Wherein I write about dogs and watch TV for money

Okay, so I haven't posted in nine days. And no, I haven't come down with diphtheria, scarlet fever or bubonic plague although I do still have a lingering cough.

I had a big deadline Friday, and two more on Monday, and it ate my life, that's all!

Deadline one won't be out for a while, but deadline two came out Tuesday over on SFGate.com:

I've had just about every nightmarish pet moving experience imaginable, including having one cat disappear for several days after I moved. I've boarded my pets, kept them in the car, brought them to someone else's house, emptied a room and kept them there, and hired someone to sit with them while I moved.

And none of it works.

Oh, you can read, and in my case, write, articles giving advice on stress reduction and safety for pets during a move. But let me tell you, as the author of such articles, most of the advice doesn't really make all that much of a difference.

You can put them in a covered container with food and water. You can play soothing ambient music. Heck, you can sit there next to them holding their little paws all day, but the bottom line is this: They don't want to move. Not now, not later, not ever. Not to a bigger house, not to a better house, just not.

Check out the rest of the horrific truth helpful hints here.

Deadline three came out just like, ten minutes ago. This blog is so cutting edge, dude. It's my history of gay teenagers on TV and yes, I have been watching As the World Turns but I'm only doing it for the money. I swear it:

American daytime TV has never seen anything like the fan reaction to the Luke and Noah romance on As the World Turns. And yet, although such representations are few and far between, this isn’t the first time America has seen gay teenagers on its television screens. From HBO’s 1986 drama The Truth About Alex to Greek’s Calvin and Heath, gay teenagers have been coming out, growing up, and (sometimes) even falling in love on TV for a long time now. What’s so special about Noah and Luke, and just who are television’s other gay teenaged boys?

Longtime fans of As the World Turns have known Luke Snyder (Van Hansis) since he was born, but most gay men didn’t know him until he came out late last year. He came to the attention of even more gay men this June when Noah Mayer (Jake Silbermann) moved to Oakdale, and half the Queer Nation sat up and took notice, starting a tidal wave of “Nuke” obsession the likes of which the American soap opera has never seen before.

Of course it’s not just gay fans avidly following the Nuke storyline, but there's no missing the buzz generated by the large number of first-time viewers following the show and talking about the relationship online. Since Luke has been out for more than a year, and he’s not even the first gay teen character on a soap, what’s behind the frenzy?

Check it out here.

Comments

[Lee Charles Kelley]

I don't know much about cats, but I'd imagine they'd kind of prefer not to move anywhere unless it's their idea. However, the same isn't necessarily true for dogs.
Yeah, I used to think it was. It's what I'd been taught when I studied dog training. And boy did I find out it was true when my dog Fred (a Dalmatian who passed away in June at the age 15) started having panic attacks after we moved to a new apartment when he was 14 mos. old. But then, in order to cure his panic attacks, I re-trained him, including all his basic commands, using a technique which is not based on the alpha theory or operant conditioning, but on stimulating and using the dog's prey drive in training. Basically, you just play with the dog, turn everything into a game, roll around on the floor or on the grass with him, get him to chase you around the yard or the park, and play lots of tug-of-war and fetch.
The upshot is that even though we moved 5 times in the 5 years before he died, including a week in a hotel and 3 months with a crazy woman (a good friend of mine, but she DID go nuts when we lived with her), he adjusted perfectly to each move with no effort on my part to make it easier for him.
He was like, "Oh, this is where we live now? Okay, cool."
Apparently all that play and rolling around on the ground with him made him more flexible and emotionally adaptable to whatever came along. (Since I train dogs for a living, I've also seen this work with other dogs besides my own.)
Just thought you might like to know that moving isn't necessarily the problem we've all been taught it is.

LCK

[emily]

I think frequency and attitude has a lot to do with it. My mother used to take me and two cats camping. They just lived in the tent with us and seemed to have no trouble understand it was their temporary home. The would also hop out of the car and pee at rest stops, then jump back in. Bystanders were amzed but for these cats this was just a normal part of life.