sheepdog

There is a prescription mouth was that works wonders for the gums but since it is terribly expensive you probably wouldn't want to use it since you don't want to spend the money on a dentist. I stock up on it when we go to Mexico, it is not too expensive buying it there. I am sure it is the only reason I still have teeth in my head, the stuff is great. My bottle is in Spanish, but it's called Bexident Encias.Another cheaper option would be to rince your mouth with hydrogen peroxide. It tastes pretty nasty, and all that foaming action will make you look like your are rabid for awhile, but it works pretty good. Tarter accumilation on the teeth is actually bacteria. That bacteria is absorbed threw your gums and enters your blood stream, and can cause many health problems. You should probably "bite the bullet" (pun intended) and just go get your teeth cleaned.

Yes, I do it all the time. And since I am pretty old and have survived all my own medicating, I'd say I do a pretty good job of doctoring myself. Of course, the main reason I do it is lack of money/insurance. Being self employed means I have no health insurance, and things are complicated by the fact that I don't make enough money to afford my own insurance, and make too much money to be on welfare. Certain injuries if treated by a doctor, can cause you a great deal of grief, specifically dog bite injuries. In many cases, the physician is required to report the bite to the health department, and if they so desire, they can take your dog away from you and kill or quaranteen it to check it for rabies. Now if I am foolish enough to get any of my body parts in the way of 2 dogs that are having a dissagreement and I get bit in the process, I know darn good and well the dog isn't rabid, but you can't tell the health department that, so self medcation of those type injuries is of utmost importance. Then there was the time we spent the entire night in the ER with my better half having severe abdominal pain. In the end, the doctor prescribed metrodizonal and sent us home. When I had the perscription filled at the hospital pharmacy and figured out what he gave him, I looked at the pharmacist and said, "Well shoot, if I'd of known that was all they were going to do for him I could of just given him some of my puppy medicine and we could of stayed home." The pharmacist looked at me like I was nuts, but it was the truth, metro is something I always have on hand for the pups. Now, since then, when ever we get "the trots" I know exactly what to do. A few years ago, I was feeling really bad, and it kept dragging on and on so while doing some reasearch I found my symptoms were exactly those of someone with lymes disease. I did go to the health department, but they told me that the test alone for Lymes was going to be around $200! A bit more reasearch and I discovered the usually recomended treatment for Lymes is tetracycline. This is a common and very cheap antibiotic, on one of our trips to Mexico I had picked some up when they had it on sale, so 200 doses only cost $4. So, when the cure costs $1 but to test is $200.........well, you can guess what I did. And I saw an immediate improvement in my condition, so I'm quite sure that's what it was. If I had not improved, I might of eventually gone to the doctor, but that would of been a last resort. You do all realize that doctors review your sypmtoms and most often guess what may be wrong with you anyway. Why do you think they call it "practising" medicine? So if the doctor is most likely going to guess at what is wrong with me and charge me a whole lot of money to do it, why shouldn't I take my own best guess first? After all, who knows my symptoms better than I do?

