I ordered some yarn from Purl Soho. It’s an alpaca blend, which I don’t normally use, and so I wanted to try it. It was shipped by UPS.
Behold my tale of woe.
It’s been sitting at the UPS for 2 days. Pre-Covid, shipments from California came in 2 days, door to door.
I want my stupid yarn.
Quincy’s Lament
Several days ago I am sitting in the pool. Just sitting, because the air is hot, the water is hot, and my head kind of hurt after working. Gordon is in a lounge chair.
Kid 1 runs out of the house in a towel phone in hand.
Kid 1 is a modest person, so someone probably died.
“Here, mom, she left 40 texts in 2 minutes. Call her.”
I call Kid 2.
Hysterical voice. “Quincy is dying! The vet can’t see us for 3 hours!”
“What are the symptoms of his dying?”
“He can’t walk. He can walk a little bit, but then his legs don’t work, omg, omg, Mom!”
“Is that thunder?”
“Yes!”
“Switch to Facetime, please, and show me Quincy.”
I get a livestream of Quincy. He lying on the rug in the kitchen. Ears are down, avoiding eye contact.
“Make him move a bit.”
Kid 2’s boyfriend gently prompts Quincy, who stumbles upright, walks across the room, jumps on the couch, and squeezes himself into the couch cushion. Ears are held asymmetrically, no eye contact, hunching over. Classic freaked out dog pose.
“He isn’t dying. He’s scared of thunder.”
“Mom! He can’t walk!”
“He is scared of thunder and you are making it worse by yelling. Get a blanket. Sit down on the floor with him in a quiet room, let him feel your body heat, and act normal. If he wants to hide under the blanket, let him.”
“He can’t walk!”
Quincy jumps off the couch and pees a little.
“Omg! He just peed himself! I’m calling the emergency vet!”
Disconnect screen.
Gordon: I’m not paying for that. That dog is scared. That’s all that is.
Me: sigh.
Also me, texting a picture of a scared German shepherd that literally has the same pose as Quincy: I wish you wouldn’t drag him out into the thunderstorm…
An hour later.
Text from Kid 2: I’m in the vet ER. They won’t tell me anything.
Me: It takes time.
Kid 2: What if it’s neurological? They said it could be neurological.
Me: It’s probably not.
Another twenty minutes.
Call from Kid 2: Um, they said he had a severe panic attack, probably because he was left outside as a puppy and traumatized by thunderstorms. I had let him out just before the storm hit and it must’ve freaked him out.
Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now and it’s safe to say, this isn’t neurological.
Poor little guy. He will probably grow out of it. Sometimes you just want to smack people. Who leaves a litter of newborn puppies in the back yard? If you don’t know how to take of your dogs, don’t breed them.
Morning!
Sorry about the yarn, the shipping process has been quite frustrating during COVID. Since I’ve been avoiding going into retail stores I’ve experienced the same kind of delays. Unfortunately, I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.
Quincy is adorable and it’s okay to freak out over a pet not behaving normally :). That being said, listening to parents is usually a good idea about this stuff.
Hope you have an awesome day!
Our Hemi is scared of thunder too.
On UPS, well it’s California, what can one say…..
As long as he doesn’t hear thunder during a storm he’s OK. Our other dog Allie, doesn’t bother a bit.
Sigh..
That’s totally true, since I live in California and UPS took a week and they had my package sitting up state for 2days after it got to California and the item should have taken only 2hrs to get to me … yeah they suck. Amazon, and Dr.Squach shipping is much better as far as their shipping.
Awe poor Quincy. Our girl is still afraid of Thunder and loud sounds, she is 7 and still hasnt grown out of it. As soon as we hear rumbles the kids know find her, wrap her up and cuddle until it over. She has stopped peeing when scared though, which I guess is progress
We have two dogs about the same age and terrified of thunder. I’ve started opening the bathroom door so they have a place to hide and cuddle up with each other. If they are outside, their mindset is to jump the fence or chew on it. If I’m with them, then they have a one track mind to get in the house.
Of course…see, now when the bad noise comes, momma gives cuddles! Take THAT, bad noise! Mommy’s got YOUR number!
Let’s all have a big AMEN! You’ve raised (and are) Good Pet Parents.
Sorry to hear about the wool, I’ve had issues with Ups lately as well, they ended up losing my parcel and it took me an age to get the money back. Hope yours get sorted soon!
We have had success with Thundershirts for our pets.
Your parcel was transferred to the Post Office, USPS for final delivery. That is what UPS innovations does. Your parcel has been delayed by Donald Trump’s ongoing attempt to slow the mail and discredit the postal service. Not CoVid.
Yes, the package was transferred to the Post Office in Texas on 8/8/2020. However it started in California on 8/3/2020 and got to Texas on 8/8/2020. Looks like 2 sets of delays.
I think the first delay was at the shipper – it looks like they created the label on 8/3 but it didn’t get picked up until after ground cutoff on 8/4. California’s a mess right now in shipping terms. I’m happy if my stuff is only two days late (I do this for a living so I have a very large sample set).
Some of this is because Trump’s lackey’s forbade overtime – the post office now can’t accept packages from UPS on Sunday. IIRC a year ago this would have processed in the USPS DC Sunday night and gone out Monday.
Please don’t drag the USPS into your partisan dislikes. I am a former letter carrier and many of the changes requested are desperately needed. He’s trying to get Congress to stop the insanity of pre-funding retiree health care 40+ years into the future. That was a nasty little money grab by Congress at a time when the USPS was actually making money and the Congress (bi-partisan) was trying to find money to shore up their budgets. As a result, they’re far behind on capitol improvements and are operating under systems that should have been updated 20 years ago. Many of the changes are much needed such as not continually sending out carriers when they’ve finished their routes because more mail has come from the distribution center. That’s something that was implemented in the last 10 years and it cost a ton of overtime and put no pressure on distribution to get the mail to the individual offices in a timely manner. He’s advocating going back to the old system of having a cut off time when the letter carriers hit the street with the available mail and anything that comes in late goes the next day. That was SOP for decades and was safer because carriers weren’t working 12-14 hours a day and delivering at night with headlamps. Don’t believe the talking points, they’re political in nature.
Thank you for sharing the history of the current nonsense, Sarah. All that is very helpful to know.
Thank you for the inside view! Very enlightening!
+1
Yep I am spending all day explaining that to customers who wanna know why it’s taking so long. Sigh, this year has been hell on my small business.
+1
We adopted a 10 year old boston terrier during fireworks season. She shook, trembled and found the most cofort hiding in the bathtub.
Yeah, I was going to say that if the dog freaks at thunderstorms then definitely don’t take him anyplace where they might set off fireworks.
I feel you about the shipping. I understand delays, but I was waiting for an important shipment that guaranteed within a week an extra week!
And on the dog front I too understand. I have a German Shepherd that was neglected as a pup before I got him and a year later Loki still has anxiety about being left alone for any length of time. Why have dogs or any pet if you’re not going to give it proper care?
We had show Dobermans when I was growing up. We had a few that clients let us show and some were so pathetic! So terrified of thunder that they would hide in the shower or closet and just tremble. It’s sad when they are that scared.
Absolutely!!!! The epitome of lunacy, ignorance and stupidity is not neutering your pet dog/cat. I mean really there are organizations that will do it for free. Don’t get a pet if u don’t hv money to pay for neutering. I can guarantee if you don’t, your pet will become the responsibility of someone who cares. Ooooo dont get me started.
Beautiful baby dog! Yes, thunderstorms are horrible for all the babies. Me and my son used to sing a song that was popular when he was little: Thunder’s just a noise boys, lightning does the work. Poor munchkins.
Quincy!!! What a lil bebby. Give him lots of smooches and a thunder shirt. I love him.
…oh yeah, yarn. Sorry about the wait.
In June, I ordered an XBOX for my three kids. The XBOX went out for delivery and then back to UPS three times before it was finally delivered. Our house is at the end of the UPS delivery route and the driver stops at a certain time, meaning he didn’t get to our house the first three times the XBOX was loaded onto his truck. It was a very frustrating experience.
Our Mastador woke me up at 4 am due to the storm overhead; two CBD treats and 45 minutes later I was no longer afraid she was going to have a stroke since she’s almost 13. We’ve been pleasantly surprised with how well the treats work vs the variety of meds we’ve tried.
Purl Soho is in Lower Manhattan. WTF is your yarn doing on the opposite coast in Cali?
Their online fulfillment warehouse is in CA while the retail store is in NYC.
Awwww!! Poor Quincy and poor Kid 2! That’s terrifying not knowing if there might be something seriously wrong with your dog.
Our family had one dog that every time it stormed had a whine/howl that sounded like someone hyperventalating. It was heartbreaking.
Thunder coat. It really helped with ours when the storms hit.
I love Quincy’s ears!!!
My little miss is scared of thunderstorms too. She has gotten much better, but I doubt she’ll ever grow out of it. She likes to be as physically close to me as she can get during a thunderstorm. This used to include jumping in my lap. No lap jumping anymore, but she needs reassuring after nearly every crack of thunder.
I have 2 dogs from the same breeder, 6 years apart. The older dog is terrified of gunshots, thunder, and fireworks (though he loves the lights). The new puppy doesn’t care about any of that, which is nice! The breeder didn’t do anything to cause the older dog to be afraid of loud noises, but was still inexperienced and didn’t do anything to get them used to it, either. With this most recent litter she exposed them to loud, startling noises at a point in development when they recover quickly from the startling and learn that something sudden and loud doesn’t necessarily mean scary.
One thing that has worked wonders with the older dog is when there are loud, scary noises happening I find the loudest most obnoxious squeaky toy he has, and get really excited and play with him. He’ll still find a safe spot and shake a bit if the noises go on too long, but he’s way better than he was last year.
Hoping the yarn has made it by now. The Postal Service is horrendous in package delivery lately – I had ordered a bra – which was just in a padded envelope – and it sat at the Post Office for 2 weeks. Another package, almost a week once handed over to the USPS.
I really worry for mail-in ballots.
