Dear Alessa:

Thank you for congratulating me about getting my first ever tattoo and for thinking of me 😊

Bogart is adorable even though the other day, he rolled over something during a walk. When getting back home, it became obvious to the nose 👃 that he rolled on something dead. I used a wet towel with shampoo to wipe the smell off of him repeatedly, until he smelled like shampoo.

On a second walk today, he improved on the pulling. It’s extra difficult when it comes to a beagle who is led by his nose.

You mentioned having had 2 huskies. I shared long ago in one of my threads that on a lone walk 🚶‍♀️, I was confronted by a coyote that considered feasting on me. I later thought it may have been a coydog (half coyote, half 🐕), and most recently, I am considering it was a neighbor’s husky (without a collar), because on a recent walk with Bogart, we came across a no collar, no leash husky, although now (5 years after my horrifying experience) is now an older dog.

Now, the reason I thought it was a coyote back in 2021 was that it didn’t bark during the whole confrontation. Back then I thoughts all dogs bark.

Question: do huskies bark like other dogs, or do they howl like wolves, or do they normally stay quiet?

Also, are they more hostile than other dogs?

I figure you’d know.

Did your shoulders recover from walking 2 huskies? I hope mine recover from walking a beagle.

Oh, yes, I definitely heard of Pokémon, saw cartoons, pikachoo comes to mind. Which Pokémon did you have in mind for a tattoo?

Yes, tattoo are expensive, the minimal cost of a tattoo by the artist that did mine is $150. I am not thinking of a 2nd tattoo!

I had mine on the side of my lower, left arm. Where are you thinking of placing your Pokémon tattoo, if you go through with it?

I like 👍 everything you wrote about in regard to teaching autonomy to a child. Yes, my autonomy was vandalized by my mother, heavy duty. From feeding me to washing me in teenage age. That’s heavy duty, and that’s just the physical part.

I am sorry you suffered so much growing up, but glad you had supportive teachers. Every bit of support counts.

I am looking at Bogart right now. My first dog! I had no idea what I missed all those years!

I think you said on another thread- 17 more days to your new 🐈. 16 days by the time you read this, exciting 😀?

Thank you, as always, for your empathy 🤍 and for engaging with me 🙏

🤍🌙😴 Anita

Okay, whatever comes to mind.. Naturally:

My exchange with members will be changing: no longer the directive, corrective, analytical essays. If I submit a LONG post, it will be in one of my threads (like this one), not in another member’s thread. This is a big change for me.

Sincerely, I am embarrassed by my years long, LONG posts to members. That ship 🚢 has sailed ⛵️

So, here, in my thread, it can be as long as I want it to be because I am sharing about me, my stuff (not analyzing your stuff).

I was born in Israel, only THIRTEEN years after it was declared (UN) as a country. It was supposed to be a refuge place for the survivors of Hitler’s Destroy-the-Jews campaign/ holocaust of 1939-45.

Fast forward, the current war with the Iranian 🇮🇷- regime who for 47 years (since 1979) aimed at the destruction of Israel 🇮🇱 (their words: “Death to Israel”)- bothers the hell out of me. I mean, the only way to satisfy the Iranian regime is the destruction of the country where I was born, the murder of millions.

Why? Iran is what.. 70 times the size of Israel, Why not let Israel live in peace?

Oh, it’s the Muslim Shia thing- wanting EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE- to be Muslim. That and nothing less or else.

I am worried 😟 No doubt in my mind the Iranian regime is evil. Will it win 🏆? Will it’s threats: ” Death to Israel”, a country so much smaller than theirs come true?

I am beside myself, really. Just worried.

😟🇮🇱⛵️🌙✨️ Anita

Dear 🍺 Alessa:

I just typed my name backward and middle-outward, but no emoji showed up 😔

Thank you for the tech advice regarding using my 📱 but I am tech disabled (ADD, learning disabilities), so even the thought of trying to learn a new tech skill makes me feel uptight.

Thank you for your empathy 🙏 regarding growing up in a country hated by neighboring countries. In a circumstance like that people either grow up with compassion toward fellow citizens, or with aggression, taking advantage of the weak and defendeless.

My mother trained me to passively accept abuse, to not even detect it, or to doubt it was happening. That didn’t prepare me to avoid or defend myself from abuse by others, as an adult.

Thank you for saying it’s the little things that show that I care 🤍

Thank you for the Canine PTSD Therapy techniques! When I read those earlier this morning, Bogart was spread out on my lap as he often does. I was feeling his warm weight and indeed it feels good every time, it’s Calming.

