Dog knot in lady

my husband and i recently tied the knot and now we’re applying for base housing. the issue is that i live in California with my pets and he lives all the way in Washington DC. when i make the move, what are my options to get my belongings across the country? and i know i’m able to bring my dog on the plane with me, but how am i able to get my cat there as well? they don’t allow you to ship pets by plane anymore unless i were to be traveling with my husband and if he were to have orders. i’m not worried about my stuff im wayy more worried about my pets. my chihuahua has major separation anxiety and is not friendly with strangers so i think the best choice is to just fly with her. the airline i take will only allow me to have one animal with me in the cabin. my cat on the other hand, is thirteen years old and also not particularly friendly but that’s just in general. i have traveled a week with both of them by car and my cat was not having it and i had to give her calming treats. she’s an old kitty so i worry about something happening to her. we’re probably not going to move for another month or three but i like to have these things planned out. any advice? are there any companies that will ship animals?

This is a long shot, but to the dude running with his dog in PSQ canyon today who wouldn't stop and I yelled after you -
It's a very bad idea to run with your dog while it is wearing the type of muzzle that keeps it from being able to open it's mouth.
Dogs can't sweat, they have to pant. They can't do that with that type of muzzle.
I understand that your dog may need a muzzle. Good for you for being responsible and using one! But if you want to take him running, get the wire "basket" kind so he can open his mouth.
Your dog looked so miserable -- sticking it's little tongue out trying to get what little body heat release he could that way, and running kind of behind you with his head tucked down. I hope he is ok.
I hope you see this. Or I hope someone you know sees this who you might listen to more than the crazy lady who tried to wave you down on your way back from the waterfall.

We were together for 2 years and I ended it because we are incompatible on many different levels. Ultimately it just came down to her picking low quality friends that talked shit behind my back over me. It came down to her style of parenting her 2 kids. It came down to her 4 year old not being potty trained or taught to speak yet. It came down to her wanting what I had to offer more than wanting me. She didn't cheat, but she made me feel invisible and unloved.
Now I go to bed with my dog next to my left leg every night. I go to the gym just about every day. I focus on the book my friend and I are writing. I play video games to unwind at the end of the day. I talk to my therapist once a week. I have goals for myself that I'm working towards.
She and I tried to be friends, it kind of worked for a while until she had a fight with my next door neighbor and decided to put an extremely cruel sign in my window directed at my neighbor. She didn't tell me she did this. My neighbor, (a crazy old lady) has a daughter who reached out to me to tell me about the sign in my window. I don't know what possessed her to go to such an extreme, but she broke my trust and lost my respect.
We don't speak anymore. She went from someone I truly loved and would have done almost anything for, to a complete stranger.
The hardest parts are the kids and my dog. Sometimes my dog will hear her pull up and beg me to let him go say hi, like he used to. Other times when I get home, her kids will hear me and run outside calling my name and it breaks my heart.
I sleep no more than 40 feet away from her home right across the street, yet I feel more alone than I ever have before. The most alarming part of this, is I'm handling this empty, dreadful weight better than any of my past heartbreaks. I can feel my heart growing calluses. I don't hope for love anymore. I seek things to keep me busy to make it through the days. The nights are harder, I'll mostly just try to sleep through them if I can.
I know I chose this. I know I ended the relationship. So please understand, this pain I described to you is lighter than the pain I felt while in the relationship.
I'm not sure why I'm writing this, but thank you for reading my sob story! Haha! I hope you all are having a lovely evening!

I have never posted before only read post. But I'm desperate to find answers on what possibly is wrong with my puppy. To start this off, I got my baby when he was 4 weeks old, the mother stopped feeding the litter, so we got my baby and his sister also and bottle fed them until they were switched to wet food. I got their first set of shots in the middle of April. All was well and they both were normal puppies. One day I noticed my baby wasn't acting like his usual self. He felt hot, and wasn't playful with his sister. I took him to the vet and he was given a shot of antibiotics. (possibilities were, virus, ear infection, parvo, or a cold) two days later he was still hot and developed a limp and had a knot on the shoulder of the leg he wouldn't put weight on. I took my baby to a different vet that i thought would be more thorough. ( I felt judged, and dismissed by the first vet like it was my fault because they were due for the second rounds of shots and they were over due by a week). I informed the new vet that both puppies missed their second rounds of shots by a week due to a busy work schedule and plans to take them on my first day off which was the dog i noticed that my baby was sick. I told the new vet that the first vet had given a shot of antibiotics and the possible causes, and that now my baby has a new symptom of black goopy guck coming from his ears and still had a fever. I showed her the knot on his neck and the new one that had popped up over night, and his limping. The new vet made the diagnoses of just a really bad ear infection. So my baby was given an oral antibiotic, and pain meds for the limp and ear drops. The knot went down on his neck to pea size, all meds were about finished when we went back to the vet because he still had new ones popping up and new symptoms. He became to have sores on his snout and his eyes were swollen. Back to the vet we went. This time we got a diagnoses of PUPPY STRANGLES. This could explain every symptom he had. We got a refill on the antibiotics, steroids, and more ear meds. Since that day my baby has had multiple knots pop up, some in places where no lymph nodes are located. SIDE NOTE (Sister puppy was taken in to new vet also and got her second set of shots), we went back to the vet on Thursday the 30th. The knot of the side of his neck was the size of a golf ball if not bigger. (the babies are CHIWEENIE-YORKIE-TERRIERS) AS a small dog its was very noticeable. This trip the knot was ultrasound and the vet stuck a needle in it to see what fluid was in it to try and test it. IT was pus, but the back of the knot is a blood clot. Several of the knots are swollen lymph nodes, some are abscesses(without injury) and some are blood clots. The knot know has gone down since being drained. The back of the knot is still there and hard. (none of the knots are sore or he doesn't so any signs of discomfort when you touch or squeeze them). This time we left with a vitamin supplement and told to change his food. The vet is thinking he may have an autoimmune disease or deficiency. If this treatment doesn't work, the vet is going to put him to sleep, lance the knots and test the fluid in them. The vet only wants to do this as a last resort because he is little and we don't know what were dealing with. We are just perplexed on what this could be, also i have spoken with several online vets and called other local vets to see if that have heard of such thing in a puppy this age and they have all said the same thing. So that brought me here to this side of the internet. He is currently taking two antibiotics, a steroid, a vitamin supplement, and a new diet. Since seeing the new vet he was eating and drinking normally he has gained weight due to the steroids. He is playful and active. He doesn't act sick, but you can look at him and see he's doesn't feel well at times. Has anyone experienced this issue with a puppy and what causes and treatments were used. I am desperate for answers to make sure this baby is well taken care of. I am planning to order a DNA genetic test as well.

My husband and I have a beagle named Lady. We don’t know her background as she was found by his family with a docked tail. He was living with his sister at the time and they kept her along with his sister’s two dogs: a beagle mix and a mini dachshund. When my husband and I got together I took Lady in as I had a fenced-in yard and his sister’s fence had been damaged by a hurricane.
3 years later we are getting ready to put our house on the market. We have moved most of our contents into storage and are staying with his sister at her new house as she felt it would be easier on us to keep the house clean for showings since we also have cats. My husband had built a fenced in area for her dogs. We slowly re-introduced them and once they appeared to get along we started letting them stay out during the day in the pen.
Last night, after living here almost 2 months, Lady and the beagle mix (Daisy) were attacking the dachshund (Nala). My niece was able to get Daisy away but Lady had a hold of Nala by the neck and was shaking her. We both thought they had killed Nala as she was limp. My sister-in-law was able to get Lady off of Nala and my niece picked her up and carried her inside. She was alive but definitely traumatized. She got her cleaned up and the wounds appear to be superficial. From now on they will be separated.
But I was curious if anyone has experienced this. I had a beagle growing up and he never did this but all of the other dogs we ever had with him were lab mixes.

So this just happened and I feel like a chicken shit/ let my son down and unsure what the best approach would have been to handle the situation.
I took my kids to the park, two younger ones were on the swings and my older boys was kicking the soccer ball around near us but by himself (within 5m of us).
An older lady arrived at the park with her granddaughter and a staffy. The staffy proceeded to ‘play’ with my son’s ball and rip it to shreds.
I was in disbelief because it happened so fast and the lady said ‘oh I’m sorry, he does love balls’ and pick the ball up which was deflated and had only half the padding left on it and returned it to my son. I’m terrible with any sort of confrontation but managed to say ‘oh no, not the new ball’ loud enough for her to hear. She turned around and muttered an apology and quickly went to the other side of the park.
I took the ball to her and said something like it’s no use to us any longer, it’s unusable and said you can use it for your dog so he doesn’t destroy anyone else’s balls, meanwhile my son (6yo) was standing behind my looking gutted. I wanted to ask her to replace the ball but I bitched out and just said to my son loudly so she could hear, we’ll have to buy you a new one son I’m sorry this happened.
Her final comment before she left was just ‘oh he’s not my dog I’m just walking him’. I said maybe you should keep him on leash or bring his own ball to play with in future and the interaction ended with her dog running under my middle sons swing and getting kicked by him on accident.
I feel like I let my kids down and felt like I could’ve handled it better and used the moment to teach them how to handle confrontation but failed.
We go to park often and it’s never happened but for future reference, how could I have handled this better so my kids, and myself I suppose, can learn to deal with confrontation more?