I'm sure by now most of you have seen the new fangled light bulbs, the milkie white tubes shaped like a curly fry they are so bound and determine to promoting as the next new way to save the planet, conserve energy, and all that stuff. The claims are that despite their considerably higher initial cost, they save you more in energy, and last longer, etc etc. Well, we decided that maybe we should give them a try. I should of known better, but it sounded good at the time. Silly me for falling for media hype. After parting with a good chunk of our hard earned money, we installed the first one in the kitchen. Even though we had purchased the highest wattage, the lighting was so poor I couldn't see to fry an egg! I'd say even the highest wattage bulbs put out less than half the amount of light as a regular bulb. In order to see decently, we had to put 2 bulbs in the light fixture, where as before we only had one 100 watt bulb of the old style in the overhead light fixture. So much for saving energy, if it takes twice as many bulbs burning to get the same amount of light. As far as lasting longer, well, no good news there either. One burned out in less than a week, another lasted 2 weeks, my old cheap light bulbs I get at Dollar General at 4 for a dollar last longer than that! And if all that wasn't bad enough, then I find out the damn things contain MECURY!!! A deadly, toxic poison!!! They are considered hazzardous waste when burnt out. This of course, is discovered after I pitch the burnt out ones in the trash heap, so it's too late to do anything about that. So.....while it is great to come up with new inovations, technoligy and good ways to save the planet and conserve enery, why in the world don't they think things threw before mass marketing products that in fact are actually harmfull to the enviornment? I mean seriously, everybody knows mecury is toxic, why even consider putting it in something that is so abundently used in the average home? We all know the delicate bulbs are easily and frequently broken, it is shear foolishness to have such dangers in a household where children and pets could be endangered. I am also concerned that in the event these bulbs catch on, the old style bulbs will become less readily available. The new bulbs throw off no heat like the old style bulbs. I use heat lamp bulbs when it is really cold, but in more moderate weather, a regular 100 watt bulb throws off enough heat to keep the chill off young pups and can be used in place of the electric guzzeling regular heat lamp bulbs. I really do wish people would not be so greedy and promote these new ideas before they are found to be safe and effective. Conserving energy is important, but we should not be in such a rush to fall for every new gimick that comes down the pike. Surely there are plenty of very smart people in the world that can come up with better ways to conserve energy and make our lives better than a light bulb that is toxic. (and doesn't even light up well)

What a crazy stunt! Glad to hear you were smart enough not to get involved, and that you kept your cool and were able to help. But don't beat yourself up over it and let it bother you. I am truely surprised that so many teenagers actually survive to become adults with the crazy stunts they pull. (and yes, ok, as a teenager, I was pretty crazy myself. ) Comes with the territory. I guess I was just one of the lucky survivors, so now I can post here at Xisto and give all you young 'uns good sound sage advise!

Superman wears Sara Palin pajama's!!! How could anybody not like Sara????? She clawed her way up from the very bottom, as a PTA mom, to the top spot in the entire state of Alaska. Abuse of power???? Do you know how she supposedly abused her power? A cop beat up a woman, (and yes, it was a relative of hers, but so what) and his boss refused to fire him. He deserved to be fired. I feel as though she actually showed considerable restraint by not going and shooting the sorry sob. What really pisses me off are these dang stupid people that have the sexist gall to say she should stay home and take care of her children. Some old lady called in on Crackerbarrel (a radio call in show in our neck of the woods) and had the audasity to say she should be home caring for her children. And a woman said it no less! For all the millions of women that have suffered in the past and contiue to this day to suffer under the hands of men, to say something like that is just disgusting. Women have been surpressed for many many years, and have suffered terrible from unsympathic government. So many women over the years have dedicated their lives to improving conditions for women, that for a woman to say something that stupid is just terrible. If memory serves me correct, blacks had the right to vote in this country before women did. Now they want a black persident before a woman vice president, far as I'm concerned, that SUCKS!!!! So????? At least we can be pretty safe in betting she will not be trying to disarm the citizens of the United States like Obama would. The fact that she is an outdoorsman and a hunter actually thrills the dickens out of me! What about Obama? Why are you not terrified of him? I certainly am. He want's my guns, and has ties to Muslum terriorists. He has no experience in ANYTHING!!! He's been a student and a lawyer. Has less political time than Palin. Palin has as I have allready said, worked her way up threw the political jungle, has had a family, helped her husband run a real business and has obviously a great deal of good old common sense. Do you think it was easy to rise to her position in politics in the good old boy system we have? I think not. I think it shows an incredible amount of preservation and determination for her to have made it as far as she has. And as far as comments about Palin's pregnaunt daughter, I'm not sure what anybody who is not a parent and has not raised teenagers can accurately comment on this subject. Once a kid reaches those teen years, there isn't one dang thing a parent can do to control them. It is grossly unfair for the media to trash Palin over this one. (neglecting the fact that Obama is the child of an unwed mother, and sired by an acholic father.)

