Awesome…Thank you all! We will go with the second sign. My Dh will be thrilled. I always tend to more formality, so I probably should loosen up a little! :-) ETA: didn't see the last post till I posted already. That's a good combo. I'll put it to Dh.

Thanks for your input….no offence taken! :-)

Well, yes, we would do what we could to keep her safe, but being on a farm, the dogs are always unrestrained, and we have multiple people coming and going each day. It would be quite draining to run out and put a lead on her, or put her in the house each time someone drove around. Not to mention, we are sometimes not even home, and the neighbours, or friends may drop in to pick something up, drop something off, etc. We also feel part of her continued happiness and wellbeing is to live the life she always did. Of course we are taking more precautions to keep her safe, the sign being one of them. I think that if people are aware there is a blind dog, and they'd been advised by the sign, they'll be watching out for her a little more anyway. And, obviously, if someone did hit her, we would not be suing or anything.

We are going to get a sign made for our farm driveway, as our little newly blind dog loves to run up to newcomers letting us know of their presence. Up till now, she's always gotten out of the way, and we knew she would so we don't vary our speed, but of course now that she can't see, we are being careful. Many people that come here, however, would not know there is a blind dog obviously. Cars are fairly quiet nowadays, and I worry she won't be able to accurately hear when they are right there and get out of the way. I don't think we can stop her running up the drive, as its been her multiple-times-daily habit for seven years. A few days ago a car came, and Georgie was sniffing around the far side of it when it was stationary, and as it started the engine, and started to move, she trotted around the front of it, and was barely missed. We also have 3 dogs around much of the time, a Rhodesian Ridgeback, a Dalmatian, and Georgie (Brittany Spaniel). I wondered if I need to specify which one to be careful of, and perhaps include a picture of a Brittany on the sign for clarity (she doesn't look blind, as she knows her way around really well, and will run up the drive like she can see everything) I thought of something like... CAUTION Blind Dog on Property Please take care when driving or moving your vehicle. (Stock Brittany Photo) My husband is thinking something more like... Georgie is blind. (Pic) She will run up driveway (he thinks this should be stated, as people may think a blind dog will be only around house, and drive is about 200metres) to meet you. Please drive slowly to avoid hitting her. It shouldn't be difficult to choose wording for a sign, but for some reason I'm finding it that way. Can you help? Thank you!!

I never feel like I'm ready for anything. It comes anyway and I bumble through, but I always feel completely unprepared.

It's often said that teens need as much sleep as littler kids, with all that's going in with their bodies, minds and life in general. So I'd be aiming for ten to eleven hours. You've done the tests and all, so I'd just increase sleep and perhaps clean up his diet a bit and see how it goes for a few weeks. Re diet, reduce sugars to little or none if possible, have moderate protein the times a day, increase fresh veggies, increase good fats, limit breads and carbs. You might be doing all this anyway, but it's just what comes to my mind.

I have a 2012 Outback, and none of those issues. Other issues that are a little annoying, but not those. :-)

I see the nesting doll with an outdoor background.

Great ideas, thanks! Yes, up to now (she's only been here a month), she has had no real need to learn, but the friend she works with is leaving soon, so she will be at her job with no-one that understands her, and she doesn't understand them. So it's kind of getting important to start learning properly!

See, I think her aunt is mixing the two (reading and speaking) together, which doesn't make sense to me, and neither to the girl, obviously. That's a great idea…focusing on speaking first. And with that, it doesn't matter so much that I can't speak Mandarin, as that's the whole idea…to get her to listen only to English. I guess it'll be pretty basic to begin with…very stilted conversations, but she'd have to pick it up quicker than with her aunt, I'm sure. Thanks for the ideas!

Both. She doesn't seem to speak much at all, and obviously doesn't read or write. Seems like she learnt some at school but she didn't pick up much, and is shy about speaking what she does have.

I am thinking of offering to teach a young adult English. She is from Taiwan, and is here in Australia on a working holiday visa. She works a few hours away from my town, but comes most weekends and stays with her aunt, who is also Taiwanese, and married a local a year ago. The aunt is trying to teach her English, but honestly, the aunt's grasp and pronunciation is not perfect by any means, but she gets along very well herself. She mentioned that the niece is finding it very hard to grasp, and is starting to get disheartened and sometimes refusing to copy the sounds that the letters make from her aunt. I said that perhaps it's better that someone else teach her that is not family, although I didn't volunteer myself, as I wasn't sure if I would be able to. The aunt told me she's trying to get her to learn the sounds that the letters make, and gave me for an example, that c says k,k,k - s,s,s. Then she asked her later the sounds c made, and the niece had no idea. She also said that niece was learning the short sound of 'a', but then couldn't get the sound in the word 'crack'. It just sounds very complicated to me, and disjointed. I said maybe she'd be better learning the short sound 'a' and using words beginning with that sounds, a bit like a small child learning 'a' for 'ant', 'apple' etc, etc. I would like to help the niece, but not sure which way to go about teaching English as a second language, assuming they'd accept the offer. It doesn't help that I have no way of communicating with her, whereas her aunt can at least explain things in Mandarin. They speak Mandarin obviously all weekend, and where she works she is able to speak Mandarin too with her friend. It would possibly be better if she was immersed in English and wasn't able to speak her native tongue.

