u/abbysnosecrumb

We had a bad morning with our senior dog and looking for affirmation or support.

Our little girl is 14 and was recently had a mass removed that turned out to be malignant. Sure, she sleeps a lot now, but she still gets the zoomies and shows excitement for walks. She is at this point in her life.

Yesterday morning was the first bad day we ever encountered, and it was terrifying. Big disclaimer: she was okay by the afternoon, and doing well now. Yes, we are bringing her to the vet to get checked out.

I wanted to discuss the day with other papillon owners/lovers. I've been reading this forum meticulously to know what to expect over the next year or two and a lot of what I saw yesterday mirrors what I have been reading.

We woke up, and brought her out first thing, as usual, to pee. She didn't go to the bathroom when brought outside, which she normally does first thing in the morning. She acted like she was going to go, but did nothing.

We went back inside. She started pacing incessantly walking back and forth down the hall as my spouse got ready for work. Normally she takes a seat near me on the rug or couch.

Once my spouse finished getting ready, we both sat on the couch. She came to the living room but she stared straight ahead, not at us but really at nothing. He again brought her out to pee or poo, thinking maybe she had to go. 25 minutes outside, nothing.

They came back inside. She doesn't hop on the couch anymore but she usually motions for us to lift her up. Not that morning, she just stared into space again. I manually picked her up, a motion I've done a million times, but she immediately shrieked out louder than I ever heard before. It was like a siren.

I got her to calm down, and she immediately settled in the crook of my legs, with her head on my knee, not moving at all but shivering as if cold. We put on her winter jacket, which seemed to help. It wasn't cold.

We got up from the couch and I placed her on the floor. She walked towards the kitchen and then just stopped. She had that vacant stare again. I couldn't tell what she was doing because she wasn't fully squatted to the floor, only partially. It looked as if she was frozen. Then we realized she began to pee.

We cleaned it up, brought her out (I picked her up again - no screaming from her at all this time), and she did nothing. No walking around, nothing. It was like she was a stuffed doll.

We brought her in, and half an hour later, she did the same thing, peeing on the floor.

She is fine now, completely fine, like nothing ever happened - but I am not. The entire thing just scared me so much. It felt very similar to stories on here of dementia. She was not herself. I am very sad and scared this morning.

How on Earth do house taxes work here?

We moved from a different state and our taxes were x percent of our appraised value of our house. That's it. So simple.

It doesn't really seem the case here in Atlanta (Fulton/DeKalb/Cobb). We realize that Zillow is generally inaccurate (we were told that the BuyAbility tool is often not correct), but have heard that the public tax history section is accurate.

We saw a property on Zillow where nearly 20k of property taxes and assessed value o $250k in the public tax history section. Two years before that the taxes were more like $2k and assessed value was $220k. Is this accurate??

If we just go to the county page and type in the address will we get a complete tax amount for past years, or are we missing something significant? For this particular house tax was listed as 3k on its county website. I'm so confused.

Looking for experiences with foster care and adoption in Atlanta. I'm in my 40s, married. Wondering about process, cost, and best agencies to work with. Thanks for any tips or resources.

I really want to work for Atlanta Public Schools, but the hiring process has been incredibly frustrating so far.

They use a background/work verification system called Verifent, and after more than a month, none of my employers’ responses have come through. That’s a huge issue because APS salaries are step-based, so verified experience matters a lot.

Now HR is telling me I need to personally send PDF verification forms to each of my previous employers — and I’ve had at least seven over the years. I’m in my 40s, I’ve changed careers and companies a few times, and some of these employers barely even have records of me anymore.

To make things worse, I recently found out Verifent didn’t include my maiden name, even though I entered it on the application. That could easily explain why some employers haven’t been able to verify me. But apparently the only way to fix it is to start the entire application process over again.

I already spent several hours completing the Verifent process the first time, and now it looks like I’ll need to spend even more time tracking down employers, filling out forms, and following up repeatedly.

