Loving the J*StaR

He s an indoor cat, neutered & chipped. He s only 6 & was acting normal so there was never any health concerns. He did love being outside on our patios & has occasionally hung around the front door for a peek of the outside world. Naturally, though we didn t see him escape, when he disappeared & didn t turn up for dinner or water or to use the litter box, we started to believe he had run away. We did check the usual hiding places, including an open closet, but turned up nothing. Over the past couple of days, I ve noticed a very odd odor coming from said closet. I looked again but didn t see anything. My daughter mentioned he d used the bathroom in there (unbenounced to me) so I know I need to do a deep cleaning very soon. But now I am starting to get really fearful & cautiously curious - what if he curled up out of sight & died & the smell coming from the closet is him? There s no flies or bugs hovering around that I ve seen. I am also feeling guilty about how I hadn t noticed anything was wrong if that s the case. And I am afraid of what I will see & how sickened it may make me if I find him. Not to mention, I am a full time working single mother. My daughter is always with me & I don t want her to see her beloved pet like that.

Sorry, this got long. But can anyone offer any advice or words of experience in how to possibly find him, what to do with him & how to cope? I m ashamed & embarrassed to ask people I know. Am I alone in this experience??

I searched but haven't found such a thing. Please let me know if you have! I think it would add a lot of realism to the game & would make for an interesting added challenge.

My daughter is 3 1/2 and has been potty trained for about a year now. Completely day trained & was working & doing well with waking up from naps dry & occasionally even waking in the mornings dry. I thought we were ready to ditch the pullups altogether for full-time panties. For the past few weeks she has been refusing to go poop on the big potty. She will wait until naptime & bedtime to go in her pullups. She even sometimes will have poop accidents in her panties. I know that she has to go because sometimes she will go just a little bit in her panties or will have a little bit of poop on her bottom. I know it's because she has to go so bad but is making herself hold it in. My husband & I have been making her go naked the past couple days since that's what worked when we initially potty trained, plus she is obviously waiting to purposely go in her pants & won't go on herself or the floor. We've tried being very sweet, we've given tons of encouragement & we've even scolded & done time outs. We've tried making her sit there on the toilet until she goes but she just refuses. We've talked to her & she promises she's going to go on the potty. We've tried all the "big girls vs babies" talk and it doesn't help. Nothing has helped. I've even tried explaining that this isn't healthy & she is going to make herself sick. My husband & I are at our wit's end here. I don't know what else to do. She knows better & is just refusing.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? What worked for you?

PLEASE PLEASE HELP! Thank you

My husband and I have been together since high school and being young teens (16-17) we had many "romps" where we took a few pics and vids of ourselves in a "sexual" nature. Is it illegal to still have them? Being underage and all does this fall under "child pornography"? we aren't sharing with friends or online or anything (we don't even really look at them ourselves) but just had a conversation about it and don't have any idea whether or not they are illegal.

Two days ago we adopted Sammie from our local SPCA. She is a little over a year old & had long, silky, black fur. She's got a super temperament, is very affectionate & even is already befriending & playing with our cat of about a year that is the same age. The only issue we have found is that she seems highly prone to hairballs. It seems that every couple of hours she seems to be coughing & hacking as if she has a hairball. I haven't seen one on the floor anywhere yet. Is it just one hairball that she hasn't been able to get out yet? I know because she has long fur she will be more prone to getting them. If anyone has experience with this, what are the best tips/tricks/products to help her?

Also, (this could be completely unrelated) she is very loud when she sniffs. Even before we brought her home, when she would smell something, the "sniff" was louder than I've heard on other cats. It's not every time, just sometimes that she is louder like that. Is it possible there is another issue? Like allergies or something?

Sorry for all of the questions. Our other cats have short fur so even though I know this is common, I haven't been through it yet!

My daughter is 2.5 and has been potty training. We have gotten to a point where she is potty trained during the day while at home. She still wears a pullup to bed & during her nap & while out in public. We were discussing our plans with night potty training and discovered we have a lot of questions about this. When do you know they're ready to start night training? How did you get started? I'm guessing doing it similar to day training by just stopping the pullups would work. A big question we have is about her getting in & out of the bathroom if she needs to at night. Right now we have the child door knob protectors on the inside of her bedroom door & also on the bathroom door. We had to put the one on her bedroom a while back when she was first realizing she could open the door to keep her from wandering around or playing throughout our apartment. Do we need to take the child-proofing off the doors to allow her to get into the bathroom at night if she needs to? And how do we keep her from coming out of her room & playing? Is it even safe at this age for her to be in the bathroom by herself?

Sorry for all the questions! Thanks for the help!!

I had a cold last week (nasal congestion, sneezing, sore throat). All of those symptoms seem to have cleared but I have a lingering cough. It's not really "productive" at this point & is worse in the mornings. I also have had sinus pressure & drainage on & off for a few weeks now. This morning while coughing there was just a little bit of blood. I haven't seen it before & it only happened once. Afterwards my chest & throat were also a little sore but are much better now. I'm not having any other symptoms & no longer feel "sick." Could the blood just be produced from excessive coughing? Should i be concerned?

If I notice it again I will definitely consult a physician but I couldn't help but worry just a little bit. Everything I keep finding online seems to be people who have been coughing up blood for days or are coughing up large amounts of blood so I haven't seen much from others with similar experiences.

I had a cold last week (nasal congestion, sneezing, sore throat). All of those symptoms seem to have cleared but I have a lingering cough. It's not really "productive" at this point & is worse in the mornings. I also have had sinus pressure & drainage on & off for a few weeks now. This morning while coughing there was just a little bit of blood. I haven't seen it before & it only happened once. Afterwards my chest & throat were also a little sore but are much better now. I'm not having any other symptoms & no longer feel "sick." Could the blood just be produced from excessive coughing? Should i be concerned?

