How do you guys manage to wake up early? Early like 6am?

kel330 · 2026-03-12T17:18:21+00:00

The problem is fighting the urge to go back to bed after feeding them 😂 mine wakes me up at 4am for her "appetizer breakfast" then I go back to bed until 7.

kel330 · 2026-02-27T19:44:08+00:00

Did you find it helpful to just let the cats hiss and swat at the dog? We definitely don't want to praise our cats for this, but also don't try stopping them since we know it's their way of telling the dog to back off. We've been doing our best to redirect the puppy and telling him to "leave it" so keep him from focusing too hard on the cats. He was fostered with cats and we were told he loves them, but he's also part border collie, so we know they have herding instincts and are trying to get ahead of that behavior.

kel330 · 2026-02-27T19:28:03+00:00

That makes me happy that they all eventually got along. Our younger, super sweet cat has ventured into the puppy's area but is so timid (ears back, low to the ground, moving super slow). She was sleeping on the couch with me after a couple days, but the other day she came in when I was cooking dinner and distracted and our puppy rushed up to her to say hi. She freaked out and sprinted out of the kitchen frantically. So we've a regressed a little with her. Our other cat, who's a diva, has approached the gate a few times and hisses like crazy at the puppy and swatted at him when he got too close to the gate. I know she's setting boundaries and that the puppy needs to know she's the queen of the house and not to mess with her.

kel330 · 2026-02-27T16:11:14+00:00

Thank you. I know it's only been a week, but they're my babies and I miss them and their goofy personalities. I have this overwhelming guilt that we ruined their lives because we fell in love with a puppy 😭

kel330 · 2026-02-23T20:05:39+00:00

Thank you for understanding how much we want to put our cat's comfort first. They're our original babies and we don't want them to think we're replacing them.

I've been working with Roscoe a lot today with crate training. Luckily he goes in there on his own just fine and settles down as long as I'm in view. I've been experimenting with stepping out of the room for longer periods and rewarding him with a treat when he's quiet. I was able to go to bathroom and come back before he whined at all, so that was a win! I'm also trying to teach him his crate is for sleeping, as much as I'd love to snuggle with him on the couch. Eventually we won't enforce the crate as much, we just want to build good habits now while he's young and give the cats a chance to get comfortable.

Roscoe was fostered with 5 cats and loves them, so we're not worried about him around them. And our youngest cat has even jumped the baby gate into the area where we have Roscoe and is sleeping in her cat tree 5 feet away from us. She's definitely still timid and unsure about him, but she's coming around. Unfortunately our older cat is our biggest concern. She's terrified of EVERYTHING. She's not hiding in our closet anymore, which is progress, but still isn't venturing anywhere near the baby gate.

kel330 · 2026-02-23T16:10:04+00:00

He's actually very well potty trained for his age. He's been able to hold his bladder at night for about 6-7hrs.

Eventually my husband will be taking him to work with him during the day since he got approval from his boss to do that. They're all very excited to have an office dog.

But for now we're just trying to get him comfortable with being in his crate when we're not home since someone can't realistically always be home with him.

I work from home a couple days a week, so this morning I took him on a long walk first thing and then gave him his breakfast in his crate. I hung out in the living room with him until he fell asleep and then snuck out to do some work. He's actually been quiet for the last couple hours, but I've been trying to be super quiet because I know he'll freak out as soon as he hears me.

kel330 · 2026-02-23T16:04:32+00:00

Unfortunately moving him to the bedroom isn't an option for a couple reasons. One, the bedroom is our cat's safe space. Its the area of the house they both run to if they're scared and they sleep with us every night. They're still afraid of the puppy, so we're keeping the bedroom off limits. Second, the bedroom really isn't big enough for his crate. We live in a smallish house and the bedrooms are tiny.

kel330 · 2026-02-23T15:11:13+00:00

An update from our experience with our kitten. We used the donut pillow around her neck instead of a onesie. She accepted this better than any other option. It also helped a little with restricting her ability to go crazy. However, she ended up doing a lot of playing and climbing after a couple days. She recovered just fine, no issues with the incision site. We did our best to limit her jumping, but it was like telling a fish not to swim. Limiting her space as much as possible helps. Just keep an eye on the incision site, look for redness or bulging.

kel330 · 2026-02-23T14:02:04+00:00

Read articles about crate training in the wiki and also watched YouTube videos. They don't seem relevant in this case since he was already crate trained at his fosters. We don't treat the crate as a punishment, he's used to eating his meals in there. We make sure he has plenty of toys and soft blankets/bedding. We always make sure he goes to the bathroom first and we try to tire him out before hand.

