I found this on Epinions, so can't verify the effectiveness, but worth a shot.

• Dang flies won't sit down to get swatted! - MSMT
  • Vacuum cleaner works great for me! Love those midair catches. - nm
  • It doesn't stop 'em from coming around, but - my husband came up with (sm)
  • I found this on Epinions, so can't verify the effectiveness, but worth a shot. - WWTx
  • I wish I knew - LinK
    • Hang one of those unsightly fly strips. - pdqtrans
      • As someone with barn attached to house (sm) - Hayseed

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google or medical dictionary before you do another report. Melanotic refers to melanin (pigmentation of the skin), having or characterized by black pigmentation. Melenic stool refers to melena, dark tarry stools containing decomposing blood.

Not being mean, just trying to educate.

a small drink usually is one shot, a medium larger is usually two shots - you can actually ask for decaf espresso also - there are so many things you can ask for - just tell them at your local shop what you told us here and see what they suggest.  A latte is a shot of espresso topped with milk and then foam, a mocha is chocolate milk, so I would stick with latte for now - there are also frozen drinks at Starbucks with no coffee in them at all - but cannot think of the name right off the top of my head - good luck!!

Has anyone here had an experience with their cat having a reaction to their rabies shot booster?  My 4-year-old Persian just had a rabies booster 2 weeks ago at a new vet's office.  (Just moved - have only been going there for about a year).  My guess is they use a different brand or manufacturer of vaccine than my old one did.) 

Yesterday morning, exactly 2 weeks after getting her shot and seeming just fine, I found a large, 2x2 cm lump on my cat's right lower hindquarter.  Thinking it was a hair mat, I put on my glasses for a better look.  It wasn't a mat; instead, it was a subcutaneous lump that felt similar to a lipoma, but was firmer, not as soft and squishy as a lipoma.  She had also vomited 4 times during the night -- food, not hairballs.  She's never done that before.

I took her to the vet right away, and they aspirated some fluid out of the lump, looked at it in a microscope, and said she had a lot of white cells.  (She also had a fever).  They sent off the slides to the lab to see if this might be vaccine-associated sarcoma - something I never even knew existed until yesterday!   While waiting for the lab results, she's on an antibiotic, as well as an anti-inflammatory for 5 days.

So, I got on the internet and did some research about these vaccine-related sarcomas, and would advise any cat-owner to do the same thing.  The information I found was NOT encouraging!  Did you know that the occurrence of these sarcomas has been increasing since the early 90's, when they started making adjuvant (more inflammatory) rabies vaccines?  The sarcomas are VERY aggressive in cats.  (I had a former cat die in only 7 months after a mastectomy for breast ca. with adenosarcoma.)   They think some cats may be predisposed to developing sarcomas at the site of injection for both rabies and the feline leukemia / FIP vaccines.  The rescue where I adopted my cat advises its adopters not to get the leukemia/FIP vaccine, so I don't get that one.  But this is the first I've heard about the rabies shot being dangerous, as well. 

My reading brought to light the fact that vets almost always give the rabies shot as distally as possible in the RIGHT rear quarter.  The reason?  If a sarcoma forms, they're very invasive, and they found that tumors from shots given between the shoulder blades or in the scruff of the neck tended to spread into the spine and lungs.  (Oh, GREAT....)   Even more thrilling to learn is the reason they give the shot in the lower rear quarter:  It's so that if the cat gets a sarcoma, the best chance they have of prolonging the cat's life is to amputate the entire leg. 

Each state differs, but in California, rabies shots for cats are recommended, but NOT mandatory.  Had I known this, and about the danger of the adjuvant rabies vaccines, I would have skipped the vaccine altogether.   My vet recommended that if she gets a rabies shot in the future, (which I don't intend to do with either of my strictly indoor-only cats), there is a SAFER brand -  Merial "PureVax".    It's a non-adjuvant vaccine that is much safer.  (My guess is that it's probably more expensive, too.)  It's also apparently not easy to find.   My vet office doesn't use it (WHY, I don't know, since they're recommending it...), so that's just one more reason for me to say "NO" to rabies vaccines in the future.  However, If I were getting a new kitten, I would make sure it got the Merial PureVax instead of the regular kind, provided it's approved for kittens.  It's disadvantage is that it's given yearly, rather than q.3 years. 

Anyway, regardless of whether my cat's lab tests come back positive or negative for malignancy, after what I've learned from researching feline rabies shots, I thought I'd pass the information on to everyone who's interested, so they can talk to their own vets about it and at least make a more-informed decision about vaccinations than I did!  

She still ached the first 2 days but after that she seemed to bouce back faster than if she hadn't taken it.

We only have experience with Veterinary Pet Insurance (just go to Google and type in 'VPI' for their website), and we've been very happy with them.  It's more than paid for itself with our male Rottie who had bone cancer, and our little female Rottie who just recently had immune-mediated thrombocytopenia (!) of all things.  I guess if you're dog/cat never had any expensive illness or injury, it would'nt be worth it, but we're not that lucky. 

Our dogs are like our kids, so we will spend whatever is necessary on their vet care if they get sick or hurt.  Having the insurance gives me the peace of mind of knowing that no matter what the treatment costs, we will be reimbursed at least part of it, so that's what I like about it.  It doesn't pay for everything though.  It's not like an HMO where you just have a small co-pay.  LOL  You go to the vet you want, pay for services, then fax (or mail) the claim form and receipt and VPI mails you a check pretty quickly for part of the cost. 