The band of old heroes must teach the next batch of hunters.
Members: Jack Davids, Parker l. Jackson, J.B. Watt, Spencer, Vaughn G. Jackson, Seymour TeeVee, and Douglass Elton.
Location: J.B.'s Lab
Bio: This team of heroes was constructed by a science teacher named "J.B. Watt" during after discovering the dark dimension, The Hidden Side. She constructed her team out of two high school kids, a janitostuntman, a ghost dog, and the ghost of a monster hunter. She and the team had fought ghosts, saved the town from Lady E., and even destroyed a world-devouring monster. Eventually they had to stop the hunting gig after sealing every portal in town, and there hasn't been a Hidden Side anomaly sighted in 15 years, until today.

When I was ten, I formed a junior detective squad.
Mom bought me the entire box set of What's New Scooby Doo, and I was inspired to start my very own detective gang. I held auditions outside the gymnasium at recess (serious enquiries only) after a number of kids tried to apply for the role of Scooby Doo despite me reiterating I was not interested in playing make believe.
When I was laughed at in class, I made posters strictly asking for SERIOUS wannabe detectives, even going as far as using my Mom’s printer to make flyers, sticking them all over the school.
Auditions were simple. I asked them to solve a simple riddle.
Whoever impressed me got to sign their name down, and I’d get back to them.
I spent three days sifting through kids who definitely had charm, but they lacked the intelligence of a junior detective. Most kids were only auditioning to make fun of me, anyway.
Still, though, I didn't give up.
My flyers had five requirements:
1). You had to be smart.
2). You were not allowed to be a scaredy cat.
3). You had to accept your inevitable death at the hands of our town’s evil villains.
4). You had to have a fully registered driving licence (I quickly changed this to a bike).
5). You cannot have a criminal record.
(I later scribbled this one out, writing over it. *“You cannot have any tardies.”
Narrowing the applicants down to three kids, all of whom failed to share my enthusiasm for solving cases. The kids I picked didn't even know how to make plans, and when I invited them to my house, they stole my Mom’s necklace.
I didn't even need to solve the mystery of who stole Mom’s necklace. The girl was wearing it at school. I punched her in the face, and was immediately sent to the principal’s office. When I was being given the mother all lectures, the door quietly opened, a head peeking through.
It was Ben Callows, a freckly kid with overgrown brown hair hanging in his eyes. Ben really needed a haircut.
He was always wearing the exact same baseball cap, and I found myself wondering if it was permanently glued to his head, stuck on top of unruly brown curls practically matted to his forehead.
In class, Ben was also known as Bloody Ben. In the second grade, the boy had a nosebleed in the middle of a spelling test, bleeding all over his paper.
It's not like he didn't try and detach himself from the name.
Ben brought in Digimon cards, so kids would call him Digimon Ben instead.
Then he “accidentally” spilled yoghurt down his shirt in hopes we would call him Yoghurt Ben. But no. The kids in our class were relentless in reminding him of his name. No matter what he did, he was still Bloody Ben, and when anything related to blood came up in class, fifteen pairs of eyes would swivel to him, like he had invented the concept of bleeding.
I feared the nickname would follow him to junior high.
Ben didn't wait to be let in. He didn't even knock, striding in with his arms folded. Over the years, Bloody Ben, had definitely soured his personality.
He smiled rarely, and when he did smile, someone was falling over or hurting themselves.
Which definitely strengthened the claims of him being a sociopath.
The rumor mill was churning, with the latest claiming Bloody Ben killed his cat. That wasn't true. Ben’s cat was seventeen with cancer, and that was why he was sobbing all the way through reading time.
According to Ellie Daly, however, Ben had killed and dissected his kitty, and buried her in his Mom’s flowers.
Now, my principal did not like being interrupted, especially when she was in the middle of screaming at me.
Principal Marrow was old old (like, thirty, in my ten year old mind) stick thin like a pencil, and always wore the same stained sweater.
She used to be pretty, but I was convinced she had kissed a frog and been cursed. After our old principal suffered a stroke, she stepped in as a temporary replacement, and since becoming principal, had banned my favorite book series, colored shoe laces, and hamburger helper, even officiating a uniform.
(vomit green shorts and a tee, and plain white sneakers).
Kids were convinced she was a witch, and I kind of believed it.
Principal Marrow’s whole existence was built on sucking the fun out of school.
I was already reprimanded for my mystery gang flyers.
Her office smelled of peppermint and she was definitely sneaking sips of whisky in her coffee cup. I could see the bottle sticking out of the trash.
She straightened up, folding her arms across her chest, squinty eyes narrowing at the boy. I had spent the whole time she was lecturing me trying not to cry, my fists bunched in my lap.
I took the distraction as the perfect opportunity to swipe at my eyes, allowing myself to breathe.
Ben Callows was her victim now.
I was right. The woman's voice was like a thunderclap in my ears.
“You better have a good reason for not knocking, young man.”
Ben wasn't fazed by her tone. “You took my Switch two weeks ago,” he said, “I want it back, or I’m telling my Mom.”
At first, I thought I'd misheard him.
No, I was pretty sure he'd threatened our principal.
I swore I heard all of the breath sucked from the room.
“I'm sorry,” Principal Marrow cleared her throat. Her soft tone was dangerous.
She wasn't being nice. The lady was about to explode.
I could see visible veins straining in her temples, her right eye twitching.
It was straight out of a cartoon.
“Did you forget something, Ben?”
Ben sighed, like she was inconveniencing him.
He held out his hand. “Please can I have my Switch back? It counts as stolen property. Give it back, or I'm telling my Mom.”
The kid put so much emphasis on the word please, I couldn't resist a smile.
I think our principal was too shocked to get angry.
“Get out.” She said, firmly. “I don't have your gaming device.”
“It's in your drawer.” Ben nodded to her desk, “Under your divorce papers and the restraining order ordered by Jake Willow, the seventeen year old boy you've been having math ‘tutoring sessions’ with.” He quoted the air, his gaze lazily rolling to me. “Tutoring”
Principal Marrow went deathly pale, her eyes darkening.
“Benjamin Callows–”
“The school already knows about the restraining order, but your uncle is the head of the Board of Education, so all you get is a slap on the wrist and a warning to leave the boy alone."
Ben continued, and I found myself mesmerised by his words. He was a natural, his expression stoic, mouth curved with satisfaction that wasn't quite a smile. “However.” He held up his phone, pulling it away at the exact moment the teacher attempted to grab it. “You were outside Jake Willow’s house at 6:12am, drunk, and trying to climb through his window, which, I think violates the restraining order, does it not?”
Ben pretended to think real hard, his gaze flicking to the ceiling.
“I mean, I'm just a kid, right?” His mouth curled into the hint of a smirk
“What do I know, huh?”
Principal Marrow’s expression twisted, her lip wobbling.
“Mr Callows, remove yourself from my office, or I am calling your father.”
Leaning comfortably against the door, Ben’s lip twitched.
“Why? Are you planning on telling my Dad about your relations with a teenage boy, or will I have to tell him instead?”
I was enthralled, and fully disgusted, making a move to inch away from the woman.
“But it doesn't end there.” Ben continued. He straightened up, taking slow, intimidating steps towards the woman's desk. “You don't even want Jake, do you? Because, once upon a time, you were in love with his father. Jason Willow. You despised him for rejecting you, so you decided to defile his son.” Ben leaned over the principal’s desk, slipping his hand into the drawer, and pulling out his switch.
Painfully slowly.
She stood there, speechless, her shoulders trembling.
Ben smiled, and I found myself liking it.
“Thank you!” He said, waving the console in her face. Ben mimed locking his mouth and throwing away the key.
“My lips are sealed.”
Ben’s half lidded eyes found mine. “Are ya coming, Panda?”
I forgot my own nickname.
Panda.
I wore my Mom’s eyeliner because I thought it looked cool.
It did not.
Finding my breath, I snapped out of it.
Jumping up, I followed him out of the office, and when the two of us were safely on the hallway, I burst into hysterical giggles. “How did you know all of that?!” I whisper- shrieked.
Ben surprised me with a splutter. “Wait. You believed me?”
Something very cold trickled down my spine.
I stopped walking. “You lied?”
He shrugged. “I had a dig around her office before she caught me a few days ago,” Ben swung his arms, a smile curling on his mouth. “There's no restraining order, but there is prescription anti-psychosis medicine, and an extremely detailed story on her laptop about a teachestudent romance, which I presume is a self insert.”
Ben shot me a sickly grin. “The school refused to make her condition public.”
He prodded at his own cotton shirt embroidered with the school emblem.
“Why do you think she's made all these dumb rules? The woman is a certified Looney Tune.”
I nodded slowly. “Wait. What about Jake and his dad?”
“I made them up.”
I choked out a laugh. “And… the video?”
Ben walked faster, pulling out his phone and shoving it in my face. The video was real. Principal Marrow was walking around in circles, draped in her nightgown. “It's her own house,” he explained. “She locked herself out.”
Nodding slowly, I was in awe. Bloody Ben was kind of fucking amazing.
“But the restraining order isn't real.”
Ben raised a brow, coming to an abrupt halt. It was his smile that cemented his place in my gang. His lack of empathy for a woman he had gaslit into being a disgusting human being. Ben Callows wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but he fascinated me. Maybe for the wrong reasons. “Her filing cabinets are filled with tinned cat food, Panda,” he said with an exaggerated sigh, “I’m not psychic, but I thiiiiink we’ll be okay.”
I turned to him, unable to stop myself jumping up and down with excitement.
“Will you be my first?!”
Ben inclined his head. “Will I be your what?”
I shook my head. “Sorry. I mean, will you join my mystery gang?”
The boy’s eyes lit up, and I shoved him playfully.
“To solve real cases,” I corrected myself. “Not make them up.”
Ben wore a real, proper smile. But there was something in his eyes, a darkness that was so hollow and polluted and wrong, I pretended not to see it for the sake of his smarts and intellect. “Well, if you insist, sure!” Ben held out his hand, and I shook it. I'll be your first.”
We found our second member, who was, ironically, looking for her glasses under the table in class. Lucy Prescott, the quiet girl, was born to be with us.
The class eraser went missing, and she found it in the blink of an eye.
When questioned, Lucy’s face turned as red as her hair. “I asked everyone in the class and followed the clues to the last person who had it,” she pointed to Chase Simpson. “Which was Chase, who was throwing it at Marcus Calvin.”
Twisting around in my chair, I aimed to get Ben’s attention. But he was already looking at me, chin resting on his fist, eyes ignited with excitement.
The two of us cornered Lucy after class, and when she motioned for us to get back, I dragged Ben (who was a little too excited) to my side.
Lucy looked mildly horrified when I said, dangerous cases, though her expression pricked with intrigue.
She agreed, her gaze lingering on Ben, cheeks smouldering.
Our last two members were a surprise.
Violet Evergreen was what you would call popular on the middle school hierarchy. Not just because her mother was the mayor, but because Violet could get away with murder. The girl refused to wear the school uniform, coloring a single purple streak in her hair to cement herself as the it girl.
She was also one of the girls who started the Bloody Ben rumor.
Ben, Lucy, and I were sitting on the grass during recess, trying to come up with a name for our detective service, when Violet came storming over, hands planted on her hips. She was copying how her mother held herself during town meetings.
“What are you doing?” Violet demanded.
Lucy opened her mouth to answer, Ben nudging her to shut up.
“Making a mystery gang.” I told her. “Why?”
Violet inclined her head. “Oh.” She folded her arms. “Well, can I join?”
Ben stood up, stepping in front of the girl. Violet didn't move, stubbornly standing her ground. “Sure.” Ben flashed a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes. He stepped closer to her, his smile widening. “If you can pass the test.”
Violet’s lip curled. She took a single step back. “What kind of test?”
Ben nodded to me. “Meet us at the swimming pool at 8pm.”
To my surprise, Violet nodded. “Do I need to bring anything?”
“Nope!”
8pm. The four of us met outside the local swimming pool.
Violet was already on the other side of the fence, waving.
“Hey guys!”
I noticed Ben’s expression, his eyes darkening, lip curling.
Still though, he maintained positivity, vaulting over the fence.
“You made it!”
I followed him, helping Lucy, who was immediately freaking out. I didn't blame her. The pool looked cold and dark, a hollow oblivion carved into the ground.
Ben and Violet stood on the edge, the two of them shoulder to shoulder.
Violet Evergreen was braver than I thought.
Standing with her arms at her sides, Violet's hands clenched into fists.
“What's the test?” Violet said, her gaze glued to bleeding black depths.
“I don't know,” Ben murmured, his voice teetering on a giggle. He leaned forwards, arms spread out. “I didn't think you'd actually come meet us.”
Violet hummed, stretching out her leg, teasing it across the surface. “Was that the test?”
The boy leaned back. I caught the glint of a grin under the floodlights. “Nah.”
Before I knew what was happening, he shoved Violet into the pool. The girl didn't scream or shriek, she just hit the surface, sinking into pitch dark nothing.
“Sink or swim,” Ben said in a low murmur, when Violet’s head bobbed under water. I could see her shadow under the surface, imagining the freezing cold depths pulling her down.
“Drown, and you can't join us.”
It was so quiet, suddenly. The three of us staring into rippling water.
A minute passed, and my tummy started to twist.
“Fuck.” Ben’s expression stayed stoic. I wasn't expecting him to say a bad word.
He cocked his head. “I thought she could swim.”
I hit him, holding in a cry. “You need to get our parents!”
But he didn't listen to me, taking a single step, and dropping into the pool.
I fell to my knees, scanning the water.
Lucy was crying. “Are they dead?!” she shrieked.
“Shhh!” I was watching two shadows lingering under the water.
Violet broke through. I expected her to be crying, but her expression was unwavering. She was silent. I thought the splashing underneath her was her legs trying and struggling to tread water, before Lucy shoved me. Hard.
“Panda! What do we do?!”
Looking closer, Violet was perfectly still, her gaze on the sky.
While she shoved Ben under the water, drowning him.
Violet’s eyes sparkled, and somehow, I knew she belonged in my gang.
Her gaze found mine, glinting with that darkness, that poisonous streak I found myself drawn to. It was a starving, insatiable need to understand a fractured mind. Know your enemy.
“Do you want to see if Ben’s a witch?” Violet asked me, her tone something else entirely. This girl did not make sense, using barely her finger to drown Ben Callows. I knew she was wrong.
I knew there was something loose, something unlocked and unbridled and drowning inside her mind and heart.
But I wanted more of her. I wanted Violet Evergreen in my detective gang.
I think that is why I stood there, frozen.
When the thrashing stopped, Ben broke through.
He wasn't coughing or spluttering, his head inclined. “You didn't drown.”
Violet climbed out of the pool, offering her hand. “And you're not a witch.”
He declined her hand, taking the steps instead.
I asked Violet in a shaky voice. I was trembling with terror, but I was excited.
Exhilarated.
“Violet, will you join my gang?”
She didn't answer me until we were sharing hot cocoa in my house.
I told Mom we fell in the pool, and she believed me. I should have told her that my friends were sociopaths, and I was kind of maybe in love. Violet sipped her cocoa, nodding with a smile I didn't recognise. Violet never smiled at school.