Also, I already pet his fur mindfully. I’ll try to synchronize the breaths and invite him to sit/ lie down on top of me when I feel particularly anxious 🙏

Yes, what you say makes sense: she wanted me to be a baby for, well, forever. I suppose I felt it and that’s why physically maturing was embarrassing for me. To this very day, I try to look as young as possible (the way I dress, keeping body weight as low as I can- hardly ever feels low enough), and I avoid the 🪞)

And thank you for saying some people like to be analyzed. Well, analysis has its place, but in moderation and only if a person asks for it or agrees to it (I should ask first before going analysis-🤪)

Yes, I too like the conversationalist style 😎 (don’t know why this emoji showed up). It sure is way, way better than my past (I’ll try to leave it in the past) academic, essay like, dry, analytical posts.

🙏 😎 🤪 🤍 🍺 🍷 Anita

Dear Alessa:

Today is the special ✨️ day you were looking forward to 🐈. How is this day for you?

Thank you for your words of hope 🙏🤍🙏

I hear that there is no regime change and one is unlikely sad 😔

The 👂 emoji- hilarious. I guess it really is the closest.

I am sorry that your mother made an example of your brother and that she beat the two of you 😔 In a way, I wish that my mother made an example of me and spared my sister, but she shamed and beat her too.

Although she did not develop tics, she suffered from severe migraines and fainting: the “gifts” of abuse.

Yes, Bogart is my CPTSDCT (Complex PTSD Canine Therapy) except for yesterday. After more than a 4 km walk with him where he seemed triggered (pulling hard after days of great improvement) by his first snow ❄️ experience (he was born last summer and this winter here was the warmest in more than a decade, yesterday was first snow day)- getting close to home, tired of being pulled and wanting him to experience the freedom to run, I took the leash off him (I’ve done it before with positive results) and he ran off. Finally got him back, put him back on the leash, walked farther and thinking I passed that particular patch of road, I unleashed him again.

And that’s when all hell broke loose. He ended up in a very thorny, tall and dense field of blackberries. Many times I bled when accidently coming across a single shoot of blackberry.

Now, he was caught in the middle of literay thousands and was making disturbing bark sounds, such that I never heard him make before. In my mind, he was bleeding and calling for help.

Fast forward, what happened was that he got a strong scent of a rabit or rabbits 🐇 🐇 🐇 that make their home low under the blackberry mass (I actually saw one running away), and it being his first time ever by himself (unleashed) and after rabbits, he made the characteristic on-the-hunt-for-rabits sounds beagles make. Eventually, he agreed to show up outside the blackberries with no sign of injury.

I was beside myself for a long time yesterday and still processing.

So, his first snow and his first 🐇 hunt on his own. I am not going to take off his leash anytime soon and never close to that area.

❄️🐇👂🐈 🐕🙏🤍 Anita

Dear 🍺 (this is the strangest thing, the ale emoji showed up before I started typing your name, right after the “Dear”, the AI in here remembers I type your name after “dear”).

Let’s try again: Dear 🍺- now the Ale showed up after I started typing your name.

Anyway, Bogart was an angel 🐕 today on the snow-free, sometimes sunny walk, and it so happened that I thought about your earlier post in regard to my sister and it occurred to me (not for the first time, and I think I shared it with you before), that my sister looks European (father side’s, Romanian: small nose, light skin), and I look like my mother/ two of her sisters (big nose, darker skin; origin: Morocco, north Africa)- no resemblance between me and my sister.

It occurred to me that my mother projected her deep shame from childhood into the girl who looked like her.

She felt relief from her own shame when she externalized it and placed it in me during those endless shaming episodes.

Like you with your bio, my sister wasn’t spared, but clearly, growing up, she was not ashamed like me. She was much, much more confident- looking/ sounding, much more “normal”, actually, she was popular and social..

Until I left Israel and my mother FOCUSED on my sister, leading her to choices she wasn’t prepared to make. For some time, I felt guilty 😔 for leaving the country and no longer being some kind of a buffer zone between my sister and mother by being my mother’s target.

* My sister has an old dog, and recently took in a cat. The dog was visibly uncomfortable. That cat chose to leave (street cats are a thing over there), and a new cat was brought in. The same dog licked this cat’s face. I had no idea such a thing could happen!

Congrats for opening your home to your new family member, how exciting! And I understand the anxiety.

Any kind of significant change makes me anxious 😟

I enjoy your dog 🐕 (and now 🐈 ) stories and accompanying emojis 🙏

Oh, no, 😳 😬 😱 I wouldn’t walk after sundown or even close to it because of the mountain lions around here, if not for the groups of coyotes.

Child abuse is a horrible thing 😢 😞 and it happens everywhere. I read of one today, multiple child victims of sexual abuse by a 60-year-old having taken place in the “holly” city- Jerusalem.

About walking Bogart on ice- I would never, it’s an invitation to slip and fall. Luckily it’s warm so snow didn’t freeze like it did in previous years.

Thank you for your kind words, dear 🍺 (here it is, just ✔️), a pleasure 🙏 talking with you!

🙏✔️🍺🤍🐈🐕❄️🐇 Anita