We just pay for the policy once a year from out tax return, but you can make monthly payments if you want.  You can chose less coverage (lower cost) or more coverage (higher cost) and optional routine coverage for vaccines and stuff.  I think you can still get an online quote.  It is expensive if you want a policy on a senior animal, which is why I didn't have insurance for my senior dogs, but I don't think it would be that high for your 7 year old. 

My one regret is that I never had VPI insurance for my Siberian Husky, Wiley.  I spent so much on his vet care over the years with his chronic tooth issues and then cancer and joint disease.  I'll be paying off that credit card bill for (gulp) years...  Insurance would have saved me a fortune. 

the royalty money that will be flowing into the estate now. Amazon.com stated they had the biggest day in sales yesterday due to everyone buying up MJ's songs.

I haven't been on ebay yet but I'll bet that place is be-bopping with a bunch of sales not only for MJ for for FF.

When Elvis died, I had gotten a letter from the estate offering to SELL me one of his scarves at a very high price. Of course, I had to turn it down.

As parents pack their youngsters off to college, they might ask themselves whether it's worth both the money they will spend and their children's time. Dr. Marty Nemko has researched that question in an article aptly titled "America's Most Over-rated Product: Higher Education (www.martynemko.com/articles/americas-most-overrated-product-higher-education_id1539)."

The U.S. Department of Education statistics show that 76 out of 100 students who graduate in the bottom 40 percent of their high school class do not graduate from college, even if they spend eight and a half years in college. That's even with colleges having dumbed down classes to accommodate such students. Only 23 percent of the 1.3 million students who took the ACT college entrance examinations in 2007 were prepared to do college-level study in math, English and science. Even though a majority of students are grossly under-prepared to do college-level work, each year colleges admit hundreds of thousands of such students.

While colleges have strong financial motives to admit unsuccessful students, for failing students the experience can be devastating. They often leave with their families, or themselves, having piled up thousands of dollars in debt. There is possibly trauma and poor self-esteem for having failed, and perhaps embarrassment for their families. Dr. Nemko says that worst of all is that few of these former college students, having spent thousands of dollars, wind up in a job that required a college education. It's not uncommon to find them driving a taxi, working at a restaurant or department store, performing some other job that they could have had as a high school graduate or dropout.

What about students who are prepared for college? First, only 40 percent of each year's 2 million freshmen graduate in four years; 45 percent never graduate at all. Often, having a college degree does not mean much. According to a 2006 Pew Charitable Trusts study, 50 percent of college seniors failed a test that required them to interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, and compare credit card offers. About 20 percent of college seniors did not have the quantitative skills to estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station. According a recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates proficient in prose literacy has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent within the past decade. Employers report that many college graduates lack the basic skills of critical thinking, writing and problem-solving.

Colleges are in business. Students are a cost. Research is a profit center. When colleges boast about having this professor who has won a science award or that professor who has won the Nobel Prize, very often an undergraduate student will never be taught by that professor. It is a "bait and switch" tactic and very often your youngster will take classes not taught by a professor but taught in large classes by a graduate student. Faculty who bring in large grants are more highly valued than faculty who teach well. Teaching excellence is so often undervalued that the late Ernest Boyer, vice president for Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, quipped that, "Winning the campus teaching award is the kiss of death when it comes to tenure."

Parents and taxpayers cough up billions upon billions of dollars to the nation's colleges and universities. Colleges make money whether students learn or not, whether they graduate or not, and whether they get a good job after graduating or not. Colleges and universities engage in "bait and switch," confer fraudulent degrees and engage in other practices that would bring legal sanctions if done by any other business. There is little or no oversight of the nation's over 4,000 colleges and universities that enroll over 17 million students. There are some colleges, such as Grove City College and Hillsdale College, that do a fine job of undergraduate education. Useful information about what colleges are doing what can be found in the Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute's "Choosing the Right College" (http://isi.org/college_guide/choosing_right_college.html).

a try.  Does your husband pay the bills or does he give you money to pay them?  Make a household budget, including allowances for gas and groceries.  Either add in a little extra for the allowances to cover incidentals that might come up or present him with the receipt after he pays. 

Another thing I would definitely do -- you might want to consult with a divorce attorney.  Don't let hubs know that you're doing this because he'll try to hide money.  Your attorney will tell you what you would be entitled to.  Depending on what state you live in, you may even get spousal support for a short time.  You should be entitled to have 1/2 of everything you've accumulated during your marriage, including his retirement.  The debt you have accrued will also be shared between him and you.  When you're married, it's both of your debt regardless who charges it.  As for your children, you can discuss that with your attorney as well.  Let him know your child's concerns and fears. 

Only after you are informed by a good divorce attorney, can you decide what's best for you.  Don't sit in fear of what may or may not be.  Find out first and then decide.  Most consultations are free or relatively low cost.  If you do pay for the consultation, make sure to pay by cash so as not to leave a paper trail.  It would be better to make a cash withdrawal on your credit card, if you need to.  Get your ducks in a row before he has a chance to start picking them off.  Good luck and keep us posted!