Female dogs fishy smell

I think Becky is the only person iv ever heard in my 31 years of life say dog food smells nice the big fat dirty sweaty greasy egg head cunt

Things we’re hoping to get from this post:
• Some identification help - where could we start looking to figure out what this thing might be? • Has anyone else experienced this?
What we experienced 5/25:
• Shadowy hunched dog-like figure out on the railroad tracks. • Buzzing of bees like they were swarming, but somewhere off in the distance. • Cow manure smell at the trail head • Sound of flock of birds fighting overhead off in the distance. • Dogs growling the same distance away as birds. • Dog & bird sounds eventually combined to create intense white noise effect. • Gradually got closer, louder, and more violent sounding. • Overwhelming sense of fear, felt threatened. • Brush rustling, but when we looked, there wasn’t actually any movement. • Eerily quiet, sometimes punctuated by distressed animal calls (chipmunk chorus of scared chipmunks, which feels silly to describe, crow calls as well) • Few people on the trail all turned around before they approached the path where the bird/ dog sounds were heard. • Hairs on my arm stood up on the side where the dog/bird & bee sounds were coming from. • The woods felt off - trail was dimly lit, but it would always seem like there would be an open brightly lit field off in the distance we could never get to. Temperature was colder than rest of the park.
Narrative - what actually happened in sequential order
We decided to go on trail #2 up by the train bridge. My partner had been on the trail before two years ago and experienced something inexplicable and I offered to go on the trail with him to see if it would happen again.
As we were going up the steep head of the trail, I heard the swarming bee sound suddenly and smelled cow manure. I pointed out both, but my partner only smelled the cow manure. We continued on deeper into the trail. Eventually the tree cover made the trail darker and the landscape shifted from being open and sunny to deeply forested pretty quickly. The area was very pretty and seemed innocuous. The swarming bee sound followed me as we went in, however, which I kept noting to my partner. The hairs on my arm that were closest to the bee sounds (my left) started to stand up. I noticed this, but didn’t give it a lot of thought.
We passed another couple that was taking pictures of the plants and moved on. They didn’t look at us and we left them to their business.
Later on as we were walking, to the right, I heard a booming near the train tracks and as I started to look over is when I saw out of my peripheral vision a dog shaped creature, oddly hunched, running up towards the tracks, but disappearing over them before I could see it face-on. I didn’t say anything to my partner, assuming it was nothing.
We came to a fork and I asked my partner which direction he’d heard the birds/ dog growling noises before and we took the right fork, which landed us on a section of trail that looked more like a service road. We followed the service road until we were maybe a mile into the trail altogether.
At this point, I noticed a trail to the left and perpendicular to the service road that went back towards what appeared to be a sunny field off in the distance. We went about 100ft in before I noticed the angry bird flock noises off in the distance. I pointed this out to my partner and once he heard it too, recognized it and we turned around to get out of there.
Partner’s past experience 2yrs ago
My former partner and I went down the service road and heard the dogs barking/ growling off in the distance. I assumed it was a camp site in the clearing to the left and the birds and dogs were having a bad time and aggravating each other.
We continued on even though we heard these noises, we brushed them off.
As we were coming back down the service road, the noise began to get louder and closer. It soon sounded like it was coming from the top of the trees directly above us. That’s when we began to hear rustling in the brush next to us and the growling/ barking became more violent and threatening sounding. When both noises were practically on top of us, we started sprinting the rest of the way down the trail. As we were running away, the noise seemed to fall behind us. When we got to the end of the service road, it got gradually quieter until we couldn’t hear it anymore.
Back to the recent experience
As soon as we cleared the service road, the bird sounds were completely gone. I heard the buzzing a bit off in the distance, but it faded.
We got closer to the railroad and my partner and I heard the booming by the railroad again. He looked over and told me he saw some creature bounding behind the railroad tracks for just a moment. It was dark brown, almost black. He also told me that it looked dog shaped, with a hunched back and smooth fur. It didn’t look like a dog, but was definitely furry. When he told me this, I told him then I had seen it earlier, but didn’t say anything before because I had dismissed it. When he said he saw the same thing, this seemed pretty important at this point.
We kept walking quickly through the rest of the trail while we were talking about our experience when we heard a chipmunk doing his distress call. Suddenly, it multiplied to three of them, and then to quite a few more, maybe 8 or so. One crow started cawing above us loudly at this point. We walked quickly past this.
As we were leaving the trail, we saw another couple coming on the trail. This couple acknowledged us and we said polite hellos. The fellow seemed a bit disconcerted, the lady seemed happy, but we passed each other and said nothing else. As we were at the top of the hill leading back to the trailhead where I’d first heard the bees and smelled the cow manure, we heard a third booming sound by the tracks. We both looked over, but didn’t see anything and quickly went down the hill quickly to get out of there.
Circling back to question at hand
That’s the end of it, but we could definitely use some help figuring out what this thing might be and if anyone else has experienced something like this? We looked online and in some books, but couldn’t find anything similar to this situation. Thoughts? Help?
Thanks for reading all the way through this if ya did!