So logistics professional here. I’m not worried about mail-in ballots in most states because they don’t go through multiple hubs.
Fun fact, the first three digits of your zip code are your main sortation center. I live in 554xx, which means all my mail goes through the Minneapolis center. Absentee ballots are managed at a county level in MN, and our ballot processing is mostly in the same 3-digit-zip as the voter. That means it’s never leaving the area. The postal employees I know are furious about what’s going on and they’re not going to let ballot tampering happen. MN processed a third more absentee ballots in yesterday’s primary than there were total votes cast in the 2016 primary.
Possible exceptions – I don’t know if the 100% mail in states do local or central ballot processing.
In Washington state, we have had mail in only ballots for 8 years. I don’t know how USPS handles the ballots, but each county has multiple secure Drop Boxes. Where I live there are 46 Drop Boxes across the county and you don’t have to pay postage.
The boxes were open for 2.5 weeks for our state primary and election officials regularly removed the cast ballots during that time. On Election Day, several officials are on hand to make sure ballots are received before the deadline and take them to be processed at the election center
I hope he grows out of it. My poor Bolt never did.😢
My 2 previous male collies had to take meds. Luther would hide in the shower stall, probably unwise of him.
My current ones don’t care about thunder but my one girl is terrified of fireworks on leash, not in the yard or house, strangely. If only people in the neighbourhood could be predicted instead of random fireworks displays. Poor girl nearly chokes herself trying to get home.
*snicker* kids! I love that she was so incredibly worried about Quincy… but I totally laughed out loud at Gordon’s “I’m not paying for that.” comment.
People who breed animals without showing the proper care should be jailed…. just sayin’.
Thank you for the laugh, I really needed it this week. ❤️
Poor pup! My parents had a hard time the other night with their dog too (we’re in IL) with the huge storms. My parents had to sit on the floor with him between them each with a hand on him while they all 3 watched the TV with the volume way up. My mom said he didn’t stop shaking until well after the storm passed. Some dogs are just that way, he’s never been traumatized (that we know of) since they got him from a well known and respected breeder.
Glad Quincy is feeling better and more chipper!! Also glad kid2 cares enough to freak out…some people just don’t and it breaks my heart.
Haha I’m waiting for a yarn delivery too. Poor doggie 🙁
Well, I just searched what a towel phone was on reverso english/french…. my God, just when I thought I get better at english…. sometimes I’m perched 400 miles above my own head, Jesus…
ROTFl I had to double check too…
Sort of like the sentence “the kids ate Grandma”.
My dog, Deogee, is terrified of thunderstorms. We got him a thunder jacket and that helps and if we can get him to lay (hide) under the bed with one of us chilling on the bed he’s much happier. He’s a rescue so who knows what happened with him.
UPS is bad but USPS is much much worse. Since Corvid started, its like the post office gave up.
Hope the package gets there!!
My current issue: I ordered something to be shipped from Iowa. I got the notification Saturday morning. Its Wednesday…& its still in Iowa!!
It may still be awhile before you get your package from Iowa. They had bad storms roll through with winds over 122 miles an hour. Those were straight line winds not tornadoes. Went through Illinois (including Chicago) and into Michigan and Indiana. Not a storm to be caught in.
It’s a bitch when you eagerly waiting for something— especially if you want to start a new project. 😖
But thank you for posting the store name — and location. I live very close to Irvine and had no idea they were there. Just signed up for their newsletter.
Fingers crossed that the yarn arrives today!!!
I love kid 2 laugh!
The whole yearn thing sucks!
When you read the dates as a European and think, “That woman has the patience of a saint…. Months, for yarn!”
Wahahaha yes, exactly that! I’ve been planning international online meetings recently and discovered that not only does “mainland” USA have 4 time zones, also the daylight saving time ends in a different weekend than our country’s… So I’ve been writing stuff like “let’s confirm for Monday 5 October xx:xx your time/xx.xx our time” just to be make sure we’re all on the same page!
Have you ever heard of a thunderhirt? It saved my German Shepherd from all kinds of severe anxiety from tstorms to get visits.
I too have a timid dog, best investment, ” ThunderShirt” or as it is known in our home the ” Girdle of Happiness”
Mom said that Mary ( dog) looks like she is wearing a too tight girdle. Mom is 89 and wore girdles so is feeling the pain at a very deep level.
Again, best investment ever!
Barbara
At least you know where yours is (unfortunately not at your home). I am waiting on a package and the tracking states it was delievered yesterday. It wasn’t and the company who shipped said to give it a few days to see if it shows up. I have no idea where the shipment is at this time. Maybe a neighbor liked what I ordered???
I have 3 hunting dogs so they are used to having shot guns go off right next to them but one of them has anxiety during thunderstorms. It’s crazy!
🤣 I’m sorry, but if Kid 2 still hasn’t learned it by now she probably won’t learn it ever.
Listen to Mommy. Seriously, she knows best.
Our first family dog wasn’t afraid of anything – she was such a perfect family dog, she spoiled us. The next dogs were abandoned, and had lots of issues, but were doing well with all the bugles, helicopters, artillery we got on the military posts. When we were stationed in Atlanta, though, the tornado sirens totally freaked them out. We had a house with a basement, so I found a small well-lit space to make a “nest” with the cardboard from moving boxes to protect us from the cold cement floor, and the moving blankets to bundle up and wrap the dogs. I brought down some flashlights and candles (and matches), just in case we lost power, and a stack of books for me. It was ready to go whenever the tornado siren went off, and the dogs finally knew to head downstairs when it went off so we could snuggle through the storm. Two bigs dogs on my lap made it a bit difficult to read, but it was better than the alternative! Our current dog was afraid of everything when we got her, but is much better after 9 years. The one thing she’s NOT afraid of is fireworks! She doesn’t like thunder, but I think she hasn’t heard much of it. I wrap her in her blankie and we snuggle.
My son was just here with his dog a rescued pit bull. Chloe almost has a heart attack when there is a thunderstorm or gun shot (we live in the mountains). I feel so sorry for her. She shakes like crazy. We just hold her until the storm passes.
I think Quincy and Artha are going to tag team her. 😁😊
During thunder storms, we put up a small children’s tent, in the living room, for our dog. He seems to view it as a den of safety. We also give him medication and put a blanket in the tent. We’ve tried a lot of things, but that’s what works best.
I am sorry to hear about the shipping delay. Happening a lot lately.
I am with you on backyard breeders. So many of the don’t know what they are doing. I could go on a long rant about them.
You were spot on with the thunderstorm advice. Calm, quiet presence is the key. Not yelling, not baby talk. The peeing was submissive behavior. The dog was anxious from the storm and your daughter was yelling (out of concern) so the dog peed. Kid 2 obviously loves Quincy a lot. She’s a good dog mom.
I used to volunteer at a shelter and when they were afraid I would softly sing a song – lullabies are good. It sets the mood and your own body language and posture. I would put one hand lightly on the animal and sing. If they moved away from my hand I would let them but would stay seated nearby and sing. They eventually calmed down.
My other advice is NOT to hug a stressed dog. Hugging is not natural to dogs like to humans and primates. Leaning against them from the side is more natural to dogs as it is what they do with each other. If they are already stressed and then you enclose them in a hug it can lead to them biting or snapping at you.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201604/the-data-says-dont-hug-the-dog
Last time we had a thunderstorm my oldest Munchkin decided she needed to hide under my curio cabinet. Ironically, my anxiety ridden two cats were pretty chill hanging out on the bed for one and the kennel for the other. The deaf cat clearly gave no shits. LOL
Just thinking, you could write a note to UPS mentioning that 2 days from Carrollton to San Marcos, seems a bit long. If you had wanted delivery by pony express, you would have ordered 150 years ago.
I have a rescue Amstaff who has had a hard life. She tried to crawl inside me the first thunderstorm I had her. I bought her some treats with CBD oil in them. The other night we had a hellacious thunderstorm. Tornadoes and everything (down south of us). I gave her the doggie downers about 45 minutes before the storm hit. She jumped a bit the first couple of rumbles… Then calmed right down… She even watched the lightening outside the window. I love the Premium Care Calming dog treats…. She does too…
Also get the problem with the Mail. I ordered some masks for my grandgirls for school… They were on the way, and somehow got stuck? Lost? In Minnesota. The only tracking info I have is “delayed”. I told my mother and she’s making the girls some masks… She doesn’t have cool tie-dye or nebula fabric but they’re good girls and will love them because “Gigi” made them.
Hmm may have to get some of those!
Thanks 😊 my old dog hates thunder
Eat Sleep Knit is a great yarn store. They specialize in handpainted yarn.
ESK is in Dallas, GA, and they ship super fast via USPS. I’m in NYC and I’ve rarely had to wait more than 3 days for my package. Plus their customer service is OUTSTANDING. I highly recommend trying them.
I totally feel her pain. My dog is a rescue he came from Puerto Rico and per the rescue vet was probably a family pet at one time. Having lived as a stray for quite awhile (they think) he had probably survive several hurricanes. We got him at about age two. He is now 14 and still Terrified by thunderstorms. Even a heavy rain will make him hide under my husband desk in the basement. Some dogs do better in a dog crate covered with a blanket except for the door opening but with the door removed. Fireworks season is hell for my poor Buddy
I feel for Kid 2. My doggies are my children and I have called my mom freaking out multiple times. She usually talks me out of an emergency vet visit. I’ve gotten better as I have had more experience.
I do the same, but my mother is the one to usually encourage the emergency vet visit! The last time I was home visiting my basset/beagle was holding up her paw and my mom freaked out. About 2.5 hours later it turns out she was stung and her paw was swelling but the shot they gave her fixed her right up.
I had a wolfdog once. Absolutely spectacular animal. She was an omega, which had interesting issues in the household because omegas are super sweet, easy to train, but so! emotionally! fragile! (Tone was very carefully moderated once we got her because she was so sensitive. But she was smart and only had to be told no once to never do something again.) The previous owners left their lab bitch outdoors. An amorous wolf (timber) paid her a visit. They had a good time.
