I've been closer with my mom most of my life , but it is obvious from pictures of me as a little girl that I worshiped my dad. Interestingly , he has changed since he retired. He asks questions now. It is amazing how having him ask me questions about my diseases or the house projects - or knowing he reads my blog ( it is family friendly) has made me understand that he and I are much more alike than I ever knew. We both sit in our own heads a lot.

JZ, this is what I tell my DH -- Your dad may not have taught you how to be, but he has certainly shown you what you shouldn't be.

I might frame that and put it above my desk, Beth.

Ooh, Barb - I hope you're better now.

(And your mom, too!)

Huh, anyone had problems with crystals in kitty urine? My Mal's most recent innapropriate soiling had a few hours to dry and left a sparkly residue like glitter. He is currently spending the night at the vet's, waiting for a urine sample not soaked into my bedding :(

erin_o, my Harvey had trouble with struvite crystals in his urine a few years ago. In his case, he just went to the litter box every five minutes, then started crying as he did so, as my cue to call the vet. So I have not had the opportunity to experience sparkly residue. Other crystal possibilities are calcium oxalate crystals and sugar crystals. Here is an article that will tell you a lot more about the first two (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorder) than I ever got my veterinarians to explain: [link] It's posted in a threaded forum, too long for a single post. You will need to keep scrolling down, because some of the discussion got mixed in with the posts of the article. One of the prime things I learned in that article is that the one true treatment for either of those crystals, is for the cat to flush 'em out with water.

Cats developed as for desert living. As desert predators, they are designed to get most of their liquid needs from the bodies of prey animals, often drinking water when they have missed a kill. Their thirst instinct is not keen enough to prompt them to drink sufficient water to keep them fully hydrated, even when there is an adequate, attractive water source on hand at all times. As a result, their urine may be highly concentrated, and therefore more prone to developing crystals. At the time I had read that article, I'd been feeding Harvey the vet-recommended prescription food for a couple years, during which time he had repeated urinary tract infections. Then I started adding 2-3 tbs of water to each portion of his canned food. Since then we have not had a recurrence of the problem. After a year free of infections, I reduced the amount of extra water to 1-2 tbs. A year further down the road free of UTIs and now we add water only about half the time.

If/when the vet. tries to sell you on a special prescription diet food, read the ingredients label before agreeing to use it. Vets tend to be allied with either Hill's (which is seriously the same quality nutrition as Purina, essentially loads of fillers and less than ideal sources of protein) or Iams/Eukanuba (a step higher, but still not necessarily the highest quality). Chances are, if you are in the U.S., your veterinarian's nutrition classes were sponsored by Hills, or Iams, and so her or his learning on the topic will be shaded by this. Do ask what qualities and ingredients in the food are needed for treating your cat's condition, so that you know what to look for if you choose to go hunting for an even healthier alternative to what your vet sells (oh, yes, your vet will profit from the food you buy there). You may have to do a lot of learning on your own to find the best thing to feed Mal. I can definitely help with that.

Also, on the topic of feline nutrition, the author of the article I mentioned above had a website that had a great explanation of how to read an ingredients label on cat food. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I had to use the Internet Wayback Machine to find it for you: [link]

Thanks windsparrow! I'll have to look at the first one once i get home (blocked at work for some reason....) but all info is wildly welcome :( Part of me hopes it is just a false alarm, another hopes it actually is a UTI to explain the obnoxious cycle of bed-peeing :/

Oh, crap, billytea. Or - well, and maybe yay? Security-ma to you and yours, mate. And silk dressing gowns. And maybe pipes and slippers.

I'd guess that most people have a closer relationship with one parent than another - even if they have a good relationship with both. Let's get some anecdotal evidence to confirm or refute this. Anybody?

I'm constantly grateful for both my parents. There is no one I respect more than them. I was closer to my mother; I think my dad and I are possibly too similar. (I noticed this especially travelling through Europe with first D and then M.) I still miss my mother.

Oh, crap, billytea. Or - well, and maybe yay? Security-ma to you and yours, mate. And silk dressing gowns. And maybe pipes and slippers.

I think probably yay. It's not a surprise, I've had time to get comfortable with the prospect. I have nearly 14 years' continuous service and I'm on a good award (and this is Australia), so the payout is eminently generous. The company's been making an effort to handle the lay-off process as well as they can reasonably be expected to, which includes an outplacement service. Meanwhile, the role I was able to pursue in the company and my skill set had been diverging for some time, and though I expected this year to be an improvement, I would still have been looking for a different position elsewhere had I not been laid off.

I reckon I'll be fine. I feel I'm in a better position than many of the other people who got laid off. Plus, imminent baby!