Let’s get it out of the way: Crystal is boring and yes she was opportunistic. But she has a point about how Holly has openly disliked her for years, and that their experiences are very similar.
Holly’s always been a ‘sniper from the side’. She throws rocks and then hides her hands. She did it with Kendra, and gets away with it because Kendra overreacted with the explicit tweets. But her shade is subtle and steady with just enough plausible deniability to feign innocence.
An example of that is here, where Holly calls Crystal and the twins ‘the skanks next door’ and then says ‘I didn’t say that, people who commented on my Myspace said that’
When she returned to the mansion to see Hef she said to Crystal “You take care of him or I’ll be on you!” here
In her conversation with Kendra and Mary for the ‘Hef’s Runaway Bride’ special here she’s shady, again making the Hef ‘dodged a bullet’ comment and sarcastically saying she left ‘at the right time for her single’.
This one struck me because she continues to dismiss Crystal even after Mary tells her that Crystal called her at the Jazz Festival in tears saying she ‘couldn’t do this and needed a shrink’ —which Holly wrote about a nearly identical situation going on antidepressants and wanting to talk to a therapist and Hef just saying to talk to Mary.
——————————
In 2011 she questioned Crystal’s intentions
“I’d like to see Hef settle down,” Holly told the tabloid. “I just want it to be with the right person, and I feel like he’s making a hasty decision. I’m not sure Crystal is the best thing for him.”
Referring to her fellow giant-breasted blonde as “mysterious,” Holly adds that she’s wary of Crystal’s intentions: “I’ve seen a lot of girls try to date Hef, and some have ulterior motives. I don’t think it would be a bad idea for him to get to know her a little better. I think it’s possible Crystal could break Hef’s heart. They could end up divorcing, and she could take half his money.”
Is she jealous that the man she once wanted to marry has asked for the hand of someone else? No. It’s simply: “I just don’t want it to be a girl who’s using him to start her career.”
Here’s an article about her Tweets following the ‘Runaway Bride’ saga.
Hollywood Lifehttps://hollywoodlife.com › holly-m...Holly Madison Attacks Crystal Harris On Twitter!
“That’s disgusting and whoever booked her is tacky!” tweeted Holly in response to a reporter talking about Crystal’s arrival at The Wet Republic. The Peepshow star also wrote, “That’s a new low!!!” in response to pictures of a bikini-clad Crystal living it up at the Vegas pool.
“Trust me, NO ONE is interested in filming Crystal! She left Lifetime high and dry while filming a 2 hour special!” was Holly’s response to the reporter wondering if camera’s would be documenting Crystal’s day in the sun.
That wasn’t all the Queen of Vegas had to say about Hef’s cold-footed fiance! In addition to dissing Crystal for promoting herself on the day she was supposed to say “I do” to the man who made her famous, Holly also tweeted Crystal’s decision may have been a blessing in disguise.
“Where does one find the “Dodged a Bullet” mylar balloons?” tweeted Holly a few days after the wedding was called off.
But to prove her off-handed remarks were really attacks on Crystal, Holly took her tweets one step further and declared a “war of words” with her fellow platinum playmate! When Crystal tweeted, “Hard times show your real friends…” Holly boldly shot back with, “No, they show HEF’s real friends…”
She jumped in to comment on Crystal taking her dog with her that was attached to Hef (even though she re-homed her own dogs she got with Hef to her parents and immediately got 3 new ones)
"Why did you voluntarily give the dog to Hef (who loves him too) after you left, only to ask for him back a few months later?" Madison, who stars in Holly's World and also appeared on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars, wrote on her Twitter account Monday.
"Dogs shouldn't be yanked from happy homes on a whim. She needs to quit attention-seeking!"
Took a shot at Crystal with her usual passive-aggressive style when asked about naming her daughter Rainbow:
“It's definitely a unique name. I like unique names and I wouldn't have picked it if were common. But, growing up, there was a girl in my class named Rainbow. I grew up in Oregon, where a lot of hippies went to start families. There was a girl at school named Rainbow, and I was so jealous and I wanted it to be my name."
"So it's definitely unusual, but it's a name. It's not like I called her Coffee Table. People love to say, 'That's a stripper name.' But I've spent a lot of time in Vegas and strippers aren't named Rainbow. They're named Amber, Crystal and Jessica."
https://radaronline.com/photos/holly-madison-hugh-hefner-feud-wife-crystal-stripper-name-playboy-takedown/
It’s probably also not a coincidence that the other 2 ‘stripper names’ she chose were the names of Kendra’s 2 close friends at the time when they had their own falling-out.
And finally, a couple of Crystal comments in her book:
I have to say, I was a little curious about this Crystal character. Though I kept far away from Hef and Crystal (in part to avoid replicating how Tina had made me feel after her departure), it still seemed like Crystal had major jealousy issues. A few weeks earlier, I had run into a Los Angeles magazine editor I knew socially who told me a story about Hef begging him to retract a statement he had made about my being welcome back in his life anytime.
The editor threw up his hands and said he told Hef he couldn't retract it, that he had him on tape saying it and that he heard his new girlfriend threw a fit about it when it came out. When it came to being dramatic, it appeared Hef had met his match.
Crystal acquired the seemingly requisite boob and nose job shortly after moving into the mansion, and after her plastic makeover, Hef handed her a December 2010 centerfold.
Crystal just didn't come off as comfortable or clever enough to think up even a lame zinger like that. In fact, most of her dialogue on the show was painfully awkward at best.
"Ugh," I groaned. I had heard through the grapevine that Crystal was still moping around the mansion because she had "her show taken away" and was upset that I was the one still on television. Any suggestion of my presence anywhere near Playboy sent Crystal into a frenzy.
What happened to the laid-back Crystal I had seen the last time I visited the mansion? "Are you serious? We didn't get into a fight," I snapped, exasperated by her immaturity. "Someone on Twitter pointed out that she copied my underwater photo shoot, and later I made a generic post about hating copycats. That's it. I didn't even mention her name or reply to the person who pointed it out! "I'm sorry that she has a guilty conscience," I huffed, rolling my eyes. Over the past few years, I definitely began to feel that for whatever reason Crystal was trying to Single White Female me. "And I'm sorry that she can't deal with people's comments on the Internet."