I may have stolen the puppy from the litter because they were… not in good condition, and I could only take one. (I was not precisely an unreasonable child. OKay, I was totally unreasonable and I am lucky to have survived this incident.)
So, I used sad dog eyes on my parental unit, and the puppy also used sad dog eyes on the parental unit.
Puppy stayed, but animal control was called after I told my parental unit the condition the puppies were in.
Wolfdogs were illegal in that state at the time, so animal control put down the rest of the puppies. I hid mine.
She was a good puppers, and I miss her very much!
People are stupid, and sometimes, I think people should be trained and licensed before being allowed to have pets. 🙁
My friend’s dog actually gets anti-anxiety meds for storms and fireworks. The thundershirt is also excellent, or a weighted blanket like Target sells.
Sympathy for a first-time dog owner, but you told her.
I started fostering dogs earlier this year.
I ended up taking two 4-month old GSD mixes. I hadn’t planned to take puppies, let alone two puppies at once, but I was working from home so I thought, “they get adopted quick. What’s the worst that could happen?” and as usual, the universe took that attitude as a challenge. They were CRAZY. Totally unsocialized, had never been in a house before, traumatized by having one of their siblings killed by a coyote, and confused and terrified because they’d just been hauled from Texas to the Midwest and split up from the rest of their siblings. The first 36 hours or so, I literally thought I was going to die. The rescue manager still apologizes for sending me home with “the Hell Puppies” my first time fostering.
I have a litany of things to say to the person who couldn’t be bothered to spay and neuter the parents, but also couldn’t be bothered to socialize or protect the puppies (and REALLY couldn’t be bothered to make sure they would have good homes). Let me be clear: they were good dogs. In a few months, they have the potential to be great dogs. They made so much progress in just two weeks. By the end of the first week, I was already starting to regret not committing to keep the bigger pup (which is what I tell the rescue manager whenever she calls them “the Hell Puppies”). I can only imagine how amazing they would be if they’d been given proper care from the beginning.
I sure hope Karma is… let’s go with “fair,” but feel free to imagine the other words I left out in case children are reading… to those whose irresponsible actions result in traumatized puppies.
We got a rescue dog 6 years ago, she taught our German Shepard to be afraid of storms. I’ve been sound asleep and Bella landed on my head trying to get as close as possible to me. Neither one has out grown being afraid of storms. Cuddle and sleepless nights. Kenzie is afraid of men in hats, large trucks and storms. I agree if you don’t know how take care of animals don’t get one. They are so sweet and well behaved until a thunder storm rolls through.
I understand the UPS post. I ordered a pair of work shoes from a catalog (I won’t name the company). They ship FedEx smart post. I question the smart post part because my shoes literally sat in Fresno, Ca, quick by the way is 45 minutes from my home, for 5 darn days. Really. Was everyone trying on my shoes ? Never again will I order something that ships FedEx smart post. Grrr!
Those are some ears!
Poor pup. Jesse is actually getting worse about storms as he gets older. He wasn’t ever left out as a puppy. He’s just very sound sensitive.
Sana really doesn’t have much accent for growing up mostly in the south.
The shipping delays are due to the new cost cutting measures enacted by the new guy in charge of the USPS. There’s no overtime anymore and the machines can only be used for a certain period of time. That means more hand scanning and if something doesn’t get done by end of shift, it just doesn’t get done. I’ve noticed that it’s worse for mail coming from the West for some reason, even if it’s just one state or town West of you. Not sure why that is.
I’m at the point that I don’t pay attention to tracking until it gets to the ten business day mark. Otherwise, I’ll be in a first world rage for everyday I have to wait!😆
Sounds like conversations I have with my mother regarding my cat. She’s usually right too.
I find package tracking to be both a blessing and a curse. I like knowing what’s going on, especially if it’s late, but then when there are problems or it’s stuck in one spot it becomes even more frustrating because now I know where it is but can’t get to it. Oddly, shaking the the phone or computer doesn’t make it magically fall out of the black hole all companies seem to ship through to land on my lap either. I wish it would though.
With Covid UPS and FedEx are beyond overwhelmed. The only one that is worse is UPS Freight. You can no longer talk to a live person at UPS not sure about FedEx.
Poor Quincy our Sunny Girl sends her love. While we have very few thunderstorms when we do Sunny is plastered tightly to my husband’s side on the couch. Sunny is a Great Dane mix.
I agree with you, some people should never have dogs
I’m so sorry about the yarn. Shipping lately is a nightmare. I ordered two fleeces (cormo and cormo/merino blend) and it should have arrived b4 our vacation camping but Nope! Then a friend shipped me a sewing machine from Houston to OR. After a week, it arrived at a distribution center in TX. argh! How yarn comes soon.
Beautiful dogs! Quincy’s a cutie but my heart belongs to Artha. Miss her tales from around the house; nothing grounds you like the unconditional love of a dog.
Yes, to everything regarding any type of delivery. FedEx sent me a notice they’re delivering a package that needs a signature but can’t tell me when it will arrive. (I didn’t even ask for time, just a day, and they can’t tell me.) So you don’t have a life anymore and can just sit around for days and wait for package? Yes, yes, I can.
Sad.
Newsflash! FedEx won’t let you sign. The drivers don’t want covid any more than the rest of us.
Both of my dogs dislike thunder and fireworks, but one in particular is absolutely terrified. We can usually comfort the Vizsla-mix, but my poor Freya just withdraws, hiding in her crate or in a closet, and shakes for hours. We adopted her at around age 6, just after the Humane Society had to amputate a leg for injuries, and we know nothing of what she endured before adoption. It’s been almost 4 years, and she’s doing much better now, overcoming a lot of other fears, and learning to seek us out for comfort, but loud noises like thunderstorms are still just too much. She absolutely panics. We finally resorted to CBD oils and chews, doping her up to take the edge off the terror. Our vet is okay with it, and the CBD oil helps her joints, too. I hope Kid 2 can find something to help Quincy.
Have you tried a thunder shirt? They do seem to help some dogs. They really only work if you can get them the correct size and tight enough to apply pressure to the pressure points. I thought about getting one for my basset/beagle who is well she’s a basset so she’s just nuts. Unfortunately it’s impossible to get one to fit her correctly (long body, short legs, and her chest doesn’t really fit either).
“What are the symptoms of his dying?” Peak mom-ness!
Unfortunately dogs can develop the fear around 2-3 years as well. My terrier/beagle (she was my teagle) was fine with storms until some a$$hat shot off a fire cracker over my yard while she was out alone (she would have been 3-4 at the time)…and from that point on she was neurotic about storms and fireworks. We’ve had some dogs who are terrified, some who don’t care, and some who really aren’t worried but will take advantage of the cuddles offered during storms because their packmate is worried. I found during really bad storms crawling in the closet with them is the best bet.
And shipping is just getting ridiculous. I had an order from amazon that was marked as heading to the USPS on July 31 (still has that message BTW) and couldn’t do anything with amazon until Aug. 7. Then I had to contact them through chat because the system wouldn’t let me refund or replace any of the items automatically (even though they gave me the button!). I feel bad for the postal people because their hands are tied and half the time they get the final delivery of UPS and FEDEX who don’t go to the more rural areas. It’s only going to get worse too.
Bad when your own government sabotage s itself.
My Dingo tries to fight the storm.
Eeek. Poor puppy!
Our Dobie was terrified of certain sounds. The usual ones (thunder, fireworks) and the unusual ones (AC starting, ice poured in the sink). We put up a sign about the ice. We tried doggie pills. We tried the thunder shirt. We tried fun animal shows. Then a friend who works at a dog rescue group said to save peanut butter jars when they’re almost empty. Bring it out before the noise starts. It worked like a charm. She licked those jars until they squeaked! Kept her completely occupied.
We had a lab that I gave empty peanutbutter jars to. I thought it was fascinating how long her tongue could get! She slicked out the last smidgen. Good days.
Poor doggy. He must have been severely stressed out to pee himself. 🙁
My dog and cats, luckily, have no sense of self-preservation: Fireworks? YAAAY! Thunder? YAAAY! Storm? LET’S GO OUTSIDE!!!
I waited 2 months for a package from California to reach Denmark. Usually it takes max. 14 days.
Yes, have a nice quiet spot for him to retreat to, preferably with Kid 2. It would be helpful if it could be a permanent spot that he could retreat to on his own. The sort of place you would go to under a tornado warning. It is pretty much mandatory that Kid 2 stay calm. A blanket over him may be comforting. Forget the thunder jacket. If he’s that spooked it not going to help. A friend used to read to her St Bernard during a storm. Just so you sound cool and steady The dog has his own fears, but will key on her. We’ve had many dogs over many many years, only a few afraid of thunder or gunshots, but two of them had been traumatized by close brushes with tornadoes. Who wouldn’t be nervous?Bear in mind that they hear things we don’t and very possibly are more sensitive to changes in pressure etc. Quincy will almost certainly know before she does when a storm is approaching. She can learn the signs and the earlier the panic attack is attended the less severe it MAY be. Good luck. Fear is a terrible thing.
UPS is the devil. I have had SO many bad experiences with them, I don’t get why they are so used.
There was a fun article online about a pile of UPS packages that were just dumped in Ceres, CA for weeks on end.
Poor Quincy! I also have a GSD and they are notoriously fearful of storms, even if they weren’t mistreated as pups. I love living in Florida with a dog that hates weather. Hopefully Quincy will outgrow it a bit, as he grows into those ears.
Good afternoon, I know lots of pups that were never left outside that are afraid of thunder. it seems to get worse as they get older. If you make something out of alpaca be sure and store it in a plastic bag in the off-season; it can get moths or other bugs
Unfortunately it’s a combination of things delaying shipments. With the pandemic there is a shortage of workers due to sickness and death. Also, when you order you have no idea (generally) if your item is going to be UPS Innovations or even Fed-Ex Smartpost. Both are pretty much the same. They begin as UPS or Fed-EX, then are delivered to USPS for sorting and delivery by USPS. All of this adds extra time. Before the pandemic, not so bad, but since, it’s gotten bogged down. USPS is under-funded, adding more complications.
