u/clydeballthepython

I have 3.5 ears listening to my every move at all times 😂

I posted here a couple days ago wondering if I should adopt another GSD that was at the shelter. Well, I decided to go ahead and do it!

His name is now Edward (Eddie), and he's setting in super well. He's still getting used to the cats, but we've already made incredible progress so far! Millie just mostly tolerates him, but doesn't seem too troubled by his presence. Hes been wonderful on leash, already potty trained, and has fit right in very easily.

If you're wondering about his ear, he had a huge ear infection when they brought him in that had caused an aural hematoma (basically cauliflower ear). It doesn't really seem to bother him much anymore thankfully

Now, before you immediately say yes, read the whole post!

Ive been going back and forth about whether I should adopt a gsd from my local shelter. I have Millie (8yo female gsd) and two cats (Bonnie and Ollie). The dog at the shelter is a ~5yo male, and got along well with Millie when we did the meet and greet. They were both fairly relaxed, and while he wanted to play he respected her when she asked for space. Both the shelter dog and Milloe have lived with other dogs before.

My main concern is with the cats. The shelter let me take him home for a day to see how he would do with my cats, and it didn't go great. The dog was clearly interested in them but also a little scared (whining but staying away and not wanting to get closer, would lay down and stare from a distance), but was honestly a similar level of interest that Millie had when I first brought the cats home and I believe I would be able to train him to relax around them.

The bigger issue was with my cats themselves. Ollie is much more confident and social, but tried to attack the new dog on the face. He didn't make contact since I got in the way, but he did draw blood from me in that process. He is normally a very friendly and playful guy, so it was unexpected (which is why he was out when I brought the dog home).

My other cat, Bonnie, is very scared of anything new, so it wasn't suprising to me that she hid the entire time the dog was there. However, normally she recovers and returns to her normal, foodie self within an hour of the new person/dog leaving. After this dog left, she did not want to leave my bedroom for over 6 hours, even for her dinner (extremely unusual for this cat, food is her favorite thing). She was even more skittish around Millie for the next few days, even though she normally loves Millie.

I have no commitments for the next few weeks and theoretically would be able to stay home all the time and work on the introduction process for them. However, my house isn't able to be evenly divided to keep them separate while that process occurs. The only option is the bedroom, which is pretty small and I dont feel fair to keep either two cats or a German shepherd in there when I'm not able to actively monitor them.

My mom offered to let me bring all 4 animals to her house immediately after adopting him (so go straight from the shelter to her place) to see if having a more neutral territory would help with the cat introductions, but its an 1 hour 30 minute drive so I'm not sure thats ideal either.

The dog himself is a really sweet guy that would otherwise be a wonderful fit. He walks well on leash, already has house manners, and seems to be a confident boy (something that might help Millie be less anxious). He's been in the shelter for over a month now with no interest, even though he'd genuinely be a great dog for so many families.

If my cats had been more welcoming to him I would've 100% adopted him already. I'm comfortable working with and training GSDs and I have the time and money to add another dog to the family relatively comfortably. But I just don't know if its fair to my cats to go through the introduction process when they were very clearly extremely stressed out by him. I feel like my heart is saying "Yes yes yes" while my brain is saying "maybe hold off..." and Im just so conflicted.

I keep going back and forth on what to do and just need some more input from people. Some days I'm ready to drive down to the shelter and bring him home, and other days I see how happy my cats are and feel incredibly guilty for even considering disrupting their lives so much.

Pic of Millie for tax

Apparently standing in this wall means Millie has to make silly faces 😂

Im not really introducing these guys anymore, but I recently got a brief video of them playing and just wanted some clarification on whether it was good play or not. Its pretty short, but thats how they often play - usually there will be some chasing, then the tackling like in the video, and then they'll usually sit and stare at each other for a while before either walking off or repeating the chase -> tackle thing.

Why I'm a bit worried about the play: my male cat (grey one) often has little scratches on his face, often by his ears, and frequently there will be fur from my girl cat (black one) in his mouth afterwards. I'll post some pictures of the scratches the male gets in the comments. Additionally, my female cat often has her ears back during after they do the wrestling bit, which I know can be a sign of it not being 100% enjoyable play. They never really vocalize during this though, which I know is the main sign its a fight and not play. I do my best to keep their nails trimmed and everything, but since I've only ever had one cat at a time before I just wanted to double check!

