My Afflation

This is a guest post written by Nat Smith, Rover.com community member. Rover is the nation's largest network of 5-star pet sitters and dog walkers. Me and Zoe, my best girl for the last 11 years. She's a rescue mutt who saves me from bouts of depression, agoraphobia, and anxiety. Photo Credit: Halcyon's Serendipity Depression and anxiety persist by pulling you into downward spirals. Symptoms like fatigue, social withdrawal, and the inability to concentrate actually fuel the depressive episode that brought them on. This is why, in addition to medication and therapy, treatment often includes “disruptors.” These are relatively simple habit changes that can break the cycle. Of course, these changes aren’t easy to implement. When you’re at a low point or subsumed in panic, do you really want to stop and take a deep breath? The recovery process at its best is often described as “two steps forward, one step back.”

Claritin D (Loratadine and Pseudoephedrine) Drug Information: Uses, Side Effects, Drug Interactions and Warnings at RxList : "Psychiatric: Aggressive reaction, agitation, anxiety, apathy, confusion, decreased libido, depression, emotional lability, euphoria, impaired concentration, irritability, paroniria." Agitation, anxiety, paranoia ... and just plain over-tired possibly. My daughter has allergies and I just moved. Somewhere around here I have children's liquid Claritin, but I couldn't find it. Triaminic Cough and Cold works well for her allergies too but she didn't want to knock out right after dinner (I should have listened to my first instinct)... so I gave her one tab of her brother's generic Claritin (Equate brand from Wal-Mart). Whoa. I don't think I will do that again. She had dinner within an hour of taking it, then bath, and somehow between "wash your hair and if you're itching from grass wash your body again" and "I...

I knew it was bad, I didn't think it was that bad. I arrived in Vegas last night about 8:30/9:00 PM. Kids pass out hugs, we bring in the stuff and my then my dad takes a look at me. Says, "What happened to your face?"  Wonderful. It's not like I had black eyes (ok, I have the racoon look going on), but still. It was dim in the house, not even full lights and one was really bad, bright red, even in the dark. I guess it was noticeable. I guess I should be glad he didn't call me Rudolph. That's the name of one of the puppies that woke me .

Here are the dogs waiting patiently with me as I wait for AAA, again. A little over a month ago I had to call AAA to come unlock my car. Last night was a little more dramatic. I thought I was being a good doggie mommy when I got home and it was about 90 degrees in the house. HOT! I changed as quickly as possible into a T-shirt, board shorts and Teva's (love my Teva's, but that's another story), grabbed leashes and away we went. The dogs get so excited when I grab the leashes. And even more so when I told them to go to the car instead of "Front" (front means you have to pee and poop out front and just get a walk. Car means "Yay! We're going somewhere and get to SMELL things!") So, we head out to the beach. I chose the board shorts because they have a pocket I can keep my keys and phone in. Apparently about 5 minutes in, or sometime after I locked my car (this time I clearly remember having keys in hand!) my keys fell out into the soft sand from a ho...

Well, Labor Day has come and gone. And the last week of summer has been exciting to say the least. Well, some parts of it were exciting. I got a good tip on a gymnastics studio in Huntington Beach and Joy did a free lesson. As you can see, she LOVED it. I bought her a leotard (which she lived in for 2 days) and signed her up for classes. Not sure when they start as she will be the 3rd girl in a brand new class. In a previous post I showed you how well she has come along in her skateboarding. At the beginning of summer she could barely scoot along. Then she was introduced to a cruiser. Now she can zig-zag, do hills (sort of, hops off if she goes too fast), and can confidently tackle the skatepark. That was a field trip with daycamp. I have the feeling that as soon as she can swim without floaties or a life-jacket she's going to ask for a surfboard. It's the next logical step. I'm a bit relieved that she wants a cruiser more than a regular skateboard. You can't ...

Ok, so he wasn't in a window. He was at the pound. Or as they are called today, the spcaLA . We looked at some Chihuahua mixes at the Seal Beach Animal Shelter , but they didn't like Josh. Well, the one that I liked and that got along with Zoe didn't like Josh. We visited Buddy a few times at the spcaLA shelter, first me and Josh, then Joy, Zoe, me and Josh. We kind of did it backwards, but not our fault! They were incredibly busy, short-staffed, and hence a little disorganized. But anyway! I wish I had taken pictures of Zoe and Buddy's first introduction. They played really well together, and for an old man, he certainly can keep up with the young pup. The staff seemed fairly impressed at how well everyone, kids included, got along. And so, we brought him home.  Josh was a little disappointed that we didn't get the terrier mix that he wanted , but I think he's adjusted to life with Buddy, a much quieter and cuddlier dog than Zoe.  So if you think Jensen th...

While having a conversation with a friend about the possibilities of kids (and comparing them to animals), I managed to come up with this quip: Cats are like teenagers. They only pay attention to you when they want something :)

Collie + Lhasa Apso Collapso , a dog that folds up for easy transport Spitz + Chow Chow Spitz-Chow , a dog that throws up a lot Pointer + Setter Poinsetter , a traditional Christmas pet Malamute + Pointer Moot Point , owned by....oh, well, it doesn't matter anyway Great Pyrenees + Dachshund Pyradachs , a puzzling breed Pekingnese + Lhasa Apso Peekasso , an abstract dog Irish Water Spaniel + English Springer Spaniel Irish Springer , a dog fresh and clean as a whistle Labrador Retriever + Curly Coated Retriever Lab Coat Retriever , the choice of research scientists Newfoundland + Basset Hound Newfound Asset Hound , a dog for financial advisors Terrier + Bulldog Terribull , a dog that makes awful mistakes Bloodhound + Labrador Blabador , a dog that barks incessantly Collie + Malamute Commute , a dog that travels to work Deerhound + Terrier Derriere , a dog that's true to the end Bull Terrier + Shitzu Bull.. Oh, never mind -- Annette Sargent "Women and cats will do as t...

So here's Boots, who refused to move off the bed while Tim made it.