I also believe everyone should take a tour, if they can in the future, to a UPS and Fed-Ex sorting facility, they are enormous. The volume of packages going every which way on conveyor belts is like being inside a city sized machine. Packages are passing through so many hands, trucks, facilities it can make you wonder how they make it where they should in the first place.
Things you can do.
Do a trace through UPS with your tracking number. There is a form on UPS that you can fill out with the tracking number. Also you can give USPS a little nudge by filling out a form online for your delayed package.
Many things are still being prioritized also.
I’ve been through this many times working with logistics for years. Judging from your tracking post, your package is sitting in a USPS facility in San Marcos Texas, waiting for someone to come across it in a pile of other packages awaiting sorting to local facility for delivery.
I recently had one sit 5 days in a facility 2 hrs away. Same sort of situation. I rattled cages and received my package.
Unfortunately what most don’t know is that your shipper is the one that would have to file a claim if the package does not arrive. That’s a whole other can of worms.
I understand, it’s frustrating.
Love this so hard. Says volumes about young peeps grown peeps and wise dogs, In our area to WALK IN THE DOOR of Emergency Vet is $235. Today is 105-107 degrees. Reading Ryder in the bath non stop. Thanks. That is all.
Hope your yarn arrives soon. I completely empathathize about your delivery woes.
Packages from NYC to Chicago and Ann Arbor used to take 2-3 days (priority mail); they now take 15 days (priority mail). Regular snail mail from/to the same places used to take about 4-5 days; they now take 14-15 days.
Packages and snail mail from NYC to Omaha, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (and vice versa) used to take about 5 days; they now take about 30 days.
Thanks for your time estimates. Helps gauge when I should be placing orders.
I’ve been ordering a bit earlier (to a lot earlier) than I normally would and trying to practice patience & empathy. I sure wouldn’t want to be working in warehouses and delivery centers right now, wondering if my coworker is taking a day off to deal with burnout or if it is COVID, along with managers who are following various levels of safety, contact tracing, and “timely notification” of close contact while living with aging parents, immune compromised family, and kids who aren’t learning well online but probably shouldn’t be in school given recent stats. So yes, I hear you on frustration and remind myself I have a yarn stash while taking some calming breaths.
I emailed my friends last week about holiday stuff because if something is gonna break people, not having that specific holiday spirit item (while distance celebrating via Zoom) or gift due to supply chain issues is a pretty good contender. Or your favorite caffeine/drink/TP. Keep stocked up, US friends.
Our post office and workers have usually provided good service so I feel for them. It’s a shame that one of the initial primary measures taken introduces more delay on all mail to everyone.
Mid- July, ordered a blouse from Macy’s, UPS tracking still shows expected delivery date 7/24. It started in OK, went to CO, then to OH (I’m in MI, so it’s close,) then to CA, where it was declared “misdirected by bad sort” and has bounced around from post office to post office for the past 10 days.
Foolishly hoping my summer blouse will arrives before the snow falls.
Hi- From what I’m reading about your yarn shipment, it was dropped off at the local Post Office by UPS, and it is sitting at your local Post Office waiting for them to do something with it. “Innovative Mail” means UPS does all the shipping, but the local Post Office does the delivering. Confusing, and frustrating are words that come to mind with this. Sometimes it’s quick. Sometimes it sits there for days just like you are experiencing. Here’s hoping it gets delivered, and you have a peaceful and quiet day. Really looking forward to August 25th, and Emerald Blaze. Peace and blessings to House Andrews.
Can totally relate.
I hear you about shipping. Thanks to previous orders over time not getting to me when they are suppose to I signed up to UPS to have them let me know when a package is shipped and arrived to my place in Fort Worth. Doesn’t matter if it’s UPS or UPS Post, I know when it’s shipped.
I had ordered some things from QVC a few days ago. They arrived but they landed at the leasing office instead of my front door. My address is different than where my front door is because of the way the property is set up. So, I called the leasing office, and the manager said the driver just dropped the boxes off outside the office. I was shaking my head and trying not to laugh. The manager walked my boxes to outside my garage, and I brought them in early this morning.
Poor Quincy! Thunder startles even me when it comes out of nowhere.
Dear friends, Apparently 45’s inability to create goodwill anywhere in the world has left us a bit in the lurch especially in light of his inexcusable non involvement in stabilizing and dealing effectively with the current pandemic, which to point has left all of our ability to accept shipments form all points of the world that are still functioning and to move those shipments within our borders woefully inadequate. It will get worse as he destroys the 240+ year old and always up till now dependable and non political post office. I know you don’t really want this type of post here but since you brought it up, since this Covid debacle began we have been good citizens, staying in and there fore ordering much more on line. Our own wait times for items has gone from a week to ten days to a minimum of 2 weeks and as long as 6 weeks to receive items AFTER they landed in the US. I joked about a new pair of sunglasses hitchhiker across the USA. but they did finally arrive. so will everything else including election day and Christmas, lets hope they are good ones this year.
Kid 2 reminds me of Arabella!
Turns out it’s tales about scared puppies that will make me cry out 5 months worth of tension. Who knew.
Quincy is a cutie and I’m so glad he found a mama who loves him so much.
I feel your pain. I’ve been waiting since mid-April 2020 for something I bought on Amazon…
Kids would almost always rather hear stuff like that from someone other than their parents.
Another mom at a sports clinic, which I did not attend: So, did you learn anything?
My daughter, sighing: No, not really. He says all the same stuff my mom does.
I hope you have your yarn soon. I have two pairs of alpaca socks, which I save for days when I really need comfort.
I totally agree. If you don’t want to take care of your animals, don’t get them. I am awaiting my next set of foster kittens – 3 grey tabby’s. Every kitten I have fostered in the last few months was abandoned or abused. It breaks my heart, but I try to heal their’s.
The problem with your package is it was sent UPS Innovations and not straight UPS or USPS. Your package starts out with UPS goes to whatever UPS facility the truck is going to not an actual destination that makes sense and instead of delivering it to you they bounce it around to whatever UPS facility tickles their fancy before handing it off to your local post office for final delivery. FedEx has the same kind of program. I have packages that are shipped from a warehouse 2 hours from my house, they are then driven literally past my house out of state before returning to my local post office days later for final delivery. Crazy.
My dog also get panic attacks at thunder and fireworks. I bought this stuff called Calm from Bark and it is AMAZING!! Give it to them an hour before you know things are going to be happening and they get nice and relaxed and sleep thru it. Usually on top of me…but still sleeping and not shaking uncontrollably 🙂
My dog was scared of heights, would not walk over small hills, stairs if he could at all avoid it. But he grew out of that. What he didn’t grow out of was the popping of firecrackers. So every year on Diwali, we would stuff his ears with vaseline dipped cotton balls and I (since he was my dog) would sit out the celebrations to keep him calm. I empathize with Kid 2, coz being scared for someone you are responsible for and love that much can be a terrifying thing. She did good by my book.
I was inspired by your yarn tales to take up knitting at the start of Covid and its been amazing. That said, I ordered some handspun from Etsy the other week and had a similar experience. It took 2 weeks to get from IL to CA. UGH!
I too had a thunder shirt for my dog and it helped a lot. As for the Mail, the orange stupid head in office put in a donor to head the post office, who some say is purposefully slowing the mail so he can claim election fraud when the time comes. How soon is November?
There is a conspiracy about to slow down all USPS and UPS deliveries. I blame everything on he who I will not name.
I am waiting on a printer and medications that I am sure are sitting in some distribution center crumbling in this heat.
My last package was sent from California. A few days later, the message said that it had traveled all the way across the country, had left the local-distribution facility in Massachusetts, and would arrive that day. Great! Except it was supposed to be delivered to Oregon.
There are delivery trucks rumbling up and down my street all day long now. On a dead-end rural road. I can’t imagine how much effort goes into keeping it all straight. Trying to anyway.
USPS is worse.
Took over 3 weeks to get a shipment from Washington to Arizona.
1 day from Duvall WA to Seattle.
14 days from Seattle to Denver
8 days from Denver to Phoenix
1 day from Phoenix to my house.
I ordered something from China after I ordered this.
And I got it sooner.
From CHINA.
I’ve been having that problem with USPS. Had several packages languishing in the drop-off location or central hub for 2+ weeks before ever so slowly making their way to me (another week to go from Ohio to Detroit). 🙄 In fact, I’ve been waiting for one since July 23 that hasn’t moved from its drop-off yet as far as I can tell. COVID or some other issue… 🤔
Politics. There’s a new executive at the Post Office there that has A LOT OF INVESTMENT in non-USPS mail solutions. They are removing sorting equipment in Washington state.
Thanks for pointing that out. The USPS is being sabotaged in order to mess with the presidential election.
Americans should be appalled that the newly appointed P.M. General has no experience for the job and is a multi million stock holder of the USPS’ competitors.
As frustrating as COVID is making everything, shipping was awful before, too. At least your package didn’t come to you via India. I’ve had things ship from another part of my own state, get lumped in with mail destined for another country, and travel the world before making its way back to me!
And I’m sorry to hear about Quincy’s trauma, though it sounds like Kid 2 learned a valuable (though probably expensive) lesson about not panicking and listening to a voice of reason.
When I was growing up, we had a dog that was afraid of storms. Even after he went deaf, he could still feel the storm coming. You learn how to deal with it, and, eventually, it just becomes part of life. Weird behavior is always scary at first, though.
I have a parcel select that was mailed on 7/21, on the outskirts of St. Louis. It was taken to the St. Louis distribution center that night and has not moved an inch since… over 3 weeks. My new air fryer… at this point, it is a moot point.
So I hear your frustration, and I raise you 20 days of waiting.
I saw awhile back that you wanted a project with little purls.
I’m doing this one and it has none! It’s very pretty. 12 row repeat. Just knits and slips.
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eastival-shawl
Glad it was just anxiety with Quincy.
