Question about killing/euthanasia

tl;dr: last paragraph before “Thank you.”

Hi. I will try to be brief. I would appreciate any guidance because this has been weighing on me heavily. I have rewritten this post several times over several days. I have no reason to expect that I wouldn’t be shown kindness here, but in posting on Reddit before, when looking for help, I have been dragged through the mud. So, I guess what I am saying is, please be kind, if you can. I am just trying to do the right thing and I don’t know what that is.

It seems to me that hiring or directing someone to kill for you is worse than doing it yourself. You are still killing, it is just that you are using another human being as your weapon. So instead of just you getting the bad kamma of killing, both of you do.

2.25 years ago I agreed to foster a cat for a stranger on facebook for 6 months to a year. I told the woman she could visit every two weeks. I never saw her again.

Now the cat is my best friend. He is healthy. But I am not, and I am poor. I have little to no savings. While not young, he is not old, and he is everything a cat-lover could wish for in a cat.

Many cats, when they get sick or old, just wander off to die somewhere. However I don’t know if/when that will happen. It is possible that he will just end up agonizing loudly continuously for weeks. I would not be able to sleep, and if I go to work without sleep I am putting myself and others in danger of grievous bodily harm or even death. I probably won’t have the funds needed to ensure his comfort during the process of dying. And I can’t violate the first precept by euthanizing him should such a set of circumstances arise. So, I am thinking that the best option is to rehome him now, while he is still a delight. Find him a new owner/caretaker who would be happy to have him. He loves all people, so I am confident he wouldn’t miss me too much. I would miss him more.

However, here in America, euthanasia is generally considered to be the humane option for the pains of severe illness or death. My state recently approved medical assistance in dying for humans.

So, if I rehome him (my cat) now, and the new owner does not give me explicit assurances that they won’t euthanize him under any circumstances (which I imagine would be near impossible to come by), and they go on to euthanize him, perhaps years from now, am I culpable for the killing?

Thank you.

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 12 days ago

Can I leave my cycling tank for 4 days without light?

it would happen 20 days into the cycle. my light doesn’t have a built in timer. I am leaving town for four days. depending on how parameters look this week I will probably set up a different tank for my betta. So far the water changes haven’t been too onerous. Today is day 12 on the tank.

u/Objective-Work-3133 — 24 days ago

Has anyone quit vaping/caffeine and seen improvement?

I would really like to quit both but am looking for motivation. They are my last substance addictions. Sober 3.5 years. In pain for about 2. Because of all the damage drugs have done to my life, the harm I caused others, and all the work I have done to get off of them, I would probably kms before taking narcotics for pain relief. At the moment, my pain levels seem stable. But I never know if tomorrow is the day it flares up agajn, or if this will be the time I do not succeed at finding some physical means to remedy it. It has been like that for 2 years...stable for a month or two, comes back, getting worse every day, until i find some new movement or exercise that addresses it, which works for a month or two, rinse and repeat. I have about 10 days to find something that works when the pain comes back, before it becomes debilitating and I can no longer work. I live in constant dread of the day where it comes back and I can't find something. I already found someone who will take care of my cat.

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 1 month ago

Is it okay to leave this substrate out for a few weeks before planting?

I thought i had enough plants to set up both of these but i did not. I set up this 2.5 gal for shrimp, but i can't afford more plants right now. It is friable sifted topsoil from the woods. Second photo is the 5 gallon i set up. Ammonia was 1 ppm 24 hours in, and is zero now (48 hours). Nitrite is at .25 ppm. According to aquarium science this is not cause for alarm yet. I wouldnt have done fish in cycling, but i had to move.

u/Objective-Work-3133 — 1 month ago

Can someone recommend me a bag of soil on Amazon that would be suitable for use in a Walstad aquarium?

I am moving and need to restart my aquarium, my back hurts, I don't feel like going to the woods to dig up some topsoil (I don't have a car)

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 1 month ago

I am breaking my lease. Should I fight for my deposit?

Property management company (PMC) left the building's driveway flooded with sewage for months. A week ago, a notice for a hearing to determine whether or not the building should be condemned was posted on the building's door (note: NOT a notice of condemnation, a notice for a hearing to determine if it should be condemned) I let the PMC know about the sewage by phone about 6 weeks ago, no written documentation, but they already knew about it. I found a new apartment in my price range almost immediately. Doing so is far from guaranteed, and I decided to pull the trigger on the new lease rather than hope with my fingers crossed that this PMC would do their job. I didn't want to wait for it to be condemned and find myself shit out of luck when that happened.

The hearing was yesterday. Other tenant went, they are not condemning it, the PMC appears to have addressed the issue in the last week. Lease says I owe them two months' rent for breaking the lease early. I don't have that kind of money, I make minimum wage.

I am pretty confident that if they took me to court for those funds, they'd lose given the state they left the building in for so long. But, as far as my deposit is concerned, the building wasn't condemned, so I think it is safe to say it is forfeit. What do you guys think?

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 1 month ago

Is it true, that in NYS, the first net $450 of my weekly paycheck is protected against garnishment orders from money judgments?

Binghamton

Also, does EIPA protect $2750 in my bank account, or is that just for debts? Not that i have that much...

