Colonel Abby

A few months ago I went to eat lunch with my parents at On The Border, and I ordered a cheese enchalada, and when I was eating it, I started choking and I had to reach my hand down my throat and grab it and pull the cheese back. Ever since then, I have an EXTREME discomfort when I eat cheese that is stringy, liquidy, warm, ect. Like, nachos bother me, pizza, some macaroni and cheese, ENCHALADAS, and I don't get it!

My mom says that I have a stiff mouth, but I always make my dad angry because I can't eat the food he makes that has the same consistancy.

I really can't help it. I cut it into pieces about as small as a quarter, and it still bothers me. I gag and sometimes throw up because I can't handle it.

Can you tell me why I'm like this? Was it just the scare of choking that got me all messed up?

Do you have any suggestions of what to do?

It seems that sometimes I 'forget' to swallow when I'm eating normal foods, too. But it's easy for me to swallow when I have a lot of water or pop in my mouth or something like that.

Does any of this make sense to you? Why am I like this? Thank you for reading.

I went on vacation with my family and left my two dogs and two cats in the care of my neighbor, and best friend. My dogs, Cassie and Ellie, were recently adopted by us. Please read their bio's.

Cassie: 4 1/2 year old golden retriever mix. Came from an abusive household. Very gentle.

Ellie: 1 1/2 year old border collie mix who lived in a kennel for the past 3 months before we adopted her. Very sweet, buy hyper.

We haven't been around these dogs enough to know if their hunting instincts had been diluted to where they didn't act like hunting dogs.

Sparta: My precious kitty probably 2-3 years old. She's a very independent cat and hates the dogs, but was in excellent health and was up to date on all her medicine. Indoors and out.

Spooky: 12 year old cat with bowel problems. He moved back in with me (he was living at my sister's house) because her dogs kept pestering him. He was up to date on his medicine.

How, my friend (who knows how to handle them because it isn't the first time) came over to my house in the morning. My dogs had been sleeping in the den, but the baby gates were down, which meant that they had ran around before going to sleep. My oldest cat was found under our formal dining room table, which isn't in the den. My neighbor said he looked like he was sleeping, but when she tried to wake him, he wouldn't get up.

Now, I understand the things that could have happened to him. He was old, he was under stress, I could have seen that one coming.

But later in the day, my friend was looking for Sparta, and she found Sparta up the stairs in our spare bedroom. Sparta also looked like she was sleeping, and my neighbor freaked out when she realized that she was dead.

I simply don't understand this. Sparta was in good health, she was skinny, she loved to run and play, she was very social.

My parents say that the dogs must have killed them, but I think that they would have been mangled or at least bleeding, that would seem normal for the situation. But everyonen said that they looked very peaceful and as if nothing was wrong.

I investigated the area where Sparta died because my parents hadn't cleaned it up yet, and she was found on some blankets. I got down and looked, trying to find blood or something. All I could find were these brown spots that were few and far between. They smell strange. This sounds kind of gross, but the smell reminds me of honey. It doesn't exactly have the sweetness of it, but it smells like honey that's had something altered to it, or something.

I'm a teenage girl who just lost her best friends. We had to get rid of my dogs because I couldn't look at them without sobbing. Please, don't be hard on me. I feel guilty for letting this happen. I just want to know what could have caused it. Please, help me, and thank you for reading this, as long as it was.

I'm about to go on a VERY long road trip, so I need some summer songs!

I listen to just about everything. Rap, hip hop, country, techno, bluegrass, pop, ect.

I really like Coldplay, Kid Rock, Backstreet Boys, John Denver, ect. It doesn't really matter to me what genre it is, as long as it's a good summer song!

I'm not looking for upbeat songs only, so whatever you can suggest, that's fine! Thank you!! :)

So, I live with my dad, and we just recently got two dogs. We have Ellie and Cassie.

Ellie: A border collie / german shepard mix. She is about 1 year old and lived in the pound for the past 3 months until we adopted her. She's very hyper and exciting, and very, very sweet.

Cassie: An absolutely beautiful golden retriever mix. She's MASSIVE. She weighs about 90 pounds, but she's incredibly skinny. She's just big and tall. She is about 4 1/2 years old. Unfortunately, Cassie came from an abusive household, and she was abused because she would get out of the yard and run a lot. Every chance she gets, she runs.

Now, almost every day Cassie gets out. She will jump fences, dig holes, push things over, ANYTHING to get out. And I don't understand why! She's a loved dog, and we feed her, love on her, play with her, and we try to take both dogs on walks often. Lately, though, Cassie has been getting out and taking Ellie with her. They used to just roam our neighborhood, but now they're crossing highways and all sorts of things!

I'm incredibly worried for my dogs, and I don't know what to do. Ellie is fixed, but Cassie isn't.

Is Cassie so desperate to get out because she isn't fixed? She's never had puppies.

I've been laying in the sun a lot and getting a really nice tan, and ever since I've had a tan, I've been getting these little red bumps all over me. I have them all over my legs, including in between my legs, my chest, and now my arms! They itch SO bad. They don't have puss or anything, so they don't pop. They itch so bad that I wake up in the middle of the night scratching them.

I also had a sunburn for a while, and I've been peeling. Since I started peeling, it feels like it's maybe gotten worse, but I'm not sure if that's just in my head or anything.

Can anyone tell me what this is? I've been putting some lotion on them that my doctor gave me, not to clear it up, but to sooth the itching, and it does NOT help.

What should I do about this problem, and what does it sound like? Should I get it checked out?

Thank you so much for reading this, and taking the time to answer! :)

So, I'm a teenager, and my parents just recently separated. Lately, it seems like my mom doesn't care about me. Every time I try to talk to her about what I think, and what's going on in my head, she just goes to her house. I live with my dad. Both of us are going through the same thing. Both of us are having a hard time coping with the fact that she left. Every time she comes over to our house she talks about how filthy it is and how lazy we are and how glad she is that she doesn't live with us. Is it wrong for me to be so upset about this? I don't know what to do. I feel like I've lost my mother, my best friend. We used to be such good friends. I would talk to her every night before bed, we would go to movies together, she was my best friend. And now she just talks about how glad she is to be free of us and how happy she is to 'not have kids' anymore.

I'm so torn over this. Please help me. I'm a teenage girl who just lost her mother and closest friend.

But it confuses me, because she goes on vacations with my dad and has lunch and dinner with him without me and stuff. But then when she's around me she acts like she owns the place and like we should bow down to her and she talks about how filthy my ways are and stuff. I just feel like I'm so useless.

And none of my friends know about this at school. Every time I talk about it I start to cry, so I don't want to cry in front of them. I've just bundled this up and I'm so upset.

Oh, and another thing. She moved out of the house over Christmas. And she always comes back to my house and takes my clothes to her house and stuff. She doesn't live far away, so it's not like it's hard to go see her. She just acts like it's a pain to be around me.

Sorry that this is so long. Thank you so much for reading it.