40 year old female, 5'3, weight unknown. No major health issues or chronic conditions other than GERD. Smoker, non-drinker, no drug use.
Hi everyone. Sorry in advance for the length of this post. So roughly 2 weeks ago I was walking my 35 Ibs reactive dog. Unfortunately we ran into a pair of dogs who trigger him and he had one of his "freakouts". While I was pulling him away, he pushed (HARD) against the back of one of my thighs with his feet/claws in his panic. The wounds/scratches themselves were not that deep or bad (I had pants on when it happened), but I developed a massive bruise (or what I was later told was a hematoma) across my back thigh that same day. It honestly didn't hurt that badly in the first few days despite how awful it looked, so I didn't go to the doctor. Just cleaned the scratches with soap and water, put polysporin on them etc. I didn't ice the bruise after it happened, which I regret now.
About a week later, the brusing is looking a lot better, the scratches are scabbing over and look to be healing normally. However, the area of injury is starting to hurt a lot more internally. I heat it with a heating pad a few times a day, but it isn't helping much. I then notice multiple hard (not spongy) lumps under the skin that hurt really badly when touched/pressed. They vary in size and shape, some are smaller and round, one in particular is thick and long. I decide to go to a walk-in clinic at this point.
The doctor there examined it and said it was a hematoma and the hard lumps might be pooled blood. I asked if I needed to worry about blood clots and he said no. He explained I probably should have gotten antibiotics for it initially since it was a wound from an animal's claws, but he didn't think they were needed at this point. He told me it might take a really long time to fully heal, to keep an eye on it, and keep using heat compresses. Cool, I do what he says.
About 5 days later it's looking pretty good, but feeling a lot worse. The best I can describe it is like an alternating aching and burning pain inside my leg around where the hematoma was. The one hard lump in my leg (the huge, long, thick one) is especially hurting. So I go back to the same clinic, different doctor. He again examines my leg, also says I don't need to worry about blood clots, but can't tell me for sure what the hard lumps under my skin are (btw, they aren't visible at all when looking at my leg, you can only tell they're there when touching it). He said they might be damaged tissue, but he can't say for sure. This doctor, however, decides to prescribe me antibiotics and anti inflammatory medication, because he's concerned that it's hurting more at this point than it was before.
That doctor's visit was 2 days ago. I started the antibiotics yesterday (I'm supposed to take one in the morning and one 12 hours later for 7 days). About midday yesterday (after taking my first pill) my leg started to hurt really bad and was looking redder than it was the previous day. The redness has gotten better today, but it isn't feeling any better, and that large/long/thick lump is particularly aching. (Just want to point out as well, there was never a red line going up my leg or anything).
I guess I'm feeling worried and frustrated at this point. I know these things take time to heal and I'm also only on my second day of antibiotics, but I'm really concerned about that lump inside my leg in particular and the fact that it is still really painful at this point and almost seems to be worsening (over 2 weeks after the initial injury). And that nobody can seem to tell me what the hell it actually is. Does anyone have any insights on this or how concerned I should be? I can provide pictures in the comments of my leg a couple days after the initial injury as well as how it looked yesterday, if needed. Thank you!
Medications:
Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid: 875/125mg (one pill twice a day) -- 7 days worth
Naproxen/Esomeprazole magnesium: 500/20mg (one pill twice a day) -- 7 days worth
Pantoprazole 40mg once/day (for GERD)