Oh, I do definatly believe in telepathy! It happens all the time with me and my old man. And it is not cases of simple coincedence. We can be riding in a car together not even speaking and suddenly one of us will say what the other has been thinking about. And they are completely random thoughts. I'm sure it is in part to the number of years we have been together, being in tune so to speak with each other. The longer you are with someone the easier it gets. But I have picked up thoughts from complete strangers too. They say the average human only uses 10% of their brain. If one could learn to tap into even a part of the other 90% there is no telling what all a human could do. The connections and comparisons to radio waves are a valid idea. Consider the brain does work on electrical impulses, just like a radio or any other electric appliance. There are many "frequencies" that cannot be heard by the human ear, but can be heard by other animals, like the dog whistle for example, but what is to say that just because the ear does not hear the sound, that the brain cannot pick up the impulses? Ceretainly, this can account for some instances that could be mistaken for telepathy, but whey you are riding in a car together and just looking out the window and not paying any attention to each other but still end up thinking about the same subject, you can't say you are just reading the other person.

I am really sorry you are going threw this. I don't think you should feel guilty for slapping her. After all, she was in your face cussing and screaming at you, and then kicked you hard enough to knock you over, so you are not the abuser in this incident. Personally, I think the only thing you did wrong was to wait too long to smack her. You probably should of done it 10 years or so ago. Once a kid is 17 they are a lost cause for disipline. I'm sure you feel terrible, and I hope you can get things worked out.

Botulism.What a scary thing. It's deadly and can kill you grave yard dead. No matter what the drug companies tell you or try to sell you, I'm not buying it. Wrinkles are not life threatening. I'll keep mine and pass on the poison. If people don't like the way I look they can turn their heads.

Wow, yes, you are a perfectionist.And while there may be a lot of other people like you so you are not alone, you are going to be lonely, because you would drive anybody that wanted to get close to you crazy. I dated a guy like that once. He was always late. He couldn't get out of the house until he checked every plug in to make sure no electrical appliance had been left on, and had to triple check his image in the mirror and make sure every hair was in place, and a few dozen other nutty things. He drove me crazy. When I get ready to go somewhere I just make sure I have clothes on and that they are not inside out and I'm good to go!In a perfect world it would be great if every thing was in it's place and you could find anything you needed and knew exactly where it was. But the sad truth of the matter is most of us are slobs and don't have the time or patients to put every thing in to such meticulous order. And those people who do drive the rest of us slobs crazy.

We had a bulldog once that did exactly the same thing, except she would drop to the ground and freeze when she had a collar put on her. We fixed her by using a halter instead of a collar. You have several options. If you need to identify her, have her micro chipped. That way her identification is perment and cannot ever be removed if she gets lost or stolen. You can try a harness. But the best thing to do is get a small, lightweight collar, put it on her and just forget it. She will eventually get used to it. That's also the easiest way to do it. But if you want to do it gradually, try just putting the collar on her at first when you go to feed her. (this of course won't work if you free feed) Or put it on, give her a treat, praise her, then take it off. Just keep at it until she gets the idea that it is a good sign that she is getting the collar put on, she is going to get a treat. Dogs figure things like that pretty quick, they are usually very food orientated. But, just in case, before you forse the collar issue with her, make sure there is not a physical reason why she objects to the collar. She may have a sore or bruise on her neck, or problems with her throat that are not visible from the outside. You also don't know how she was handled since you got her at 7 months for the first months of her life. Possibly one of her previous owners used a no bark or shock collar on her. If that is the case, it will take considerable time for her to accept that the collar is not going to hurt her.

How cool!But I bet all her neighboors hide behind locked doors if they see her coming, if she grew one zuchinni that big, imagine what a huge crop she must of had besides that monster squash! I still have a box full of zuchinni on a chair in the kitchen, full of the big hard yellow ones, they keep for a long time when they get that big.

