Nuya

This is gonna be lengthy, so please bear with me.

My cat was abandoned and malnourished at 10 das old. I took her to the vet the day after I found her, and besides her diminutive size and borderline starvation, she was fine.

2 months later, she began to show neurological symptoms. She was only using her back legs to crawl, and her front legs were limp. She would scrabble at the floor frantically until she found something to press the top of her head against. I rushed her to the vet, she got fluids, and tested + for coccidia. The vet had no idea what caused her to have the weird behavior, but we started her on Albon anyway. After a couple weeks, she was like new.

At 7 months she was spayed, tested negative for FIV and Feline Leukemia.

But now at 18mo, she is EXTREMELY food aggressive. She is fed 2x a day, and she steals. She is a kleptomaniac and steals any food in sight. Bread, vegetables, chips, even cartons that held food are targets. She will attack you by clawing and biting if you even walk by her when she's eating. If I try to take something that's bad for her, I end up bleeding. I have to throw her food when I feed her, or she bites.

She had blood work done, it came back normal. She has no competition for food, there are no animals around when she eats, and she gets the recommended amount.

I tried free-feeding, but she made herself sick. Help! Any ideas or input into what might be wrong with her, or what might help would be hugely appreciated. Thank you!

Hi, sorry in advance for the long question.

I'm looking for an opportunity to volunteer in an underprivileged country, preferably one in Africa. I would like to go with a Christian group, but can't find one that caters to my budget. I'm a college student who has very little spare cash, so while I can pay for a passport and vaccines, I can't pay for air fare.

I've volunteered for a local soup kitchen here in the USA for a couple of years and I love it, but I want very much to get in on helping any truly needy, starving, or education-deprived people, especially children.

I've looked at the websites of dozens of organizations, but the ones that don't charge an arm and a leg to get you there seem like they are catering to more prosperous communities that have consistent food and hygiene.

I want to go somewhere that is going to be very challenging for me. I'll admit that I'm going for selfish reasons, as I'm hoping to find inner peace for myself through denying myself of the luxuries I take for granted, and to exercise looking outside my own needs and wants to help others.

If you have any experience volunteering in impoverished countries please share it with me. Or if you think this is all just a fantasy and I should just go back to my soup kitchen, please say so.

I have mostly straight, dark blonde hair that is down to the middle of my back. I've been growing it out for about 10-12 years, and I'm very tired of washing, drying, and pulling up this much hair. It pulls on my scalp, but my job requires me to put it in a bun type hairstyle (it can't touch my shoulders). I'm donating it to charity (Pantene Beautiful Lengths). My only problem is I don't want to look like an old lady, or a boy. I think long hair is pretty, but wrangling mine is a huge chore. Any suggestions? I'm a college student female with an oval face shape. Thanks!!

I'm almost 18, but I feel like I owe my parents something. They have done the good parental things such as providing education, plenty of food, and clothes (so long as they are up to their standards of modesty). They even bought me a dog that I love to pieces. I am number 6 of 7 kids, and all but my twin sister and i have moved out. Most days at least one of my parents will say something asking the lines of "I work my a** off for you kids" or "I hate organizing coupons, but it's not like we're made of money." A regular thing is for them to comment (in varying decibels) how the house is a "s**t hole". I feel like everything is my fault, from the money problems to the border line hoarder style house. I'm paying for my college, which I am going to at their insistence, though I'd rather move out and support myself for a bit before jumping straight into more rules and time restraints. I'd love to just live a while and sport myself, and raise a puppy for a reputable service dog organization that I think is great. I already have two steady jobs and they are both begging for more of my time. I could without question support me, my current dog, and a new puppy. Anyway, sorry for this tedious question, but do I really owe my parents my unending, unquestioning, unwavering obedience? Should I feel as guilty as I do when what I want isn't what they want? They are both stressed out and are not hesitant to say so, and it makes me feel like crap.

Please note that I'm not asking because I want to rant about how you shouldn't etc. In fact, two of my dogs are from reputable breeders. It just seems like buckets of time and money for a lot of risk and not always a lot of reward.

I use Fresh Step Non-clumping litter, and I have no complaints. Except the price. I scoop the litter daily (I only have one cat), and dump the litter entirely and wash the box every 4-5 days. I was wondering, beside the scent that I know Fresh Step adds, what could the difference possibly be?

I found a teeny abandoned kitten abandoned near the road, I thought about 10 days old, and she was screaming quite loudly. I picked her up and she had a few ants on her and was COVERED in fly eggs. I took her home, got the bugs off of her with Dawn and a toothbrush (very gently), and warmed her up as she seemed clammy. When she was warmed up, I gave her some kitten formula, and took her to the vet.

She weighed in at 3 1/2 ounces, and the vet thought she was 3 WEEKS old. She had fleas, all kinds of worms, and neurological symptoms that were from coccidia that spread to her spinal cord.

She is being treated for everything now, but I'm so scared I'll find her dead when I go to feed her at some point. Please honestly tell me what you think her chances are to survive this??

Just out of honest curiosity, what is a factor for not preventing over population of animals? Money? Health? Just plain "I don't want to" type attitude? Thanks!

I rescued a preemie orphan from a terrible place, and she was in awful shape. She was 3 weeks old, weighed 1 1/2 ounces, had fly eggs from her ribs to her butt so thick you couldn't even see her skin. In addition, she had a wolf worm in her front leg, 2 punctures where another cat bit her, fleas, and was abandoned on top of an ant hill, cold, and dehydrated. She (miraculously) overcame these things with some TLC, as she is one tough cookie.

But at about 5-6 weeks old (she weighed about 6 oz), she started showing terrible neuro symptoms, limp from the shoulders up, very spastic movement in the back legs, and head pressing. I took her too work with me, as it was a Saturday and my vet (and back-up vet) were out of town. A certified vet tech gave her fluids, and said it was all we could do. She made it to Monday, when I was able to get her to the vet first thing. The vet thought it might have been coccidia that spread to her spinal cord, and treated her accordingly. Though she went partially blind temporarily, she made it thru, and is now 8 weeks and 1 lb, and she got her first shots yesterday (yay!). I don't take a day for granted, and love her to death, but i was wondering how likely it is, with all these complications, for her to grow old?

My rescue kitten is between 7-8 weeks old (don't know for sure as I found her abandoned), and only weighs about 1 lb. She has been wormed with a wormer the vet gave me, and is fat and happy and active. I know that it is about time for er to get her shots, but i was just wondering if there was a weight limit. Thanks!

Just to clear things up, she is an orphan 4 week old and I took her to the vet3 days ago. It was covered with a small yellowish scab that i thought was a pustule from an ant bite (she was abandoned near an ant pile and had a few bites), and apparently the vet didn't think much of it. But when I gave her a bath to knock out a few fleas, the pustule-that-was-really-a-scab fell off revealing a hole the size of the head of a pin, but deep enough to make me pause. There's no bleeding, and it doesn't seem to bother her, but I still need to know if I need to do anything for her, or just let her heal on her own.