This is my first update. Bear with me here. I wanted to write this at 300, but now I'm at 450 somehow.
Intro - Why CI Works and Feels Good
On the drive back from a beautiful botanical garden in Mexico, I was the only person able to speak Spanish amongst my white family, and our driver was a very talkative fellow who knew basically zero English. There was no internet out there, so no google translate. I had learned Spanish only from high school classes, and it was a disaster. I think I said "tenga miedo?" at one point. At the end of the drive I apologized for my bad Spanish, but he encouraged me to keep learning since he would try to do the same with English. We bonded through our terrible levels of each other's languages, and I honestly think that conversation motivated to learn Spanish more than anything.
The methods I tried in my journey prior to CI did not work. Do I really need to go into detail? Language transfer? Nope. Flashcards? Nope. Talking to the taqueria cashier in Spanish? Hell no. Watching casa de los flores with Spanish subtitles? Nope. Nothing felt like it was really working.
In hindsight, the dreaming spanish/comprehensible input method makes so much sense you can't believe you ever felt differently. We learn through actively acquiring and being immersed in our native languages. In a class for my education minor, we learned about how exploring a topic on your own is a great way to actually remember what you're learning. The CI method is exactly that: exploring. Like our prepubescent selves, we are actively filing out our mental maps of the language. Each new word, phrase, and structure, adds to this map, clearing the gray areas from our heads.
Part of the effectiveness of the exploration process are the "A-ha" moments that feel so rewarding. I remember listening to Learn Spanish and Go while waiting for the bus and they used the word "sobresalir" and its meaning just clicked perfectly into place. It was a very gratifying moment, and I've remembered the word ever since. Brute forcing a word through looking it up can potentially work, but internalizing it through multiple contexts of immersion cements it better than anything.
It seems like language learning is figuring out which way to make as much vocabulary stick in your head as possible, and CI does that the best for me. Traditional grammar studying and looking up/translating words weren't really working for me. I would just forget everything constantly. And most importantly, that method was BORING. Without some excitement and tangible progress, what's the point?
What works best for me is a mix of very understandable and just barely understandable content. Both help me learn and remember in different ways. Knowing almost every word singles out those words I don't know and helps me get closer to getting them through context. Harder content challenges me, has usually been much more interesting than other stuff along the journey, and acclimates me to the sound of faster Spanish. This is what I do personally, and it might not be the most efficient way, but it keeps me motivated. The content I used along the way follows.
The Content
Dreaming Spanish - Usage
I found the first 50-150 hours of the journey to be quite difficult. You have to make listening a habit, power through some sort of boring content, and generally feel a bit confused a lot. I watched a lot of DS and a tiny bit of cuentame.
I watch DS more now than ever honestly. I really enjoy videos like Pablo's personal stories in that idyllic little park in Thailand. Conversational content is overall still my favorite though. I just feel like listening to a convo is much easier to pay attention to and not space out than solo stuff.
DS - The Guides
Pablo: Not much to say about the goat. Would love to see him play other games (especially dark souls but more on this later).
Andres: He's just hilarious all around. I love how bad he is at spyfall and other games. He also apparently has an insane life. Was a military firefighter who once dated two gals at once (if he wasn't joking about that). His content is super accessible, and I recommend his advanced series on his military experience to everyone level 4 on beyond, since it's actually pretty easy to understand, and it's super interesting. His videos are always a must watch for me.
Shelcin: Everyone needs to be nicer to Shelcin because she's never done anything wrong ever and when they make fun of her my heart turns a little more blackened
Natalia: She rocks so much. I really hope she continues to do videos with the other teachers since she has fantastic vibes and speaks so very clearly.
Sandra: At first I wasn't a fan of solo talking to camera videos, but as I got more input, her videos really started to click. She's a genuine person, probably would be a cool friend. It's a shame she doesn't interact with other guides, but I assume she's off doing other stuff now and we're just watching backlog stuff.
The Rest: Everyone else is great, but I just don't have much to add about them.
Podcasts:
Spanish for False Beginners: This is premium intermediate CI. It's conversational, at a pretty solid but not too fast pace, the topics are interesting, and there are NO ADS. I really really hate when podcasts have like 2 minutes of ads at the start and end like No Hay Tos since I listen to podcasts at work sometimes where I can't easily skip forward. The podcasts is Oscar from Intermediate Spanish Podcast and his boyfriend (not native speaker fyi) riffing on various topics. They're super cute. Big recommend for this level.
Español Con Juan: I started this podcast at around 200 hours. It was very challenging. It's easier to space out when you find content a little too hard, so I definitely missed some of the middle episodes where he talked about kings and stuff. But when I go back to listen to new episodes it's just insane how clear he is for me now. I can understand basically everything he says at 450 hours. So give him a chance. You really just gotta get used to his speaking style, and then it's not as hard as it seems. And of course, the content itself is amazing, but you all already know that. I hope to live to see the day he tells the story about the dog.
Intermediate Spanish Podcast with Oscar: Starts out kind of slow, and is a little harder than ECJ, but it's just such good input. He gets into some great, even very personal topics later on and speaks very clearly. I've grown to really enjoy this one, even though it's a bit dryer than ECJ.
No Hay Tos: Too hard! And I will never pay for Rosetta stone. I'll give them a chance again soon though. I like the conversational style a lot and they seem funny.
LenguaTalk: Pretty short but great lower Intermediate conversational Spanish between a married couple from Spain. Very cute!
Other Content:
Hajime No Ippo The Spanish dub for this incredible anime is on YouTube for free. I've seen this before, so while it was incredibly difficult to watch at around 300 hours, I did get used to the pace and understood the vast majority of episodes by the end. You'll learn a lot of boxing terms if you're ever wondering how to say HE FELL TO THE CANVAS!!! A DEVASTATING RIGHT HOOK!! In Spanish. But really, this show is so good. The characters are excellent and the boxing is just so fun and tense. Big recommend.
Songs: This is a fairly controversial topic on this sub it seems. I've listened to a ton of songs in Spanish. I don't count this as input, but I genuinely think it can be helpful sometimes to remember vocabulary, especially if you find the song good and catchy. Some genres, like hip hop and reggaeton, are much harder to understand on average than others. I recommend folk and rock to start.
Here's a playlist I made of songs that are somewhat comprehensible at my level: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4fKeoBQI76Dc1vt6VhuDgY?si=edh6uxdXS-S3T0k50KRDkQ&pi=bUJOeicMRk64-
How to Survive the Long March - Things I've Learned Along the Way