Good Grief!Will the stupidity of PETA never end??????A good Holstein cow gives 5 or so gallons of milk per day. There is no way any human can even come close to that. And can you imagine the cost of a dipper of rocky road if the value of the humans time was factored into the cost of the milk? Dairy farmers get mere pennies for a gallon of milk, even if you paid a human minimum wage for the time in the milking parlor, how would you find enough humans willing to waste their time for what they would get paid, or if you had to pay them wages on an equal basis for their time, milk would cost a small fortune. The handling of milk is a very delicate thing to prevent it from contamination, in order to be safe practicly every sample would have to be tested, and that would add a trememdous amount to the costs, considering you are only going to be getting a few ounces of milk per milking, as opposed to testing a bulk milk tank that holds several hundred gallons. There are dozens of dairy farms here in the Ozarks. I even worked on one as a kid. The cows have it made for crying out loud! They stand around all day eating grass, when it gets hot they go lay under the shade trees or stand in the pond, and twice a day they get to come in the barn and eat yummy grain that they just love, and then it's back out to loafing around again. Sheesh, we should all have it that easy. The only animal that has it better is the bulls and broncs in the rodeo circut, they only have to work 8 seconds about 3 times per week.

Huh???? How on earth could that possibly be offensive? I happen to like my dogs. And they are just words. Yuza and Zola, one means "takes hold of" and the other means whistle, and if you know anything at all about wire fox terriers to take hold of is an excellent way to describe one. I can't see anything offensive about it. What if I wanted to name a dog a German word, someone told me Zooker was German for Sugar, would that offend the Germans in the crowd?

Well, you might as well say I've worn glasses all my life. I got my first pair when I entered the first grade, as a 6 year old kid. I suppose the teacher noticed me squinting at the black board. I am nearsited, so when I was little I could see books just fine, and when I was outside my parents werent around so I guess they never noticed I was nearly blind. Since my eyesite is so bad, my glasses are the first thing I put on in the morning and the last thing I take off at night. And yes, when I was a kid I thought I looked pretty stupid in them too, but no better than I could see without them, I didn't really care. Since I can now pick out my own glasses, I usually stick with the cool gold wire frames, something like the John Denver type, so I don't think those look that bad. It's just those thick dorky plastic frames that I think look goofy.

Well.....that ain't no poodle!I could see the chihuahua right away, but I really don't think there is any papillion either. Paps and Chihuahua's both have upright ears, yours has one up one down, a cross should have both up. Also, papillion's and Chihuahua's have small, somewhat delicate muzzels, yours does not. It could even be a Dachshund/Chihuahua cross. Long haired Dachshund would give it added coat, and especially if it was also a long haired Chihuahua. I don't think there is any terrier either, you would have some curly coat, and the body length would be shorter/cobbyier. The body of the dog is fairly long. It could also possibly have some Pekingese in it.

They teach fencing in school?????And I'm betting this is not leasons on using wire stretchers and post hole diggers. If that were true, you might be getting some education that some day should you decide to become a farmer/gardener/dog breeder you could actually use. Amazing that they teach kids this kind of stuff, (fencing) when they have kids graduating that can't read or write. Seriously, how many kids are going to go on in life to play pirates in a hollywood movie????But seriously, take up what ever YOU enjoy.

You know, if I had a daughter, I would want her to be just like you!Let me know if you ever come up for adoption!!

Ike was a bad one, no doubt about that. We are all the way up in Missouri and felt it's effects here. We had a lot of tree damage, and our eletricity was off for nearly 24 hours. We had just fired up the generator and ran it for a few hours so we could chill down the refrigerator and the freezer and run us some water. Shortly after shutting it down again the power came back on. Our whole town was without power, we had gone in to buy gas for the generater and there wasn't a single gas station open that day. While in town the hubby talked to some folks that said it took 4 hours to drive here from Branson, which is normally a 45 minute drive because of trees down accross the roads. I had some friends just south of Houston who decided not to evacuate. They boarded up their windows and prepared as best they could. With modern radar and other weather forcasting tools, in this day and age you get plenty of warning time, and also a good idea of exactly where it is going to hit. Generally you have plenty of time to prepare. Fill up water jugs, get gas for the generator, make sure you are stocked up on batteries, and candles, and easy to prepare foods. They lost a lot of trees in their yard, and some water blew in the house and the carpet was soaked, but other than that they did ok. I am not sure how I would feel about mandatory evacuations. I think if I knew my home wasn't going to take a direct hit, I'd probably try to ride it out too. So many times after you evacuate, you are not allowed to go back how until the "authorities" allow you too. Look at all those people in New Orleans that were forced to stay in that arena even after it was damaged, and out of water, and people were being raped and assulted and it was a total disaster. I do not believe I would want to put myself in that sort of predicament. And if you stay, you can pretect your property from looters and you have several days head start on getting things back together.