Looks like that pattern is no longer available.
FYI. UPS Mail Innovations is not USPS. It’s a bundling, sorting service that companies use to reduce shipping costs. The packages are eventually transferred to USPS for delivery. There is a long conversation about this in the Demon Trolls, Ravelry. I’m glad your package is finally moving. My Rx sat in USPS Carson, CA sorting facility for 10 days. Looking forward to the book release!
I am confused. What happened to Artha? Does Kid 2 have 2 GSDs?
We always found playing the tv or music a bit louder andjust acting as if everything is normal and relaxed is the best thing for scared pets in thunderstorms or fireworks events. If they want to hide make a cubby spot for them all casual-like and just let them huddle it out but it’s less stress for them if you’re not fussing at them too and just sit calmy by them. Most of the time they’ll just settle into it even if they still don’t like the noise.
Awww poor Quincy! My dog hated thunderstorms too. He would get freaked out by the lightning because he knew it was the precursor to the scary thunder. He would pant excessively and walk around the house trying to find a place to hide. He also would be super glue to anyone who was home at the time (which he wasn’t ordinarily) and follow you around because he didn’t want to be alone. As he got older, his hearing diminished so since he couldn’t hear so well, he stopped freaking out during storms.
I know there is something called a thunder shirt dogs can wear to help with thunder storms. I don’t really get how they work but Kid 2 may want to see if that helps for the next one.
I order from eBay regularly. Using USPS for my last order, the product went from Michigan to Dallas in three days and took 9 days to get to Ft. Worth.
Thank you for making my life seem normal. You are the best!!!
The dogs are so cute. I just wish they could understand us when we tell them they don’t need to be afraid. Poor baby.
Alpaca yarn is cool – my sister-in-law does amazing things with yarn, and I have a gorgeous winter hat she made me. So, yeah, stupid delivery service, because you will love that yarn!!
We had a German Shepherd/collie mix when I was a kid. As a puppy, he was afraid of storms. So was I. Like sharp chest pains afraid. (Took me until college to get through the terror reaction. Still don’t like storms and I’m in my sixties.) One particularly bad night storm (the Midwest has wretched thunderstorms), he kept crying no matter how many times my mother went to reassure him. So I took a blanket and went down to the kitchen and held him, and we commiserated about how awful the storm was. Eventually we both fell asleep. When my mother came down to start breakfast she woke me up.
Mom: “Why are you sleeping in the kitchen?” Me: “Wolfgang was crying and scared so I sat with him.” Mom: “You hate storms.” Me: “Yes, but he was scared.”
He eventually learned to sleep through storms until he lost some of his hearing when he got to be about 15 or so – then he could feel the storms but not hear them, which made him grumpy when the storms woke him up.
So Quincy, I hear ya. It will get better because you have a Mama and a Papa who love you, and will keep you safe!!
Poor doggie.
Yarn,,, UPS handed it off to the Post Office ( that’s a type of shipping, UPS takes it the greatest distance, delivers to post office, the “last mile”, via USPS. ). It’s now up to USPS to deliver. With how overwhelmed USPS is, may take a few extra days.
I had item stuck at post office for 3 weeks. I feel your pain.
Happy knitting 😄😄
Our dog likes to bark at loud noises (car doors slamming, fire works, etc) Fortunately our neighborhood isn’t noisy a lot. It’s just a quick bark, but she definetly isn’t frightened, she’s protecting the house (she feels that that’s her job)
Regarding shipping: It took 19 days to ship a music CD from Jacksonville FL to my house in Phoenix AZ. This is using USPS Presorted (whatever that means).
Tuesday, August 11
7:11 AM
Package arrived at a carrier facility
New River, AZ US
1:34 AM
Package has left the carrier facility
Phoenix Az Distribution Center Annex, US
Monday, August 10
9:24 AM
Package has left the carrier facility
Wednesday, August 5
2:01 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility
Phoenix Az Distribution Center Annex, US
Tuesday, August 4
5:42 PM
Package has left the carrier facility
Denver Co Network Distribution Center, US
3:34 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility
Denver Co Network Distribution Center, US
Friday, July 24
5:06 PM
Package arrived at a carrier facility
Jacksonville, FL US
Thursday, July 23
Package has shipped
Poor puppy.
Btw, UPS Mail Innovations sucks little green pickles. They show things leaving their warehouse to go to USPS, but they never log it in. I’ve had packages sit 3 hours from my house for as long as 2 weeks before they magically show on the USPS website. I’ve had to start USPS tickets to get the package delivered. I hate UPS Mail Innovations with heat of a burning supernova.
I hope your yarn comes soon.
Yes indeed! Total agreement.
Thundershirts work for about 85% of dogs. They’re not terribly expensive. Cuddling and comforting a scared dog is a bad idea. Often leads to reactivity. A better idea is to crate them and throw a dark quilt over it to simulate the safety of a den.
I recently got a notice that my package was at the post office and when I went to get it they told me it was out for delivery. When I got home the package was at the door. Maybe wait a day?
If he doesn’t grow out of it, friends with the same pup problem have had mixed luck with a thunder vest, I think it’s called. Works for some but not other dogs. One friend finally asked the vet for doggie Prozac. Which she now swears by. Good luck with Quincy!
As to your travails with yarn, ups innovations has always been a problem for me. I prefer plain usps to anything to do with ups. Sorry! Hope it shows up soon!
Our late dog Mini was scared of thunder, fireworks, loud noises, sudden movements, everything. Granted, her first owners badly mistreated her and it took us years to fully gain her trust.
Hopefully poor Quincy really grows out of his fear. Maybe a thundershirt could help? It calmed Mini down a lot (not completely, but she didn’t have full-on panic attacks anymore).
at least you got the money back. I am a yarn dyer and they lost a shippment. I replaced the yarn. They paid half the cost with a check on a closed account. $300 lost.
From the Californian to commenters: we don’t suck.
New way of life, as you all know. I could spout off with statistics but you being a reader of some of the best books on the planet know those stats.
Thank you for the post, Ilona Andrews. I ROFLOL. Titan, a Rhodesian Labrador whom my sister yells at me is NOT a puppy mill puppy, is deadly afraid of rain. Nothing else phases him. Snow. Ice storm. Hail. Thunder. Lightning. Gunfire. Earthquakes…. Giving him a bath is an extremely athletic exercise as he might melt with no legs, hunched in bath and a dead 85 + pound weight. However hiking along and into a rushing icy cold stream with slippery boulders and sudden deep water traps for the human …no problem. Grin. So I totally got Quincey.
Tell Gordon to please pay half of cost for the emergency vet Visit rather than nothing because they are expensive when you are just starting out. There could have been something seriously wrong and this is first fur baby for kid. They will learn. I get panicked phone calls from niece in law when nephew’s chihuahua cleans up after the baby. Grin
Hi, sorry about the yarn delays, it’s hard when you are waiting for something new to try out.
And there are so many times that thunder upset our dog Kacie, those stories have become the favourites of things we reminisce about with the kids.
Kacie is no longer with us, but she had a great life and of course, there were memorable times thunder was the culprit of lost sleep….. it was usually the middle of the night, and having a 95 pound dog standing in the middle of your bed barking loudly and incessantly at 2 in the morning until the storm is over…..means no one in the house is sleeping until Kacie was calm again.
I wish we had had what my sister in law uses for her dog, the Thunder Blanket/Vest. It is a weighted harness like affair that cuddles the dog and calms them down. There are various offerings on the internet, at pet stores and so on.
Awww, poor Quincy. My last dog (who we just lost this past year at age 17, bless) was afraid of storms until he started going deaf. Cuddling him just made him shake harder. (I think it reinforced his belief that something terrible really was happening to him. “The humans are comforting me. Thus, I must be in need comfort.” Dog logic.😂). As someone else mentioned, the ThunderShirt actually worked, at least for him. Saved us all a lot of stress!
Also, my sister had a similar experience with a package. She tracked it as it traveled all over the northwest and midwest before it finally reached us. Where it would show up next was a running joke for a bit there. Pandemic humor. 🙂
Just thought I’d leave a comment, that it is very possible this will be something Quincy never grows out of and it becomes a matter of managing & living with his fear. Dogs undergo what is known as a fear-impact period around 10 weeks of age that can lead to life-long memories. Fear-impact is really a misnomer since it’s more a period of development where any strong event can get seared into a dogs memory and leave a lasting impression. We tend to only notice the negative ones that generate a fear reaction hence the name. Homeopathic as well as more traditional medicines can help as well as other commercial products have some success. While I certainly hope for Quincy’s sake it is something that passes, assuming it will be outgrown might create false expectations.
The people working for the Post Office are going through hell right now. Seriously, hell. My friend — who is the most optimistic, cheerful person on the planet and who loves her job, knows all her customers, gets greeted in the street by name every time we go out — is in a black hole. It’s like Christmas every day and it has been for weeks. They’re not allowed over-time, the piles just get bigger and bigger, they’re not hiring more people to help with the backlog… For a while they were ordered to deliver packages first, so your yarn would have taken priority over medications, unemployment checks, social security checks, bills, people’s rent payments, etc. Now it seems random. Some days she gets to deliver mail, some days she has to do packages. But every single day is a nightmare of overloaded work and it doesn’t get better. And, of course, she’s risking her life to interact with people who won’t wear masks, who accost her on the street demanding to know where their unemployment money is, even just to be at work where she can’t possibly socially distance from the people next to her while sorting the mail. She has a tale of woe.
Xanax. I had a mastiff and a lab that were terrified of storms, panting so much that they had a fever. Out of desperation, I got a Xanax from my husband and gave it to Athena. On a few minutes she stopped panting and relaxed. Only gave it to them when they needed it and it was the lowest dose.
We adopted a dog that was being fostered by a wonderful family. She is loving and energetic and very smart. She hates thunderstorms. I live in an area of monsoons. Lots of thunder. She can tell they are coming way before we can. We have a thunder jacket and a blanket. We burn lavender. The best we can figure is that she was dumped after being hit by a car. She was rescued from the streets and the vet did surgery to repair a broken hip. It had been at least a few days. Stupid people. Every day I love on her and tell her how happy I am that she likes our family and what an amazing dog she is. My daughter trains her and takes her for walks several times a day and gets her used to booties during scorching summer heat. It’s great.