1. Watch content you enjoy. If you can't find that at your level, which I definitely experienced at the beginner stage, watch content solely for the purpose of finding new vocab. It's not ideal, but coming at it from an "exploration" mindset can make mundane content much more tolerable.
2. Be realistic about your capabilities. I was shooting for 2 hours a day months ago. I barely hit that goal. Lowering it to 90 minutes helped a ton. Now I'm at 100, and pretty consistent about it too.
3. Find out what helps you keep going. What content works for you? How do you stay motivated? I personally listen to a ton of Spanish at the gym. Even though it's sometimes distracting, making learning Spanish synonymous with improving myself physically has been incredibly motivating. What's your goal for learning Spanish? I want to be able to communicate better with my Spanish speaking students when I'm a teacher. Being able to actually talk in Spanish would be incredibly helpful for me, so I kind of keep that fire under my feet to keep me motivated and consistent.

Musings
Pablo. PLEASE. please stream elden ring. i need someone to play the souls games with intermediate/advanced CI commentary. this is all i want in life. I will give you 20 dollars personally if this happens. I will venmo you. imagine the DS team playing mario kart or mario party together. 8 player smash bros with every guide. ok that's too far. but gaming content could be really good. how often do we get CI of Spanish speakers getting mad as hell at a game?
This method is going to absolutely blow up one day. People are going to be min maxing the best ways to get input in. They'll be watching 54 level difficulty videos at 1.17 times speed for maximum input. There will be official CI speedruns. This method is so ingenious I kind of can't believe a big corporation hasn't made it as soulless and profitable as possible yet. Get in on the CI train while it's still cool!!
DS has made me think a lot about how little content guys watch that is made from women in general. I didn't watch very many female Youtubers at all when I was in high school, and I think this was true of many friends of mine. I never would have watched something like Michelle's skincare or astrology series in English, so I really appreciate the wide variety of content and diversity one gets exposes to while going through this process.
Future
I'm going to start reading soon, but to avoid the pronunciation thing I'm going to listen to an audiobook as I read along. I have no idea if this will work. That's fine. I'm not a scientist I'm just a guy. I'm doing my best.
No speaking for a while too. I've spoken a little bit, and yeah, it's bad. I don't wanna sound like the Españolistas guy. So I'm waiting like a good boy 😃
Goal is 600 hours by August, when I start student teaching in a Teacher's Credential program. Whether I'll have any time for Spanish at that point, I really don't know.
Conclusion
Comprehensible input is very rewarding and motivating. It's the method that has worked best for me. I can genuinely say I've improved a ton at listening already. Progress is slow, but man it's so worth it. Learning Spanish gives you the ability to talk to so many more people, and that's a beautiful thing.
Good luck on the long march. It's nice to have a very friendly community to struggle alongside. So, thank you all and see you around.
cuídate

Hi everyone!
For background information, I am a 5’6 23 year old female and was diagnosed with insulin-resistant PCOS at 16, so I am relatively familiar with it! When I was first diagnosed, I was at 230ish pounds and was prescribed metformin, strict protein diet, and excerise to lose the weight. I did just that and went down to 190 and stayed that weight until I was 20 and had no problems with my PCOS. I later picked up a labor intensive job around that time and dropped down to 170 pounds for a year which is my lowest weight ever. After I quit that job, I admit I halted the excerise and dieting which resulted in significant weight gain. I am now 23 and around 210 pounds. I am a full-time dog walker so I am still getting exercise in but perhaps not as much as I once was. My diet is not good either and I admit that. In addition to all that, I have undergone a lot of stress in the past 5 months and have been working on that as well. I am still on metformin, three 500 MG pills a day and this is monitored and prescribed by my endocrinologist. I had my labs recently done and she didn’t notice anything abnormal about them. Fast forward to now, I am having an incredibly bad hair loss problem and my doctors cannot figure out why.
In December, I started to lose an alarming amount of hair every time I washed it. Prior to the hair loss, I would wash my hair everyday with little to no hair loss and have no problems. I naturally have very fine/thin hair and haven’t had any bleaching or dying done to it in the past 4 years. In the 6 years I’ve lived with PCOS, this has NEVER happened to me. I accredited the hair loss to using rosemary oil or other hair products. I posted on another Reddit about the rosemary oil to see if anyone else has had similar experiences and they did, but their hair came back over time. But it’s been 5 months now and it’s still happening and I cannot find a solution. I’ve swapped shampoo/conditioner brands a few times and cut down to washing my hair once or twice a week but nothing has helped.
After consulting my endocrinologist, I went to a dermatologist to see if they could help me. She has not been very helpful and said “yeah it’s pretty bad.” The first time I went in for an appointment. She gave me a laundry list of things to try to combat it and no real solution or diagnosis. She’s been pretty persistent about minoxidil but that’s not something I want to do since I’m only 23. I asked if she could run labs to check for any deficiencies and she said no, they can only check if it’s okay for me to take minoxidil. In the meantime, she prescribed two 75 mg dexamethasone and two spironolactone per day to help hair loss. I’ve been taking one spironolactone for 3 weeks and haven’t noticed any change so she bumped it up to two. I cannot get into primary care to get my levels checked until July 2nd and I am deathly afraid that it will be too late by then or it’s already over for me. My hair is the thinnest it’s ever been and it’s noticeable. I just don’t know what to do anymore and I don’t know if this is a PCOS problem or some underlying issue.
Any advice is welcome, thank you!

