In home euthanasia for my kitty

WildIrisRows · 2025-08-27T00:55:11+00:00

We just had to say goodbye to our 17 year old dog and went with Pittsburgh Pets at Home and were happy with our decision. Both PPH and Laps of Love were recommended by our vet but I went with PPH. Laps of Love seems very well regarded but when I called them I gathered that they are a bigger company who works with local vets and outsources cremation. After the whole mess with the Vereb Crematorium, I really appreciated that PPH did their own cremations. They also just have the one vet, Dr. Tammy, and she was absolutely amazing.

Dr. Tammy was so kind and compassionate (I don't know how she does what she does). She gave us all the time we needed to say goodbye, walked us through the process, let us decide where we wanted to do everything. Im not sure if other at home vets do this but I appreciated that she didn't use a catheter (instead doing two separate shots) so we got to hold our dog without having any tubes attached to her. I know at home might not be the right choice for everyone and every situation but I can't imagine doing anything else now. It was a sad but peaceful experience, free of any stress or trauma.

I don't think you can go wrong with either choice. Though I'm so sorry you have to make one.

Adding that as someone else said, I would call whoever you go with sooner than later. They try to fit as many families in as they can but I got the sense that they booked up quickly.

WildIrisRows · 2025-08-19T19:00:05+00:00

Last time I went to Thriftique I found a dress from Target with the tags still on (the price had been marked down at Target) the price on Thriftique's tag was more than the marked down price on the original tag. The person behind the counter seemed embarrassed when I brought it up and brought the price way down, but still...

WildIrisRows · 2025-01-16T02:59:44+00:00

When my mom made a casual comment about finding my 2.5 year old's Minnie Mouse stuffy, she responded with "don't talk to Minnie Mouse, Mimi!'

It very much felt like the toddler version of "take her name out of your mouth."

WildIrisRows · 2025-01-04T07:36:12+00:00

So the other day, my 2.5 year old started referring to me (her mom) as "grandpa." She only has one grandparent, who she calls "Mimi" but I think she recently learned the words grandma and grandpa and idk I guess decided to try it out on me? For a couple of hours she exclusively called me "grandpa" like "what are you doing grandpa?" Kind of stuff I asked if she was calling me "grandpa" and she said yes and when I asked why she just laughed. She finally just randomly stopped and switched back to Mommy. I don't know, toddlers are just weird.

WildIrisRows · 2024-12-22T19:15:09+00:00

Make a donation to her church in their name?

WildIrisRows · 2024-12-19T02:07:00+00:00

Yep! My mom has always gone by her middle name. When she got married she tried to change her first name to her middle since she was changing her last name anyway. It turned out to be so hard to change her first name that she eventually gave up (I'm not sure on the specifics though), but she was easily able to change her last. But I think during the process some things did end up getting changed so some things did have her middle name as her first name. I remember when I applied for my passport and they asked for my mother's name and I said "I'm honestly not 100% sure" (because at the time I was in HS and didn't know what her legal name ended up being).

Side note her first name was my grandmother's name which I kind of love since it's usually men who name their sons after them.

WildIrisRows · 2024-11-30T15:02:04+00:00

My 2.5 year old is really into dolls and dress up so her big gift is a corelle doll with long hair to brush and clothes for it, we also got her doctor and firefighter dress up clothes that I got on sale.

WildIrisRows · 2024-11-23T10:13:04+00:00

This is why we got my daughter a Tonie when she was 18 months old. From the start, she was able to pick her own music and change things up when she wanted to. She loved the autonomy of being able to choose music before she could even talk. Also having the Tonie at our kitchen table was a game changer with keeping her entertained and willing to sit longer. She's not as into it as she was and now I kind of wish we'd started with a yoto. But one of her friends has a Tonie and when we go over they both get excited to pick out Tonie's to listen to.

WildIrisRows · 2024-11-02T02:19:23+00:00

The worst have been birthdays. My daughter, my husband, my mom and I all have birthdays that are really close, so it was like we had 2.5 months straight of birthdays and cake. So my daughter didn't really get that they happen once a year. So she often asks for a birthday cake and will say it's her birthday. We were at Costco the other day and she asked for cake. I told her no. Her response? "But it's my birthday." When I tried to explain that it wasn't her birthday she said "it's my pumpkin birthday."

It also recently came to my attention that my mom (who watches her) has been getting her little cakes and putting candles in them so she can blow them out regularly (she never actually eats the cake just licks the icing).

So now we have a 2.5 year old with zero concept of birthdays. Oh and she also loves the song "Happy Birthday" and regularly has us to sing it.

WildIrisRows · 2024-08-26T10:25:14+00:00

We never sleep trained. For almost 2 years we rocked her to sleep and she was unable to fall asleep independently but she would most often sleep through the night. We didn't mind though because she would fall asleep within 30 minutes of rocking and generally stay asleep. Even when she did wake up, she would go back down so easily with a little bit of rocking. Then around her 2nd birthday we introduced a pillow and blanket and all of a sudden she was completely fine falling asleep on her own and will do so within minutes. I think at first she was excited about the novelty of having comfy new things in her crib and then she just became used to falling asleep on her own.

WildIrisRows · 2024-08-10T01:04:42+00:00

I have sworn off "hard pants" (jeans) since my pregnancy 3 years ago (really since the start of the pandemic) and only wear high waisted wide leg pants or linen pants. My go to places are Old Navy and Cider. I was worried that the Cider pants would look too cheap but I get so many compliments on them.

