Oh. terriers!! Ever since we got our Cesky Terrier in May, 2022, we have kept the basement door shut to keep him from going into the basement to chase the cat and do indiscriminate marking to claim the territory as his own. This rather isolated the cat, but we tried to give her as much attention as we could.
Being a terrier, Kyrill turned getting to the basement into a game and a challenge. He would wait for any opportunity to get down there, lurking to see if we forgot to shut the basement door, then racing down the stairs, chasing the cat, and eating her food.
We picked him up from the boarding kennel yesterday, and I decided to change strategies regarding the basement. Before we picked him up I put a gate in front of the basement room where the litter box and cat food resides so the cat could get in but Kyrill couldn’t. He was so excited to see us when we got him home that he didn’t even notice the basement door was open. Once he noticed, he immediately ran downstairs, but, because we didn’t chase him and because he wanted to be with us he came right back upstairs. He ran up and down rapidly a couple more times, but eventually settled on the sofa with me. The cat walked into the livingroom several times and he ignored her.
I could kick myself for not doing this earlier. Now I have a much happier cat who can wander upstairs as she wishes, and a dog who is probably waiting for an opportunity to make some other activity into a game.
Why is it we want what we can’t have? What have you wanted and then regretted once you got it?
Trail Baboon 
Hmmm. Interesting question. My immediate answer would be about a former romantic partner but I don’t think I’ll discuss that here!
On my way to Door County, WI, with some friends!
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Enjoy Door County!
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Have a safe trip and a great time, Krista.
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Two related things. 1.A gym membership. 2. A treadmill.
All fired up until the boredom set in.
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To make my gym membership work I have to have audiobooks to deal with the boredom. As soon as I stop moving, I really regret it—stiffness and lack of stamina soon begin.
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I am now on my 37th consecutive day of walking at least 10,000 steps. This is much better than I’d hoped for. Getting up at 6, hasn’t harmed The Birds. I’m sleeping well. Eating much better. Protein drink. Lots of veggies. Blood pressure waaaaay down. Weight? On May 1, when I had a visit with my primary care doctor, I was clinically obese at 247 lbs. This morning, I’m at 214. No starvation. Actually building muscle.
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Go, Wes, go.
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Congrats, Wes. Keep it up. Move it or lose it, I always say.
Chris in O-town
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Good for you, Wes. It’s encouraging when you begin to see the positive effects of your efforts. Keep at it.
I go to a small local gym that caters to older folks and people with handicaps of various sorts. Yesterday while I was there, there was a session for three adults with Down syndrome and their PCAs. What a delightful group of people. How I miss my days of volunteering for Special Olympics. They made my own rather boring session fly by.
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Rise and Stick Your Nose Where it Does.Not.Belong, Baboons!
I spent my early childhood playing out this dynamic. I have described before “The Well” in our front yard from ages 4-6. It was Forbidden, of course because it was not being used and children ( including Timmy on Lassie) could fall in the well. I found it fascinating, so I spent a lot of time and energy trying to see under the wooden cover or playing with the rusty pump. Dad would take me out to it, remove the cover and explain to me what it was, why the pump was no longer used (indoor plumbing!), then let me peek to the bottom at the dark,scary water and ask questions. Many questions. That would keep me satisfied for about a week. Repeat the cycle.
Mom commanded me not to go near it. So as soon as her back was turned, I would sneak up to the pump and try to make the handle work. SHe would catch me. I would spend time with my nose in the corner or get spanked. And I would sneak right back to the pump. The well was always the issue. So why did they not take out the well and remove the danger? I suppose it was money. But I could not stay away from the thing, and neither could any of the friends I played with.
Dad’s strategy sure created good feelings and understanding it was dangerous. Mom’s strategy was the way she did life and the source of many struggles. As an adult I have been pretty thrifty, so I think carefully about what I buy. I don’t have many examples of buying something I later regretted. As water issues have played out in Arizona, we decided we did not want the financial exposure of owning property there, so we sold it. But I loved that condo. That is about the closest I come. Phoebe is chewing on my shoelaces. Time to walk her.
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Kyrill wants everything he isn’t supposed to have. We try not to chase him if he steals something. The best way to get a terrier to come to you is to run the opposite direction.
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Very old corgis also respond to this turn the back approach, but ours moves slowly. Probably much slower than Kyrill, so it is pretty safe. Bootsy gets so annoyed with Phoebe’s antics. If a dog could roll her eyes, she would do so.
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I go through a period of buyer’s remorse over most things I buy that cost more than $20, which is a constant reminder to not want what I cannot have, a reminder I do not need. I just never want what I cannot have for whatever reason. Or very seldom do. The grass is greener is a real lesson from my life. There was a long fence and it was not greener on Vic’s land because he did not take care of it.
It has been a rough 4-5 days, Sandra’s fall and a death on her memory unit, which upsets me and the staff more than the residents, who quickly forget. If Lola or Connie died, then Sandra would be upset for a few days.
And my digestion testing and cleansing has been rough. No details will I give. Have not eaten for 28 hours. System just starting to accept food. Going to have another round of medical stuff this month for eyes and PT and lower abdomen including endoscopic biopsy.
Clyde
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Every piece of exercise equipment I’ve ever purchased. Except my actual bike. But I don’t consider that exercise equipment. That’s just a bike.
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At one point we owned a Nordic Track cross country ski exercise unit. Those were pricy in their day but now you couldn’t give one away. I don’t think I used it even once.
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I was resting briefly this afternoon after giving an hour talk on psychiatric diagnoses to a Consumer Family Network group having a convention here, when Kyrill grabbed Husband’s new copy of Walter Kaufmann’s translation of “Faust” and shook it and whacked it like he would shake and whack a badger. There were paper scraps all over the floor. It only took 5 minutes. I will order a new copy.
No one told me this was an anti-psychiatry group. I didn’t know why they asked for a lecture on diagnoses. They were gracious, but interrupted frequently to complain about diagnoses in general and the lack of newer treatment modalities here in particular.
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Perhaps the Devil made Kyrill do it!
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I think the Consumer Family network made Kyrill do it.
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They sure have legitimate complaints about medications and unapproachable providers. They really laughed when my slide for the key features of Narcissistic Personality Disorder came up, and I asked if they recognized anyone in the news with those characteristics.
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I was asked to do this by higher ups in the State Behavioral Health Division, so I counted it as work time and got a gift bag of locally made chocolate and caramel treats as an appreciation gift.
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I just googled the CFN group. What gives you the idea that they are anti-psychiatry, Renee? It looks to me as if it’s a group that advocates for consumers of mental health services.
Surely there are people within the psychiatric health care system who question/challenge prevailing both diagnoses and treatments of mental illness? Some treatments from the past were beyond horrible, and are no longer used. Likewise, things that were previously thought to be signs of – and treated as – mental illness, are no longer classified that way. Isn’t that how those changes came about? I’m truly not playing the devil’s advocate here, this is an issue that I’ve been interested in for long time, partly because of my mother’s mental health issues.
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