A couple of years ago, an old friend got very sick with a fatal illness, and two other mutual friends (a married couple) took him into their home which was great. I visited him. Hadn't seen him in person in almost 20 years but it was great to see him and reconnect. I also donated money to his GFM... not sure how much, but I'd say about $400-500 over the last couple of years. I did this gladly. He got dealt a bad hand. At the time, I sort of felt like he would have been better off in a nursing home because he didn't have a lot of savings and his illness was progressive and very terrible, but it wasn't my call and they seemed to be making it work. Now he is much worse. I feel bad for him. I've seen some GFM's but never where people really got shamed into giving like with this one!!! I think his caregivers are probably very stressed out. Now he needs extra people to come in and that costs $300 a day. If he lived in a nursing home, the state would take care of it, I think. No one wants to live in a nursing home, obviously, but is it right to expect old friends and acquaintances to take care of it? I see a lot of them also pressured to visit him. I can't say because I am not in his position, but he gets several visitors a week, just not every night of the week. We got a scathing email about that, BTW, like, how dare we, our old friend needs us and we just dropped the ball, etc. (Easy for him to say, he lives out of state and hasn't contributed a dime to the GFM!!!) In reality all of us as his friends have given him thousands of dollars over the past couple of years and visited him every other day, just not every day. He is a really good guy. But I have kids and groceries to buy and bills to pay and I can only give so much. I think my two friends (well as of today former friends) set out to do a good thing and now they are just burnt out and in over their heads! Today I told her I have things in my own life I need to take care of and that does not make me a bad person like she kept saying. I can't drive across town to go sit with him (and it's not enough to say sorry, can't, she's like, 'well what are u doing? what about tomorrow? what if u were the sick one?'. (I actually know the husband of the caregiver couple way better than I know the wife! Nowadays he just lurks around that house like a whipped dog.) The sick friend is a nice guy but a lot of these people going over there I think are just feeling pressured because this poor guy is kind of out of it at this point... in it and out of it. I don't want to get more specific. The female caregiver has been snapping at me a lot even when I was over there which I did not appreciate, like I didn't drive all the way over here to get berated so today I just snapped back and then she really let me have it and I told her that I felt bad for him, but it was not my obligation to pay for my friend's caregivers. I told her to quit texting me about the GFM. (I wish I hadn't said that part, but I did so in the interest of full disclosure there it is I am including that.) She told me she should have realized how selfish I was and that most people did not have what it took to step up to the plate and clearly I was not one of them either. I felt sick afterwards because she is a better person than I am for taking him in to begin with, but I felt angry, too. She's doing it with her husband out of the kindness of their hearts nothing more. I would not have done it. I have another friend who doesn't want to keep going over there but does it because they feel like they should even though it was the same situation... good friends from the past, but that was a long time ago. Then there was the full body oil massage which I refused to do even though yet another woman who was there suggested it although she didn't pressure me. Medically it would have helped him because I googled it later, but I just wasn't comfortable with it did not expect to be asked and it seemed more like maybe a healthcare professional should have been doing it so I was like, nope, sorry. maybe next time.

Hello everyone, First of all, due info: writing on my mobile and English not my first language.
TLDR: my long time bff doesn't seem she wants to be my friend anymore and I'm hurt. What should I do?
So, I have a long time friend that I'll call May (both females in our 40s), we used to be very close since high school. People used to think we were sisters, because we spent a lot of time together, shared interests, I was in her wedding party, she was in mine with my ex. We always supported each other through small and big things, the whole bff package for a whole 20+ years!
A couple of years ago, May slowly started to keep her distance. At first I didn't think much of it, we both had already had periods of time when we needed to be on our own.
But then I realized something was off: Each time I proposed to meet (either the two of us alone or with our partners) she was always either tired or busy. Even when I proposed to go to a food place she loves that's literally across the street from May's house. I went out of my way to find her (and her spouse) gifts related to their quirky hobbies and... Well I'm still waiting for the gift she said she'd bought me 2 Christmases ago (tickets for a theatre play that's long gone). And all the other gifts. I'm not a material person, I don't care about gifts, it's just weird how she'd promised something so specific! I've had bad (mourning, health problems) and good news (proposal from my partner) news and May seemed a lot less involved than she would have been in the past. She lately didn't share much of her own life, either.
I tried to ask her a few times if everything is ok (at home, at work, etc). She said so. So it seems, and also her social media are as usual.
Over time, I also went low contact and she hasn't really tried to ever contact me except for occasional memes, or IG posts.
Now, I had an old dog who passed away two months ago. May works at a dog rescue, and I told her I wanted to donate all of my dog's beds and toys that are in good state after sanitizing them, as well as some.dog snacks and food. My only condition is that someone come and take these things at my place, because I've had a few health issues. May said she'd be happy to come and get those things for 'her' dogs, maybe together with her coordinator. That's the last time I heard from her except for some memes.
So, Reddit, please do your thing and tell me: should I just accept that she isn't my friend anymore, or should I do another attempt to contact her? What should I say? I tend to be non confrontational. Thanks !

