, Chriscat and I have a feeling there's a kernel (corn) of truth to that as cats are so often seen as very independent and having a certain attitude!

My cousin's cat, Phoebe, is beautiful and extremely photogenic and she looks like she owns the place!

Sometimes Chloe acts like she's part dog and part cat :)
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Last night we all went to out to dinner to celebrate my daughter & dads birthdays (she is Christmas Eve, he is Christmas Day & we leave tomorrow so we won’t see my parents on Christmas this year). I was glad to get my dad out of the house, now that the stents are out of his kidney, he is not suffering from frequent urination. Anyway we had a great time and it was nice to go sit in a restaurant & be served. Indoor dining has banned in my county since mid June (was banned from mid March to mid May and after 4 weeks they shut it down again). On the way home we saw a sight I cannot get out of my mind. We had just come down the hill in to my parents small town and we saw lots of emergency vehicles in the opposite lanes of traffic. As we passed it, there was a large brown horse down in the road and a smashed up car off to the side of the road. The poor horse was still alive :( he was sitting up but obviously unable to get up. Thank God the state patrol wasn’t there yet because I don’t think I could have handled hearing them dispatch the horse. My mom for sure could not handle that. The people in the car were fine, just shook up. I almost took out a horse myself the day we got here. My son & I were driving to the dollar general on the outskirts of my parents subdivision, taking the back route through the neighborhood and we were driving down the Main Street in to the subdivision and all of a sudden there was a brown horse about 5 ft in front Of my car! Just standing in the road When it is dark you don’t see the horses until they are right in front of you. I may have hit the horse if I hadn’t been going 15mph (I was going slow looking for where I needed to turn left). After I saw the horse, I then noticed his herd hanging out in someone’s front yard on the right side. If I had hit the poor horse I know he wouldn’t have survived but don’t know about my car. I really don’t want to find out either!
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Speaking of pets,

Norman is our 85lb Bernedoodle.

He is the sweetest fur baby ever!!

Monday, I let him outside. We live on seven acres . He's awesome about sticking close to the house.
After about 20 minutes, I went to the door to call him in. He was nowhere to be found. After an hour of searching I was panicked and sobbing!! I drove down to the road and searched there too.
When I got back up to the house, there he was!
He had brought back part of a deer carcass. YUCK!!!
I spent the next 20 minutes chasing him down, because he wanted to bring it in the house. He wouldn't let go!
Lucky thing no one was filming me. Between the chasing and me gagging , it probably was pretty comical . Lol
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Glad you found him xray!
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Chriscat,
That is so funny and so true!!

Xray,
I had a cat that would bring his mice in the house if we didn't look at this mouth. He have the mouse in his mouth with the tail hang out!

Yuck is right. He probably thought he could bring it in and you wouldn't mind. Glad that you found him!
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Worried,

Hold tight to the memories you just made!!

I'm so glad that you had that time with your Dad!!

My Dad passed 3 years ago. I am still so grateful that I was able to spend quality time with him before he passed away!

(((Hugs)))
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More cat bad behaviour... one of my cats tried to drag a fully cooked and still warm leg of lamb through the cat flap one Sunday lunchtime. He'd obviously pinched it from a neighbour's kitchen. I confess I couldn't do the walk of shame round the neighbourhood so covertly wrapped it up and put it in the garbage!
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Chriscat83, that is one reason why I love cats so much, you never know what they will do next =^..^=
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WorriedinCalif, how nice you were able to enjoy a night out at the restaurant with your dad. I am glad you all had a great time and he is doing well. I feel sad for the poor horse and relieved the family did not get hurt. Could happen to any of us. We have lots of deer where I live and not uncommon to see them in the middle of the road. Hope I never hit one of them would feel terrible. I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season.
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Cali,

So happy that you were able to be with your dad.

Crazy situation with the horse.
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Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a very Happy New Year 2021. Thank you all for spending your time helping other caregivers on this Forum. Wishing you all special holiday blessings. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
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"Shell38314,"

I didn't realize your new avatar was of the Christmas tree you told me your SO bought for you and that you set up next to your TV. Lately, when I can't tell what someone's avatar is, I have to just click on it so I can see it better. I'm too lazy to get my reading glasses because then I have to put them toward the end of my nose so I can look through them and above them - too much work - lol!

See that's cute and all you need since you're really not in the holiday spirit.

Did making the Duck w/orange sauce that your dad used to make this time of year help you at all?
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Shortest day of the year in a couple of days. Winter solstice, slowly but surely the day are going to start getting longer! Wish that meant spring was just around the corner. But, three more months of winter.
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My late ocicat took off down the hall with a chicken wing as a baby. Not boneless either. Grabbed it from him.
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Did anyone see the man on the news that lives in Austin who has over 25,000 small flags in his yard representing the people who have died in Texas from Covid?

He did it to bring awareness to the public because he has a 17 year old son with an autoimmune health condition.

He became frustrated when he saw people not wearing a mask.
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"NHWM,"

I didn't know about this story (we stopped watching the news due to the high anxiety it was causing and will read headlines just to keep awareness of what's going on).

So I did look it up on YouTube. He said back in March he thought it would be around 800. Someone asked him if he ever thinks it will hit the 5-digit number; he didn't. He updates his board daily which he says is a task in and of itself.

Also, he had said that people think of numbers in an abstract way so he wanted to give those numbers more meaning with the flags. I noticed there were a couple of different looking flags so I wondered if they corresponded to citizens vs. healthcare workers etc.

Very good story!

How is your cousin doing this morning?
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