Damn, where were those anti-free-range parenting people when my neighbor kept letting her six year old wander the neighborhood all day (literally following adult strangers around for entertainment because there aren't any other kids his age nearby). The behavior only stopped because the kid was playing with matches…

My mother has cut off contact with her mother (my grandmother) and her siblings over the last ten years or so. For a while she'd get sucked back, feeling guilty, and then get out again. There were a whole variety of reasons, and I'm not going to air them all here, but I appreciate how much she and my father shielded…

Forgiveness doesn't mean you have to repeat your mistakes.

Isn't it the classic definition of a narcissist, that wherever they look they only see themselves?

Personally, I think she's too delusional to accurately identify anything as the cause of the problem. She may have noticed that something was wrong around that time, but I think there is zero chance that her children (both of them) decided to snoop through private emails for no reason.

PS. When did self-esteem have anything to do with allowing people to be disrespectful? People can—and should—view themselves AND other people highly at the same time, you know.

I couldn't figure it out either — you don't want furniture shredded but the house smelling like whole male feline is okay? If I ever foster again I'm going to do it through an organization rather than on my own. I feel like I can't do as through a job checking out adopters, it's more stressful than the actually…

Some cats will only scratch vertically, or only horizontally, and Pasht help you if you can't find a post tall enough for a big cat. There are so many bad scratching post designs out there — sometimes I think it would be easier to just bring a tree trunk indoors than find one that suits my kitties.

You just need to wait out the limpness, and then the interpretive dance stage, and then they'll take to a leash without much more hassle. I leash trained all of mine (in case of emergency) as well as the last litter of foster kittens.

Here in Ohio, for whatever it's worth, for every vet that refuses to do declawing there's another who makes it part of a package deal with early vaccinations and spay/neuter. I think it's getting better, but declawing is still considered 'standard' by a lot of folks — even those who don't want a spay/neuter.

Even with tail and ear docking is legal many breeders go DIY. Not all vets will do it, it's expensive and there are some strict age guidelines. Dewclaws and tails need to be removed before 3 days old — after that you need to wait until they are old enough to handle the anesthesia.

Tried letting my cats out (supervised). Even the ex-stray hated the idea. Why would a feline need a drafty room with no ceiling? Of course, they also have ample entertainment indoors so it's never been an issue — keeping kitties entertained does take some time and effort.

We ban lots of things that are bad ideas even though some people may choose to break the ban.

The leading reason cats lose their homes (and end up in shelters) is failure to use the litter box. One of the leading reasons cats refuse to use the box is paw pain due to declawing (either initial poor healing, or arthritis resulting from altered weight distribution on paws). Failure to use the litter box is much…

I think some of it is kitten training — early, before the kittens are adopted out. My spoiled purebreds wouldn't think of scratching anything not covered in sisal for their convenience. It took a lot more training for the stray kitties we took in, and for the litter of ex-ferals I raised. They need to be exposed to…

My cats stick to scratching the posts but that's mostly because I own nearly as many scratching posts and cat trees as regular human furniture. **shrug**

Dogs use their tails for balance also, and water retriever breeds use it for 'steering'. There is some evidence that the greatest loss for dogs and cats missing tails is difficulty expressing themselves with normal body language.

This isn't even a 'plead guilty and resign', or 'plead no-contest and resign'. It's just 'resign and we'll pretend this never happened'. McVey won't even have a criminal record.

Falling in love is easy. If they can come up with 36 questions to get over someone you love but is totally wrong for you it would be more useful. But I say that having had to listen to friends saying 'but I love him' to excuse horrible behavior in destructive relationships.

Remember when Shar Pei were 'the rarest breed in the world' and yet somehow every suburban home had to have one? Worst thing that could ever happen to a breed. A lot of the genetic and behavioral problems that show up now are due to that period of massive inbreeding.