I have a two year old female doberman and, when leaving the house, she gets very excited, jumps up and bites me. When I eventually get out of the front door this escalates and she continues to jump and bit the lead and me more aggressively.
Opposite my house is my parking spot and behind that was house back gardens and a cat sometimes sits on the shed and she can see it and a small dog in one of the gardens barks and she can hear and see it a bit under the gate when I put her in the car boot.
This happens when taking her to my car as well as when I walk her without going to the car. When putting her in the car, I now carry her to discourage the behaviour and she is fine in my arms.
She also shows similar behaviour when I return from walks and when I am walking towards and also up my road back to my front door.
When I walk out of the house she looks for the cat but not sure if it's all about the car or that plus general excitement/anxiety about leaving the house see and returning (walking) home (although she is quite calm when returning home via the car. Still looks for the cat though).
I am going to get the help of a behaviourist but, in the meantime, does anyone have any advice on this?

First / Previous
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Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
​
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14 months. Using unscented shampoo and conditioner.

Canine, mixed breed, female, 2.5 yrs old, 17 lbs
My dog was spayed on 5/23 and is recovering well. However I’ve noticed some non-tender and soft, but newly saggy tissue caudal to the incisions. It seems to be symmetrical. Is this normal? It seems like it could be related to the sutures internally holding up the viscera, and the caudal tissue is just hanging off?
Edit: date
https://imgur.com/a/06Frywp

Is she dead?
Just reposted due to a typo. This is my female desert millipede. I have had her and a male since last fall. Both went dormant over winter and only the male is up and at it. She won’t move, but is not stiff. I heard they smell bad when they die but she smells fine. Last week she exuded some of her glands when I held her but still no movement. I posted this earlier and was told the white bits are her reproductive organs but thought they may be parasites or something else weird. Is she dead?

Hello all! I recently (3 weeks ago) adopted a bonded pair of Chihuahua mixes. One appears to be a Chiweenie. Now that I have bonded with him, he has gotten very possessive of me towards my female dog. Only my female dog. The other two males can show me all the attention in the world. Yesterday morning he bit her three times (warning nips) for waking me up and wanting attention. Every time he growls or shows any signs of aggression I immediately put him on the ground and don't let him back up. If he isn't on me, he's fine with her. I thought it was getting better until yesterday morning. What are some good tips and tricks to stop this behaviour?

My Understanding Of "A Rose for Emily"
After reading “A Rose for Emily”, I have the impression that William Faulkner is attempting to highlight specific changeovers that are taking place regarding the roles that women play in the twentieth century. A specific context is the final phase of the Victorian era, which extensively portrayed improved endeavors in steering the rights of women in society. The publishing of “A Rose for Emily” took place in nineteen thirty, and within this year, women had already showcased their baseline capabilities of undertaking activity roles that extended outside their homes (Jansson, 2018). This basis was significant within World War I and was epitome by women being accorded the recognition of voting.
Women were taking significant strides in showcasing that they had the capability of taking charge of their own lives. In this regard, “A Rose for Emily” strives to symbolize what we currently perceive as feminism within society. An example is when William Faulkner writes about Emily’s dismissal of the Board of Aldermen’s directive to ensure that she had proceeded to pay her taxes (Jansson, 2018). This part demonstrates women's growing belief that they had the will to refuse to be tied to total submission towards men, who had the final say regarding what to do or what not to do within the town.
Nevertheless, William Faulkner attempts to highlight that the new role that women were taking in having a say in their lives was in fact, not meriting. Faulkner specifically undermines and attempts to rebuke women's character trait of being founded on attempting to grasp power from men, who are the patriarchs. On this note, Faulkner relates female power to a form of madness (Jansson, 2018). The example is symbolized when Barron’s life is taken away through Emily’s “insanity”.
Personal Argument for Compelling Other Readers to Read “A Rose for Emily”
In attempting to persuade others to read "A Rose for Emily" I would make the argument that William Faulkner chooses to use a story structure that controls the mood that the reader will feel and understand. A significant context is when William Faulkner moves away from the customary and victorian narrative-founded framework. In this regard, the author starts the story at the final phase of Miss Emily's living and then uses the aspect of flashbacks in developing the story's plot (Bai et al., 2020). The framework that William Faulkner uses tends to be baffling and complicated to the person reading the story.
In every progressive sequence that relays to the subsequent story component, and inevitably within almost the introductory part of the subsequent paragraph, there is the feeling that the reader is compelled by the author to retrace their steps. The reader is then compelled to re-evaluate the baseline continually evolving storyline. The context creates a form of suspense that keeps the reader focused in attempting to understand the life that Miss Emily is living (Bai et al., 2020). The basis is the inspired sense of discomfort that William Faulkner creates, with a disorganized depiction of Miss Emily’s way of life.
A specific example of disorganization is through the author’s initial depiction of smell. Later on, the author highlights the meeting that Miss Emily has with Homer, which eventually leads to the buying of arsenic. Homer is subsequently removed from the story when the actions leading to his loss of life are revealed (Bai et al., 2020). Nevertheless, the reader is not shown why Homer died. The created chain of events through the story structure, therefore, creates a sense of "plot thickening" that drives the reader to be focused on how the story will eventually end.
References
Bai, X., Zhang, X., & Li, Y. (2020). An Analysis of Emily's Characters in A Rose for Emily from the Perspective of Narration. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 11(4), 611–615. https://doi.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1104.12
Jansson, M. (2018). In the Traces of Modernism: William Faulkner in Swedish Criticism 1932–1950. Humanities, 7(4), 96. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.3390/h7040096

