I agree Vicki we need to educate as many people as we can. I am always telling people to keep their feeders in the shade. I hate to see them hanging in the blazing sun when it's 90 in the shade. I sure wouldn't drink sugar water that hung in the sun for several days, YUK. I have wrote articles for our subdivision newsletter. Every year I stress the point of NOT putting red food coloring in the feeders and I still see it all the time. I stress the fact that they need to be clean and kept in the shade and use the 4-1 ratio. I tell people the premixed stuff is full of chemicals, not to mention the garbage in red dye. I worry so much about these little guys but I can only care for the ones in my yard and try to "educate" as many people as I can. We have a friend in another state, everytime we visit, her feeders are in the sun. I don't know how many times I have asked her to please keep them in the shade. I asked if she would drink that stuff after it hung in the sun all day for several days. Does it do any good?! NO .... they are still hung in the sun every year. I just don't understand. Makes a person want to pull out their hair..LOL!

Our son convinced him to see my doctor. My husband would not admitto the dr. he has ANY problems. The EKG and cholesterol is o.k.; but other than checking his lungs with the stethescope, the dr. didn't order any other tests. He did recognize my husband's mind status; and ordered Aricept. We have to order our drugs by mail so it will be about 2 weeks before he begins taking the med. A nurse acquaintance said Aricept can be good if given early enough. I hope it isn't too late. My husband denies he has ANY problems other than slight memory loss! Can only wait and see how the Aricept works and then get him back to the dr. if he will go? Thank you for the interest. Will keep you posted in a few weeks.Annieil

This is what happened with my dog. Tuesday morning got up and he was throwing up, and throwing up, went outside and he ate a lot of grass, then threw up some more and he just couldn't get into a comfortable position so I went straight to the vet where they did X-Rays and saw a round foreing object 'sitting' in his lower intestine. They put him on fluids the rest of the day and redid X-rays, hoping the thing could move to the larger intestine but it stayed there so he got surgery the next day. He was at the vet hospital from Tuesday till Saturday afternoon. He's home, doing not too bad. Checking often to see if the incision is o.k. He's on special food 'gastro' for a little while and pills...He has not thrown up and his stools are fine. He had his last pain med last night but I have some more and will see if he needs it. He sleeps a lot and when he wakes up, I go outside for a little walk with him. I arranged for a temporary ramp for him (outdoor backsteps). He needs the e-collar, it must be sore and itchy and I can just imagine how uncomfortable and somewhat still painful and I was thinking how strong there are compared to us. How faster than us they recuperate. We only have a paper cut and it hurts and burns...imagine being opened so long. Here he is with his best friend who missed him quite a lot while he was at the animal hospital:

I'm glad the sideways thing worked for you. I'll have to give that a try. I used to be able to take any kind of pills and any amount without drinking anything. I was young then I guess. Smiles. Now they all get stuck so I always take my pills with food. I just take a decent sized bite of food, chew it a few times, shove the pill or pills in and swallow. The pills go right down with the food since you are really used to swallowing something bigger than the pill. I do follow with eating a few more bites since I'm usually in the middle of eating anyway. Been using that method for quite a few years and it's been good so far.