I would not get along with your therapist.

I could bore you with any number of aphorisms, anecdotes, proverbs, etc that all illustrate the value of sadness, the inescapable necessity of that completely human condition, but I won't. If she's helping you, more power to her and to you. But good can come from extended struggle, even painful, sad struggle. I wish you strength, and if strength leads to and end of sadness, then good.

Great... advice from someone that doesn't even comprehend how normal people think. :rolleyes:

thanks! True, I don't comprehend normal people, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

:wink:


"Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly."
--Morticia Addams

Not you dummy, the therapist. Miss happyfuckingface.

I'm going to repeat my earlier assertion: she sounds like a dick.

Sadness serves a purpose as does any emotion. It is appropriate to feel sad sometimes.

Rainbow Bridge: I know the poem well. On the beardie site I went to after losing Pilau they all believe in the Bridge. I sort of play with the notion myself, it's a pleasant thought. Don't believe it in any real sense, but it's a lovely notion to imagine all the dogs there running free together :p

She also sounds like she doesn't know a fucking thing about dogs though. Connection isn't instant. This isn't like looking for a husband and wanting The One' with whom you instantly connect. They're animals (dogs, not husbands...:p) the connection is something you build. It's something you craft across time as you win the animal's respect and most likely adoration.

Take him back and get one who connects with you? Jesus fucking christ.

Also: has she considered the potential negative impact of feeling guilty if you do take him back? With the best will in the world, there's no way of diong it and not feeling a complete shit. I speak from experience on this - the only dog I ever let go: Sara, a stray J and I took in when we were simply not capable of caring for it. Dragged her about as we moved from rented room to rented flat and then another move and then, as we had thoroughly failed at being grownups and had to move bakc into our parents houses temporarily, she had to go to the shelter.

Truth be told she stood a better chance right then at the shelter than she did with us, we were on a total downward spiral (this was whne we were about 19).

Even though I knew we couldn't care for her properly, and hadn't connected in the way I have with other dogs since, I felt awful. I still feel guilty about that dog, even all these years later. Because actually, we should have left her where she was. She was doing ok. She had a number of people in the area who fed her and she curled up in whatever shed she could get into at night. We took her off the streets and after a brief spell of not being walked enough, fed the wrong foods and alternately fussed over and shouted at for a few months dropped her off to doggy prison to take her chances.

Sorry...that turned into a trip down memory lane...

Yeah, I was offered a cat the other day. She sounded great but I also know what a dingbat the person offering is. So if this cat turns out to be a pooper/puker/scratcher/snarler I'm stuck...because i cannot, cannot give a pet away once I've decided to take them. So I turned it down. I have to be SURE.

A dog ain't no damn man. Find one who connects with you? Is there like a match.com for that? "You must DEMAND what you are looking for in a man...er, um, I mean dog."

Is she a manhater? Methinks she doth project too much.

@xoB-- I know ":wink:", eh?

@Trilby--

y'know, a moment of levity, hm?

You remember my local hero, Macklemore, right? Here's a funny parody you might get a grin from.

Good luck with the levity.

Woof!! (translation: Thanks!)

Once the cats realize that he is there to stay, they will come around. Might give him a few hisses and taps on the nose... but they will work it out. :)

We opened the bedroom door yesterday, and Chloe is taking it better than I thought she would. She has been here a month, and she still hisses at Bootsie just not as much. We had some growling last nite, but only once, it's un nerving to hear that underneath you.