My apartment building was expelling raw sewage on to the driveway for 3 or 4 months. I contacted the landlord by phone about 6 weeks ago, they had already known about it. 1 week ago there was a notice of a hearing, to take place tomorrow, to determine if the building should be condemned. On that day, I found an apartment within my price range; not an easy feat these days, I make minimum wage. I decided to sign the lease and break my current one rather than risk letting this nowadays rare opportunity slip through my fingers, and possibly find myself SOL if the building did get condemned. The property management company has a reputation as a slumlord, and the lease I signed says I owe them 2 months' rent for breaking it. I am hoping a judge will see that they failed in their duties and dismiss their claim, but I don't know how that works. They appear to have gotten to work unclogging or repairing the sewer line.

Thanks for your help.

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago
▲ 7 r/walstad+1 crossposts

Are my plants in imminent danger?

Yesterday i scraped a bunch of green spot algae off the walls. Tank is 2.5 months old. Since week three, ammonia fluctuates from 0 to .5. I haven't done any water changes since then. Nitrite is always zero. Nitrate is sometimes zero, but has been more consistent around 5 ppm lately. Right now ammonia/nitrite/nitrate now are .25,0,5.

I noticed the brown spots on my plants. I added duckweed a week ago. Yesterday, i cordoned off the filter flow and baffled it with a coarse filter sponge to encourage its growth. If it has grown at all in the last week, I haven't noticed.

I read that phosphate could be the issue. I stopped by petco but the test was too expensive. I am about to place an order online, unless you guys think I need to act ASAP, in which case i will go to the store and poney up the cash. My first attempt with this tank was devastated by hair algae and if this one fails too I probably won't try again for a few years.

  • Light Type: hygger skyled
  • Light Cycle Duration: it was 8 hours up until today, i put it down to 6
  • Tank Size/Dimensions: 20 gal long
  • Fertilizers: n/a
  • Any aquatic animals, and how many? 1 betta, less than 10 ghost shrimp, ramshorn snails and pond snails that for some reason never survive past being 2-3 mm in diameter.
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago

Based on how much duckweed you see in the photo, how long do you think it should take to cover the surface of a 20 gallon long tank?

My tank is about 2 months old, maybe a little older. All nitrogenous compounds read 0 on week three. Since then ammonia fluctuates between zero and .5. Nitrate is yet to exceed 5 ppm.

It is densely planted. I haven't done any water changes, except one around week 3.

I have started to notice small amounts of filamentous hair algae (wrecked my first attempt), cyanobacteria (in photo 2), even a small amount of brown algae (there was a lot at week 3, but it went away after I added the filter). Oh, and quite a bit of green spot algae. To address this, I added duckweed.

I added the duckweed about 5 days ago. As far as I can tell, it has not grown at all. I baffled the filter since it doesn't like heavy flow, I have a plan to cut off a region near the filter flow with airline tubing in a few days. So, based on how much duckweed you see in this photo, how long do you think it should take to cover a 20 gallon long tank?

Thanks!

u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago

Basically, I hurt my shoulder doing bird dogs. I thought my shoulders should be what I guess I'd call "neutral", neither protracted nor retracted. Anyway, for some reason the standard modified curl-up seems to exacerbate my shoulder pain. It also hurts my right wrist sometimes.

Anyway, using this, both knees would be somewhat bent, and i could keep my hands on my chest or to my side. But no leg would ever be extended straight.

u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago
▲ 0 r/work

I graduated with an ms in a field related to industrial engineering 4 years ago. Since then, i haven't even looked for a new job. I have just been working in a kitchen doing prep. The truth is, if this job paid more, I would be content to keep it indefinitely. I like my job. The reason why i never used my degrees is because, well, i went to rehab for alcoholism my last semester of grad school, and I intended to just spend a year working a flexible, part time job, that was low stress while i focus on "sobriety stuff". Then, i procrastinated for another year (i am 3.5 years sober now), and my back pain started about 2 years ago.

I went 3 months without sitting down. Now, in some chairs, i can last an hour. Standing in one and only one place is also not great, though not as terrible as sitting. Sitting for 40 hours a week in a standard chair would literally be a death sentence. My job in the kitchen, as far as my back goes, is perfect. I move around frequently, and since i just do prep, i can make things far in advance, and take breaks almost whenever i want. I think the position is designed for people whose organizational skills are not on par with mine, because based on my observations i am twice as efficient as any other person i have seen doing my job. So, it is low stress as well, stress also being a trigger for pain. I almost never have to rush, even during the rush (periods of high restaurant traffic). If others performed prep in the manner in which I do (the days I am not there), I would literally never have to rush.

There is one way i can sit comfortably, but i imagine it would look really awkward in an office setting. A gravity chair, with my knees up against and over the arms, and my legs hanging on the edges of the part of the chair that protrudes. Basically, manspreading while reclined. Then, i either read or use my computing device by placing it on a couple of pillows on my stomach/crotch. I haven't tried it, but i think i could do 40 hours in that position.

Obviously, remote work is probably the move. However, i also have no marketable skills. I never even used excel; anytime I did any sort of data analysis I would just import the spreadsheets into a Python (programming language I was ok at) array. The only skill i developed in school is getting really good at taking classes. So, I guess I will have to learn skills if I am ever to pay off the debt i got into to learn skills.

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago
▲ 6 r/omad

I used to be very athletic. I was 205 lbs lean (so like, 10-15% bf by my estimation) I was getting my urine tested routinely because I was participating in a vaccine trial. Ketones were consistently detected in my urine, even though I was eating 150 to 200 grams of carbohydrate per day (total calorie intake was around 3000 calories or more)

reddit.com
u/Objective-Work-3133 — 2 months ago