This was pre-covid. I make jewelry. My son had me make a set of mokume-gane wedding rings for his wedding. My son and fiancee were living in Wisconsin. The post office suggested registered mail due to the cost of the materials. So sent them registered mail. Took three weeks. Visited nearly every post office between MI and WI. Also some that made no sense (Tallahassee??). Fortunately, wedding was not imminent and they eventually got there. I was bonkers.
UPS or USPS?
Have heard the US Post Office is removing sorting equipment from processing centers.
Hope the yarn gets to you soon.
Poor little Quincy. Glad to see the adorable video. There’s so much love in your family. And for a bonus a peak at Artha. Any time that dog wants to do a guest blog…hahha…
I hope your yarn shows up soon!! I’ve been there with the waiting.
Aww! Poor Quincy!! Totally get Kid 2 freaking out though. Fingers crossed he realises he’s safe now and storms stop scaring him so badly. He is utterly adorable.
Hopefully your yarn came today. Everything is slow since this Covid mess started.
Of my four footed feline land sharks two hide and two storms don’t bother. Being a pet parent isn’t always easy is it.
This is commiseration on the yarn: I ordered two pairs of jeans in early June. I didn’t get them until sometime in July. I was resigned to get them by fall🙂
Poor dog! I remember my mother having to put ours in the bathtub every thunder storm because she drooled a waterfall at those times.
We had a cat who was terrified of thunder. She had been left out as a kitten in a storm. Anytime we had a thunderstorm she would hi tail it to the basement under a set of shelves and it would take forever to get her out.
As for the package I’m still waiting for some Jim Butcher books to show up from the next town over after a week. I should have picked them up but I just moved here and don’t know my way around yet. GRRRR
Wow. 🤯
I didn’t see this turning political, but I suppose that I probably should have seen it coming. It seems everything gets around to being political these days. 🙄🤦♀️
This comment thread is baffling and a bit irksome to me. The USPS is under attack and being sabotaged by the devil in the White House and Americans are mostly oblivious to this travesty.
Postal workers are being undermined from within by their Post Master General who owns a ton of stock in the companies of their competitors. He has a conflict of interest to be sure. He was specifically appointed to screw with the USPS and bring it down in order to sabotage the presidential election. Please read more about this from legimate news sites, you will be floored.
Yes it’s a drag not to get stuff on time, but complaints about USPS which has faithfully delivered mail in all kinds of weather and situations since 1789 make me furious. Americans take it all for granted, but should be outraged by what is happening to their USPS by the president and his cronies. Americans should be roaring about this and writing letters, voting and doing everything they can to support the United States Postal Service’s survival. I am not an USPS employee, I just respect and enjoy the luxury of sending and receiving mail at my home. Our mail carrier retired last year after she had been walking the neighborhoods of Los Angeles for forty years. We threw a block party on her last day because we were so sad to see her go and wanted to celebrate the service she gave us for the years she delivered our letters, bills, magazines, birthday cards, Christmas cards and all the packages before the age of Amazon.
My Mom gets all her meds from Express Scripts and then delivered by the USPS which is such a convenience for the elderly and many people use this service to cut costs on prescriptions. The majority of Americans are not online when it comes to banking and bill paying. If we lose the USPS we are so screwed, think about it.
Ummm… There have been many glitches with USPS since before Donald Trump was a political figure. He isn’t helping, but he’s not the entire reason it doesn’t run smoothly. e-mail, for instance, cut down on written letters because it’s included with internet access at no charge. That drove up the price of first-class mail by a big margin. But Amazon still uses them to deliver mail when their routes don’t go to every house in the country. My home is pretty much dead center of BFE at the corner of “no” and “where”, and our mail service is being considered to be cut down to 4 days a week instead of 6 because we’re not profitable because so many bills are sent and paid online and nobody writes letters anymore. I will miss the mail coming daily, but they have to cut their costs somewhere and the luxury of living away from crowds means I will just have to get used to it, I suppose. It wasn’t so long ago that USPS went bankrupt and had to be bailed out because we all need it so badly. They cut costs by cutting employees, and their efficiency suffered.
Not everything is Trump’s fault, you know.
The USPS has been under attack for a long time,they are caught between a rock and a hard place. The same politicians that say we should abolish the post office are the same politicians who when they proposed dropping rural delivery ( people would have to go to the post office in rural areas) or merging post offices scream and yell it isn’t fair. The biggest cost outside that to the post office is bulk mail,the catalogs, mailers,flyers,etc that clog our mail boxes. The cost of that doesn’t cover the cost of processing it. Yet when USPS tries to raise those rates,the companies that do those mailings and the companies that produce the catalogs and such complain,many of those are shipped out of states whose politicians scream bloody murder if USPS tries this ( and it has been),so USPS has to deal with that,all while being told to cut costs. Conservatives claim that the USPS shouldn’t exist, claiming private industry could do it better,bit have you looked at the cost of sending a letter via UPS or FedEx,or even sent a package? If you think it is bad now,with USPS out as a cheaper alternative,imagine how it will be w only UPS and FedEx.
And yes this is political,everything Trump does is political. The covid response team back in March had all kinds of plans for getting test kits out, to use war powers to produce PPEs, but according to internal memos that have been leaked Kushner stopped it,on the grounds it was hitting democratic states and if it was a disaster,well,blame democratic politicians…Trump is afraid of mail in voting because you can’t do things like have 1 voting machine for 100k people in a city and one for each 5000 in more rural areas, or have armed ‘poll watchers,’ intimidating voters likely to vote against their candidate. 5 states have mail in voting and have had no.problems w fraud, but suddenly they are claiming fraud ( remember the big GOP investigation into voter fraud? They found like 60 cases). The head of the PO is throwing a monkey wrench into the mail to create a self fulfilling prophesy….as far as Trump not being responsible,he himself would agree,he says he isn’t responsible for anything…..on the other hand,Harry Truman said the buck stops here, and he took the heat if things didn’t work, which is what s leader is supposed to do.
Shipping in general is fouled up, there is just so much being shipped bc of the virus that it is a mess.Take a look at the store shelves,supply chain is fouled up for so much,of all things wild bird food, things like garden hoses, it is unreal.
Our dog Fanny gets terrified, she is afraid to go out at night,even though our backyard is lighted and I have her on a leash,she panics,so she has trouble with leaking urine and she ended up with her genital area all raw and oozing.She also is scared of thunder or fireworks. It is funny because her brother,from the same litter,is Alfred E Neumann happy,nothing scares him.
USPS was never meant to be profitable. It’s meant to make sure that everyone living in US has access to mail. It’s the way government communicates with citizens: IRS returns, SSN checks, and so on. We paid for it with our taxes. It’s a service.
Don’t get me started on Trump.
There’s no disputing he put in a political donor who knew nothing about running the post office but yet had major investment in competing delivery services. Kind of like Betsy DeVos having no experience at all in education or anything else, but yet appointed to run the Education Department, quite badly. She is also a political donor. My mail service has been great until the last couple of months. I depend on it for my medications.
We mailed all our goods by USPS because they can track packages with bar codes, and they do it at every stop. A customer called me, asking where the &*(# was his stuff, and I called USPS, who told me it was sitting in Maine, at a station where things are sorted, and had been sitting there for days. Can I have their number? Sure! I called, and when I asked, they said the package was routed to them in error, and nobody knew what to do with it because it wasn’t going to part of their route, so it sat on their carousel, being faithful checked in every day with everything else, but nobody knew what to do with it. I asked if there were any actual living persons working there. Yes. I asked if a living person could please pick that package up and take it to a truck going to the station where it belonged, or at least return it to the truck that brought it there in error and dropped it off? Oh. They hadn’t considered that! The customer got his package in two days from there. I suggest that you make contact with UPS mail innovations and give them a nudge. Keep in mind that great thinkers do not work in sorting in stations. Use small words. Have the tracking number handy.
The dog can be trained not to be afraid of thunder. Get a recording of anything that has thunder involved in it to play on your TV or computer. Sit with the dog, comfy and cozy when it’s not raining, sun is shining, and play it. The dog will freak. Keep it short. Two to three minutes of exposure, then turn it off and congratulate the dog on surviving. Using exposure therapy, I trained my cats to run TO me when the vacuum cleaner was turned on because I petted them and held them while it ran. This was before the time of effective flea control, and I had a brush that attached to the hose and I’d suck the fleas off them. Quincy has to learn two things now. He has to learn that noise will not hurt him and he has to learn that the woman he worships as his owner won’t freak out when thunder booms. He has no idea she was afraid he was dying, only that she panicked when thunder boomed.
Incidentally, I’m with Gordon. “I’m not paying for that!” She called you, you gave her the solution, and she ignored you. That’s on her.
The day we bought our miniature horses was the first day that the younger one had heard thunder. BOOM! His eyes got wide with white around the irises, he stiffened all over, but herd animal that he is, he looked to the humans around him for the proper response, saw us ignoring it, and he’s never feared thunder. Which stood us in good stead the January day I was out working in their winter run area trying to get the January thaw to drain OUT of there by digging a ditch. The people who live uphill from us had an above-ground pool that had frozen, the thaw let the water push against the side that had been ruptured when the pool water froze, and the explosion sounded like a bomb. I looked up to see if their house had blown up and saw all 35,000 gallons of water shooting out the side, rolling directly downhill towards the winter run area away from where the horses were watching me swear at frozen ground and trying to dig that ditch. They both jumped a few inches straight up, looked to the herd leader — which I established early on by picking them up as foals and proving I was bigger than they were, so I never had to prove it again — and went back into the barn to eat their hay as that water flooded their area, my yard, and washed away my stone driveway. With supreme self-control, I did not scream until I saw that I no longer had a driveway. Of course, it was a different story the day the massive black cherry tree fell down in a storm and landed in the yard 50 feet from their summer run and they ran to the other end and huddled against the fence, but I wasn’t out there that day. *sigh*
In short, the key to teaching an animal to stop fearing something is to prove to that animal that you, the one with opposable thumbs, do not fear what they fear, so the animal can realize that everything will be just fine without panic.
