15months to debt free - I hope

ladyholly

Thank you all for your comments re the carpet and I quite agree with them. Unfortunately mr LH doesnt see the problem. He is very averse to dong anything in the house as the car is more important (to him). I have put my foot down that the hall has to be next and to our age and the height we need a decoraor to do it so I have to save up a fair bit before the work can take place and our account for such things is now empty. I reckon it will take me about 6months to save sufficient but I really have no idea how much decorators are as we have never used one. Once we have save a reasonable amount I will look for someone and get a quote.

Sun_Addict

Mr LH sounds just like Mr SA. He begrudges paying out for anything in the house. I just override him and book things in anyway. We have to have decorators in and last year one charged us £600 to do our hall, stairs and landing. That was walls, ceiling and all the woodwork, we supplied the paint. It was well worth it as there’s a lot to it. It took him around 3 days. 

foxgloves

They do stop it, @ladyholly, they are actually pretty strict with their dogs. The best way to stop it is to ignore him (the big dog) & they always tell me to do this & they tell him to go & lie down, which he does. I think that because I am so emphatically not a dog person, I find it hard to see the ignoring through as I'm always looking (warily) to see what he's doing or I'll say something to him. I think he only does it with me. I wonder if it might partly be because he can smell cat hair on my clothes. About 15 years ago, when I was still working, a german shepherd went for me in a carpark. It was on one of those extendable leads & the owner, who also had a toddler in a buggy was struggling to control it. I gave it a wide berth but it growled & lunged at me & tried to bite my back....well I suppose it did bite me, as I felt its jaws trying to grip but I had 2 layers on including quite a tough denim jacket & it couldn't get any purchase & its owner pylled it back. She ignored me so I called to her 'You do know that your dog has just tried to bite me, don't you?" She said (still walking in the opposite direction) "Oh has he? Are you alright?". I said I was, luckily for her. Afterwards I did think I should have noted her car reg & reported the incident because the dog could have done a lot more damage.
So I'll not deny that I don't like being jumped up at, lunged at or similar behaviours. I wonder what happened to that dog & if it ended up in Rescue as a hard to re-home animal. 
F

joedenise

Quite agree @ladyholly.  When we had dogs we didn't allow them to jump at anyone.  I think it's quite acceptable to tell other people's dogs NO.  I certainly do!  It really annoys me that people won't train their dogs properly.

ladyholly

foxgloves said:

They do stop it, @ladyholly, they are actually pretty strict with their dogs. The best way to stop it is to ignore him (the big dog) & they always tell me to do this & they tell him to go & lie down, which he does. I think that because I am so emphatically not a dog person, I find it hard to see the ignoring through as I'm always looking (warily) to see what he's doing or I'll say something to him. I think he only does it with me. I wonder if it might partly be because he can smell cat hair on my clothes. About 15 years ago, when I was still working, a german shepherd went for me in a carpark. It was on one of those extendable leads & the owner, who also had a toddler in a buggy was struggling to control it. I gave it a wide berth but it growled & lunged at me & tried to bite my back....well I suppose it did bite me, as I felt its jaws trying to grip but I had 2 layers on including quite a tough denim jacket & it couldn't get any purchase & its owner pylled it back. She ignored me so I called to her 'You do know that your dog has just tried to bite me, don't you?" She said (still walking in the opposite direction) "Oh has he? Are you alright?". I said I was, luckily for her. Afterwards I did think I should have noted her car reg & reported the incident because the dog could have done a lot more damage.
So I'll not deny that I don't like being jumped up at, lunged at or similar behaviours. I wonder what happened to that dog & if it ended up in Rescue as a hard to re-home animal. 
F

Some dogs, like cats, tend to target people who are either scared or just dont like them or as you say it may be the scent of your cats.   I can really understand your fear and am very glad the dog doesnt "get away with it".  When he jumps and i know they have probably told you this but if you can fold your arms (not easy as it changes your balance), turn away and dont make eye contact until you are sitting down.  The dog needs to be put in another room  if possible until you are safely in the house then if necessary they could use a slip lead to keep control until he/ she is calm enough to greet you properlywhilst still under control.

I know its easy for me to sit here and tell you what to do but hopefully the dog will eventually learn its not acceptable.

badmemory

People who don't control their children or their animals are asking for trouble.  With animals it can happen very soon, but with children it can be years later before the trouble comes home to roost.  Unfortunately some people just cannot see the trouble in store.  With the children they will wonder why they aren't invited to parties & sleep overs anymore & take offence.  What they should be doing is wondering why not.

jwil

We were walking through a town centre when little jwil was 3.  A big dog jumped up at him and licked his ear.  It was probably only being friendly but it has instilled a real fear of dogs in him.  The dog was almost as tall as him, so it's not surprising.  He's fine with ours, but very nervous around other dogs.  It makes me so cross when others just let them run at people and jump at them without even trying to stop them.

ladyholly

My youngest grandaughter was bitten on three seperate occasions by dogs. The way we got her over it was novel to say the least. At the time we had a friend with an Irish wolfhound/ Mastiff cross that was 42 inches at the shoulder so we got them both to come to our house and he just lay on the floor quietly so she could pet him with his owner sat with her. . She realised that not all dogs were nasty and has been fine ever since. I used to use our Jack Russell to help children with their fear as I could pick her up and put my hand round her jaws to reassure the child that she couldnt bite them. (she wouldnt have done anyway)  so they could stroke her safely. It did seem to help some of them. I hate seeing children who are scared of dogs but am very strict with them that they must always ask the owner if they want to stroke them.

