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MerlinsMum

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Posts posted by MerlinsMum

  1. :weep :brokenheart 

    On 6/4/2023 at 6:33 PM, macoduck said:

    They'll always be with us, just slightly beyond the point that we can see with our eyes. In our heart, though, they'll be bright and clear, as they always were.

    ^This is beautiful, Ducky. 

  2. On 6/30/2023 at 11:55 PM, jenners said:

    No. Just NO.

    Jennie

    I said this exact thing out loud, and then scrolled down and saw your post! :lol 

    It's bad enough that I'm finding little ants crawling on me all the time because of all the rain... at least they're not disgusting, almost unkillable, disease-spreading TICKS.

    This makes perfect sense in light of the fact that I have found ticks on me even when I've walked near vegetation, and not in it or through it. Revolting. :sick I imagine them just sitting there waiting and then leaping. The stuff of NIGHTMARES :lol :violin 

  3. On 4/18/2019 at 11:29 PM, Jeff said:

    @Time4ANap yours is fixed, what a convoluted process, you can't find the actual image URL any more, and you can't easily copy the image to paste it into the editor. That's what I did, but in a round about way. I'll have to see if there is a simpler way, and post about it.

    I did find an easier way to find your own gallery though. 

    Upper right, click your username, then select PROFILE

    On the right just below the "See me activity" button, click ALBUMS

    Hey @Jeff, I apologize if I missed clarification on this - I read all three pages of this thread - but, at the risk of sounding really dim, how do I upload new images to my Gallery? 

    Of course you're going to tell me and then I'm going to be all sml_gallery_15587_3010_1932.gif :rolleyes: 

    I freakin' LOVE this upgrade - so many new cool features and greater functionality. Thank you!

  4. I didn't post in Remembrance last year when Merlin died. It was almost too much to bear to post on social media, but I managed to (and was unbelievably grateful for the generosity and support I received. I will never forget it. All my love and gratitude goes to each and all of you who were there, and especially to my precious friends in the WFUBCC. FF&F, my friends.) I was never able to find the right words for a remembrance post. All the poems and lyrics in the world, however beautiful, seemed to fall short - except maybe for W.H. Auden's Funeral Blues. So I included that in the video below.

    Today marks exactly one year since he died and left my heart in pieces.

     

    Remembering Merlin

     

    I will let the video tell what's in my heart whenever the word "Merlin" sings that magical song in my mind that no one else can hear. All I can say is that, despite the sudden and painful loss of my beloved Sagan barely five months before I lost Merlin (they both succumbed to osteo), despite the end of my marriage, it is the loss of this incredible dog, my cheeky, impertinent, funny, one-in-a-million dog, that dealt the fatal blow to my heart. The pain is still so raw that thinking of him, seeing any old picture of him (I took thousands), or watching a video of him (he looks SO alive....) still tears me apart. I still cry for him every day and I can say that it is the worst, most heart-wrenching pain of my life. Despite adopting my sweet little heart healer Pippin, who is doing a grand job, and whom I love dearly, the emptiness and the grief are still so overwhelming. I didn't expect it to hurt so much a year later. He is in my thoughts constantly, and on good days his absence feels like an ache that breaks my concentration and won't leave me alone, and on bad days the grief is paralysing and overwhelming. I don't trust myself around people when that wave of grief hits me, and I don't always get a warning. I would give all the riches in the world, every last thing I own and the remaining time of my life for one more day with him.

     

    Enough. He was my everything, and I will miss him forever. I can't tell you how many times I have envied the comfort that some of my friends experience from their belief that they will see their loved ones again. But I know I most likely won't ever again set eyes on the most wonderful soul that I was so very, very lucky to know and love. The memories will have to be enough, and the pain of his absence will have to be endured. If there is a silver lining in all of this, it's that it has made me more inclined to listen to others, to feel compassion and empathy for other human beings as they, too - as we all do - navigate the fears, frailties and losses that life throws at us. Indeed, my friends' losses of their beloved hounds hit me twice as hard these days.

     

    40711011101_c526c86de9_z.jpg

     

    “Yours is the light by which my spirit's born: you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.”― E.E. Cummings :brokenheart

     

    Thank you for reading and remembering him with me today.

  5. Has any one used any natural remedies?

     

    There is virtually no solid clinical evidence (other than small, statistically irrelevant trials conducted with dubious methodology) that these "natural remedies" (aka "alternative/integrative veterinary medicine") work. The few studies that do show a benefit beyond placebo are trials funded by companies trying to sell a product, and they very clearly set out to prove something they already believe (or want to believe) works. I understand the wish to choose "natural" (whatever that means) alternatives to surgical or pharmaceutical options that will deliver a cure without side effects... But the promise of no side effects whatsoever, considering the physiological complexity of the body and its organs, should generate skepticism in itself. Most of these alternative "therapies" are based on pre-scientific (and mostly pseudo-scientific) concepts, and are therefore - unsurprisingly - extremely weak on clinical evidence; they are promoted on the basis of a few in vitro studies and a LOT of anecdotal evidence.

     

    Homeopathy is not medicine - it's just water. My two cents: save your money for evidence-based veterinary medicine...

     

    ETA A new study published in the American Journal of Veterinary Research shows no benefit from Cold Laser Therapy in dogs having surgery for disc problems.

  6. I'm inclined to agree with Amber and Redhead.

     

    Merlin is lazy. In the winter he literally hibernates and goes from his bed to the couch to his food bowl to the yard to the couch to his bed.:lol There have always been walks, regardless of the season, but more for the mental stimulation and the socialization than anything else. On the other hand, I don't think that Sagan would have been happy if he couldn't have run off-leash. He LOVED it. Not so much when we used to go to playgroup years ago - he would sniff and stick close to me - but when we went to the (totally enclosed) beach or to a ballfield for a run. Not only did he love it - it also transformed him from a shy, extra cautious hound into a curious, adventurous hound with a greater independent spirit than he ever had before. It was so wonderful to see.

     

    I will always remember how happy he was when I took him for a run. He could hardly contain his excitement.

     

    File_000.jpeg

     

    3ebcf1ec-ab2e-40c1-9e36-5e12f0984979.jpg

     

    If I'm perfectly honest, I don't like the idea of a dog - any dog - never having the chance to really stretch their legs, but I do agree that it depends on the dog. After all, some people don't even walk their greyhounds, and in principle I don't agree with that at all, but honestly, some greys are just so low-energy (okay - lazy :rolleyes:) that they seem to be perfectly fine with pottering around the yard and doing zoomies for five minutes. So I think we need to be careful about projecting our human preconceived ideas onto our dogs. I know I've done it! Every dog is different.

     

    Good luck! :colgate

  7. I just read this entire thread - I had no idea you were dealing with this. I am SO relieved that Brin is doing better! :yay I had to force-feed Merlin with a syringe for months a few years ago (he has IBD too, and these days he only needs to take 10mg every third day to manage it) so I know how absolutely awful it is when your hound won't eat :(


    Brin :kiss2

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