u/ActNo5363

It's been 3 days of not smoking, and I ordered some dum dums and flavored toothpicks off Amazon. They just got here today, and I've been constantly chewing on the toothpicks. I thought about getting a non-nicotine vape, but I was surprised with how well I'm doing so I didn't go that route. I was worried it would just be a new thing to depend on, and my surgery requires no smoking anything, period, so I just decided not to waste my money on a fum or whatever.

I quit cold turkey, I'm a daily, multiple times a day smoker and have to quit for an upcoming surgery. I've been smoking daily since I was about 14, I'm 20 now, and it's crazy what only a few days can do. I went on a walk with my dog today and ran for a little bit. That's the fastest I've run in months. It's crazy what being able to breathe normally feels like.

I'm currently tipsy, and my next step is to quit drinking. I've been getting drunk as an escape from not being constantly baked and it's also not ideal for my surgery, but I'm months out from even being scheduled for just a consult, so I still have time to kick this habit.

I know this sub is for quitting smoking, but I hope to be able to enjoy bud someday, at least on the weekends or something spaced out. I'm worried I'll fall back into daily use, and now that I'm not smoking, I don't want that to happen. I have clarity that I didn't have before and feel less foggy if that makes sense? I would go to work and couldn't wait until my lunch break because that meant I got to light up, and I don't want to live like that anymore. Is it possible for me to have enough self-control for weekend smoking, or should I just quit altogether?

Surprisingly, my withdrawals haven't been too bad, or maybe they just haven't hit me yet, lol. I was super worried I had CHS since I've been smoking for so long, but other than not eating much, I've felt okay for the most part. Any advice is greatly appreciated, I know 3 days isn't really that much of an achievement, but it feels big for me.

I'm coming up on my two year anniversary of when I started working at my animal shelter, and when I first started working here it was great...until I realized all the things we do wrong and the chances we stole from dogs because of the way we run things.

Our director might as well be nonexistent, never even at the shelter half of the week and doesn't follow through on promises. Over 6 months ago I told my boss that I feel stuck here going nowhere, that the reason I wanted to work with dogs was to get my foot in the door training dogs. We don't have any type of training done at our shelter, and the dogs suffer because of it. Multiple dogs that have declined to the point of BE, which I know training can't fix neurological things like that, but maybe if we trained the dogs so they don't escalate their aggression to the point of needing BE then we would have to have situations like that a lot less. Most of the dogs we have say no kids, no cats, no other dogs, so essentially we're turning into a sanctuary more than a shelter imo. After telling my boss I feel stuck at the shelter not advancing in dog training obviously, she said she would look into something for me to start training basic obedience, well that was over 6 months ago and she's not even here enough for me to have an irl conversation about it.

I've been wanting to leave for a while but want another job set up before I give my notice. There's a dog boarding facility that's only 15 minutes away so I wouldn't have to relocate which is nice, and they had made a Facebook post saying they were hiring. I was told there would be a full time kennel attendant position available at a later date, which would also involve training. Funnily enough one of the head trainers used to be in my current position at this same shelter, and she has many of the same complaints I have. So I have some time before that position opens, and given my experience with dogs and that head trainer vouching for me, along with one of my references being another well know lady who runs a very popular boarding buisness, she actually told me months and months ago that I should quit and go work for this boarding place now.

The guilt of leaving is the only thing making me stall. Without me at the shelter we literally can't function. I work 5 out of 7 days, 7-5 most days, and usually I'm the one person assigned to take care of all the dogs. Given we only usually have a max of 15-20 dogs at a time it doesn't take me too long, just more the principal that everyone else gets help with the dogs and I'm expected to do it all on my own. I'm also the only one who can wrangle the feral cats. My coworker likes to think she's an animal whisperer and has been bit by both dogs and cats mutiple times purely for not listening to me and/or thinking she knows better and that she can tame the animal by baby talking it, idk I wouldn't trust her to take care of a fish let alone the shelter animals. There's been many times where I'm left alone at the shelter, I've been attacked multiple times with no one to help me. The worst two experiences were when a dog latched onto my leg and started shaking, I literally couldn't do anything other than drag myself outside and hope he'd calm down enough for me to go back inside and not get bit again. The second time was a dog who's actively getting worse and worse behavioral wise, I had to full on wrestle this dog so he didn't maul my face, again all by myself. I'm worried one of these times I'm going to end up on the news for getting mauled to death, I'm not afraid of these dogs, but I am afraid of not having someone to at the very least call for help if I get seriously injured.

The pros of leaving and going to the boarding place definitely outweigh the cons, one of the main ones being that I would actually get to train dogs and those dogs already belong to people, so they aren't sitting in our kennels for a year waiting to get adopted and therefore I probably wouldn't have to deal with as much of the problems the shelter dogs have. I guess I'm not really sure what I want out of this post, just feeling conflicted and second guessing myself. I've wanted to train dogs my whole life, my German shepherd isn't perfect but compared to the reactivity and anxiety issues he had when I adopted him he's made a huge improvement and I did all the training myself. I know I'm capable, I just keep having that thought that I won't be good enough and then I'd be left working nowhere.

I have a tattoo appointment next week and my consultation is early June. I know I'll be fine since it'll be fully healed by the time I get my surgery, but just wondering how long should I wait after surgery before getting any new ones? I don't want to risk infection or anything going wrong with my recovery, maybe this is a dumb question and I'm just overthinking it.

We don't have an animal control unit so it falls on the cops to investigate animal abuse. I'm located in Iowa, where animal abuse/torture was just made a felony. A few years back a lady got arrested for two counts of animal neglect resulting in death. Turns out there were actually 4 dead dogs, but she only got charged for 2.

