The WINTER Bluuuuuuuuuuuuues…
From: Dr Andrew Jones
Author: Veterinary Secrets Revealed
Website: https://drjonesnaturalpet.com
Re: The WINTER Bluuuuuuuuuuuuues…
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Hello fellow readers and Animal Advocates.
I’ve been feeling a little grumpy lately.
Most of the time I am a pretty positive person-
I usually see the glass as half full vs half empty.
Occasionally though I do get into a bit of a funk..
I start to dwell on some of my ‘problems’
Such as…
Staff Conflict at work..I am the one who is supposed to resolve all of
this.
A little accounting mix up and I find that I owe a pile more of
business tax than the accountant thought ( although aren’t they
supposed to plan for this?)
Keeping the Second Chance Animal Shelter going– they are in need
of some ongoing source of mo**ney and pet adoptions is NOT
a profitable venture–although it is MUCH NEEDED
My as yet unresolved conflict with my Veterinary Association-
Yes this is still ongoing..
What color/what floor/what type of fancy/schmancy light fixture-
We ( as in My family) are currently building a house, and yes I am
excited about a new house, it does present its whole host of
challenges
School expectations and staying connected to my Children..for those
of you who are parents, you know that this is one ongoing challenge
Time for my wife–of ya some how with all of this there is supposed
to be time for romance…what’s that?
Then my Pet’s – especially Lewis..he realllllly wants more walking/
running and peeing than he is getting.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG!!
This time of year is pretty dreary and its been a while since
I have seen the sun.. Likely its a period of winter blues..or
as is known here as Seasonal Affective Disorder..NOT ENOUGH
SUN and FUN
I am constantly amazed how Dogs and Cats always are SOO
POSITIVE. Lewis could care less if it is dismal and raining,
minus 20 and cloudly or a Sunny Summer day.
He is LIVING in the moment and appreciating all that
life gives him.
I gotta learn how to live more like my dog.
//////////////////////////////////////////////
P.S. If any of you have any words of wisdom, I would
LOVE to hear them. You can send your replies to Michael at
support or Make a post on my blog here!!!
It’s Your Pet. Heal Them At Home!
Best Wishes,
Dr Andrew Jones, DVM
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Hi Andrew:
I think by this time of year we all get the ‘blues’.
You sure have got a lot going on in your life.
You know the saying about complaining about having no shoes until you met the man who had no feet? Well – I am the (wo)man with no feet.
I have 2 little rescued dogs, one of my grown sons cannot work because of his health problems (depression) and I have to keep sending him money, and my oldest son and I run a very busy home business (legal search house & incorporations for law firms). At the same time, I am looking after my 90-year-old mother who lives with us. I looked after an aunt and uncle, finally bringing my uncle to live with us until he died.
We had to tear out all our rugs because we had such a hard time house-training these dogs. They escaped from a puppymill, were found all dirty, matted and starving, and were on death row when a shelter stepped up and took them in. I found them on the internet and we adopted them both because they were definitely bonded. We lost our beautiful little red miniature poodle, Rusty, 2 years ago, but his ashes are in a special little container in our wall unit so he is always nearby.
I have ordered The Dog Whisperer DVD’s and book to help with training. What is your opinion of him?
I have a stack of new books which I just received from Amazon – all about homeless dogs and shelters and the people who run them. I can’t seem to find the time to even get to them.
Sure, my dogs would like more walks, but we can only do what is humanly possible. I am fortunate they are small enough that all I have to do is chase them up and down the hall with a ball and they do get some exercise. Plus they have a fenced area where they can run.
My husband is a trucker & he is away quite a bit so my son and I have to look after the maintenance of the home and vehicles. Mom is not able to do much of anything. She sacrified a lot for us when we grew up and we will always be here to look after her. I have fibromyalgia and am in pain constantly so it is very difficult to do the things I would like.
We are also very active in our congregation and I volunteer one night at a nursing home. Dogs and elderly people – those are my 2 passions. I would love to have a dog rescue but I just can’t take on any more right now. I am on an emergency list for taking in dogs for 2 or 3 days while a shelter is found.
We have a lot on our plate, but we also have a lot to be thankful for.
This is just a note of encouragement.
1) You are doing a wonderful job educating people about pet care.
2) You have a good wife and wonderful kids.
3) You have a successful veterinary practice.
4) You have wonderful pets.