We had a rescue cat who had been abandoned in a sack in the rain. Rain terrified him. He would slink down on all fours, belly to the ground and slither around the house trying to find somewhere where he couldn’t hear the rain. People who abuse animals suck.
At one time I had three schnauzers – two giants and a mini. Come thunderstorms, one panicked, one wanted to kill it, and the mini freaked out because her sisters were being weird. I’d end up in the middle of the couch with a collective 110kgs of dog trying to either burrow into my armpit or sit on me. Fun times.
I’m sorry about the yarn. The postal service is insane right now – I had a book in transit for five weeks. I’m guessing the carrier pigeon got eaten and they had to source a new one.
Over the past twenty odd years I’ve had multiple Newfoundlands and a Leonberger. One of Newfies would lie in the rain during thunderstorms and watch the sky. Another used to sit on the back deck and watch fireworks. The leo would run around the backyard wondering why he couldn’t play with the neighbors when they were letting off fireworks. Cool dogs
Neat dogs, Newfies. We’ve had a few,they were all pretty unflappable, and one of ours liked to watch fireworks too. She shared us with a GSD who was very flappable about strangers. Twice the GSD was inside barking because there was a stranger at the door. We were outside trying to get back to the house. The Newfie lounged under the front porch on summer days.Apparently she disliked the noise and figured the source of the problem was the visitor. She walked up, accepted a pat and then very firmly goosed the visitor. A canine “Go home”.She used the same method to keep anyone but family out of the baby’s room. A force to be recokoned with
Also NZ has just discovered 5 cases of the virus in the community. we went straight to lockdown, we’ve got out collective freak-on
Take care and read more books!
I literally just saw this article re UPS, it might be related to your delays.
https://www.wesh.com/article/pile-of-ups-packages-left-parking-lot-for-weeks/33576315#
I feel your UPS woes. I work in the dotcom division for an nationwide upscale department. 95% of our shipments go UPS. 50% of our non-sales calls are about their shipment. I see guys in brown and my left eye starts to twitch.
We have had 3 packages shipped from California. Numerous delays either at the California end and/or the North Central Texas end. 2 packages came via Fed EX. The other was USPS. Very frustrating. I think it’s worse when you can track it.
In positive shipping news, an order that I placed on June 27th, that shipped from Great Britain on June 29th, finally arrived today! I had given up on it. The company doesn’t get tracking numbers, so nobody knew where it was, but it was only supposed to take 10 days. 😊
We had a cat who just suddenly decided that he was terrified of storms and he would crawl behind you or under your legs if you were sitting down and hide from the storm cuddled up with one of his humans.
He was like that for years and years and then one day he was fine.
We finally figured out that the reason he was cured was because he was really old and too hard of hearing to hear the thunder any more. 🙂
I had a dog named Quincy, terrified of any loud noise including thunder – she used to go into the bathroom to hide & a couple of times climbed into the tub. Made me worry if she knew a tornado was coming.
Ugh. UPS delay commiseration. Still waiting for my monitor for a two screen set up; been delayed twice now. Hopefully it gets here tomorrow. :'(
My mom accused my dog of training her dog to be afraid of thunder as a puppy. Could be true as she was doggy-sitting for a while!
After that, her Bichon would hide in the bathtub at the beach house when she heard thunder.
Meanwhile, my dog would drag you home if he heard thunder, a hunter’s gunshot in the distance (Pennsylvania…) or any fireworks. Fourth of July was interesting, especially as some people have to set off random things all week. (He was a street dog from Taiwan. Chinese New Year fireworks also seem to last a much longer time than one day.)
Amusingly, he and I would joke with me saying “Boom!” in a deep voice, and he would set his ears back and run around me in circles.
I laughed so hard. Best line out of all of it was “I’m not paying for that.”
Poor guy. He will probably always be nervous with the storms but, hopefully, not as much. My two old boys hate them too. One sticks to me like glue and the other wants to just sit in my lap. Since he is a 125lb Bernese Mountain dog( big with tons of fur) I discourage him and try to sit on the floor with him. Isn’t it great to have Grandpuppies?
I hate having to wait for yarn. There is a young lady in Germany, Wollmeise, who dyes the most amazing colors. I used to receive my yarn in a week now I may get it in three weeks. It is torture. I hope that yours comes soon.
Oh he’s adorable 😍😍 and kid2’s a good dog mom.
My dog was traumatized by a storm because lightening struck right in front of the house.
Quincy is a very handsome boy. He is not ugly.
I totally agree, be it dogs, cat or human, if you don’t want it and aren’t ready to take the time they need don’t get one!
As for scared of thunder, my sister’s half maincoon is completely scarred by thunder and we don’t think he was left outside, he just hate storms even with little thunder and my kitten is a little scarred too, since we are both back with our parents for covid time, it makes bed look small during stroms 😉
I’m waiting for something I ordered from China for my birthday in May. Canada Post doesn’t deem parcels from there a priority because they don’t ake many money based on the postal agreement. The company site shows the last mile tracking # which is only assigned when the parcel arrives in Canada which was end of June. Canada post denies it has arrived. Another parcel I had arrived at the depot and it took a 10 days for it to travel a journey that is 1 1/2 hr drive in rush hour at most. So I feel your pain. Dogs can be weird sometimes. my stepmom’s yorkies used to have to get sedated to travel in a car. I saw a video on tumblr with a cute pupper rescue dog, that does not lets its new owner touch him but he will push up the corner of her blankets when she is on the couch to make sure she is covered and warm. Glad the dog was okay.
Here is a picture of my rescue. He is afraid of bikes not thunderstorms.
Oh poor Quincy . I’m so glad he’s in a good loving home now.
She reminds me of myself when my daughter was little, if it worried me she went to the doctor or had a phone visit.
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Good luck on your yarn. My niece was working in Africa and rescued two dogs while there. I live in Pennsylvania on 10 acres. Mainly grass and trees. When she repatriated she was able to bring them with her to my home. It took awhile for them to get used to walking on grass. Neither one likes rain. The great Dane is terrified of thunderstorms and runs for her people to protest her. Also strange sounds can set them off. My neighbor acquired a goat which we could not see but could hear from the backyard. I don’t have fencing so we always accompany the dogs out. The first time they heard the goat they panicked and dashed back into the house and refused to come out for half a day.
My Oscar who is a Jack Russell, never was upset my thunder or even storms. But I looked after my husbands sister’s dog when she went to work in Queensland. My God the worst decision I’ve ever made. My husband warned me not to do it. That dog howled, scratched and bit chunks out of my laundry cupboard and taught Oscar a great way to get attention. My Husband and I dread when a storm comes in especially at night. I would have tolerated that behaviour {spelled with a u in Australia} but she was a Houdini. She wrecked my lovely lattice fence by chewing throw it. Got out 3 times and I had to pay the dog bound 3 times to get her out. My mistake I should have realised this would happen she was known for it. After all she got out of a steel gate with with very small spacing between the steel bars. I laughed and laughed when you told about your Kid2. She must love her dog so much. But don’t hold your breath if you think her dog will stop.
We have a small white dog, she’s seven, and we’ve had her since she was six weeks old, storms do not worry her, however once the wind gets up, my lap and a good cuddle is required.
Good to know having a semi-grown child ask for advice and then ignore said advice happens to other parents. My 21 son freaks out about stuff, talks my ear off about the stuff then promptly does the opposite of whatever I say to do. Then doesn’t get a good result thus starting the whole cycle over again. It’s maddening.
We found our dog abandoned in a beach park in the North Shore of Oahu while camping with my son’s whole school. It was several days of thunderstorms, heavy winds, and massive amounts of rain. We found her huddled against the outside of the tent, shaking, starved, almost completely bald from malnutrition. Our first thunderstorm (and Asian New Year) with her were terrifying times for her. She would run around the house trying to get comfort from all of us and we would all take turns holding on to her. It broke my heart how scared she was, and how cruel it was to abandon her to a slow death in a campground. She’s now a happy, more adjusted dog. She’s not terrified of thunder anymore, or firecrackers, although she still doesn’t stay outside in the rain, she would now go out long enough to pee.
Boo on the yarn. It seems all shipment takes forever now. I ordered all my son’s school supplies online because I didn’t want to go to different stores looking for them in the midst of rising infections.
He is NOT ugly – he’s BEAUTIFUL!!!! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Such beautiful shepards!! If his anxiety persists, she may want to try a “thunder shirt” or weighted blanket for him which often seems to help. The vet can also prescribe some doggy xanax or similar. So funny that my last shepard was also a Quincy!!😁
If there are going to be fireworks, kid two will have to take Quincy out of town. Fireworks are worse than thunder. My sister’s puggle is terrified of both.
Covid has slowed everything down. I am having a door replaced and the contractor ordered it a month ago from a place three hours down the road. When the shipment of yarn finally comes, it will be petty.
The yarn will be pretty, not petty! Darn it!
First thrilled that Quincy is okay. Have Kid 2 get Adaptil spray for dogs and a Thundershirt. They do work wonders.
Second I get pissed to when my packages don’t arrive when scheduled. I had a package sit in Ohio for three days. Also, UPS defender as they are slammed. Plus short staffed as no one wants to be an essential worker during COVID. Both husband and son are UPSers and even here in the Midwest they have been running at holiday numbers since COVID hit. Only one new hirer since COVID hit has stayed on my son’s shift. The newbies are a revolving door of lazy.
I too am a UPS defender. I owned a “The UPS Store” until June 1, 2020. I was down to one brave (but scared) employee other than myself in April/May. No way was I going to ask them to come in even though we were “essential” and required to be open by the franchise. Our UPS drivers were reporting higher than Christmas numbers too. Please reconsider your Amazon return. Is it worth the risk to yourself and others?