Well, she did. But it was always the prick of a cruel smirk.
I don't think her smile was genuine, but she was definitely enjoying herself.
Our last member came to us, instead of finding him.
Jules Howell, a straggly brunette pushed his way in front of me in the lunch line. I didn't really know the kid.
He sat at the back of the classroom and slept through most of class. I did like his accent though.
Jules had moved from Melbourne in the second grade. He didn't talk much.
When he did, I found myself enveloped in his voice, which sounded like water to me, a bleeding cadence to his tone.
Jules piled his plate with fries, smiling widely at the lunch ladies.
“I saw you last night.” He murmured through that perfectly moulded grin.
“Saw me where?”
“At the pool,” Jules said. “You, Bloody Ben, Violet Evergreen, and that Lucy girl. You were doing a suiciding pact.”
“That's not what we were doing.” I said, “What's a suiciding pact?”
“When you kill yourself together.” Jules said. “I saw it in a scary movie my Mom was watching.”
I grabbed a fork. “We weren't doing that.”
His eyes were strange when I took the time to notice them. The excited gleam had fizzled out. Jules’s hands tightened around his tray. “Then what were you doing?”
I didn't reply, making my way over to our usual table. Ben was already waving me over, Violet and Lucy holding up the flyers we were making.
THE REDBLOOD DETECTIVES.”
Do YOU need our help? We can find/solve anything! Contact us on the number below. (We take donations!)
When I bothered turning around, Jules was lost in the crowd of kids.
We were on our first official case, searching for Mrs Lake’s missing mail, when Jules appeared seemingly out of nowhere. And with him, a golden retriever puppy he introduced as Arlo.
It took a dog jumping up at them for Violet and Ben to find their real smiles, their real selves slowly seeping through these facades they had built around themselves. Ben dropped to a crouch, ruffling the dog's ears, his smile faint.
“Who's a good boy?” He chuckled.
Arlo didn't move, tail wagging, eyes bright.
Ben motioned the dog towards him, but Arlo stayed put.
Jules joined us…quietly.
I don't remember asking him, or even him asking me.
He just became part of us, side by side with Arlo.
We soon came to quickly realize that our town was boring.
There were no monsters or thieves, or soul sucking demons. No criminals or serial killers. Not even one missing person. We did, however, get calls about missing cats. I turned eleven years old, patiently waiting for a murder or a kid going missing. But there was nothing.
All we did was chase cats, and the occasional dog. Maybe a budgie if we were lucky. Twelve years old, our detective club became a joke.
The five of us (and Arlo hiding under the table) were trying to pinpoint Mrs Tracy's lost hamster, when three girls came over, dumping their soda all over us.
We watched crime shows for inspiration on catching killers.
Ben’s favorite crime was one that happened in the 80’s in our town.
2 girls murdered.
Their intestines stuffed into envelopes and mailed to family members.
“That's what we should be solving,” he told me one night, “Not missing cats.”
Thirteen years old, we lay in Violet’s backyard under the cruel glare of the summer sun. We called it working and didn't like to admit it was hanging out, or that we were even friends. However.
That didn't stop us growing closer.
Even if it wasn't quite the way I’d expected.
I proposed a plan, standing up, wobbling a little off balance.
“I've got it.” I said, my voice kinda slurry from Violet’s special summer cocktail, which was just random alcoholic beverages we found, thrown into a blender, and diluted with water.
The town wasn't taking us seriously.
So, we were going to make our own mysteries.
I ordered a full-scale assault on our small town. One that they could not ignore. Ben stamped on Mrs Mason’s flowers, and Lucy threw mud pies at people's cars. Jules trashed the high school gym, and Violet and I spray painted threats and warnings on every store window. Now, this did cause panic, but also an official curfew.
Thirty minutes before curfew, we met in our usual spot, deep in the forest near the lake. Ben yelled at me when I was three minutes late. He was real passionate about finding a real mystery.
“You're late.” Ben was sitting on a rock waving a stick in Arlo’s face.
The dog still wasn't going near him, whining softly.
I took my place, muttering an apology. “I had to lie to my Mom.”
Violet, sitting with her legs crossed, idly digging her manicure into the dirt, suggested we buy mannequins and masquerade them as dead bodies, hanging them from the school rafters.
Lucy, who had slowly grown out of her shell, becoming a lot more outspoken, nudged her. “That's a stupid idea.”
The girl groaned, leaning into her. “Urgh. You're right.”
Jules was the only energetic one, standing on the tireswing.
He jumped down, definitely twisting his ankle.
But his smile only widened, kind of like he enjoyed being in pain.
“Why don't we pretend to be kidnapped?” He said, pulling the hood of his sweatshirt over blondish curls growing out. Jules did a dramatic spin, his eyes shining. “We can ‘go missing’ for like a week, and then when our parents are really scared, we can turn up, and tell them we escaped a kidnapping.” His lips split into a grin.
“And then we solve our own kidnapping!”
Ben awkwardly patted Arlos head, only for the dog to pull away with a snort.
“I like it,” he murmured. “I'm in.”
Jules’s idea was stupid.
But.
It was worth a shot.
The five of us agreed to meet the morning after with enough food and supplies for a week. Then we were going to hike to the next town, and hide out for a week. It was an almost perfect plan, using ourselves as victims of our own mystery.
Packing as much as I could, I kissed my mother goodbye (I told her my pack was for a picnic) and set off to the rendezvous we agreed on.
When I arrived, I was the first one there. I checked and re-checked my pack.
I waited ten minutes, unable to contain my excitement.
Then 20 minutes.
It was getting kind of cold.
One hour.
I sat on a rock for enough time to watch the sky change color.
When the clouds were orange, I stood up and stumbled back home. They had gone without me. Mom lectured me when I got home, and I stuck to the plan of pretending my friends had gone missing, even if I they had betrayed me.
Ben said he'd text me when he arrived at the redervous. I at least expected him to text an explanation, but there was nothing. I was in the dark, and after three days of nothing, our town finally began to take us seriously.
“Our children have been kidnapped!” The adults were screaming.
Mom was crying in the kitchen, praying to a god I knew she didn't believe in that I wasn't taken next. I was interviewed and stuck with the exact same story I came up with when I was with the others. Our plan was to return after a week, claiming to be locked up in a dark room with a masked man.
I told my Mother and the other parents that I didn't know where my friends were, repeating the same thing over and over again until I was tongue tied.
“I saw them the day before they went missing, and… yes, everything seemed okay.” I slowly sipped my glass of milk provided, looking the sheriff directly in the eyes.
“No, I didn't notice anything suspicious, sheriff. Yes, I'm sure, sir. No, they didn't tell me anything.”
It was Ben’s mother who shattered my mask.
“Did I know about… what?” I whispered.
Something warm filled the back of my mouth, foul tasting milk erupting up my throat. I leaned forward, trying to look Mrs Callows in the eye. “No, I… I didn't know about Ben’s…condition.”
Mrs Callows was screaming at me about her son’s troubled past when I barfed all over myself, my eyes burning.
In the privacy of my own room, I sobbed until I couldn't breathe.
I tried to tell Mom, but we had come so close.
One more day, and the others would be back.
But that day came. I sat cross legged at our usual spot, which was now covered in police tape. I waited for their thudding footsteps, their laughter congratulating each other for coming up with a great plan. I waited, my face buried in my knees, for my friends.
It was dark when my phone vibrated, and I'd fallen asleep.
I wasn't scared, forcing myself to my feet.
“Where are you?” Mom yelled down the phone.
“Coming home now.” I muttered.
“Sorry.” I paused, holding my breath against a cry. “Mom.” I broke down, forcing my fist into my mouth to hide my squeak. “Mommy, did they come back?”
Mom didn't reply for a moment.
“I'm so sorry, baby.” She whispered, ending the call.
I took my time walking home that night.
There were no stars in the sky.
When a hand clamped over my mouth, I could smell him.
When he dragged me back, stabbing a kitchen knife into my throat, I stared at the sky and looked for stars. His arms were warm around me, violently pulling me into the back of a pickup truck. The pickup truck he'd said he was bringing.
It was his grandfather's, and he could just about drive it.
Hitting the backseat, my body was numb, my thoughts in a whirlwind.
The pickup flew forwards, and I remembered how to move.
I rolled off the seat, my hands pinned behind my back.
Twisting around, blinking in the dim, I could feel something warm, something seeping across upholstery seats. Blood.
It was everywhere, sticky on my hands and wet on my face when I struggled to get up. I was lying in someone's blood.
A scream clawed its way out of my throat.
The pickup flew over a pothole, and something dropped off the seat.
Arlo’s leash.
I screamed again, this time his name gritted between my teeth.
I didn't stop screaming until the jerking movement stopped. The doors opened, pale light hitting me in the face.
Flashlight. Warm arms wrapped around me, pulling me from the car, and then, pulling me by my hair, into our old tree house. It was always our secret place, our saving grace on the edge of town.
The flickering candlelight caught me off guard, illuminating my surroundings.
Two bodies slumped over each other, lying in stemming red.
I felt suffocated, like I was going to die. I screamed, and that warm hand cradled my mouth again, gagging my cries.
Violet and Jules.
There was something wrong with them. And it was only when I forced myself to look closer, when I realized their insides had been carved out, heart, stomach, everything, pulled out.
There was paper on the floor.
No, not paper. Envelopes.
Envelopes stuffed with gore, bright red leaking through white.
Shuffling back, my brain was too slow to react, while my body was trying to vault to my feet, only to be violently pulled back by my ponytail.
I felt his fingers twining around my hair, revelling in my screams.
With another tug, my head was forced forwards.
Orange candlelight felt almost homely, this time lighting up a third body.
Lying on their back, curled up, pooling scarlet dried into the floorboards, their wrists restricted with duct-tape.
I could feel blood underneath me, sticky, a congealing paste.
“Do you know what happened on October 3rd, 1987, in our town?”
Lucy Prescott stood over me, her arms folded across her chest.
I managed to shake my head, when she grabbed Ben’s legs, dragging him under the candlelight. I dazedly watched her stroke the blade of a carving knife, the teeth already stained scarlet. “The intestine murders.” Lucy hummed, tracing the knife down the floorboards.
“A man murdered two high school girls, carving out their insides and sending their pieces to their loved ones.”
Lucy's eyes found mine, ignited in a familiar gleam. I saw it in Principal Marrow’s office. Then the swimming pool. The cafeteria. “It was the sheriff's only murder case, Panda. Ever since then, our town has been boring. There's no mysteries to solve. Nothing to find.”
The girl jumped to her feet, retrieving a blood stained envelope.
She held it up, a smile curved on her lips. The girl turned around, and I heard a horrific squelching sound. Lucy held up a bright red sausage, ripped into it, and slipped it into the white paper.
“But I can change that.” she said, in a giggle.
“I can create a real serial killer, who we can hunt down together.”
Lucy stabbed the blade into the floor, laughing.
“Or! I can bring a fan-favorite back! I can bring the intestine killer back from the dead!”
Her gaze flicked to the others. “There are casualties, of course. The story is, I was kidnapped with Ben, Violet, and Jules. The scary intestine killer killed them, and I managed to get away.”
Lucy shuffled over to me, her eyes wide. “Then! He came back and struck again!”
With those words, she shoved me onto my back.
“First he took Violet,” Lucy hummed, tracing the blade down my shirt.
“Then… Jules.” I squeezed my eyes shut, pulling at the restraints around my wrists. “Then Ben.” her breath tickled my cheek. “And finally… Panda.”
Lucy lifted the knife, and I accepted my death.
Until a low rumble in my ears.
Shouting.
Thundering footsteps, followed by the pitter-patter of paws.
“Lucy!” The sheriff was screaming, and the girl stumbled to her feet, the knife slipping from her fingers. Lucy stumbled, tripping over Ben’s body.
“He got away!” she shrieked. “He…he killed them! Oh, god, please help me!”
I don't think Lucy even realised the traces she'd left behind.
The blood slick on her fingers, her manic, grinning smile full of mania.
I was looking for stars when an officer crouched over me.
I couldn't understand what she was saying.
Her voice was white noise.
“Rachel? Hey, try and sit up, honey. You Mom is on her way.”
Instead of listening to her, I curled into myself.
My gaze found Arlo sticking his nose in Ben’s hair, trying to nudge the boy awake.
I didn't fully register the next few days.
They went by in a confusing blur.
Part of me tried to eat, and spent hours with my head pressed against the toilet seat.
I could still see the slithering, scarlet remains of my friends every time I closed my eyes. There was so much red, soaked in that hunting orange light.
Blood that I could still see, a starless sky that stretched on forever.
Weeks went by.
Then months.
I think I turned 14. I wasn't sure. I didn't feel alive anymore.
I stood at my friend’s funerals with a single rose I dropped into their casket.
Violet’s mother was quick to cover the whole thing up.
Lucy's plan didn't work after all.
Our town’s murder cases stayed stagnant at one.
It's been four years since my friends were murdered by our ’Velma’.
Now, at seventeen, Mom asked if I wanted to visit Lucy in juvie.
I'm not even upset or angry anymore.
I want to know why.
Ben picked me up. Arlo was at his side, wagging his tail.
Ben was…different. He'd dumped his baseball cap and gotten a haircut, swapping his old wardrobe of drab colors for an attempt at changing style.
That day, he looked awkward in a short sleeved tee and shorts.
At school, Ben is no longer Bloody Ben.
Now, he is Survivor Ben.
I’m still Panda.
Every time I was with him, I felt like my soul was being sucked out.
Guilt so deep, so fucking painful, I lost my breath.
I live knowing that I immediately assumed it was him that day.
Ben was barely alive when I found him. Lucy had started to carve into him before remembering she needed me.
After admitting it to him, his lips formed a small smile.
“Can I tell you a secret?” He said to me, at sixteen.
"Yeah?"
Whatever he was going to say, Ben never told me.
Presently, I nodded at the dog’s new collar.
“Peppa Pig themed?”
The boy shrugged, ruffling Arlo’s ears. “FYI, he chose it.”
“It's cute.” I said. “Very… chic.”
We didn't speak the whole ride, but Ben did entangle his hand in mine.
We spent half an hour outside the detention centre. I was panicking, and Ben was trying to hide that he was panicking. In the end, we joined hands, and strode through the doors together.
Lucy greeted us with a wide smile. Just as psychotic.
The orange jumpsuit suited her, though I had zero idea why.
“Hey Arlo!” she giggled at the dog, and Ben pulled the pup onto his lap.
“Ben.” She sighed. “I wish I got to finish you. I would have loved to solve the mystery of your gutted corpse.”
Ben’s smile was wry. “Nice to see you too.”
Behind a glass screen, I asked Lucy one simple question.
“Why?”
Lucy didn't reply. Or she did, but it was just nonsensical bullshit.
But there was one thing she said has stuck with me, chilling me to the core.
I am fucking terrified of Lucy. Of what's she's done, and what she's capable of doing.
It was a throwaway line, and I don't even think Ben noticed.
Or he did, and was in denial.
Lucy's smile was wide, her eyes empty pools of nothing.
The exact same glint in Ben’s eyes.
Jules’s eyes.
Violet’s eyes.
Like something was gnawing away at their psyche, twisting and contorting it, filling them with darkness, poison, that was so vast, so endless, I had craved it as a child. I still don't know what it is.
But I'm going to find it.
Lucy's laugh was shrill, and next to me, Ben didn't move a muscle.
But he did smile.
Yes, my gang were psychos.
But I kind of maybe loved it.
“I don't even wear glasses!”