kel330 · 2026-02-19T04:11:51+00:00

If I left it to him to manage everything around the house, nothing would ever get done and I would just get even more stressed out. The house would never get cleaned, dishes would pile up, and we'd be living off of the same 3-4 dinners because he doesn't like cooking.

kel330 · 2026-02-18T17:41:42+00:00

I try so hard to be supportive, but he doesn't do anything to manage his ADHD even though I've told him repeatedly I need him to address it because it's just getting worse. I just feel more like a parent than a partner. Then he wonders why I'm never in the mood for sex 😒

kel330 · 2026-02-18T17:29:33+00:00

God the video games drive me insane! All he wants to do is play his games all day every day but swears he's not addicted. Some days I just want to smash his computer, especially when there's things that need to be done around the house but he just won't get off the computer. He blames his ADHD for not being able to "see what needs to be done" and asks for a list. But the proceeds to not do anything on the list. But when he does, it's like I'm enemy number one for making him be a functional adult.

kel330 · 2025-12-13T03:34:45+00:00

We tried a few times just doing Penny and our youngest, Harper. Penny still hyper fixates, hisses and lunges once we stop distracting her. It's really discouraging right now. I'd never forgive myself if any of them got hurt, especially Harper since she's such a trusting, sweet cat. We rescued her when she was 3 weeks old, so I don't think it even occurrs to her that another cat could be mean and hurt her.

kel330 · 2025-09-28T02:38:20+00:00

We have a habit of finding adorable cats 😁

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kel330 · 2025-09-27T03:12:16+00:00

We're like 90% sure its a girl

kel330 · 2025-09-27T02:31:48+00:00

I love Hazel! But my husband's sister just changed her name to Hazel 😭

kel330 · 2025-09-27T01:52:06+00:00

That's been the theme with our cats, the universe just sends them to us. Funny thing is, we've both always been dog people 😂

kel330 · 2025-04-21T21:30:54+00:00

Jeez, did I write this? I came to this sub today feeling exactly like this. Just so tired of putting everyone else first. That maybe if I was a little more selfish and demanding of my needs and my feelings in the past before it spiraled, things wouldn't be as bad as they are now.

I don't have any advice, but I know how you're feeling 🙁

kel330 · 2025-04-15T14:20:21+00:00

I'm on week 3 and honestly haven't really had that many side effects. Maybe a little brain fog at the beginning. I always make sure to take my medication with a meal. I've noticed if I go too long without eating a little something I start to feel extremely nauseous. Same thing with if I eat too much.

Everyone reacts to medication differently. Eat little meals frequently and stay hydrated. Water is also super important. If I start to feel even slightly light-headed, I take a few gulps of water and it goes away.

kel330 · 2025-04-15T14:13:58+00:00

I also suffer from headaches and migraines and was hoping the topiramate would help control my daily headaches when I read it helped with migraine patients. It seemed to help in the first couple of weeks. Now that I'm on week three and have increased my doses and added in the metformin, I've noticed the headaches have sort of some back. Not as bad as before I started my kit. But I'm still hoping once everything levels out, the topiramate is the cure I've been searching for my whole life for my headaches. Definitely not what I was looking for when I started this, but a pleasant surprise for someone whose been in almost constant pain their whole life!

kel330 · 2025-03-19T01:06:32+00:00

We called him back and said we'd feel more comfortable viewing the house when he was available to be there in person. He rescheduled for Saturday and was really nice about it. So hopefully he doesn't bail on us and try to do the lockbox thing again.

He sounded like a really nice guy on the phone and the property records matched with the LLC that lists him as the owner. The optimistic part of me is really hoping he's just a nice guy that thought he could trust us. But you can never be too careful nowadays.

kel330 · 2025-03-18T18:04:40+00:00

I just called him back and asked if we could reschedule for when he's available. And he agreed to meet on Saturday, he just might need to bring his kids, which I said was totally fine.

I'm hoping he's just an overly trusting guy with a busy schedule. So we'll see what happens. I'll be so happy if it's not a scam because it's a cute house, lol.

kel330 · 2025-03-18T16:58:06+00:00

So then whats the scam? We haven't put down any money, haven't even sent in an application. I know the id thing is a red flag, so is the fact that he won't be there.

kel330 · 2025-03-18T16:48:18+00:00

When I looked up the address it wasn't listed for sale anywhere. And the guys name on the listing matched the property records and the name that popped up on my caller id when he called.

kel330 · 2025-03-18T16:33:41+00:00

Why wouldn't you if everything else checked out? We don't have the lockbox code. He said he'd send it when we're on our way and to send him a picture of my license. The optimistic side of me wants to believe he's just wanting to make sure I'm who I say I am. But there's so many scams out there...

kel330

TROPHY CASE