I Love Gordons comment… Short, dry and up to the Point.
Mom knows best.
(And could save you a crap load of money if you just listen.)
We lived in a small city and got a blonde lab. Gorgeous dog! We thought she was a little challenged intellectually. Never came when we called her. We went to three training classes and she never learned a thing. Finally when she was about a year old, the vet had an idea. He had us keep her occupied and he went behind her and dropped the metal file (with all her papers in it). She didn’t even blink. He did a couple of other things but said that she was deaf. Profoundly. That’s why she didn’t respond to calls or commands. He said living in the city would be dangerous for her and asked if we could move. Well, we couldn’t. But some friends who lived 30 minutes away at a lake wanted her. So we gave them custody (we still visited all the time and took her on trips). When we drove to the lake the first time and opened the door of the car, she flew out and ran behind their house and off the dock into the water. Never got her out that day. We’d mark smooth rocks with a sharpie and throw them in and she’d retrieve them. She wouldn’t let our kids swim with their heads under. She’d grab them by the hair and drag them to shore. Tiffie lived to be 14. Labs are the best.
My babies crawl on top of whoever is closer and stay there until the storm passes. If it’s a bad storm we give them a calming chew and cuddle until the storm passes.
Tell them to pay attention to his behavior. My folks used to have an 8 hour warning before thunderstorms arrived.
RIP Chien….
Hopefully your yarn is blended with some wool so it doesn’t say under its own weight. I love alpaca but it’s quirky.
And it looks like your yarn is in the custody of the postal service, not UPS? I live in northwestern Ohio and all of our mail has to go through Detroit. A week or so ago I mailed a package to a friend of mine who lives about 40 minutes from me and was relieved that’s considered close enough not to need to go through Detroit first. The woman at the PO told me Detroit’s distribution center is working at something like 20% capacity (efficiency?); it wasn’t clear how much of that is due to CoVid.
In June that same friend had ordered yarn from Tennessee. It went from Memphis to St Louis back to Memphis and then to Philadelphia. I’m not sure if it then went to Detroit or Cleveland. It took almost 3 weeks for her to receive it. In the meantime I’d ordered yarn from Miss Babs, which took a week to arrive using 3-day shipping. Half of the travel time it sat in Detroit.
My fingers are crossed that the San Marcos PO is in better shape than my “local” and that your yarn shows up shortly.
I have just listened to President Trump admitting to reducing the money to the Post service deliberately to discourage voting by mail, which is hard on the innocent wool packages!
one of my great parenting successes. My kid 2 scared of thunderstorms. Packed kid 2 in bed with all of the family Pikachus (5+ stuffed animals) “Pikachu’s like thunder, he will protect you” Kid asleep with 10 minutes, would do the same thing by herself for years
Poor Kid #2. Bad enough when Mom and Dad get to say “I told you so.” So much worse when they get to do it in front of thousands of blog readers.
Hi,
Love your books, love your blog. Enjoy reading everyone’s comments.
UPS Innovations and UPS SurePost are economy shipping services used by online and mail order retailers. It’s cheap and loans the retailer the facade of shipping via a reputable company. UPS transports the package between cities, ultimately delivering it to your local post office (USPS). USPS makes the final leg of the delivery.
UPS uses 16 character tracking numbers starting with “1Z”. USPS tracking numbers start with a “9” and are about 26 characters. The USPS tracking number can be found on the UPS tracking web page. I think it’s on the right side of the page…you might need to click on a link. Use the USPS tracking number at USPS.com.
As previously pointed out, your retailer generated the label on Aug 3rd. However, UPS didn’t effectively receive the package until Aug 5th
Due to COVID-19 online buying, the shipping companies are SWAMPED. It is worse than Christmas time. During the holiday period, the shippers are at least semi-prepared with temporary employees hired ahead of time.
I sold my “The UPS Store”, June 1, 2020. You would not believe the increase in the number of people coming into the store during this “recommend stay at home” time. Mainly it is people returning items bought online. They put everyone at risk returning non-essential items….a whistle, a fifty-cent size package of stickers, a small bottle of dish soap, cheap phone cases, etc.
Bach Rescue Remedy, 2 drops for a cat/dog, 4 drops for the kid! It really does help, our vets assistant told us about it before taking 4 freaked out cats on a 5 day road trip when we moved. Life saver! Worked great for the driver when trying to get through cities. Calms stress/panic. As with any herbal remedies, give carefully and watch for effects/side effects. Too much is not a good thing! Results vary. Works great for my husband and sort of for me.
I get my horses medication for Cushings via the mail , I have learned to order the medicines 10 days before I need them and the tracking app often has me muttering curse words and asking myself why it takes 2 days to get to me from a town approximately 20 miles away. Poor Quincy I have a couple cats that are afraid of thunderstorms and my dog gets nervous when 4th of July comes around because it sounds like Armageddon here for a week! Thunder shirts work!
I have a friend who is a cardiatric nurse practitioner. Her work literally saves lives – and her family doesn’t listen to her.
So, even if you’re a best selling author who’s provided thousands of hours of entertainment for millions of people around the world, your kids don’t listen to you either?
I simultaneously feel redeemed and saddened… And cranky.
Awww poor guy. One of mine is a little afraid of thunderstorms. Sometimes if I know they are going to be big. I give him a Benadryl to help take the edge off. He is a GSD mix and he had those big ears when he was little. He looked so goofy for awhile. I was worried he would never grow into them. Quincy is a handsome pup.
PS: Waiting on yarn sucks….
I probably would have freaked out too. Poor Quincy, I’m glad he’s landed on his paws! My girl is 12 ans she still freezes up when there’s thunder. Like there’s literally no one home in there… It gets frustrating, but she can’t help it.
That shipment issue happened to me as well with a package I ordered. It’s very frustrating but I did eventually get it, and they did NOT update the tracking on it when I did so it was a fun surprise. I’m wondering if it has to do with all the changes in the mailing system they’ve implemented lately that are causing these delays. Hopefully you get your yarn soon!
Poor Quincy, but it’s good that he now has owners that care for him <3
Late post, but that looks like UPS Mail Innovations. UPS does most of the transit and USPS delivers the package.
Not horrible, but so much slower than straight UPS.
We have a rescued puppy mill dog and he is so afraid of storms. We know it is likely because he was in an outdoor crate his whole life before he was rescued. It makes me sad and mad. He does a little better when comforted during a storm and he comes to us for that now. Poor guys.
Had a dog terrified of storms. Started doing rain sounds on my computer and it adds periodic thunder storms (Rain.com).
Didn’t make it all better, but did help.
#DogTrainerWith20+YearsExperience
What. A. Cutie. Poor baby.
Ups mail innovations means the last mile is handled by usps. Don’t get your hopes up. A package shipping from Connecticut to Massachusetts just took nine days. Sorry.
Sorry for your dog, I’m dealing with an Airedale from a show kennel that was never let out of a crate till she was 71/2 months old. She’s doing great but terrified of odd things flash lights ? I think they came around at night and banged her crate with a light.
I feel really sorry for the small business that produced your yarn. Alpaca is hard margins are tight. Without access to reasonable shipping many small businesses will be destroyed.
Poor Quincy.
When I first started dating my ex (mid 1980’s), his family had a Norwegian Elkhound that had apparently come from a puppy mill, which made him, um, not quite right in the head. Combined with the basic breed characteristics (apparently they are know for barking… a lot), this made him an unpleasant neighbor.
In our area, we get a lot of wind in the spring and the fall, and whenever the wind blew, Viking barked. And barked, and barked, and sometimes howled. If he happened to be in the yard, he would immediately be let into the house where he couldn’t annoy the neighbors, just the family.
On Independence Day, the family straight-up drugged him so that he would sleep through the fireworks, rather than spending about 3 days in a constant state of freak-out.
I never actually liked Viking, but I felt sorry for him.
I have 3 sisters of the same litter. They were never left outside.. One is terrified of thunder and her sisters look at her like she is nuts.. I let her sit on me till she calms down. Her mother was not scared of storms either.
I wonder if Quincey would benefit froma Thunder Shirt. The following is from the Amazon product description:
Thunder Shirt—ORIGINAL DOG CALMING WRAP: The patented ThunderShirt design applies gentle, constant pressure to calm anxiety, fear, and over excitement due to a variety of environmental triggers.
DRUG-FREE CALMING: Effectively eases anxieties during fireworks, thunder, separation, travel, vet visits, and much more with no training and no medication, so your beloved pet receives naturally soothing relief. Great for rescue dogs!
100% MONEYBACK
They state they have an 80% success rate. It’s around $45. A Lot cheaper than an emergency vet visit, and something he can use for years.
Good luck, Quincy. Hope you feel better.
It is such a common thing. Our old shephard/rottweiler/lab mix was terrified of everyhing. But we got him as senior gentleman so who knows. On the other hand, our cashnoodle fribble rescued from a flooded parking lot before he could walk or have eyes open (people are terrible) has no fear of anything. Because we exposed him to things early with love and comfort. Fireworks, yeah there’s people. Thunder, excellent! He loves everything and thinks everything is a celebration of his life. Because it is and I dare anyone to try to tell me different. The only thing he doesn’t care for is actually getting wet. But the schauzzer poodle hair makes that kind of muckiness unpleasant, so who can blame him.
Really don’t like UPS mail innovations shipping. Stupid packages can get hung up for a week or more. Anymore I do my best to avoid that particular shipping method. Regular UPS is fine. Good luck!
I feel for you and Kid#2. Our first greyhound was extremely thunderphobic, starting to shake even if a dump truck went by and its lift gate banged. Shaking, drooling, occasionally literally having the crap scared out of her. During storms we went the whole 9 yards — Thundershirt, herbal remedies, soft music, sleeping at the foot of her crate, etc.
Deepest sympathies to all (especially Quincy) from Gypsy & her mom. Miss Gypsy, the sweetest, happiest rescue dog in the world is terrified any high pressure system. Obviously, hurricane season in FL has same angst as Houston.