If I notice it again I will definitely consult a physician but I couldn't help but worry just a little bit. Everything I keep finding online seems to be people who have been coughing up blood for days or are coughing up large amounts of blood so I haven't seen much from others with similar experiences.

I recently got the Sims 3 Generations. One of the things I was most excited about was the imaginary friend for children sims. My couple had triplet girls & I was disappointed to see that not one of them received the doll. I don't usually like to have too many children at once but I went ahead & tried for another baby to see if they might get a doll. They had twin boys & both received the doll in the mail from a family friend. I can see that each of the boys has the doll in their inventory. And both dolls are actually different from each other. The boys are now toddlers but aren't able to play with the dolls. It won't let me drag it out of my inventory & there are no options when I click on it. Nothing happens at all. Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone else experienced this? I tried searching online & didn't find anyone else saying they had this issue.

I'm specifically asking about the debit/check cards and NOT a credit card. I understand the difference when it comes to credit cards but can't find anything regarding the debit/check cards. My husband & I have both been with Wells Fargo (a joint account) for a few years now and have always had the gold Visa cards (or Mastercard when we first began). Our cards both expire this year. He just received his new, updated card and it's platinum instead of gold. I've seen other people with platinum cards in the past and was just wondering what the difference was other than the color. Wells Fargo didn't send any additional info other than the usual "here's your new card. go activate it now"

I watch Fringe and I just can't figure this out. I think I may have missed something. When William Bell was alive, he was in the alternate universe. Where was his match, his alternate other self?

I am an ex-smoker and a lover of dark sodas (I have a Dr. Pepper addiction) and have recently realized the damage this has done to the color of my teeth. I cannot afford to have them whitened professionally so I started doing some research into at home methods. It seems that a very easy & inexpensive way is to make a paste using baking soda & peroxide. I've read many articles and questions about this but still have unanswered questions.

How often & how long do you do this? I see some places say it is harmful to your enamel to use too often while others basically say it replaces typical brushing with toothpaste twice daily.

Also, if you have any experience with this technique, how soon did you begin to see results?

I am an ex-smoker and a lover of dark sodas (I have a Dr. Pepper addiction) and have recently realized the damage this has done to the color of my teeth. I cannot afford to have them whitened professionally so I started doing some research into at home methods. It seems that a very easy & inexpensive way is to make a paste using baking soda & peroxide. I've read many articles and questions about this but still have unanswered questions.

How often & how long do you do this? I see some places say it is harmful to your enamel to use too often while others basically say it replaces typical brushing with toothpaste twice daily.

Also, if you have any experience with this technique, how soon did you begin to see results?

(I posted this earlier but only had 1 reply and was hoping to post when more people were on.)

I had my annual well woman this morning. We discussed the IUD and my dr. gave me info on both the Mirena and the Paragard. I've been reading up and doing my research but am undecided as to which is best. I know Mirena is 5 years w/hormones and Paragard is 10 years, no hormones, with copper. From what I can tell one will give you a heavier period and the other will give you a lighter period but will most likely cause spotting between periods for the first 6 months. Has anyone had experience with both? Or either for that matter?

I had my annual well woman this morning. We discussed the IUD and she gave me info on both the Mirena and the Paragard. I've been reading up and doing my research but am undecided as to which is best. I know Mirena is 5 years w/hormones and Paragard is 10 years, no hormones, with copper. From what I can tell one will give you a heavier period and the other will give you a lighter period but will most likely cause spotting between periods for the first 6 months. Has anyone had experience with both? Or either for that matter?

My husband & I have been playing the Sims 3 lately. We are trying to experiment and have all of our characters have different personalities. We have one teen who we are making "bad." He is evil, a daredevil & a couch potato. Does anyone have any good suggestions for mischief we can get him into? He's kicked over trashcans & been out past curfew already. What fun mischief can evil adult sims get into?

People around me seem to be asking me but I never realized this was something I needed to think about at 16 months. I was just wondering about others experiences and when their children were potty trained. Thanks!

My 2 year old cat has been having leg cramps quite a bit lately. We got her spayed at the beginning of winter so I don't know if either of those could be affecting her. She will start to growl and then when she gets up to walk her leg looks like it is all tensed and locked up. Sometimes she looks like she is trying to stretch out on the floor to make it feel better. It usually goes away after a minute or so. My husband has even been able to rub her leg and that seems to help.

She just seems so young to be having any joint or arthritis issues. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this?

We have very few problems getting her to go to bed at night. We have tried to keep her on a regular schedule and nothing in our routine has changed but for the past couple weeks she is giving us a hard time when we try to lay her down for her nap. She is still showing the cues that she is tired (rubbing eyes, red face, she starts to get calm and cuddling) but when we lay her down she just starts playing and then after she plays for a while it's like she has woken herself up and then begins to fuss or cry. I know she is tired and that she still needs the naps so what can I do? Sometimes she will fight napping for up to an hour. This is her schedule usually:

8:30 pm - 7:30 am bedtime

10 am - 11:30/12:00 ish 1st nap

2:00/2:30 (depending on when she wakes up from 1st nap) - 4:00/4:30ish

Also, she gets a bottle before each sleep. Being that she is coming up on her 1st birthday I also need to start weaning her off the bottle but I'm afraid that's just going to make it worse.

Should I try only giving her 1 nap in between when she usually takes the 2? She just seems so young still to do that. Plus I know she's already tired and don't want to risk her getting over-tired and cranky.

Any advice or experience would be appreciated.