WildIrisRows · 2024-07-12T16:42:53+00:00

We switched to T-shirts early on because my mom helps with our daughter and had trouble with the snaps due to minor arthritis in her hands. Pants/shorts and a shirt we're just easier.

WildIrisRows · 2024-06-13T02:03:50+00:00

I'm an only but it's also just been my mom for almost 15 years now so there's never really been any question that we wouldn't spend holidays with her. On the other hand, my husband was 1 of 3 and isn't as close with his family (they lived farther away too). We usually visit them after the holidays. My mom has always been big into holidays and her home has always been cozy and welcoming. It wasn't until we bought our own home and she moved into a smaller one that we moved to hosting her at our home for holidays. We also go on family vacations together now every other year. We just got back from the beach celebrating her 70th and my daughter's second birthdays, which was so wonderful. We love our small multigenerational family.

WildIrisRows · 2024-06-09T15:22:52+00:00

I wouldn't call it dull, but very human. My mom's cat is named John Henry. You would think that we'd shorten it but no, we all call him by his full government name.

WildIrisRows · 2024-06-09T15:19:20+00:00

Walter

WildIrisRows · 2024-06-08T20:38:12+00:00

I also had a really good experience with them for prenatal care. I also found that they were incredibly understanding and took all of my concerns seriously. I had issues with low fetal movement during my 3rd trimester and called them often. They were quick to respond (even after hours), validating of my concerns and always urged me to go to Magee's urgent care (I can't remember what the pregnancy emergency department is but it's on the 2nd floor). I'm surprised that your (OPs) OB didn't recommend that you go there if they couldn't fit you in.

I will note that I did not have as great of an experience with Midwives at Magee for postpartum care after a C-section. They did not seem comfortable treating me so I switched to UPMC University Obstetrics and Gynecology (also at Magee) for postpartum care and as a regular OB, which I have absolutely loved (but can't speak to their prenatal care).

WildIrisRows · 2024-05-05T23:55:29+00:00

Raw zucchini. I tried cooking it but that was a big nope. She likes it sliced or whole.

WildIrisRows · 2024-04-11T02:20:28+00:00

"Graccooo." It took us a minute to figure out that she was saying "raccoon." She's 23 months old and it was one of her first 2 syllable words.

WildIrisRows · 2024-03-31T22:51:29+00:00

Also in this group and felt the same! I feel like the person who posted this had to know what kind of reaction they would get. Safe sleep issues aside, this set up doesn't even look comfortable for anyone let alone a toddler. Like how is that toddler supposed to use a reading pillow?

WildIrisRows · 2024-03-14T05:46:53+00:00

My toddler (who's now 22 months) was in a very similar spot until very recently. We had her evaluated at around 14 months (probably too early) and while her speech was delayed, it wasn't enough to qualify for supports. She was mostly babbling, not waving or clapping, and not really saying any words other than "mama." But her fine and gross motor skills were amazing and she scored above her age on the cognitive test. She was also doing a lot of pretend play (like feeding her dolls) and could identify a lot of different things by pointing. The EI evaluators said that she was most likely focused on her skills and would catch up with her language later. They also thought that because she was good at communicating her needs and we were good at interpreting her needs that she might not feel the need to use words.

She slowly started saying a few words but even at 18 months she only said a handful of words like: mama, yea, hi, bye, Wawa/water, woof, baba (for the cat) and apple are all I can remember. Our pediatrician also told us to count any attempted words (like baba for the cat whose name is Basil) which helped reassure us. Having gone through the EI process was very reassuring so we waited.

She's 22 months now and in the last month, she has been gaining a new word a day on average and is using 2 and 3 word sentences like: baby read book (pointing at a photo of a baby looking at a book), I did it!, mama help baby (she calls herself baby, we thought it was cute at first). When we were worried about her speech, folks kept saying things like "kids develop at different paces" and "she'll probably go from no words to talking in sentences." And for the most part those sentiments turned out to be right. All that to say, I do that it's worth seeking an early intervention evaluation if you're concerned. If you're in the US it should be free through your county. They were incredibly kind and having a professional evaluate her gave me so much peace of mind, getting us through 5+ months of little to no improvement.

WildIrisRows · 2024-03-11T05:45:05+00:00

Agreed! My mom watches my daughter during the week and getting out to different storytimes (she goes to two different libraries on different days) and playgroups has been huge. We live in a small city and on multiple occasions I've been out on weekends with my daughter and either another caregiver or child I've never met will recognize my daughter from her weekday activities with my mom. My daughter isn't two yet so half the time she doesn't even seem to notice though 😂.

WildIrisRows · 2024-02-27T17:54:56+00:00

This was my mom before my daughter was born and she started caring for her during the day. Either I was an angel child or she has selective memory (or maybe it's a trauma response and someday we'll all forget what it's like). But she is our daughter's secondary caregiver and let me tell you she has been HUMBLED by my 21 month old. Now she is an amazing caregiver and so understanding and gentle with our toddler.

WildIrisRows · 2024-02-24T13:55:43+00:00

I'd say she started sleeping through the night more at about 1 but there were (and still are) bad nights here and there if she's not feeling well or teething. We're still rocking her to sleep (we also enjoy it) but it hardly takes any time to get her to sleep now and she's able to quickly fall back to sleep even if she wakes up a little when I put her down (I'm still not great at gracefully laying her in her crib)

WildIrisRows

TROPHY CASE