5) You are building a new house! That has to be exciting! Work? Yes! (We did that too to accommodate the elderly we knew we would be caring for)…..and the dogs, of course. Just keep picturing the finished project in your mind.
6) You have your health! Remember how concerned you were awhile ago.
7) You have lots of friends, and many new ones who you know from the internet who have never met you and probably never will, but who nevertheless feel like they have known you all their lives.
So, cheer up. Don’t worry too much about your vet association. You have lots of disclaimers in your material and you always recommend seeing a vet – I don’t know what their big complaint is all about. Things will get better when the days start getting longer and the sun stays out.
Every morning, over your coffee, say out loud 5 things that you have to be thankful for.
Take care and have a good day!
Carol Johnston
Kitchener, Ontario
Good Morning 🙂
I often had the winter blues ..but this year I have decided to take a different mind set…
and it seems the winter is just flying by…instead of counting the months i have done a weekly countdown..we only have 5 weeks to go till March and that is the sign of spring 🙂
Looking Forward to Spring 🙂
The most important thing on that list is pay attention to the wife & try to keep the romance level up. Otherwise the house will be meaningless & the children will be even harder to handle. But you’re right we all need to just live in the moment more & hang loose. My cat just died so we are all in mourning here (there is still 1 dog & 1 cat – his littermate brother – left) & I’m sure wishing I’d spent a bit more time just hugging him. Go fir a ski…that always cheers me up.
Let your dog cheer you up! They’re really good at that. I call my dog a “happiness machine” because all I have to do is wave a sock in front of his nose and he’s happy pulling on it.
You’ve already begun your ‘getting ungrumpy’ journey just by the little exercise of writing down what’s bothering you. It’s not inside of you anymore. Good therapy!
You sound like a fairly young person. I am in my late fifties and have had many bluuuuuu days. The one thing that I remember is that tomorrow is a new day and the things that seem so overwhelming today will seem less so tomorrow. Keep up your good work. You are appreciated very much by many people.
I prescribe 2000 UI Vitamin D. 🙂
Dear Dr. Jones,
I bet you don’t get many emails from LITTLE KITTENS but here goes.
I am fur-daughter to two people (a human female and male) who have been through a lot, and all that means is they know when someone else is going through a lot. Perhaps that why she picked me out of the bunch of kittens to be rescued. The reason she picked me, was I was trying to take care of every one else in my little basket on adopt-a-rescue kitty day.
When she brought me home last summer, oh boy, Mommy discovered I had lots of medical issues.
But I always had a smile, the biggest smile on the face of the planet.
This is “healthy me” here: http://mulanofsiam.blogspot.com/2007/11/thanksgiving-kitty.html
Last August was different. Mommy said: if a 2 and a half pound scrawny fur girl, filled with worms, fleas and parasites, with a respiratory infection, two phlegm-runny eyes, sneezes and coughs, who just had some of her insides removed (spayed), and who never, ever got a good meal in her little life, could manage to wear a smile that lit up the universe, then she could do so too. She rummaged through her smile drawer and found a sunny, pink smile to match mine.
(This was Mulan’s coming home smile: http://mulanofsiam.blogspot.com/2007/08/woodgie-coo-ability.html)
Mommy thought you might like this one:
To the Indian Boy who caused a Tiger’s death in SF
http://mulanofsiam.blogspot.com/2008/01/to-indian-boy-who-caused-tigers-death.html
Even this one:The Emperor has No Bad Vets
http://mulanofsiam.blogspot.com/2008/01/emperor-has-no-bad-vets.html
Perhaps even this one:
Pet Owners are Vet BILLING-NATOR Targets
http://mulanofsiam.blogspot.com/2007/11/pet-owners-are-vet-billin-nator-targets.html
With lots of grateful thanks for what you are doing as a vet and a human being.
MULAN of SIAM, (and her human parents)
Hi Andrew,
Commiserations! I can so relate to your overwhelm!
I have found learning meditation & healing to be enormously helpful; I almost reached meltdown in NHS general practice in the UK when I was full time in 2004. Now I am part-time (since 2005), and was really happy to be able to spend more time with my family and pets. Now however I am overdoing it again, having started websites for my medical work (www.holisticdoctoronline.com), my animal healing work (www.thenaturallyhealthypet.com) and my holiday cottage in Sussex (www.vanecottage.co.uk).
