Dog ownership is honestly just so easy to fall into without being prepared, and there’s no way to ensure people will take responsibility for the life they’re buying. You’re literally just handing over money half the time, like a car or a TV.

I couldn’t handle anything with the energy of a husky or Aussie or shepherd, but if I hadn’t actively done the research and realized that, I would probably have a shepherd mix with too much energy right now. LSGs are right in the sweet spot for me with work, health and fitness level, etc.

There’s nothing stopping the average person from getting in over their head. Energy levels, space, and size are all considerations that people just handwave and “figure out later.”

For some people, life legitimately changes. Injured or sick suddenly and can’t take care of a doodle’s unrelenting energy anymore? Divorce, a death, a forced move into a smaller space, all sorts of legitimate things, but I don’t think these people’s dogs are the ones filling shelters. There’s no penalty for at-fault surrenders (rightly, to avoid more horrible options being taken), and there’s no required education to get a dog, it’s a recipe for disaster.

People aren’t going to put more thought into getting a dog than other parts of their lives, and people are constantly doing things without thinking nowadays, whether it’s car loans, buying unnecessary TVs/phones/computers, or similar. Overleveraged mentally and emotionally.

I think breeding legislation is the right move, but it would take a lot of will that’s not there and need provisions to handle oops litters and such without driving people underground.

Trades ringing in, that’s my theory, too.

I won’t commit to saying I can do something professionally unless I’m damned fucking sure I can, because any small failures will become glued in everyone’s memories, kind of like me being around at all tends to stand out. It’s exhausting.

But half of them have a web link to go to another website’s main page, in order to manually find the overall 3rd party opt out, which it may or may not remember on the next site you visit that uses it, but you can’t tell so you better do it again anyway next time.

Even I get partway through and I wonder if I’m not getting too old for this internet shit. I guarantee most people are not bothering.

Have you checked if you are me lately?

Except I did get a private diag after the public system one was a bust, but can’t find or never received the paperwork to give to my doctor (psychologists can’t prescribe here) and could never get through to that psych again, through email OR phone, and then gave up when the waitlist for another better public consult is 2+ years.

I cut out having friendships and most hobbies and am now technically functional and only slightly miserable, so that’s a plus.

I think these people are dumb as rocks myself, but it’s interesting to wonder why the bad decisions are made.

NSR I believe has a policy of not charging the costs of the rescues to those they pull off the mountains, to not discourage people calling for help when they really need it, but I’m sure that’s a struggle to justify some days.

To be fair, Vancouver, BC is a popular spot for tourists, especially those doing outdoor activities, who I suppose may come from places with a different hiking and trail culture, and different types of signage. Maybe Google maps is more accurate where they’re from? Maybe they just didn’t realize how much landscape detail the tree cover can hide. Lots of folks who come here don’t speak a lot of English in my experience as well. It’s still on them, though.

I’m not even a hiker though, the trails are just too packed full of people for me here.

Honestly, with how loud and nasty organized religion has been in North America this decade, it reminds me of a concept in training I came across recently called Extinction Bursts (https://study.com/learn/lesson/extinction-burst-psychology.html).

Basically tantrums because the thing that used to work, doesn’t work anymore, and testing if just Trying the Same Thing Harder will get them what they want.

I mean, there’s other kinds of public mental health institutions than full inpatient.

Why not have, say, a location with publicly-reimbursed psychiatrists and psychologists, where a person goes for an appointment?

This kind of productive flow probably works amazingly- unless you have any other beings in your life, especially ones that rely on you for food, walks, and financial contribution.

Other life forms are where my flow breaks down.

I hate to say it, but maybe some groups of people need the shared experience of war to find common ground with each other enough to sit down and talk. Before that, they perceive they have nothing in common and treat people as “other.”

The perception of “other” being specifically programmed by various leaderships through propaganda and population conditioning is a separate but related issue.

Then yeah, the waiting on the vet sucks but is the best plan. He may need an anti-nausea med. Call them if the email hasn’t been answered by a reasonable time (say after 4-6 hours of their posted opening time today.) Emails are less time sensitive than a phone call.

Food can be swapped or supplemented with plain baked or boiled chicken, rice, and puréed pumpkin (NOT pie filling!) if they’ll take it.

My vet gives a probiotic any time she prescribes an antibiotic now, it’s called Fortiflora and it’s a packet you sprinkle over their food. Maybe ask about something like that?

My dog taking chemo also has a standing prescription for an anti-nausea drug. If it’s this constant for your dog, you should ask your vet about options for the next couple of week.

Every time I open a streaming service now, the things I want to watch are locked into an extra subscription. I generally end up just walking away rather than watching anything, and when I do dig around and find some thing else that is available on “my tier,” it absolutely wasn’t worth it.

Forget even piracy, I’m just not watching anything anymore. When streaming makes my chore list look more attractive, they’ve definitely fucked up.

I realized a latent autoimmune disorder instead! Winner!

The added olive on the shit pizza here is that skilled maintenance personnel, at least where I am, are a fairly small trade, and word gets around. I’ve never heard of “official” blackballing, but we ticketed folks gossip pretty readily about industry employers, and are in high demand.

Moves like that will guarantee that they can’t get experienced tradies, and even if they do, the ones that are willing to go to their next shutdown will be keeping an eye out for trouble, and at the slightest sign of bullshit and will probably cackle with glee while screwing with this employer.

Beware the phrase “I can retire anytime.”

Spite is my best motivator, even better than novelty! Almost as good as object panic!