That is amazing! As someone else said, I can't believe that's a first novel, and unpublished! Love it, and was very disappointed that I can't read the whole book!

It wasn't me, but I wanted to say that's very sweet!

Floating is something I've been planning to try soon. Post when you've done it to let us know how it went!

Also I forgot to mention, cards and letters were so lovely. I have looked back on the few I received many times since. Also some people made a habit of calling every few weeks or so, which was lovely. If I didn't feel well, or feel much like taking I wouldn't answer the phone, and they'd leave a message to say hi, and to reassure me I needn't call back. I guess I feel one of the important things if you are either going to be doing things for them in their home, or for their kids etc, do it on their terms. It takes away from the niceness if someone comes in and takes over and steamrolls over everyone. Sure maybe the kids are being fed by your friend/aunt/mil that insisted in coming over and helping for the day, but they're all unhappy about being made to sit up at the table, use the correct hand for their cutlery, eat everything on their plate or whatever. You probably get the picture. Help, but be respectful of the way their family operates and don't try to replicate your routines in their home. Hope this makes sense.

The thing I appreciated the most was a lady, who I was not even especially close to, bringing a meal every Tuesday night for the last seven weeks of my chemo. I appreciated a few offers of help to come and do a few jobs for me, but it turned out a bit stressful. My mil was one, and she was trying to force my kids to help her do some gardening, and giving them a guilt trip. That was not helpful as they were all finding it hard to cope. Another came to help and washed windows for me, but I felt I had to help which wore me out for days. She also decided to clean my rangehood, and kept giving me suggestions to keep it clean in the future. It was sweet, but also stressful and slightly hurtful.

She probably smells her own pee on the pillow, so thinks it's the place to go. I highly doubt that she is doing this to deliberately antagonize you or your husband. If this was my cat, I'd say to dh that you'll give it a week longer before making the decision. I'd keep her contained in the one room where the litter box was, or put the litter box in a room where she can be contained, preferably one with hard floors, not carpets. Put everything else in there that she needs for her comfort, food and water, bed, toys etc. Keep her in there for a week. Make sure she gets some company each day, but only in that room. Hopefully there is no option but to go pee in the litter box. Only change the litter every day or two days. She needs to smell that the litter box is the pee station. In the meantime, replace your husband pillow, so the scent doesn't linger. Hopefully after a week the litter box habit will be cemented, and the pillow won't have a scent that attracts her.

Very cute! Loved the story, and the hilarious faces of his brother!

Yeah, it was fun to go through my old posts. I'd forgotten the hair regimen that kept my hair looking it's best. I'd forgotten that eating strictly paleo made me feel amazing. I'd forgotten that fasting was a really great way to get a closer connection to God. And lots of other things! I'm glad that we were asked to do that little exercise, and I'm also glad that I'm not a prolific poster!

Please don't take offense, because obviously it worked for your child, but in general I don't agree with this kind of solution. Most children don't like to be having accidents. Punishing them for their accident is more likely to cause psychological issues surrounding it, which is just as bad as it being a physiological issue to begin with.

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug: I'm sorry.

So sorry for you , Aimee, but it seems like the only decision is to euthanise. If you look at his life from his point of view, it must be torturous too, with all these fearful things out there that frighten him out of his wits. And they must be terrifying for him to make him attack. Hugs for you, and courage for you. Don't blame yourself….or worry that it might have been better if you only just didn't miss those two training sessions….they wouldn't have made a scrap of difference. :grouphug:

When I fed Georgie tonight, she didn't seem to see where I was holding the food, then she sat wagging, looking in the opposite direction, then she bumped into a chair on the way to my daughter's room. She is a Brittany spaniel, and is 7 yrs old. I looked it up and seems like Brittanies are one of the breeds most prone to Sudden Acquired Retinal Degeneration or SARDS. I haven't told my daughter yet, she was out with her boyfriend and came in just now and hasn't noticed, as Georgie is on her bed with her. I spent an hour or so crying already. I'm so sad for poor Georgie, and for my daughter. She is going to be devastated. Georgie's life is to sniff out and chase mice and rabbits, so it'll be so sad if she can't do that when she still has so much energy. I guess we should take her to an ophthalmologist or something, but we can't afford to spend oodles of money, and it seems like the only vet specializing in it is on the other side of the country, 4000 km away. :-( Just needed to get all that of my chest tonight...somehow it feels better to tell someone, so thanks for listening.

It may help you to find a good Bowen therapist. You could Google for one in your area. There can be a correlation between neck pain and there being a problem in the coccyx or sacral areas, which they should be able to address if that's the case.