So, we saw MIL today and I’m here again to vent.
First thing I noticed was her outfit. Hi, yes it’s me, again. I’m the one whose MIL announced to the entire family that she fully intended to copy my entire wardrobe and start dressing like me, the woman her son is actively making babies with. Even FIL said MIL wants “all my dresses” and that it’s weird.
So, I don’t dress that alternatively but my style is pretty distinct and I’ve been dressing the same way since high school. I have known MIL for nearly 10 years now and she used to dress nothing like me. Different color scheme and completely different style. I tend to wear a lot of bright floral print dresses and skirts, usually tea length or longer. MIL has never been a dress person. She literally wore pants to my wedding. Another thing I do is I’ll pair skirts with cream lace tops and spaghetti strap dresses with cream lace cardigans. I know it’s nothing super alternative but I’d literally never seen my MIL wear anything like that, and I don’t do it often, because I usually buy dresses with sleeves.
So, what is MIL wearing? A bright floral dress with a cream lace top thrown over it. The attention to detail would be creepy if it weren’t so pathetic. She literally decided (and announced) that she’d start copying me last summer so she bought a pile of cheap crap from Amazon and Shein and it shows. I’ve been building up my wardrobe with beautiful natural fiber pieces for years. She’s in a rush to rebuild her wardrobe from scratch just to look like me. Her dress was completely sheer. I could see everything and the lace top was ugly and ill fitting.
The second she sees my toddler, it’s like she throws all common sense and social graces to the wind and turns into a dog that can’t stop jumping up and humping people and you have to bark orders at her to get her to stop. She doesn’t ask, she doesn’t think, she just does and assumes everyone is just as excited as she is for her to do whatever the hell she wants.
MIL kept talking about going outside and was shut down multiple times. It was like 85 degrees out there and she doesn’t have a yard. She lives in the city so it’s mostly sidewalk and asphalt out there. The one tiny patch of dirt she owns is completely covered in rose bushes. There’s nowhere for a toddler to be. He gets plenty of outside time at home, in the countryside. Right now he just wants to explore grandma’s house. We’re all good, hanging out inside under the ceiling fan. Toddler shows zero interest the multiple times MIL tries to call him over to the door to look at something out on the street. Finally, she just takes toddler by the hand and pulls him out the door???!!
My husband jumps up, yelling: “MA!! You can’t just take him outside!”
She starts arguing “he’s not going to run away! He’s not going to run away!”
Like wtf lady, why are you so desperate to take him away from everyone else? And what are you going to do if he did run? You know damn well you can’t run after him in your see through dress with your knee pain!
I asked my husband who his mom thinks she is that she can just take him out into the street without us and without asking? She doesn’t understand her role.
She also started telling me her plans to enroll my son at a private preschool near her and that she (meaning FIL because MIL doesn’t drive) would come pick him up and drop him off every day. First of all, they live an hour away so that’s 4 hours total for FIL to drive and 2 hours daily in the car for my toddler and for what??? We live in a great school district and the elementary school is literally walking distance from my house?! We also already have meetings and evaluations set up all summer with the school district because my son has a speech delay and is in early intervention so he’ll be enrolled in a speech program in the fall.
So I’m like “No, thanks, MIL. We’re already talking with our school district for this fall.” Like, bitch, I know it’s fun to daydream but most of us keep that crap to ourselves. Because if you’re making ridiculous future plans involving other people’s lives and children when literally no one has asked you to do so, all you’re doing is daydreaming, and that’s fine. But no one wants to hear it.
She also tried picking up and carrying my toddler down an extremely narrow and steep set of stairs, the kind that curves and has narrow triangular shaped steps. I had to snap at her not to do it, after I had stated repeatedly that we’d wait for my husband to come help us down. I followed her, DH and toddler upstairs with my newborn in my arms because I knew she would try and pull some stupid, unsafe crap like that while my husband was busy. Her and FIL moved to the downstairs apartment specifically because she couldn’t physically keep going up and down those stairs BY HERSELF and now she wants to carry my toddler down them? Ma’am, use your brain.
She just gets too excited to be involved in any capacity that she intrudes and does stupid things and doesn’t ask or think. It would be tolerable if she was a golden retriever and not a grown human woman who thinks she’s in a position to make schooling decisions for my child and take him out into a busy street. She has zero reason to believe we’re in a coparenting relationship with her but she keeps daydreaming about that level of involvement and discussing her daydreams with us like we want to hear it. She’s exhausting to deal with.
Thanks for reading my rant