We are very lucky in this area as many of the dog owners know us and kindly keep their dogs well under control around Bear although recently when MrLH has been out about 9.30pm he has had a large black off lead dog suddenly appear right in front of him with the owner way behind. Who walks a black dog in the dark off lead?

badmemory

I know what what you mean about children being badly behaved. My particular pet aversion is the mother who stands there repeating dont do that or similar while the child ignores her and carries on doing what ever it was. Unfortunately by the time they reach teenage years many of them have no respect for anything or anybody and that is where the trouble can really start.

Onto today. Nothing exciting. Went to the PO but didnt wait to be served as the queue wasnt moving and I was in pain from standing. I had to walk there as the bus was cancelled and I needed to be back promptly as it was Bears field day so needed to root Mr LH out of bed early. Will try again tomorrow. Bear was vey good in the field and is getting better at retrieving his ball. He has always chased it but has only started bringing it back to us in the last week or two. He was shattered from all the running when we got home and has slept all afternoon. Went to the cheapie shop for some toiletrie so saved a penny or two and then to Al** for a couple of bits as they are next door.

Well almost time for Bears last walk so I will end there.

ladyholly

Posted the ebay stuff this morning and shopping this pm. I didnt spend as much as I thought but can someone enlighten me why there have ben no frozen sliced runner beans in the shops for weeks. There are plenty of whole ones but I am not keen on them.

I have one or two tomatos going red but they are very small this year. The courgettes produced 2 but thats been it, Lettuce are doing well but spring onions are weedy to say the least. One of ny rose bushes has had a lot more flowers than usual and the acer in a pot has been glorious this year.

Bear saw one of the springer puppies again today when her owner was doing some training with her. He is walking them seperately as its hard to train 2 dogs at once. I think they are going to be really nice well trained dogs unlike our thug. He is great in the house but is still pulling like a train when out  not to mention the reacting to cats etc. Still he was nice with the puppy. We have started to talk to a lovely elderly lady who uses a mobility scooter and he is much better at ignoring them now even with others using them. I have noticed he is quite reactive to electric cars and wonder if they throw out strange whines that he doesnt like.

Mr LH had a minor hissy fit tonight when he couldnt find a particular tool he wanted to use. Came stomping in. "Wheres my whatever it was." I suggested he tried the garage but got the inevitable answer I have looked there so I went to look and guess what. There it was large as life. It made me chuckle and he did have the grace to apolgise. Rather spoilt it by then telling me he was spending money tomorrow for the car on fuel (fair enough), wheel trims as he has lost one and some rust proofing stuff and thats after nearly £1300 on rustproofing underneath! We will never be rich.

Nothing planned for tomorrow so will see how the day goes.At the moment the forecast is dry but it has not been at all accurate this summer.

ladyholly

Our town has had good news and bad this week. The cinema closed recently which is in many ways unsurprising but it has one of only two original Compton cinema organs in the country and everyone was unsure what will happen to it as from what I can gather is built into the structure of the building and cannot be removed but it was in this weeks paper that the cinema has been bought by another company and they are planning on keeping it. The bad news is Wilko going into administration as we have virtually no shops left that are not phone, vaping, charity,banks and similar. Very few sell the things people need day to day. It is not really worth going into town at all.

It looks as though the hall decorating and carpet are hold for longer. We now know why last weeks loan car stopped working. Mr LH put petrol in it instead of diesel. We ar waiting for the bill but goodness knows how much it will be. I am so angry with him for being so stupid as this is the second time he has done it. I wouldnt mind but our car is also diesel so how he did this I really dont know. He is very apologetic but that doesnt help and now he seems to be falling back into depression so I cant even shout at him or it will make him worse. We have money but after paying for the computer and the rust proofing we will struggle to pay it without using the emergency fund. I know thats what its there for but to have to use it through his carelessness is annoying to put it mildly. Anyway thats enough moaning from me.

We had a salad for dinner with home grown lettuce and the first tomatoes. They are slowly starting to ripen. The lawn was mowed yesterday which left me sweating and breathless but at least its done for now. I realised last night its gd number 1s birthday on Saturday so had to go and buy a card then realised I had forgotten the cheque so put cash in it and sent it next day delivery for safety. As I have said we will never be rich.