Don't jump! Good boy!

So sometime last week AM and I were out taking Dogface for a walk. He’s about 9 months old now and “maturing” but not fixed (yet) so he is sometimes aggressive with other dogs. We’re trying to better socialize him, so when we take him out we are always on the lookout for other dogs, so we can figure out the best course of action before he freaks out (there is a relevant, mental health part to this story. Trust me, I’m getting there).

We head down a neighbourhood street and hear another dog barking from somewhere. It’s pretty loud, but we can’t see where it’s coming from. All of a sudden, AM realizes there is a dog – some kind of basset hound or beagle maybe – ON THE ROOF of the house! An upstairs window was open, and the poor dog was barking its head off from the roof above the front porch. We look at each other, and I decide I should go knock on the door to let someone know that their dog got out on the roof.
As I approach the house, I see that there is a young adult couple sitting on the front steps.

“Ah, do you know that your dog is out on the roof?”
Nodding and laughing

“Is that okay? Does he go out there on his own?”
Yeah, wave and nod at me again. Still laughing. (at me? Because I don’t understand dogs natural affinity for heights, or in confusion wondering what this strange woman is talking about?)

“Aren’t you afraid that he will fall off?”
It’s okay, they say.

I left so confused. Now tell me where the mental health concern lies. Is the dog suicidal and/or trying to make some kind of threat to the other neighbourhood canines, or do these people need their heads checked?

The good news is, Dogface never noticed this roof dweller, saving us from at least one tricky doggie-social-interaction lesson.

Sticky notes are also unacceptable

Note to self:

Do not write client's med lists on little scraps of paper. You WILL lose them!

*headdesk*

Totally off topic post warning!

Car idling is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. But what bothers me even more is that I don’t feel I can do anything about it.

I was sitting in the car this morning in a parking lot between home visits. I had some time, so I was checking my messages and making notes.

A car pulled up beside me and a woman got out with a little dog. She seemed to be giving it a little rest stop on the lawn of this building. Fine. But she left her car running the whole time!

I got nosy and peered through the window and checked – there were no other people or animals in the car. Even if there were, it’s a beautiful sunny day out, so could be absolutely no need to keep the heat running. If she was concerned about the car getting too hot, she could have opened the windows. I don’t get it! She was out of the car at least 15 minutes.

I briefly considered confronting her when she came back to her car, but couldn’t figure out a way that it wouldn’t sound really rude – let’s face it, that’s not going to get me anywhere, even if it would be fun. I fantasized about hopping in her car and driving away, since she had so kindly left the keys for me – but I’m not really interested in incurring criminal charges while on the job.

I wrote her a note: Please do not idle your car. There is no reason for it.

I stuck it on the windshield, then drove away before she could come back.

I can only hope she will take it to heart, and not just discard it on the ground. But I wouldn’t put it past such a serious car-idler (idler? is this a word?) to be a little bug as well.

*we will return shortly with your regularly scheduled blog*

Closet Bettor

“Do you gamble?”

   “Yes, when things get really bad, those times when I’m hiding in the closet”

“How do you do that?”

   “Oh, I used to collect cards. I keep them in the closet.”

Get Yourself Together Man!

So you know how sometimes someone will leave a message on your voicemail, and then fail to hang up the phone afterwards? Sometimes all you end up hearing is what television program they're watching, or the rumpled sound of being tossed into a pocket or purse. Sometimes however you are lucky enough to hear something a little more exciting! These calls seem to happen a lot when working in mental health.

Today’s such message goes like this:

(msg left by a client for a coworker on my voicemail, my comments in italics)
Hi Liz it’s Mr. Defective. I tried to call you earlier, but I couldn’t find your number (duh). I’m wondering if you could send me a taxi, I really don’t want to miss this appointment (he’s calling at 1:24 for a 1:00). If you could call me back that would be good.

(apparently this is where he thought the call ended)


…f**k, what is this shit?.........ah-choo!.........BURP…this is such shit, I was going to call before, but…ah-choo!............ah-choo!......ah-choo, ah-choo, ah-choooo!!!!!!

My co-worker is not here today, so I don’t even know if he made it in on Friday. I kindly forwarded the message to her ;)

Assessment Answers

Is culture (heritage) an important part of your life?
No. Am Scottish, no kilt.

Welfare Goes Plastic

An interesting idea

Manitoba looks at debit cards for welfare recipients

It seems to me that the greatest advantage would be for the people who currently lose up to 25% of their cheque in fees to MoneyMart and the like.