This family is now neglecting their animals, they have dogs, snakes, lizards, I don't even know what else. Two dogs live outside 24/7 and multiple of their dogs have died from heartworms, yet the police say the dogs look healthy so they're fine.

Sucks that dogs have to die for a situation to be taken seriously, especially since she should be a felon. The reptiles definitely are doomed, if they won't care about a dog I know they won't care about anything living in a cage.

I'm on day one of quitting weed cold turkey. I'm a daily smoker and smoke mutiple times a day, so doing this is really testing me but I need to quit for surgery and honestly have been wanting to be less dependent on it in general. My main problem right now is that I usually have a cart to hit whenever, but I'm missing that the oral sensation of smoking something and having nothing to fidget with. I looked into the fum thing but keep seeing bad reviews, and it's over $100. The flavor things only last a few days anyway, so I'd just be wasting money.

Is there any kind of alternative similar to fum? Ideally I probably shouldn't be inhaling anything, but if I can trick myself long enough until I feel the need to not have something on me to use that would be nice.

Or maybe I just need to get to get over myself, suck it up and quit with nothing to ease me out of smoking, idk I'm just fighting the urge and it's been hard. Trying to hold myself accountable and instead of smoking a bowl, I'll go walk a mile, which has worked so far but it's only day one so maybe I'm being too optimistic.

I currently work at an animal shelter in a very small town surrounding other small counties. The amount of animal abuse that could be ended if we simply had someone to enforce it drives me mad. A lady who got arrested for killing two dogs currently has 4 new ones and continues to neglect them. The police won't do anything about it, and as a shelter we can't do anything because we legally have no rights.

Is there anyone I can reach out to in the community about possibly starting some kind of animal control team? I know obviously it would probably cost money we don't have, but I feel like if I made a petition or something I could definitely have enough of the public rooting for it. I thought about reaching out to the mayor, but I don't know how much say in this he'd have. I really just want people to stop neglecting and abusing their animals, or at the very least have the cops take it seriously, as animal abuse was just made a felony here in Iowa.

The shelter gets calls all the time about dead cats on the road that need picked up. Technically it's not our job, but the vet doesn't pick them up and neither do the cops, so it falls onto us. This is another example of ways loads could be taken off the shelter and provided by animal control, along with the mass amounts of animals we get calls about running loose around town.

Anyone experienced in animal control give me your two cents, at this point I'm ready to move cities with how things are run here in regards to animal welfare.

I have a consultation next month, and it's recently come to mind that I may have a circulation issue and I'm sure that will effect my recovery.

I've never been to the doctor to ask about this, but I've always had really cold feet/hands but mainly my feet. My bf told me earlier my toes almost looked purple and I had never noticed that before so it kinda freaked me out and now I'm spiraling a lot. What if something else is seriously wrong with me and I have a whole new world of problems to deal with? Is this something I should even ask about at my consultation or should I cancel it and go to a different doctor to get this figured out?

I feel like I was coming so close to my surgery but I also don't want complications with healing and if something is really that wrong with my feet I need to get it checked out either way. I'm definitely not a doctor but I'm sure me smoking daily probably isn't helping this situation so I've stopped cold turkey today because now I'm too anxious to relax anyways and I was going to quit for surgery so I'm hoping maybe not smoking will help with that. I really just need to know if I should have this looked into at my consultation or a different doctor.

Does being on testosterone have any play in this? Maybe I need to do some tests with my planned parenthood? That's the only other thing I could think of. Also I guess my dad has type 1 diabetes, but I've never shown any signs of it till this, so now I'm paranoid about having diabetes. I don't know if that even makes sense, I'm just rambling atp.

I was told by the lady who gave me her that she's had her for 9-10 years, and had a mate who died over the winter, so since then she's been by herself in an old fish tank (20 gallons.)

Right now I have her in a 20 gallon made for reptiles with paper towels, this is just until I can get her seen at the vet to make sure there's nothing I need to do with her before I get the 40 gallon set up with the right substrate at all that. Is there anything I should ask the vet about given what I know about her? Overall she looks healthy, a little bit of stuck shed on her toes on one foot, but I think that's something I can get off on my own. She doesn't look overweight, but it seems like she was just thrown a bag of crickets anytime they remembered to, so trying to get her set on a feeding schedule instead of just free feeding on crickets all day every day. I'm also trusting the lady who said she's female, I can't really hold her long enough to get a good look, she's already bit me once so I don't want to stress her out too bad just to see what sex she is, I figured that's something we can hold off for until we get to the vet. She definitely doesn't trust people or hands yet, but slowly and surely we'll get there eventually.

Been looking into going with Spot after my bad experiences with Petsbest. Anyone have any opinions/advice for using Spot?

Mainly wondering how hard it is to submit a claim and get money back, along with how long it takes. Petsbest took over a month for a single claim, so I'm hoping to find someone who can help get things moving a little quicker.

They're everywhere. Hundreds, millions, in all the stuff I have stored in the garage, at this point I feel like they've fully taken over and I'll never get rid of them. It's impossible to seal off all the gaps they can get into, I rent the house and the garage basically has a draft it's so bad no amount of caulk is going to fix that.

I don't know what to do. I've found a handful of them inside and I swear to god if I find babies in the house I'm going to start having a panic attack and feel like bugs are crawling all over me. I need help to get rid of these little shits, at least a majority. I opened a box from the garage and at least 30 of them flew out. Help, please. Everyone tells me to vacuum them up but then what? Let them back outside to go right back into the garage? They were non exist last summer and now it's like they all decided my garage was the place to hang out I guess.