Phew! Still dealing with doggie dementia over here in Sausalito but so grateful that the visit to the vet last week was a successful one in that we’ve managed to control my 13 ½ year old hound’s incontinence and loose bowels. The bill was astronomical and adds two new meds to her daily routine, bringing her up to six daily (and two monthly).
Things were so dire last week that my daughter had sent me a few quality of life scales. According to Chewy’s write up:
The Quality of Life Scale’s scoring system uses 0 for bad and 10 for normal. It asks pet caregivers to assess seven basic criteria that compose their pets’ quality of life. If we can improve the score on one or two failing criteria by 30-50 percent, the patient’s quality of life may improve greatly and we feel ethically justified in continuing pawspice care. This allows time to embrace an integrative approach and provide medications to slow down the conditions that are causing the pet’s decline.
The scale can be used on an as-needed basis: weekly, daily, even hourly. The acronym’s five H’s stand for hurt, hunger, hydration, hygiene and happiness. Its two M’s stand for mobility and “more good days than bad days.” Evaluating and giving honest scores to these criteria assists the veterinary team and helps pet carers face reality. It helps them struggle through the difficult and emotionally draining process of making the final call to provide the gift of compassionate euthanasia to assure a peaceful and painless passing for a beloved pet.
Right now, my dog scores high, meaning she has a good quality of life. But despite being heavily medicated at night, she still experiences restlessness. I’ve found that she is most comfortable lying down on the reusable quilted protective pads I’d placed down last week, so since she didn’t have any accidents on them, I’m leaving them scattered around the living room for now so she can settle comfortably at night. We go for our last walk at 6:45 for about 30 minutes (I have to take her up to the street for a last pee at 9:30) and up until coming home from that outing she’s usually okay.
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Anyone familiar with this?
We envision a world where no old dog dies alone and afraid.
'The Grey Muzzle Organization' improves the lives of at-risk senior dogs by providing funding and resources to animal shelters, rescue organizations, sanctuaries, and other non-profit groups nationwide.
#dogs
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— Demblu🩵🕊ThankYouJoe Biden (@phranklindb.bsky.social) September 29, 2025 at 11:40 PM
And just because:
Recycling
My local refuse company has had it with people not properly disposing of their waste. Their September newsletter announced the launch of a county-wide program to randomly conduct route audits and levy fines on people who are not correctly sorting their trash. A friend told me the other day she heard the initial fine is $500 and that figure would increase substantially with subsequent charges for noncompliance.
I put a call in to Bay Cities Refuse and they told me the county is going to be running this program and they couldn’t say how much the fines would be. I told them that despite having recycled for years, I still am not sure if I’m following the guidelines and that I often find that everyone seems to have differing opinions on what can be recycled and what can’t. My latest conundrum is what to do with yogurt containers.
The woman who answered the phone said they are really looking for customers who blatantly ignore the rules, doing things like putting a whole bag of garbage in the recycling bin. The easiest way to look at recycling is to go back to the basics: paper, tin, glass are recyclable, even a piece of plastic. Those containers for soups, soy milks are not recyclable nor are potato chip bags. Cleaned yogurt containers are okay as well as plastic and glass bottles.
From Bay Cities website:
Recycling is Changing
Which means changes for us.
Recycling loads must be cleaner to be accepted for processing and remanufacturing.
What can you do to help?
- Take personal responsibility—keep trash out of your recycling containers.
- Put materials in the right containers
- Place recyclables loose in the recycling container.
- Plastic bags/thin films must be placed in a large clear plastic bag and tied off.
- Put food soiled paper (napkins/paper food boxes) in the organics container.
- Wipe or scrape food residue out of containers.
Containers should be clean, but do not need to be spotless.
- Keep food containers, paper and plastic Empty, Clean and Dry.
- And most of all … NO GARBAGE IN RECYCLING CONTAINERS!
Landfills currently contribute the third largest amount of human methane, and organic materials which can be easily composted are responsible for almost one half of waste in landfills, according to Bay Cities Refuse newsletter.
Wildfires
The NYT Reported today:
Now, a new study has found that catastrophic wildfires with both high economic costs and loss of human life are, indeed, happening more often, and that those fires are strongly linked to climate change. The past decade in particular has seen a significant uptick in costly, deadly fires, according to the study, which was published on Thursday in the journal Science.
“It’s a pretty big wake-up call,” said Brian Harvey, a professor of forest fire science at the University of Washington who was not involved in the new study. “We live on a flammable planet, and that flammability is increasing.”
Fire is a natural and beneficial part of many ecosystems. But climate change can make fire seasons longer, hotter and drier. On top of that, humans have been artificially suppressing wildfire for decades, which creates more fuel for fires, and moving deeper into fire-prone areas.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as well.