I'm like 90% sure this is just them being idiot gremlins and that they both are fine with it, but again I just want to double check now that I finally have a video lol

A few months ago, my skin started to get more broken-out and by now its almost like my cheeks are just one big pimple. I have a dermatologist appointment but the soonest they could see me was late September and I genuinely don't know if I can deal with it until then, so I'm hoping to get some tips to at least tame it a bit until I can see a doctor. I haven't been able to sleep well lately since my face is so painful that my normal side-sleeping position hurts, and I can tell that my sub-par sleep has been affecting me in other parts of my life as well.

Some background on my skin: in middle/high school I was on doxycycline and birth control since I would get acne (though less than now). It worked well, but I ended up weaning off the doxy this past summer since it was making me allergic to the sun and I needed to be outside a lot then. I ended up stopping the birth control probably around November as well, and didn't notice any significant changes in my skin and acne at either time. There were maybe a few more pimples than before but nothing serious and regular topical creams and soap were managing it fine.

Then about 3 months ago I tried some salicylic acid face soap to see if it would help the sebaceous filaments in my nose. I did notice the acne on my face was getting worse then so I did a little experiment where I used my old benzoyl peroxide soap on one half and the new salicylic acid soap on the other half and saw the acne was improving on the benzoyl side so I removed the use of salicylic acid from my routine. But its been about a month and its only gotten worse so I don't know what to do.

Current products:

Benzoyl peroxide face soap, used in shower

Benzoyl peroxide topical acne cream, used nightly. Sometimes I do a thin layer over my whole face and sometimes just over the active acne spots depending on how dry the rest of my skin is feeling

Ordinary moisturizer, applied in the morning after wiping down face

Hydrocolloid pimple patches at night

I know you're not supposed to pop or squeeze them, but a lot of the spots are opening when rubbed against (like when washing my face in the shower or even just putting on clothes sometimes). Ive also noticed that anecdotally in the past when I just had a few acne spots that if I would pop them and then immediately apply the benzoyl peroxide cream they would go away faster than if just using the cream. However I've avoided popping any of these ones intentionally mostly since it hurts too much.

I've tried washing my face in the morning but it just dries my skin out so bad that even applying a moisturizer after doesn't help. Back before my face got really bad like it is now I would basically never wash it in the morning, and now I just use some non-medicated wipes.

I'm just so lost because my routine I'm doing now is basically the same as it was before I introduced the salicylic acid (and back when my skin was much clearer). I feel like there's something else I could do but I don't know what it is, and I'm also lowkey kind of scared that it'll make it worse like the salicylic acid seemed to do. I can’t think of any other product changes or lifestyle changes that I've made recently that would be contributing to it.

How does the fit of this muzzle look on Millie? To my not super experienced eyes it seems like it fits well, but I just wanted to make sure!

​

It took a while for me to find a pre-made size that would fit her measurements since she's got a long snoot, but this is the leerburg 32C iirc

​

Also the biggest issue Millie seems to have with it is the weight. She tends to angle her nose down more when we are doing muzzle training compared to how it normally is positioned. Is this just something she'll get used to over time or is there a way to help her feel more comfortable with it?

​

So I used to run with my dog Millie more last spring, but got out of the habit during the heat of the summer and have only been on a few runs here and there since. I did get gifted the traction attachment for the muse harness that I already have, and have tried it a few times. Millie always seems more reluctant to pull using the attachment compared to just the straight harness, so tonight I tried figuring out why and realized it's because the straps that go over her back leg/hip area slide down and press weirdly (Image 1). This also causes it to bow out on the sides a bit, although it's hard to see in that image.

Based on the images I see on the website for this product, the more ideal angle for the traction attachment is like what you see in image 2 where it's above (or at least even) with the top of the dog's spine.

Unfortunately I am short and she is tall (image 3), so there really isn't enough of a height difference to pull the leash attachment point to a more optimal position with how it's currently fitted. When she's at full leash tension it would probably be okay, but it's hard to get her to do that since it fits weirdly at low/no tension. Is there a way I can adjust the fit to make it more comfortable for her, or is this just a case of biology making the product not suitable?

(I do know the last vertical strap of the harness is supposed to go on the outside of the traction attachment, but it was making the pictures harder to understand. It didn't really change how it was fitting though)

((Ignore the weird image quality and lighting, I don't know what my phone was doing and don't feel like taking the pictures again lol))

Just for fun: guess Ollie's breed!

He does have (at least) one feature that is out of breed standard so I'm curious how obvious it is given that fact. He is originally from a backyard breeder, although I adopted him at a later date.

Bonnie's only 6.5 lbs yet screams much louder than any cat I've every met! When she's not sleeping she's yelling at me for food 😂