I live in what I feel is a richie-rich, snobbish district. I am not rich, I am a "lowly" school bus driver that goes out of their way to help and support whoever needs it.
My kids' elementary school has many annual events, and the PTO very aggressively (IMO) asks for monetary, time, and item donations (and TBH I have no idea what they do with the money). I have always donated items, time and money for years,.even though my family is certainly one of the poorest amongst all the others. Let me also add that even though I am white, I am from another country and have an accent that identifies me as a foreigner right away, however, I AM an American citizen.
This past week my kids' school held an annual carnival event and I donated over $70 worth of homemade, baked goods, plus I volunteered for hours AND had my son volunteer as well as they were short. I was manning the concession stand. The set up was like this: I would take the meal tickets, take the person's order, and then a high school student volunteer, would run and gather the items ordered. It was mayhem and we were working under the hot sun with no shade, no break, not even water.
Those poor kids were run rugged. They were "asked" by the school to volunteer in exchange for volunteer credit or smt like that. After an hour or so of relentless running around, they were hungry and thirsty and tired. I had bought a couple of meal tickets and I gave them to the students and asked them to pick something to eat and drink on me, but I didn't have enough for all of them.
As the event was winding to an end, we had some people who just didn't really want to use their whole ticket, and after I reminded them again that we will be closing in a few minutes and the tickets would go to waste and confirming they didn't want anything else, I asked them if they would like to donate their remaining unused punches to the volunteers students. I kinda made it a joke by saying something like "would you like to donate what you didn't use to feed these hungry students over here?"
People were like "oh sure!" And soon each of the kiddos had a drink and a snack. As we were closing, a PTO member approaches me and says they have had a "lot of complaints" that I was forcing people to donate to "hungry children" and that one lady was shorted a hot dog and then "forced" to donate her ticket. It was not true. I remembered the lady, who kept changing her mind and having the kids run back and forth again and again. I did punch 4 hot dogs for her but I guess in all the running around, she was one got dog short... however, she said nothing to me and I didn't catch it. This left a bitter taste in my mouth
By the end of the event, we had over 50 pizzas left. I asked if the students could take one home and I was told kinda rudely that no, these will be given to the workers taking down the tents (the workers were actually being paid real money btw, they were not volunteers).
Their (the PTO people) body language and attitude, made me feel like they were looking down on me and the students too, as they walked away with the boxes of pizzas. I just took my kids and left and I swear, I am never doing anything for the PTO ever again. I have donated for years and didn't even get a thank you.
Now however, I wonder if I was TAH for asking people if they would like to donate their unwanted punches instead of throwing the ticket away? I don't regret it. Those kids had a snack and a drink and I was the only one who stood up for them. It is not the first time I have gotten in "trouble" for standing up for students who are marginalized (like the students in the autism program). I am completing a dual BA in Education next month and I have been already accepted into a Masters program for SpEd and had dreams of being a teacher in this district but after yesterday, I am disgusted by them and will not be applying. I will instead apply to a neighboring "black and Latino" district as they call it (don't get me started) and give my love, time and energy to those students instead.
Was I TA for asking people to donate their unused, unwanted punches to my volunteer students?

