u/FriendlyWorldArt

I knew it was going to be hard tonight. I committed a few days ago to staying home with him and setting up a panic room, because he is insanely anxious even without fireworks.
The neighbors set off some explosions that startled even me. The house shook.
Foster was working on a lick mat, but when the nearby fireworks went off, he lost his mind. Bolted straight toward the sliding glass door balcony at full speed.
The door broke, but thankfully the glass didn’t shatter and I caught him before he went off the balcony ledge (or slammed into the railing, not sure which way that would have gone, but it probably would not have ended well.)
He was already dosed with 150mg trazodone. I brought him into the panic room, put ear muffs on him and a blanket over him. He’s been pretty much frozen in place, just panting rapidly. He’s just now starting to move a tiny bit. Like just nosing his way out from the blanket a tiny bit.
Poor dog.

Let’s just say that if extracting oneself from a sweaty, stretchy, clingy sports bra ever becomes an Olympic sport, my training is going well.
🥇 🥇 🥇

Working in client’s home in pediatrics. Scheduled 3:30 to midnight but have to get child off school bus (summer school) and bus can arrive anywhere from 3:15 to 3:25 so company wants me there by 3:10. The clock in system is inside the home and the child has the keys, so by the time I get the child settled I might be able to clock in at 4:00, depending on the immediate care needs.
Company is very annoyed that I want to be paid for the time waiting for the bus and not allowing the clock in time to be altered, despite me being present and working.
It’s only a few minutes, but it adds up.
Any recourse?
FLORIDA

I have a foster dog (some kind of wire haired terrier, if it matters) who is extremely sensitive to sounds and nervous.

The shelter wanted him in foster care bc he was just spinning and pacing and had lost about 6 pounds in 2 weeks despite continuing to eat.

He is constantly ravenous and scavenging for food, but will also try to consume non-food items. Chew toys or treats aren’t really helpful bc he seems to be driven to ingest, not just chew.

He startles over normal, everyday noises, like the AC kicking on, or the microwave beeping, etc. But I think he has potential bc there has been construction going on next door and over the last few days, he seems to be less disturbed by the construction noise.

He started prozac about 8 days ago, and is starting trazodone tomorrow.
I’m very worried about fireworks in a couple of weeks.

Has trazodone helped your fosters?

Put your route in, it will find alternatives to avoid these fecking cameras.

On day 30, I was surprised that after 4 weeks of living off hermit crabs and snails and the odd reptile while doing physical activity in high heat and humidity, the participants’ body composition had only seemed to change a little bit.

Some of the players who started out lean did look thinner, and I know they were talking about being hungry and feeling faint, but several still had decent subcutaneous fat on them.

(This isn’t to body shame anyone, I’m just curious because I watched a few episodes of Naked and Afraid, and I think they go up to 21 days and I seem to remember that they usually had pretty drastic changes in body comp.)

Did anyone else notice? I kind of had the show on in the background, so I might have missed if they used emergency food or something.

I’m in high school and I choose not to say the pledge of allegiance. I don’t make a big deal, I just sit down and mind my business til it’s finished.
Making a bunch of kids swear loyalty feels kinda North Korean-ish. It’s cringey.
Anyhow, my teacher reprimanded me in front of everyone and demanded to know why I wouldn’t participate. I wasn’t rude, but I said, my mom died while stationed in [country name]. I think I’ve given enough.” (Not a lie).
So the teacher kicked me out of the classroom for a month while the pledge was said. It was embarrassing, but I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong so I didn’t want to cave.
Meanwhile, my dad got a lawyer and I guess they went back and forth with the school district a couple times until the school said, fine, you don’t have to participate. The teacher took me aside and gave me the news privately, like she was doing me a favor by letting me do something I was already legally allowed to do.
She scolded me and punished me in front of the class, and now she just wants to privately tell me she was wrong? No. I want her to say it in front of everyone.
I realize this isn’t like a life-altering thing, but I’m mad.
She probably won’t and I’ll just have to deal with it.

My current foster has some kind of allergies that make his skin itchy and the poor thing is just scratching like crazy.
This is going to sound like a joke or a made-up story, but I believe the owner was completely sincere.

They seem to be suffering from a mental health problem, because they believed that strangers and aliens were sneaking in the house at night and “contaminating” the dog with parasites to make him itchy.

The dog is well cared for, and there are no fleas or parasites. But they felt that the neighbors and aliens were “winning” because the dog keeps scratching.

So they surrendered him to kind of get him into a canine witness protection, so that he wouldn’t be “targeted” anymore.

And I just find it so sad. Not funny, just kind of heartbreaking that their paranoia or delusion made them give up this animal that they very clearly loved.

Let me tell you about the person who walks their dog through the office park where I work.

Maybe 4-5 evenings a week, they come through, after the professional offices have closed. There might be a car or two left in the lot, but nobody’s around. The only reason I know about this person is I’m there late and can see them from my building(but they can’t see me).

The dogs unloads a huge poop a few feet from the door. Same spot every time, and every time, this person pulls out supplies and cleans it up.

A little while ago it happened again, and the dog started to pull away and I heard the person say, “Wait, you know perfectly well we have to pick it up, (something something I didn’t catch.)”

That’s all. Just someone cleaning up even though they think nobody’s watching.