My Understanding Of "A Rose for Emily"
After reading “A Rose for Emily”, I have the impression that William Faulkner is attempting to highlight specific changeovers that are taking place regarding the roles that women play in the twentieth century. A specific context is the final phase of the Victorian era, which extensively portrayed improved endeavors in steering the rights of women in society. The publishing of “A Rose for Emily” took place in nineteen thirty, and within this year, women had already showcased their baseline capabilities of undertaking activity roles that extended outside their homes (Jansson, 2018). This basis was significant within World War I and was epitome by women being accorded the recognition of voting.
Women were taking significant strides in showcasing that they had the capability of taking charge of their own lives. In this regard, “A Rose for Emily” strives to symbolize what we currently perceive as feminism within society. An example is when William Faulkner writes about Emily’s dismissal of the Board of Aldermen’s directive to ensure that she had proceeded to pay her taxes (Jansson, 2018). This part demonstrates women's growing belief that they had the will to refuse to be tied to total submission towards men, who had the final say regarding what to do or what not to do within the town.
Nevertheless, William Faulkner attempts to highlight that the new role that women were taking in having a say in their lives was in fact, not meriting. Faulkner specifically undermines and attempts to rebuke women's character trait of being founded on attempting to grasp power from men, who are the patriarchs. On this note, Faulkner relates female power to a form of madness (Jansson, 2018). The example is symbolized when Barron’s life is taken away through Emily’s “insanity”.
Personal Argument for Compelling Other Readers to Read “A Rose for Emily”
In attempting to persuade others to read "A Rose for Emily" I would make the argument that William Faulkner chooses to use a story structure that controls the mood that the reader will feel and understand. A significant context is when William Faulkner moves away from the customary and victorian narrative-founded framework. In this regard, the author starts the story at the final phase of Miss Emily's living and then uses the aspect of flashbacks in developing the story's plot (Bai et al., 2020). The framework that William Faulkner uses tends to be baffling and complicated to the person reading the story.
In every progressive sequence that relays to the subsequent story component, and inevitably within almost the introductory part of the subsequent paragraph, there is the feeling that the reader is compelled by the author to retrace their steps. The reader is then compelled to re-evaluate the baseline continually evolving storyline. The context creates a form of suspense that keeps the reader focused in attempting to understand the life that Miss Emily is living (Bai et al., 2020). The basis is the inspired sense of discomfort that William Faulkner creates, with a disorganized depiction of Miss Emily’s way of life.
A specific example of disorganization is through the author’s initial depiction of smell. Later on, the author highlights the meeting that Miss Emily has with Homer, which eventually leads to the buying of arsenic. Homer is subsequently removed from the story when the actions leading to his loss of life are revealed (Bai et al., 2020). Nevertheless, the reader is not shown why Homer died. The created chain of events through the story structure, therefore, creates a sense of "plot thickening" that drives the reader to be focused on how the story will eventually end.
References
Bai, X., Zhang, X., & Li, Y. (2020). An Analysis of Emily's Characters in A Rose for Emily from the Perspective of Narration. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 11(4), 611–615. https://doi.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.1104.12
Jansson, M. (2018). In the Traces of Modernism: William Faulkner in Swedish Criticism 1932–1950. Humanities, 7(4), 96. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.3390/h7040096

just started 90s animation and about to finish 1st season, wolverine acting rough and getting beaten like toddler, when cyclops and other always beat enemies who play with wolverine like he is toddler, its so annoying I am about to drop watching it.
I always expected to be wolverine to be strongest, I mean others may have way stronger abilities but wolverine getting job done etc. also many enemies comment how wolverine was stronger back in the day and now he is weak.
but he is completely useless everywhere, unless he is used as dog smelling stuff his existence changes nothing.
I cant understand how cna he be so uselsss and I am interested if he will be same useless guy in future seasons