So I didn't want to but his matts and knots are just out of control. I try to keep up but I fall behind and he absolutely despises me working on his matts or knots. He's going to be 11 soon so instead of putting him through a few days of hell, I decided just to shave him. The shaving went well but now I need to figure out how to properly brush a dog with an absolute chungus of an undercoat.
This really hasn't been a problem for most of his life but his undercoat is just obnoxiously thick the last few years.
I want to brush him even before his hair even starts to get long. Like tomorrow. I'm a dude and am not very familiar with hair care in general.
Do I need one of those wave brushes for his short hair and then switch to a normal brush when it gets longer?
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Tldr: didn't want to shave him, but at his old age I think it was the better choice to just reset. How do I brush his short hair before it gets long?

My boyfriend and I have been dating for 9 months so far. After hearing stories from my friends and their boyfriends, I feel like he’s not treating me as well as I hoped he would. I know he loves me, but his actions don’t really reflect that very well.
(1) We’ve known each other for a little while and after our first date, we got into a relationship. Because of that we never really went onto a lot of dates to figure out each other’s dating styles, which possibly led to these struggles I‘m having right now.
(2.1) I feel like he has a general lack of basic manners and can’t read the room, for example: I know it’s not a big thing, but when we have dinner together, he serves the food to himself first and just immediately starts eating, which even his older brother pointed out to be rude of him, since you usually serve the guests or ladies at the table first. I’d like him to give me a bit more “princess treatment” or be a “gentleman”, while he believes that I don’t need it, because I’m a “strong independent woman” — I am aware of that, but I’d simply appreciate little gestures. (2.2) He is also a really good cook, while I’m still learning — I often help him cook, until I eventually cooked my first meal for him, after which he immediately demanded for me to cook more often. Again, his older brother overheard this exact conversation when it happened and told him, that it’s not necessary for me (the girlfriend) to ever do the cooking, because he (the boyfriend) can do that (Since he’s the better and more experienced cook as well).
(3.1) Another thing that bothers me is that I’m always required to come to his place, while I don’t even own a car (he does) and it takes me an hour to get to him with public transport (We both still live with our parents). His argument for not coming over is that he doesn’t feel comfortable at other people’s houses (He only likes staying at his male best friend’s house). He has been at my place a few times already for dinner with my parents (who are extremely chill and like having him around). Regardless he refuses to come over just to see me, even when I’m home alone and have to look after my dog so I can’t come over to his place. His family even mentioned that it would not be a problem for me to bring my dog over, and still my boyfriend refuses, and finds reasons for us not to meet or only meet under his conditions (no dog). (3.2) Before I mentioned it to him, we never even went on dates, which has gotten better by now. He always just wanted me to come over instead of taking me somewhere nice.
(4) When he’s out somewhere without me, he doesn’t reply to my messages for hours (sometimes even more than 6 hours while I’m aware that he must have seen my messages by then). I’ve even communicated this to him, and wish that he’d text me back or simply give me some updates (which I always do). Of course I don’t expect him to “report” to me 24/7 but he never checks on me or texts me on his own accord, which makes me question whether he even thinks of me once in a few hours.
(5) I value communication in the relationship, and we’ve talked about these things before, and while he usually doesn’t make the same mistakes twice, he doesn’t make an effort to further improve the things I’ve listed. I barely see any initiative coming from him, and I’m always the one to reach out to him and don’t know what to do about it. I’m not very complicated of a person, and sometimes I feel like he’s just lazy and I’m “making it too easy” for him to be in a relationship with me.
I want to clarify that we love each other very much. It’s just that after comparing our relationship with that of a close friend’s, I feel like that’s what our relationship should have been like from the beginning and I realized how emotionally unfulfilled I’ve been feeling lately.
How can we work this out?

I had signed up to be a foster a few months ago. I saw a post for a dog at the shelter and he looked identical to my own dog and had the same name as my brother. I felt it was a sign and felt connected to him instantly.
On Wednesday evening, someone from the shelter sent out an email saying the shelter is full and fosters are needed. I opened up the list and he was on there. I immediately responded saying I wanted to foster him but it would be easier to get him in 2 weeks when I am off work for the summer and can help him and my other pets (dog and cat) adjust.
She emailed me back saying he won't be around that long and he will be the first to go since he had been there the longest. I responded saying let me see what I can do. I slept on it and decided to get him after work on Friday. I opened up my email that morning to tell her that when she had sent an email saying he would be put down that morning. I immediately responded saying I would be there after work to get him. She called the shelter to tell them to wait but they had put him down minutes earlier.
I am absolutely devastated and I feel like I failed him. He was so close to being saved. I wish the lady I was talking to was more transparent as to how much time he truly had left. If only she had told me tomorrow was it for him. If only I had just said I'd get him from the beginning. I was trying to wait for the weekend so I could be home with him and my pets.
The only good thing that has come out of this is that I am planning to foster for the first time in a few weeks.

Quotes

• “Methinks the lady doth protest too little.”
  
• “Holy shit this fucker is insane”
  
• “You were never the same after having that lobotomy”
  
• “That dog is right back where it belongs. With me.”
  
• “I’d cut off the strings and run away with you, but without strings a doll like me can’t move”
  
• “That was kinda racist you racist piece of shit”
  
• “I’m not suffering from depression, depression is suffering from me”
  
• “In this heat? Do you not see this? I burn like a wicker chair in a house fire.”
  
• “It’s a transparent parasol!!” “What is wrong with you”
  
• “Vampire venom makes people horni and trip balls”
  
• “If I shook your head it would rattle because the only thing in there is a marble and a cobweb”
  
• “At my age I’m no longer a snack; I’m a happy meal. I come with toys and kids”
  
• “How garish his hair is. Is he a homosexual?”
  
• “Yo ho, yo ho, near the books I’ll never go”
  
• “Killing cats is frowned upon in all 50 states”
  
• “Well shit the queers are starting to rise up”
  
• “Remember kids, don't do school, stay in milk, and drink plenty of drugs. Key to happiness right there.”
  
• “I submit to adults and authority figures. You are neither. Get fucked.”
  
• “The best way to eat a PB&J is to snort the jelly”
  
• “Fold the bitch like a lawn chair “
  
• “Some of y’all are the reason that shampoo has instructions”
  
• “Hi welcome to Tony’s pizzeria and abortion clinic where yesterday’s loss is todays sauce”
  
• “If someone in an anime draws anime, does it make it realism?”
  
• "No, I don't get mad, I just... take all that anger and frustration and push it down deep inside of me until it becomes a seething white core of pure hate. I drive it toward my index finger while holding a handgun."
  
• “You beg for the sweet release of death? Death is not a sweet release, death is the cold biting chains conscripting you to my legion hoot hoot-“
  
• “He was a gator boy I am horribly addicted to opioids”
  
• When I’m with you, you’re like an umbrella, keeping me safe from the rain. But at the same time, you’re like a parasol keeping me from seeing the sun.
  

So I didn't want to but his matts and knots are just out of control. I try to keep up but I fall behind and he absolutely despises me working on his matts or knots. He's going to be 11 soon so instead of putting him through a few days of hell, I decided just to shave him. The shaving went well but now I need to figure out how to properly brush a dog with an absolute chungus of an undercoat.
This really hasn't been a problem for most of his life but his undercoat is just obnoxiously thick the last few years.
I want to brush him even before his hair even starts to get long. Like tomorrow. I'm a dude and am not very familiar with hair care in general.
Do I need one of those wave brushes for his short hair and then switch to a normal brush when it gets longer?
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Tldr: didn't want to shave him, but at his old age I think it was the better choice to just reset. How do I brush his short hair before it gets long?

First time poster here - I’ve lived in the DMV just long enough that nearly of my original DC friend group has become moms, gotten married, or moved away.. cue all the tiny violins lol.
The sitch: I really like MLS soccer and absolutely LOVE going to DC United matches. Despite the post title, I promise my fandom is only medium-level obnoxious 🤣 Unfortunately, my little DC United soccer fan gang has dwindled down to almost none (see reasons above). Any ladies on this page interested in attending some DC United games at Audi with me this summer?
Quick about me: 33F, dog mom, live in cap hill, LGBTQ friendly, happy to throw back a few beers on a nice summer evening, etc.. For any diehard European soccer fans out there: yes, i will happily admit that nearly every other soccer league in the world is better than the MLS, but I’ll take what I can get.
Comment or send me a DM if any of this appeals to you. Vamos United, dc bitches!