Well, I'm sure there are a lot of descriptive adjetives to describe a turtle, but I never would of thought about noisy and hyper!!!How can a turtle be noisy? How can you tell if one is hyper, pretty much all they do is crawl around. And I sure can't figure out how you know your turtle is freaking out.

I am going to have to completely agree with Archangel Baw and Saint Michael. Every word is true. She isn't worth the time of day if that is the way she is going to treat you. I know it hurts terribly right now, but as they say, time heals all wounds. The best thing to do is move on and find someone who will be right for you. OR, you could get a dog! They are always your friend and are loyal to the end.

Well, first off, she is your mother, she's the boss, so I don't understand your statement of you don't know if you should let her or not. Not really much you can do in that department. Nagging generally only succedes in annoying the smoker and is generally not very useful in getting a person to quit. Asking niclely and telling her you love her and want her to be around for a long time may help, but don't go overboard and do it constantly. Now, if it is stress related, and will be a temporary thing, it probably isn't going to be that big of a deal if she quits again after things straighten out at work. Rather than nag her, is there anything you could do to relieve her stress? Maybe help out around the house to lighten her load, or just talk to her about what is bugging her. People find many ways to reduce stress. Some smoke, some drink, some take pills. None are particularly healthy. Better to get to the cause of the stress and fix that than become a junkie.

LOLOL, I do believe if I was stranded on a desert island for 10 years and lived on fish and coconuts, the first thing I would ask for when I was rescued would be a greasy spoon cheeseburger and french fries! And a bag of potato chips!!! I LOVE potato chips and fries. I seriously doubt I would ever loose my cravings for them.

In order to be "approved" a product/substance has to pass tests that are viewed by the Food and Drug Administration. And just like every other government organization, it is a huge bumbling beauracracy filled with miles and miles of red tape and road blocks that make getting approval take a huge amount of money and a very long time. In some cases, the manufactors could not recoup the cost of testing and approval and would go broke before their product ever made it to market. As to safety of non approved products, it would of course, depend on the product. For example, everybody knows that if you have a kidney infection, you should drink cranberry juice. Look all you like on the cranberry juice bottle, I guarantee you won't find any statement proclaiming it can cure a kidney infection, but it does work.

LHC? Ah Phooey, all that work, 17 miles of tunnel 300 feet below the ground, I wish they would just forget all that nonsense, and get that Stargate working!!!!

Hummmmmm.....why can't we have it both ways???Yes, I'm serious, the story could be told by 2 different story tellers and still be the same story.In creation, God is supposed to have created the earth in 6 days, and rested on the 7th, but who is to say what is a day to God? For all we know, to the Almighty, a day could be the same as a million years. The bible after all, was written by man, and in those ancient days, to a mere mortal the concept of a million was not something that man could understand. The bible had to be written in a way man could understand it. It could even be that creation is not done yet!There is also the fact that dna of all living creatures is very simular. We are only a couple chromosomes off from a cow. What's to say it wasn't God who tinkered around with a gene here and a chromosone there during the time of creation? And in modern times, why couldn't it be God who caused the variations in simular species to help them survive in the living conditions they found themselves in? Could it not of been God who mutated the giraffe to make it's neck grow so it had a food supply other animals could not have? Or the mammels that live in the ocean who breath air just like we do? Or for that matter, fish that can breath in water. I once read an Indian version of creation. I was pretty amazed at how while it was a totally different story than the Christion one, but the story line was almost identical. I suspect there are many other cultures that have simular stories, and if a person was to read them, they would all sound an awful lo alike. Really, who is to say which is right and which is wrong? Why do either have to be right or wrong? Every story teller has a way to tell their stories that may be a bit different to another story teller.