Haha thanks. I'm such an animal lover myself that I'd be pretty heartless to not be able to understand my employees needing to grieve for a beloved pet!

I'm sorry about your kitties, and glad your boss was understanding. It makes such a difference when you're grieving, at least it has for me.

Oh believe me, I get the mental health day thing. I gave one of my employees a week off after the horse she'd had since she was 5 years old (she was 25, the horse was in his 30s) died, and I've called in for all manner of animal-related reasons. No judgment here. :)

I never thought to use that one in high school, but I had a friend I cut class with all the time. There was a teacher who would literally sit on the roof of the school during lunch to watch for kids cutting class, so what we'd do is run out together and get in my van (I drove the old family minivan) before they could…

"I can't come to work today, my dog died."

I can't wrap my head around it either. I know 11-cm diameter in wounds doesn't mean it's 11-cm diameter at all points but that is still a huge wound. I had a 10-cm wound once and it was the result of a fucking Malinois dog grabbing my leg and tearing a chunk off. 11-cm is absolutely massive in this context and I…

I realized as soon as I posted that you probably were aware of that. ;) I know, it's a really weird story. They must have taken it seriously at least at first, as that's a pretty large search effort, but now they sound pretty certain it was a hoax.

There's probably information they aren't releasing yet because it's an active investigation.

Another example this debate calls to mind is horseback riding, because when I started teaching my niece to ride horses, she mentioned it to her pediatrician and he gave my sister a ton of information about helmets and head injury risk. If we had a law that he couldn't ask about her hobbies (that was what prompted the…

Thanks for the kind words, and honestly I liked your comment. There is definitely a relation between anti-choice and anti-contraceptive Christians (really they're just misogynist and anti-sex), and it's good to point that out. I just often read about how moderate Christians don't speak up so I try to speak up. ;) And…

I am Christian and spend a lot of time interacting with fellow Christians (including those who have a very different interpretation of our religion than I do) and in my experience this is less common than you might think. It certainly is a motivation for many Christian women, but a lot also just support the same…

Thank you for writing about this. I had missed the Atlantic article but it doesn't surprise me, given my experience as an outspoken Christian feminist. I am Protestant but I live in a Catholic majority area and this absolutely holds true. My extended family is also Catholic and all my cousins and aunts are on birth…

I don't think it means he secretly supports gay marriage necessarily (though it is possible). A lot of Christians (myself included) very clearly differentiate between civil laws and religious laws. I am openly queer and have run into this attitude many times. This type of Christian might believe it is a sin* but they…

It probably does. These numbers generally include all missing person reports taken, even if the person is found 20 minutes after the report (at least where I live). The police still have to do the paperwork and it gets included in the statistics.

I'm sure everyone can figure it out bu that should be "pretty frail" in my second to last sentence. Autocorrect is a bit meanspirited it seems.

I would love it for that. I'm involved with search and rescue and we often get calls for dementia patients who go missing. Many families already use ankle bracelet-type trackers but we still lose people if they manage to slip away while it's off (due to bathing, recharging the battery, etc.) Some of them also run on…

In addition to what Ari said, most missing child reports are either non-custodial parent abductions or runaways (so that includes every 14-year-old who runs away for 5 hours then realizes it sucks and comes home on their own, as long as their parents call the police and file a report). Most missing persons cases of…

As others have said, most missing kids are abducted by a custodial parent or run away on their own and are found soon. There are only about 2-3,000 cases of missing persons (of any age) a year that aren't resolved quickly, usually by finding the person alive and well. Which is still a big number when you consider them…

I think them not nagging you about feeding might be a sign that they're very comfortable and relaxed. :) Dogs nag for two reasons: they're extremely motivated by something so their focus is tuned towards it (this describes those extreme food-motivated dogs), or they're so comfortable they trust you and know it will…

I currently have 7 dogs and those people are liars. ;) Or maybe they're telling the truth, but dog not finishing its food is not a bad thing! I mean, it can be. Dogs do develop temporary anorexia due to stress and various other factors (or sudden anorexia can be a sign of underlying physical problems), but honestly…