One weekend when my kids were young, we visited the local animal shelter. We'd always had good luck adopting a pet this way in the past but on this day it felt more like a scene from Prison Break. As one dog banged his water bowl against the bars. 40 others barked obscenities and snapped at the air.
“I don’t think today’s the day,” I said. My husband, David, agreed. But unfortunately, we’d brought our kids along. “How about this cute one?” Sophie shouted. She was pointing at one of the hardened criminals we’d already taken a pass on. “So cute!” Zoë yelled. “Can we take her out to play?”
We asked the shelter employee if that was OK, and unfortunately she said yes. And so we took Ma Barker outside, but only because we didn’t want our kids to think we were the types who judged a book by its cover, even though we were.
We walked her around a muddy path, our girls pointing out her features like overexcited used-car salesmen: “Lookit! She has ears! And…and…a tail!” But what she didn’t have was teeth. The bottom row was gone. And fur — she’d lost most of hers to mange.
As the dog plodded along in a way that indicated that this wasn’t her first rodeo and she already knew how it would end, I went back inside to read her rap sheet. It turned out she’d been seized from a home due to neglect. “Severe neglect,” an employee confided. “The owner was jailed.”
“What happened to her teeth?” “Tried to chew her way through the chains. Ground them all the way down to the nubs.”
I instantly felt ill. “Do you know anything else about her?”
The guy looked at me. “She’s been here nine days.”
Denne historien er fra November - December 2023-utgaven av Good House Keeping - US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra November - December 2023-utgaven av Good House Keeping - US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Bring On the Thanks
Embrace the best part of the holidays the chance to share great food with friends and family. Delicious inspiration awaits.
Guide to a Stress-Free DINNER PARTY
This article provides practical tips for hosting a successful dinner party, including planning the menu, setting the scene with decor, and adding thoughtful touches to delight guests. From invitations to finishing details, it covers everything for a memorable event.
ESSENTIAL TIPS for Memory Maintenance
We forget things for all sorts of reasons stress, distraction, lack of sleep. Go from brain blips to gleaming gray matter with this expert advice.
The Mental Health Benefits of Cats - How our feline friends keep our minds purring
A recent survey on pets and mental health by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association found that 84% of pet owners reported that their pets had a positive impact on their mental health. For twothirds of survey participants, the companionship pets offered was key to a positive mindset. Howard Liu, M.D., M.B.A., chair of the American Psychiatric Association's Council on Communications, an adult and child psychiatrist and chair of the UNMC Department of Psychiatry, says feline companionship may be especially beneficial and meaningful for people struggling with anxiety, depression and autism spectrum disorder as well as people who have a history of trauma. Of course, cats aren't a magic pill, Dr. Liu says: "Every person and every cat is unique, so owning a pet is not a guarantee of better mental health." However, people who live with chronic mental health conditions often list spending time with their cats as a coping strategy for when they are sad, anxious or frightened.
Can Anything Really Firm Your Face? - Countless complexion brands tout skin-tightening solutions like firming skincare products, at-home devices and professional treatments
Countless complexion brands tout skin-tightening solutions like firming skincare products, at-home devices and professional treatments. Here, our experts get real about whether these techniques can actually help skin bounce back once it starts to go lax. Sagging skin is caused primarily by the loss of collagen and elastin (proteins that give skin structural support and elasticity) with age, says Mamina Turegano, M.D., a dermatologist at Sanova Dermatology in New Orleans. And there's no shortage of potions proclaiming to counteract it with firming and lifting effects. Most commonly in serum and moisturizer form, these products contain ingredients like peptides, retinol, vitamin C, growth factors and niacinamide that purport to stimulate collagen production or ones that plump skin, such as hyaluronic acid.
The Stress-Busting Hack That's Right Under Your Nose- Breathwork is more than the wellness trend du jour- it's a science-backed route to relief from multiple modern ailments.
“OK, OK, just take a breath.” If that’s what a friend advises after you panic-share about a major-anxiety-inducing situation — your teen taking his maiden solo voyage behind the wheel, work instability, another high-stakes world crisis dinging your phone every few minutes — it’s probably because they hate seeing you so on edge. But also, your friend is offering an effective means of slowing your spin. “The way you breathe affects anxiety, and anxiety affects how you breathe,” says James Nestor, author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art. “It’s a two-way street, and while anxiety isn’t a conscious choice, our breathing is.”
Do Men Really Not See The Mess? - The answer might surprise you. Journalist and author Gemma Hartley pulls back the curtain to reveal the invisible forces that drive this all-too-common cause of marital strife.
There was a time, earlier in my marriage, when every morning as I walked into the kitchen I braced myself for the rage and resentment that would well up in me.Cupboards left open. Dirty dishes in the sink. Coffee cups strewn around the house. And usually a pair of slippers or shoes, with inside-out socks, on the floor somewhere nearby. Even when I had left the house spotless the night before, I’d wake to a scene of disarray — the mess my husband had left behind on his way out the door for work.I didn’t know which scenario seemed worse, my husband’s consciously expecting me to clean up these messes or his truly not noticing them at all. I found myself silently tallying these small resentments, furious and flummoxed in turn that he seemed oblivious to things that needed to be tidied up around the house. It seemed as if he was always waiting for me to tell him what had to be done, as if he was incapable of noticing the mess himself even when he was creating it.
BLISTERED BITES
Shishitos are delicious all yearand creepy on Halloween!
DRINK if you DARE
Welcome, vampires, skeletons and zombies: This spiritforward duo may be strong enough to wake the dead.
Have a scary-good HALLOWEN
The spookiest day of the year calls for tricks and treats!
