<p>Good morning all,</p>
<p>Vball- sending {{BIG HUGS}} to you and your family. The candle ceremony is a very touching idea…Our old lady is now 14 1/2, she is on Rimadyl to alleviate her arthritic pain, we cherish every moment spent with her knowing they are counted 
KS- “I’ll love you forever, I’ll like you for aways, as long as I’m living my baby you will be” 
Have a fun trip at Penn, S1’s GF moved in yesterday (some early start program she got in), she seems to love it ;)</p>
<p>S2 and Dh made it safe and sound. Had another wonderful diner in some asian-american restaurant, enjoying some nice cooler weather in MA, ran into some of his classmates from NJ touring the same schools :)</p>
<p>Have a great Sunday everyone :D</p>
<p>Good morning, everyone!</p>
<p>vballmom - So sorry to hear about your loss. Pets add so much joy to our lives.</p>
<p>After my super successful shopping trip yesterday, my day actually somehow continued to get better! I had a lovely dinner with my family, took my dogs for their walk with my dad, and then we all saw Despicable Me together. When I was getting ready for the movie I decided to try on one of my favorite pairs of jeans, which didn’t fit me a month ago. They fit! Yay! And the movie itself was very cute and adorable, though if you had trouble sitting through Toy Story 3 prepare to cry at DM as well. A really excellent day
Tomorrow we’re leaving for a week in New Hampshire. Not sure how the internet will be there, so in case I can’t reach you all have a good, happy and successful week everyone!</p>
<p>KS - have a great time at UPenn/in Philadelphia today. </p>
<p>vballmom - so sorry to hear about the loss of your beloved dog. Interestingly, my mom’s cat did the same thing when their dog passed away - she started sleeping in the dog’s bed.</p>
<p>t_c - I loved hearing about your wonderful day. Have a great time in New Hampshire!</p>
<p>We’re off to visit family for the day.</p>
<p>Happy Sunday everyone.</p>
<p>
Well, a mom’s gotta do what a mom’s gotta do! </p>
<p>Vballmom, I am very sorry for the loss of your beloved dog.</p>
<p>t_c: That pretty much sounds like the best day ever Have a great time in New Hampshire! </p>
<p>It’s August! I register online for classes tomorrow at 10:00 am EST…meaning 7:00 am my time…oh well! A lot of classes are already full, unfortunately, because freshmen in many, if not all, of the other colleges (like humanities, sciences, arts, comp sci, etc.) have already registered. I’ll see what I can get.d </p>
<p>My little sister just left for camp this morning. She’s gone for three weeks, which means that I’ll have already left for college when she comes home, so I won’t see her until December! Hence my waking up early to see her off.</p>
<p>CaliD, are you sad about not seeing your sister until December?</p>
<p>vball, (((HUGS))),</p>
<p>^I will definitely miss her! We definitely fight, but we enjoy being around each other when we manage to get along 
I think it just doesn’t quite feel real yet. Usually, I just enjoy having some time to myself when she’s off for three weeks (she goes to camp pretty much every year); it’s very strange to realize that I won’t be seeing her for so long. I think the reality may sink in more later…</p>
<p>I can appreciate that answer. Ds2 just got back yesterday after being gone for three weeks, and ds1 leaves in a month. I’ve been reading psychmom’s thread about taking younger siblings to drop off the older one, and it’s just got me thinking. My sons get along so well. Ds1 will be off to the new adventure, and ds2 will stay home with my parents and probably miss his big brother terribly.</p>
<p>When my older sister went off to kindergarden I pitched such a fit my mom broke one of her cardinal rules and brought me to the five and dime and let my choose a toy to shut me up. I was screaming I want my Bethie, give me back my Bethie, while my sister went happily off without a backwards glance. I was much better when she left for college! We are only 11 months apart so we were pretty close.</p>
<p>So sorry about your dog, Vballmom. It’s weird how sometimes it seems the passing of an era happens with several things at once - a grown child heads off to college and the family pet from those same years passes on. Double-whammy for the parents.</p>
<p>Our cat is 15, we got her when D was 4. I, too, am dreading the day I’ll have to call her with the news. Although I must say, I’ve owned cats my whole life - often 2 at a time - and this is far and away the most annoying cat I’ve ever had. She weighs less than 8 lbs, but she is possibly the loudest cat in North America. She’s like a toddler - she yells repeatedly until you pick her up, or let her out, or feed her. She claws woodwork and screen doors, although that’s gotten better since we got her a scratching pad, laced it with catnip, and give her a treat every time we see her use it. This cat has the sharpest claws of any cat I’ve ever had - they’re like needles if I don’t trim them. For the past few years she’s been pulling her fur out in clumps and leaving the little spit-soaked clumps all over the house. When we come home from vacations, there’s the inevitable moment when the kids get to the upstairs hall and see clumps of fur everywhere and yell, “Mom, the cat exploded. Again.” And she’s like Rasputin - you can’t kill her. She’s had at 3 surgeries - 2 for abcesses after catfights, and one for a huge tumor in her back. She got practically cut in half by the garage door, and came out of it without a scratch. She’s survived asthma, a pleural effusion (fluid pressing on her lungs), used to get monthly steroid injections for allergies (an attempt to help the fur situation and the ashtma), and I can’t even think of what else. Last time the vet saw her he said, “I shouldn’t make predictions, but she may have 6 more years left in her.” We can’t decide if that’s good news or bad news. 