Okay, well I spent most of my day suffering from a migraine and in my sluggish, fatigue induced by it I kept replaying season 3 in my head. I know, shocker. I'm being committed soon. Anyways, when I recovered, I started talking to my dog (I live alone) all about Colin's feelings and how each episode is actually a stage of his growth. So here is my analysis.
Episode 1: Friends: So obviously in this episode, Colin has returned with a new swaggearmor. But he also realizes things between him and Penelope aren't the way he'd thought he'd left them. She is giving him the brush off. He's assuming its because of things with Eloise being bad. I think he's kind of giving her some space. Still, he's definitely stunned by her new look. Hubba hubba, wasn't expecting that. But the best part is when he runs after her when he sees she's upset. That's the return of the old Colin, the sweet Colin that always wanted to help her out. Of course he then gets a thorough dressing down about his behavior last year. Ouch. But he clearly uses the rest of the night to think about it all so he can talk with her again the next morning. He had resolved to apologize profusely and even insists on helping her find a husband. That is what friends do, right? Yep. Just friends. Totally.
Episode 2: What's This? Colin's armor is still on. Skipping over the brothel here (this is about Penelope after all). I love the scene where she's failing at flirting. It's actually very sweet how Colin is so encouraging even as she is totally coming across as a lunatic. The whole part with them are the market is also significant. He's so playful there, but its also coming across as flirting. I don't even think he realizes he's doing it which is why it's so much more powerful than his winking at the girls in episode 1. But lets talk about their lessons. I think it's important to remember that Penelope has given up on Colin at this point and accepted he will only be her friend. It's why she's finally able to say what she's long been thinking about his eyes and how remarkable they are. He's so stunned by her words. It's like the first time he's ever been hit on here. He's definitely more rattled by that moment then when Marina or any other woman flirted with him. Still, it's more like a glitch here. He's like "That was weird," but he doesn't have time to question it because Eloise is home. I know some people have wondered why Colin reflected later on when his hand was cut, but I think the reason is this is the moment he started to realize...whoa...what is this? He's not entirely sure what he is feeling here, but it's definitely something. He's kind of ignoring it when they are at the ball, but the natural joy of talking with her and then seeing her having a more successful flirtation with Lord Remington. That's why the subtleness of "Jealousy" playing here is key. He's starting to feel a little jealous here, but he doesn't even realize it. After all, Penelope is only his friend...right? Then the kiss. I think its important to remember how when she first asks him to kiss, he's clearly about to say "Uh, I don't think that's a good idea." he's worried about how this could affect their friendship...but why would that be a worry if they were only just friends? But of course, he can't say no to her and.. KABOOM! The kiss just completely destroys his armor, his walls, everything. The look in his face at the end is clear realization. Oh crap...I have feelings for Penelope.
Episode 3: Denial Ain't just a River in Egypt: To further go with the realization that he has feelings for Penelope, now he is dreaming of her. Do we really have wildly erotic dreams about friends? I don't think so. The boy is so rattled by this. He knows its true but what can he do about it? Easy, deny, deny, deny. I don't have feelings for Penelope. I'm just dreaming about her and thinking about that kiss every second I am awake. Feelings? What feelings? What are feelings? That's why the willow scene is important. It's so awkward because he is trying to sort out what to do here. We should end these lessons...wait, why? Does this have to do with that kiss? Can we kiss again? Wait, why am I thinking that? Shut up, Colin! That's why I think it's important that he has the brown coat on again at the hot air balloon scene. He is putting his armor back on. He's going to deny these feelings are real. Then he starts lusting over Penelope's luscious lips as she's licking icing off of them. Yep, those feelings are very real. Which is why in the next moment, he now has the coat off. His armor is off again. He's starting to admit to himself he does have feelings for her. He's starting to allow himself to be bothered by her courtship with Debling. It's why he is willing to ask his mother and love starting from friendship. He's starting to open up to the possibility, could I be falling for Penelope? The answer is...yes, I am. So he goes to ask her about her feelings, ready to do the brave thing....only for Debling to swoop in and steal her out from under him. This hurts way worse than when Marina broke his heart. You can see it in his eyes.
Episode 4: The Armor Is Off: Colin is no longer in denial. Even in the scene in the study with his mother, he's denying it to her...but in his heart he knows the truth. He knows he has feelings for Penelope, but the problem is he also realizes he can't do anything about them. Penelope has a real chance with Lord Debling who not only is incredibly wealthy and has a good title, but really is everything a woman of the ton would want in a husband. How could he tell her: don't pick the rich noble man, pick me, the third son who has no idea what he wants to do with his life? He's so royally screwed here. Besides, he has no idea if she feels the same way. He dons his armor again. What choice does he have? But...it's not fitting like it used to. He's no longer happy with the ladies or his bachelor friends. It all feels so cheap and hollow now. And seeing Penelope smiling at Debling is only making it hurt even worse. He is truly lost now. That's why he tells his mother he doesn't want to go to the ball. Why would he want to see her dancing with Debling again? He's not a masochist. Violet talks to him once again, this time nudging him with the fact that Penelope is soon to get a proposal. The message is clear: you are running out of time. He is torn in that next scene with the candle going out. Should he do it? The flashback to when he first felt those flickers of love for Penelope when he cut his hand is a reminder here, Penelope will always, and has always mattered to him. If he doesn't try to talk to her about this he will regret it forever. That's why all sense of propiety just goes right out the window. He ignores his friends, cuts in on the dance, all to finally tell her the truth. She can't marry Debling. He's not the right man for her. He doesn't get to finish what he said to her because of her cut direct there. Ouch...but he's not out. Not yet. He runs after her to the carriage in full view of everyone. Like I said, he's lost all sense of propriety. Then he finally does it. He finally bares it all to her. The armor is off for good. He wants her to know how she has tormented him these past few weeks. I know he doesn't actually say the word "love" here, but it's so clear that he does love her. And he knows it. He knows this is different from his relationship with Marina, from his flings and flirtations. This is love, plain and simple. It's why the carriage scene is so good. This is Colin in love.
I hope you enjoyed my little ramblings here. I can't wait to see Colin in Part 2. Colin in love I think is going to be just as chaotic as Colin falling in love.

