Permanent

Words can never be erased.  They are permanent.  They can be so damaging.   In this particular case I'm talking about how girls begin to view their bodies based on what others say to them.  How one word to a little girl could stay with her a lifetime.

My daughter.  My beautiful daughter and I were turning my bedroom floor into a nail shop.  I was painting her toenails, as she was telling me about her day at school.  A boy was bothering her, so and so got new boots and she had to catch-up on her reading.  I could tell she wanted to say more and knew that an evening of painting nails might provide her with the courage she needs.  It's funny, I can usually get more out of my kids when we are doing something together.  Something other than just sitting and talking.  This evening proved to be just such a night.


After telling me the fluff stuff, she made a bold statement. 
                        
                        "Mom, my thighs are fat."  
                         Me, "What did you say?"
                            "My thighs are fat."  


It wasn't a question but a statement.  She didn't even hesitate.  My first question was "Who told you that?"  Of course the response was something like, "No one."  Yeah, okay right.  She's not going to tell me right now.  I went into the whole, we are all built differently, .... She, on the other hand, wouldn't even consider that.  Her urgency to get to another subject told me that.To be perfectly honest I don't know what I would do if I found out who told her that.   


I do know to well how words are permanent.  When I was 12 I thought I would never get taller.  I was stuck at 4'8" FOREVER.  All of my friends already had growth spurts.  I, on the other hand, needed one.  My doctor, at my well visit, told my mom (but I was sitting right there) that I really didn't need to gain anymore weight.  That was permanently embedded in my head, as is evidence of this post.


 I just hope it's not too late for my daughter.


Thanks Gabriela!!   Visit her @ celebreightyourself.blogspot.com  


http://celebreightyourself.blogspot.com/2012/01/fat-is-perfect-scapegoat.html

We All Have "Issues"

I just don't understand.  Our sweet cute little puppy, and she is sweet, lost it.  Her intoxicating puppy breath has now turned toxic.  It seems it happened sometime during the night.  I wonder if that is going to be her "issue."  We all have issues.  My family is not immune to them.  My pets are members of our family so they are not immune to them.   

Our first cat had a bit of a weight problem.  He was very large and very lazy.  He weighed 24 pounds.  I really don't think we fed him too much.  I think he was just "big boned". If I can round up a picture of him, I will share.

Our second cat, the one that we recently had put to sleep, was high strung.  She also had stinky breath.  Really stinky breath. Along with the bad breath came an attitude problem.  No one could get near her.  After or during the beginnings of the attitude problem came the litter box problem. Went I scooped every morning and evening I would consistently find pee on the wall.  Then I discovered the hooded litter box.  That solved the pee on the wall problem.  Yes, I had a female cat that sprayed.  When I asked the vet about this phenomena , he would in turn ask me,"Are you sure she is spraying?"  I asked him if she was in fact spraying when I saw her lift her hind end up, spraying the wall with what appeared to be pee.  "Oh," he said.   He had heard of that but, ...

The next adoption occurred a few years back.  Ruffles was adopted from a rescue.  He is sweet but a bit skiddish.  Ruffles is a Jack Russell that is not like your typical Jack.  He loves curling up on the couch.  He also doesn't like to have his feet touched. When he gets in bed you can't move him or you will lose fingers.When he's tired he's grumpy.  He takes a lot of naps.  I call him my little old man.  Maybe it's because of his Andy Rooney eyebrows.   Soon after we brought him home he would mark everything.  I wouldn't mind so much if it were all outside but it isn't.  Not only does he pee on things lying on the floor, he randomly just pees on the floor.  Nice.  I spent more time than I can tell you cleaning.  One time he was in the upstairs landing while the rest of us were downstairs watching TV.  We heard something that sounded like water running.  Of course I'm the one who jumps up to find out what the heck is going on.  I go into the foyer and see pee shooting from between the spindles upstairs down to the floor in front of me.  Really? We all love him though.

The dog we picked up from the Atlanta Humane Society was a gorgeous puppy named Spice.  We immediately felt Spice just wasn't the right name.  We renamed her another spice, Ginger. Spice was too generic.  She was, I mean is, cute.  It didn't take long to train her and the two dogs seemed to get along just fine.  This is before Ruffles started peeing on things.  


By this time we only had one cat, Zoie.  She was elderly and stayed upstairs.  The dogs stayed downstairs except at night. Anyway, we soon found out that Ginger would eat anything.  I do mean anything.  She has eaten concrete, carpeting, toys, and yes even her own poop.  The first time she ate her poop I couldn't move.  I couldn't do anything.  I couldn't believe it.  I even talked to the vet about this.  Apparently he knew of this issue also, like the female cat spraying, but hadn't actually encountered a client with a pet that did that. 


 I decided to watch a little Caesar Millan to see if anyone else had the same problem.  Nothing.  I researched the subject online and a couple of Caesar's books.  I do love that man! Somewhere along my journey researching something was said about bananas.  Feed a dog bananas and this will cure them.  Not true.  Bananas are apparently the only thing Ginger won't eat.  You could tell she thought they were disgusting.  It was almost as if she were being forced to eat her own poop. I guess I should be grateful she only occasionally does this.






Now there's Bella.  So cuddly yet with moments of intense fire.  She's a beautiful combination of bulldog persistence and  pitbull lovability.  Once we get past the puppy months we'll see what other "issues" come up.  Hopefully it will only be her breath :0)

Hippity, Hoppity, ...

Our little baby turns 5 months old.  Time has truly flown.  So far she has been a really good puppy.  This is probably one of the last times we will see her hippity hop up the stairs.  So sweet!  Now if I can only remember how sweet she is  when she wakes me at 3 in the morning needing to go outside, wakes again at 5, does her grab and run, wolfs down her food and everyone elses, and turns into a shaken up can of Sprite when greeting you. But she's so sweet!  How could you not love her? One of the best decisions we have ever made.