S makes a big show of hating the cat, he and she pretty much avoid each other. S and H make jokes about ways to try to get rid of the cat, and I jokingly go along with them, which bugs D and will make it that much harder for her to believe that I am truly sad when this cat dies. I will be sad. (maybe).</p>
<p>acm, I remember wanting to go to school so bad, like my much-older brother and sister. So bad, in fact, that my mom started me in school a year early, as a 4yo. Imagine my shock when I was taken to kindergarten and not the junior high bus stop with my siblings!</p>
<p>Wow, Lafalum, sounds like your cat is proof they have 9 lives. :)</p>
<p>Hurray! D’12 is back from Hawaii! We’re all together again and this mommy feels whole. :)</p>
<p>^^^ Pushing the CC “LIKE” button ^^^</p>
<p>lol laf, love that cat!! unfortunately i think the new stray dog “crackhead” is going to be a pet like that! it is driving everyone crazy…ruining doors, think we are on about the 6th pair of ruined shoes, scratching my floors, annoying the poo out of our older dogs, and the cat HATES it with a passion.</p>
<p>Laf - We had a cat like that. We adopted 2 orange tabbies when we got married. She was not at all personable 0 hid under the bed and hissed at us. Always had allergy problems. Skinny as a rail. Nursed through numerous life threatening illnesses. Didn’t like our other cats or dogs. Died peacefully in her sleep at 19. I still miss her. What can you do?</p>
<p>DB - Yay for feeling whole again! Hope your D’12 had a great time!</p>
<p>Yds- I am sure kindergarten was not what you had in mind! </p>
<p>CaliD - Glad you got up early to see your little sis off to camp!</p>
<p>Happy Sunday all! Stay 
</p>
<p>Wow, it’s August! </p>
<p>Vballmom, {{{{HUGS}}}}</p>
<p>Boiledegg, Looking forward to sharing the 2012 journey with you…our sons sound like they are cut from the same mold. My S only went on one college tour; he was a total jokester and it was enough! A family in our tour group brought the dog, and the whole time my son was commenting to me things like, “I wonder what the dog is majoring in.” :rolleyes: Meanwhile, D headed up front, away from her younger brother’s nonsense.</p>
<p>Jackief, I am sure his antics will liven up the 2012 thread…just get those virtual martinis ready for me! </p>
<p>KS, Hope you are having a most excellent time in Philly! Glad the shopping trip was a success.</p>
<p>TC, Have an awesome vacation…good to hear you had a wonderful shopping day as well.</p>
<p>Psychmomma, Forgot to mention your great choice in names! </p>
<p>LIMOM, Have a nice family day.</p>
<p>D was a mess yesterday after the extractions, but she is more “with it” today. She will have to miss her ESL teaching the next few days.</p>
<p>Laf, Just read you cat story…thanks for the much needed laugh. :)</p>
<p>our best cat was “good cat”… when oldest was about 4, our dogs at the time treed a little orange kitten… it was so frightened, and son stayed at the base of the tree for hours trying to get it to come down… “come here little cat, you’re a good cat”… hence the name when he finally came down. sweetest cat ever,… would hug you, anytime you picked him up, he would stretch out his paws around your neck (perhaps tmi but if you were sitting on the toilet, he would jump onto counter beside you and hug your neck the whole time you sat)… when another cat we had at the time died, good cat, curled up in a ball and wouldnt eat or drink…after 4 days vet recommended we get another cat immediately as it was grieving itself to death. Good cat lived to be 13, and i had to call son and tell him… soooo very hard to listen to your son crying on the phone!!! tearing up even as i type remembering that call.</p>
<p>awww, I’d love a kitty like Good Cat!</p>
<p>After one of our cat’s major surgeries she refused to eat. The vet told me cats can be anorexic and their liver will be damaged very quickly if they don’t eat, so I had to force feed her - chicken broth and mushy canned foot blended together into a slush and injected into her mouth with a large eye-dropper. Eventually she started eating again. So I can believe that a cat would grieve itself to death.</p>
<p>I can’t figure out if I’m the worst kitty-mom in the world, because she’s had so much illness and injury, or the best because I’ve nursed her thru it all. She’s on about her 7th or 8th life at least. She was a shelter cat, D picked her out because she was the only cat that was awake and lively, the rest were hiding in their cages. The shelter worker warned me that she had “attitude”…</p>
<p>psychmom, glad your daughter is feeling a bit better today</p>
<p>DB…how wonderful!</p>
<p>calid…glad you were able to see your sister off to camp</p>
<p>We’ve been recently adopted by an outside cat. He (I think it’s a he) is a large, organge can with a lot to say. He comes to the door and yells till someone comes out and feeds him. I think he’s lonely and I worry about how we will handle him this winter because he can’t come into the house. I really hope that he has an actual home, but I’m prepared to buy an outdoor cat warming pad and dog house for him to sleep in. We call him “Feisty Cat.” A cat passed away in front of my house this morning and hubby couldn’t deal with it before he left for work, so I have to. When I called him, the first thing he asked was “is it Feisty?” It’s not.</p>