Whenever I get like this I find that I have used up my last collection of Bach flower remedies & didn’t get around to selecting another batch. For you I would select elm (for those in whom the pressures of work or family are overwhelming), oak (for those who struggle on regardless of their own falability) and olive (for the exhaustion due to overwork) (all of the above I use frequently for myself!). I find it really useful to read the little textbook myself (see the left hand column on my blog) as noticing when we are suffering from our own characteristics (such as perfectionism & impatience) helps us to begin our own self-healing.
I recently blogged on resources for depression (http://holisticdoctor.typepad.com/holistic_doctor_on_line/2008/01/holistic-approa.html) and the free resources for CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) on computer are really helpful. Not that I am suggesting you have depression – I am keen for us not to overdiagnose the blues.
Keep up your fantastic work educating us all on holistic pet care, but look after yourself. Give yourself and your family enough time (although I can’t speak at present). And consider getting yourself a life coach – this can be life-changing; it was for me!
If you suffer genuinely from SAD syndrome, consider getting a special light box. And go out into the countryside – the bulbs coming up are a seasonal miracle!
Love & light,
Alison
http://www.TheNaturallyHealthyPet.com
A GRIN TO PERHAPS BRIGHTEN UP YOUR DAY! ENJOY!
Jane’s dishwasher quit working so she called a repairman. Since she had to go to work the next day, she told the repairman, ‘I’ll leave the key under the mat. Fix the dishwasher, leave the bill on the counter, and I’ll mail you a check ‘
‘Oh, by the way don’t worry about my dog Spike. He won’t bother you. But, whatever you do, do NOT, under ANY circumstances, talk to my parrot!’ ‘I REPEAT; DO NOT TALK TO MY PARROT!!!’
When the repairman arrived at Marions ‘s apartment the following day, he discovered the biggest, meanest looking dog he has ever seen. But, just as she had said, the dog just lay there on the carpet watching the repairman go about his work.
The parrot, however, drove him nuts the whole time with his incessant yelling, cursing and name calling. Finally the repairman couldn’t contain himself any longer and yelled,
‘Shut up, you stupid, ugly bird!’
To which the parrot replied, ‘Get him, Spike!’
See – Men just don’t listen! :O)
Dr. Andrew, You and your words of wisdom mean so much to me and to so many other people! After losing my precious Honey Bear, Golden Retriever/Collie mix extrodinaire, she sent me a stray dog. He had been abandoned at a McD’s on a busy corner. No collar, no tags, no chip. Mine was the only car he would get in. I brought him home, fed him, took his picture, made posters, put an ad in the paper, called the vets in a 5 mile radius, and got in touch with Great Pyrenees Rescue here in OKC (where, by the way, it was 15 degrees this morning and he was just as happy as a lark to spend a few minutes outside playing with the female black lab that came to live with us last July)and all I heard from were people who had found other abandoned Great Pyrenees. He (Polar Bear, who is now about 16 months old) and Haley (the lab, 3 years old) and the 3 cats (Monkey, Noodle, Ashes) are all a joy to live with and I could weave another dog or cat weekly from the floating hair in the house.
Tonight I had plans with friends to go see The Ten Tenors, so I knew I wouldn’t be home till after 10:00, and that’s too long to leave big dogs in the house all day and half the night — and with another ice storm in the making, too cold to leave them out — so I took them to their doggie day care place for a slumber party. We’re driving down the street, they are so excited to be in the car and to be going to doggie day care again, Haley has her nose out the back window, Polar Bear has his nose out the front window, and 3 ladies in a Cadillac are ooohhing and ahhing and flirting with them (did I mention they have both been washed and fluffed this week and are both gorgeous?) and Polar Bear looks at me and holds his paw out to me and we held paws the rest of the way. (Lest you worry, they both have seat belts — they hate them, but they’re used to them by now…)
You are right. They live in the moment and truly encourage us to do the same.
(and don’t forget Valentine’s Day!)
Take a deep breath and keep on smiling!
Susan
Hi Andrew, just wanted to introduce myself. I’m a fairly new reader to your site and find your advice and tips really helpful. My sig. other and I are parents to two kitties–Stormy and Scuffer–and they are the center of our universe. We adore them and can’t imagine life without them. A few years back I lost my beloved cat, Peppermint, to diabetes and a brain tumor. Ever since, we’ve been researching healthy ways to care for our cats so we don’t have to go through a similar heartbreak again. I’m in the process of setting up my website: http://www.healthycatnetwork.com, and hope to become an affiliate of yours. Keep up the good work; we love your advice and healthy tips!