Okay, so...
u/CaptainChristopher02 and u/ThatGuyBob0101 are working on a crossover between My Floridian Arxur Daughter and Unusual Arxur. And given that characters from Arxur Nursery are being used, I got roped in.
So, here I am, as a Trojan Horse, posting something written by the aforementioned authors.
I hope you enjoy.
Memory Transcription Subject: Captain Olivia Denson, UN Military, American Branch, Nursery Founder
Date[standardized human time]: December 24, 2136
Seeing Minuli say goodbye to her friends was a little emotional. I’d grown attached to that peculiar, wonderful, family. But I had my own responsibilities I needed to look out for. Marleen gave me the address of the new nursery and the information for the bus. It didn’t take long for us to find it. A classic yellow exterior.
“Are you kids excited to ride the bus?!” I cheered towards the crowd of precious babies.
Minuli jumped with joy and happily shouted, “It’s so yellow it hurts my eyes to look at it! But I’ll look at it anyway.”
Oros patted her on the shoulder, “Hehe, yes little one. Yes it is.”
I opened the door to the bus and looked at the name of the driver, Ben, who I confirmed with Marleen to be the driver but I asked him anyway.
“Hey, are you the driver for the nursery?”
He smiled brightly, “Yea! You must be Olivia. I’m Benjamine, but you can call me Ben. I'm the school's driver. Hop in. By the way the school had an issue with the amount of beds so the rooms aren’t quite ready. If you want we can take a detour to see the area?”
A stray voice came from behind me. “Really?!” Minuli was whispering to the other hatchling explaining what she overheard. Once the whispers died all the kids started chanting “Beach, Beach, Beach, Beach!”
Okay, beach it is.
The kids all scurried in one by one, despite the jet lag they were so excited that they were bouncing all over the seats.
“Olivia look!” Minuli said. “They don’t have seatbelts! We can just move!”
Should I tell her to get down, or should I let her fall once and learn her lesson?
“[Chortle]”
Timothy tugged in my pant legs, signaling he wanted to be carried for the ride. I obliged, obviously, and raised my voice enough to be heard in the sea of Arxur Hatchling screeches.
“OKAY EVERYONE, PLEASE STAY SEATED!”
Most of the kids listened except for a few stray hatchlings bouncing around at the end of the bus. I was going to let Ben know so I could deal with them but he just winked at me, closed the door, and drove for a foot, only to suddenly hit the brakes, sending those few hatchlings falling into the seats in front of them.
“We’re okay…”
“And that, children, is why we stay in our seats.” I simply stated as I sat down.
“[Chortle!]” Timothy chirped in agreement.
<<>>
Memory Transcription Subjects: Agent Cass Smith, FBI ARR Arxur Refugee and Relocation Unit
Date[standardized human time]: December 24th, 2136
I didn’t know what to expect. Allen had told me it was an “on-the-job training” experience, although given how he made it sound, it felt like I wasn’t going to be learning much of anything. Especially considering he seemed to be horrible at directions.
“Wait. No. Left,” he ordered, face crammed into his holopad. “Urgh. Say what you will about them, paper maps aren’t nearly as disorienting as this stuff,” Allen groaned. I rolled my eyes, crossing three lanes of traffic to turn left. “Wait! Shit! No!”
“Oh, my God, Allen. Just gimme th’ damn phone,” I pleaded.
“Hey, you’re driving, you shouldn’t be-”
Cutting his complaint short, I gently, but firmly pulled his wrist up in front of the dashboard so I could see where the hell I was going. It was a left, like he originally said, and then…
And then he got a phone call. Sunuvabitch.
“Yer ringin’,” I told him, letting go of his wrist. Considering I needed directions before I went any further, I decided to pull into a nearby beach parking lot and wait as he answered the call.
“Yeah? Yeah, same here. We got a bit turned around; just pulled into a beach so I could take this call. Yeah… Yeah, how’d you know?... Huh. I see. Well, we’ll be right over, in that case.” He shut the call off. “Hey Cass. We’re making a detour.”
“Where to?” I bemoaned.
“Well… look right.” Doing as instructed, I turned to see… a beach. Is he saying-... “I know neither of us brought our swimsuits, but… Hey, you’ll be meeting your charges for the week a bit earlier than expected.”
“For the week? Sir, I volunteered for Christmas Eve, but, I’d still like to be home on the day.”
“I’m not having you work over Christmas, kid, don’t worry, but you’re gonna be working with these guys for a bit.” The both of us stepped out of the car to catch the smell of the beach. “Just, make sure nothing bad happens, and tell me what the place and the people there need. I know I haven’t trained you on, well, anything, admittedly, but you have my number if you’ve got questions, and the assignment should be a breeze. Now, let’s go meet these guys, huh?”
“You mean the guys I’ve been told next to nothing about except for the fact one of ‘em’s an arxur?” I snarked, looking at him.
“Yup. Those’d be the guys. But hey, I want it to be a surprise. You’re gonna love it. Or hate it, and, quite frankly, I didn’t want to get punched inside my own office,” he admitted. I glared down at him as we walked side-by-side down the beach. “Uhhhhhhhhhh hey look! There’s the, ah, founder of the program right up ahead!” Allen shouted, dragging my attention forwards. It was a girl with brown hair and tan skin flagging us down from a ways down the beach
I could see she recognized us, and she seemed to be with company. Allen pointed out two individuals next to her. An Arxur by the name of Oros and a bus driver named Ben.
“Why do I need to know the bus driver?” I asked. I had absolutely no idea who anyone here was, so I supposed introducing myself to everyone would be ideal, but I didn’t think I'd really be seeing this guy often.
“Trust me,” Allen insisted. “You’re gonna be seeing him and asking for his help a lot more often than you think. No matter what you need, he knows a guy or knows the random skill.”
“You’re kidding right?”
“I once briefly mentioned my wife wanted a purse for her birthday and the next day he told me he skinned an alligator that ate his neighbors dog and traded the gator in for fresh leather that he used to make her a purse. No, I am not kidding.” I didn’t have time to comprehend what he said before he shook his head and continued. “It was a nice purse too. Saved my marriage.”
I decided to ignore that last part and instead asked about the adult Arxur.
“Uh… what’s with the big guy over there?”
“Oh, him? That’s Oros. He helped rescue a bunch of kids and brought them to Earth. We moved them from Brazil the other day.”
“Kids? As in… Arxur kids?” I asked. Does that mean-...
“Two of ‘em right there.”
I took my gaze off the founder and rescuer and focused on the other two Arxur that were visible. They were definitely kids. Kids! I wondered if that’s how Tarry looked when he was younger?
Aww.
Before I got distracted about that thought, which I was absolutely going to use to tease Tarry later, I reset my focus onto the arxur in question. One of the kids was older, having a shirt with what looked like a solar system on it. They were standing next to the big guy; Oros, I assumed. The other hatchling was in the woman’s arms with a cute little button up shirt. His expression showed no thoughts, only a smol head.
“Heh. Welcome, Cass… to Jurassic Park,” Ben theatrically gestured. I looked down the beach to see… Oh.
Waves of tiny little Tarry’s were running around, building sandcastles and splashing in the water just up over the sand hill we were standing on. I looked at Allen.
“... We are going to talk about this later.”
“C’mon. It’s not that bad. You’ll be great with these kids!”
“Allen, when anyone younger than a teenager sees me, they’re either terrified of me, or they think I’m a jungle gym. There is no in-between,” I told him.
“Hey, these aren’t human kids. It’ll be different, I swear!” he tried to placate. I just let out a somewhat exhausted sigh. “Look, just, walk around! Meet some of the kids! You’ve got this, alright?”
“Alright. I guess we can see how it goes…”
One of the tiny Tarry’s was blissfully running around the sand past Olivia, towards me, not paying attention. She fell on her face, but didn’t take long to get up and brush the sand off. She was close to me so I decided to see if Allen was telling the truth. Kneeling down next to the child, I decided to smile at her. Once she noticed the looming shadow over her and looked up I greeted myself. “Hi there.” I said in my best toddler voice I could muster. Admittedly, it wasn’t my best.
She didn’t say a word for a few moments. I thought for a moment that she might actually warm up to me. Maybe that would have been the case if she didn’t immediately start crying.
“…wa…whaaaaa! Chortle, Whaaaaaaa!”
It took only a second of looking at me to get her to cry. I pointed a tired look over to Allen, who simply offered me a half-hearted shrug. An exasperated sigh escaped my chest as I massaged my forehead.
“Ehm… Oliviaaaaa,” I yelled out, trying to get the nursery founder’s attention. She looked over, seeing the lizard begin to wail, and quickly rushed over.
“Oh! Nonono, bebes! It’s fine! She’s friendly!” She quickly scooped up the hatchling in her arms, holding the kid close to her.
“B-but… b-b-big and scawwwyyyyyy,” the hatchling kept wailing.
Oh come on, I am not that scary.
Olivia continued to cradle the small Tarry and tried her best to comfort her by kneeling down close to the sand and making her focus on that.
“Look at all the pretty sand, Kana. Can you say, sand?”
“Wahh- gasp, yay sand!”
Kana, leaping out of her caretaker's hold, landed with a thud on the white sand and played to her heart's content. The small child was immediately focusing on the vivid shape she made, and no longer paid any attention to me.
“It’s a good thing kids have short attention spans.” Olivia held out her now freed hand. “I’m Olivia, I helped found the nursery.”
“Agent Smith. You can call me Cass.” I shook her hand, nearly engulfing it in just my palm alone as I stood back up. “Apparently, I’ll be helpin’ ya get set up at yer new nursery.”
“Well, there’s probably going to be plenty to do. The place is a well-equipped school, but, even though they have the facilities, I don’t think it was built in mind for this many hatchlings living on the grounds,” Olivia contemplated.
“Well, I’ll help wherever I can, and hey, if ya need sum heavy liftin’, ya know who ta call for,” I grinned, tapping my bicep.
“Whooooaaaahhhhh,” an untranslated lizardy voice murmured from behind me, grabbing my attention as Olivia went back to watching the rest of the kids. I looked back and down to see another mini-Tarry. I knew from experience that one thing was definitely going through his mind. My suspicions were confirmed when he lifted his arms, the universal sign of children that they want to be picked up.
“Ma’ lady, would you be so kind as to lift me up and place me upon your shoulder so I may see the top of the world?”
Well at least he’s polite.
I let out a quiet sigh. “No climbing, okay?”
“That’s quite alright!” he accepted. I gently picked up the li’l lizard under his tiny arms and lifted him up to my shoulder, shuffling him up next to my head.
“Whoahhhh… Do you see everything from up here???” he asked in amazement.
“Ayup. Eat yer food and exercise, and given how big you arxur get, you’ll be just as tall as me one day, kid.”
“Well, I’d never presume to best a lady such as yourself,” he humbly offered. I couldn’t hold back a chuckle, shaking my head a little.
“You’re quite the charmer you. Where’d you- ack!”
My question was interrupted by a handful of tiny needles climbing up my back.
“Hey! No! Don’t- Ow!” I was restrained by the gentleman sat atop my shoulder, as another curious lizard clambered their way up my back, poking me all the way up. I was powerless to stop them, as they worked their way up to the top of my head, pomfing down once they reached the top. I sighed, doing my best to stay perfectly still, as while the gentleman lizard was fairly stable on my shoulder, the curious George, who seemed to be barely a toddler lying on my cranium, was anything but.
“Well. So it begins,” I accepted.
“Ooh, I want up there!”
“Wait for me!”
“So tall!...”
“Ack! No! Don’t- fucken!-”
“Swear jar!”
“HAAAAAALP!” I cried out, feeling dozens of tiny needles clamber my body as I was powerless to defend myself. Soon, I was doing everything in my power to prevent at least half a dozen kids from eating dirt, while still enduring a perpetual barrage of stabbing from all sides. I looked around as best I could to see if anyone had heard my cries, but, alas, facing away from the beach, I couldn’t see anyone…
Tell me, God… is this how I die?
And of course, my answer was more claws clambering up my calf.
“ACK!”
I looked behind my calf to see who was the culprit of those little stab wounds on my leg. What I found was an innocent mini Tarry with bunny ears on, who wasn’t trying to climb me. They were actually trying to give me a hug but couldn’t reach all the way.
“Chortle, pew!”
I let out a quiet sigh. “You know what? You’re alright, little guy.”
I leaned over just a bit so the kids on me wouldn’t fall on their heads and gave the bunny Tarry a little pat on the head.
I guess this won’t be that ba- Ow! Never mind.
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