What makes this especially difficult is that this is currently for a part-time position that would only pay around $20k, even with 15 years of verified experience. I pursued it because I genuinely want to make a difference in kids’ lives, and I’m hoping to eventually work my way into a full-time role.

I even asked whether I’d have to go through this entire verification process all over again if I later applied for a full-time role, and I never got a response to that question either.

Has anyone else dealt with something like this? I’m honestly not sure what to do at this point. The verification service clearly isn’t working well, and the amount of unpaid administrative work being pushed onto applicants feels overwhelming.

Does anyone have a home in Asheville that is not a primary residence because of a lack of jobs here? In other words, do you work and live in a different state, and find a way to pay for your house and hold onto it?

I'm not talking about mansion on a mountain, I'm talking about a typical '60s or '70s ranch in a residential neighborhood.

We moved here a few years ago and saw the worst in the city. We actually moved here with jobs and those fell apart. It was a nightmare to get anybody to recognize professional experience. It stalled my partner's career and greatly hurt my career, especially since I'm in my forties.

We had to move to a bigger city for work. Now at least one of us has a stable job.

We would love to keep this house. Our dream was to live in and give back to the mountains, but we just aren't sure if we can swing it or if it makes financial sense. We aren't sure if it's too much of a risk.

We could rent it out mid or long term, but we are concerned about wildfire risk and landslide risk and insurance and property tax increases, and every other worry that comes with Helene except for flood zones, because we aren't in one.

We are also concerned about selling the house and never being able to have a house in the mtns again. Selling would allow us to have a modest house in a good neighborhood in our new city, but clearly we would not have a place in Asheville any more.

We don't live that far away. We were huge into volunteering, so we wouldn't be these people who buy a house and then sit on it without using them or giving back. Our house was home to hundreds of animal fosters, tools to rehabilitate mountain trails, and our weekends were full of dedicating our time for free to better the city. Everyone wanted us to work for free, but nobody wanted to pay for our basic living expenses or allow us to advance in our careers .

Best case scenario, we'd be able to keep the house and come back up to participate in a society that we just can't afford living here.

Has anyone been in our shoes? What did you decide? Anyone willing to talk with us? Thanks for any advice.

For folks who currently working with an buyers agent, or who recently bought through an agent:

• What is/was your buyer's agent fee?
• Did you need to cover it if the seller didn't?
• Was there a cap on what you had to pay?

My friend has a spouse who won't stop hiding porn watching even though she's told him since the start of dating years ago that it was a deal breaker and basically cheating to her. She is an SA survivor, has lived in poverty a great deal of her life. She has seen friends go down that route not out of choice and has been assaulted by men when she was younger.

Apparently the last time she found out, she gave him an ultimatum that she will leave if he did it again. She cried for weeks on end. Less than six months later, same thing happened again.

He also has consistently checked out other women while in public with her and denied/gaslit her every time. He has to get the attention of women half her age who are clearly open to behaving the same with her there. Eventually he has confessed, when she won't let it go.

She is a very sweet person and this has happened to her before, guys who take her kindness for granted and then turn it around to blame her for choosing to ignore the warning signs of their lack of trustworthiness. She's told him about past partners who cheated on her, trusting him to care and be different. It probably feels to her like the ultimate betrayal with her husband.

TBH the guy seems nice to others and they have good memories outside of this. But the trust is completely gone.

She now she has to guard all his device use and my heart breaks for her. He said they could get monitoring software. I'm concerned about what would happen if he left her as a result of this behavior. She would basically be homeless and struggle in her later years. They have no kids even though she's wanted them, probably bc of this. She's mentioned dead bedroom as a result of this habit. He doesn't touch her.

How does she protect herself when everything he does is via incognito browser? He's downloaded VPN before this this as well. Maybe the software is proof of this happening? I'm trying to write this as delicately as I can because I know folks can heal and move on but I'm very scared for her. She has so little and again has the biggest heart I know. In fact she's sacrificed her mobility for his career to advance.

According to her, he will apologize but not repair any of the damage. He moves on and acts like nothing happened after a few days, doesn't show real concern about how much he's hurt her, no real change. Gets really manipulative, evasive, and hostile when she points out how his behavior doesn't match the profile of someone who is sorry or sees the repurcissions of their actions on her. I am guessing this behavior is part of a pattern typical of an addiction.

She's recently become much more vocal and has started telling people. For instance, on their anniversary, she approached a young women who thought it was mutually enjoyable at their dinner to sneak glances to tell her it wasn't alright what she was reciprocating. She is telling friends like me.

My question is how to support her. What does it take for this behavior to change? She recently told me that the times she feels she can trust him are now the times she knows he is hiding something from her. I'm scared for her safety and well being. Are there free groups that can help her feel less alone or process this?

It's like he just doesn't care about anyone but himself when it comes to his attention to other women literally half her age or younger. On the outside he seems like a conscientious guy but behind closed doors he can do whatever he wishes, and completely neglect her well being and her feelings. The fact that he is so casual, carefree, and engaged in public despite all of this is disorienting.

Thanks for any and all advice, resources, and support I can pass on.

I am in a GIS graduate program, nearing graduation. I need to transfer my student projects to a personal account as not to lose my entire portfolio for job hunting. This process has been highly unsuccessful. Here are the steps I've attempted to take:

1. Reach out to advisor: no response

2. Reach out to ESRI: two different support folks encouraged me to buy a personal license to do this transfer. Easy peasy, right?

3. Tried AGO Assistant, the old transfer tool, doesn't work. Gets stuck at creating service. Even items that seem to go through fail. Process is taking hours for a handful of items, then fails.

4. Tried ArcGIS Assistant, the new transfer tool, doesn't work. Gets stuck at copying item. Process is taking hours for a handful of items, doesn't go through at all.

Has anyone in the MGIS/MSDS programs graduated and successfully transferred your projects? Specifically, I have Experience Builder projects, web maps, feature layers, and extensive StoryMaps I've spent months creating. This is discouraging to say the least.

I am in the World Campus GIS program and nearing graduation. I need to transfer my student projects to a personal account as not to lose my entire portfolio for job hunting. This process has been highly unsuccessful. Here are the steps I've attempted to take:

1. Reach out to advisor: no response

2. Reach out to ESRI: two different support folks encouraged me to buy a personal license to do this transfer. Easy peasy, right?

3. Tried AGO Assistant, the old transfer tool, doesn't work. Gets stuck at creating service. Even items that seem to go through fail. Process is taking hours for a handful of items, then fails.

4. Tried ArcGIS Assistant, the new transfer tool, doesn't work. Gets stuck at copying item. Process is taking hours for a handful of items, doesn't go through at all.

Has anyone in the MGIS/MSDS programs graduated and successfully transferred your projects? Specifically, I have Experience Builder projects, web maps, feature layers, and extensive StoryMaps I've spent months creating. This is discouraging to say the least.

We’re house hunting in east/southeast Atlanta (Ormewood Park / East Atlanta / Woodland Hills / Kirkwood / Edgewood area) and have noticed that multiple homes have had the followign:

* crawlspace encapsulation or vapor barriers * basement waterproofing systems (interior drains, sealed walls) * downspouts routed underground

* "pouring extra concrete" so there's no sign of water intrusion * other signs of past moisture mitigation

In some cases, the homes are also on slopes (sometimes downhill of a cross steet), near small creeks or drainage areas, or have such areas on their property.

For those familiar with Atlanta homes:

Is this kind of water management pretty normal/expected for homes here? Or is it more of a red flag tied to specific lots (slope, drainage, proximity to creeks, age or layout of house)?

When you see systems like this, do you assume the issue is “handled,” or that it’s ongoing? Any experiences buying a house with these features: did it turn into a headache or was it manageable? Should we just avoid houses anywhere near sloped roads or creeks, even if uphill of the creeks?

Trying to understand if we’re being overly cautious or if these are signals to pay close attention to.