Q: It may take up to a month for your cat's tail to heal. Your cat may have low energy and/ or little appetite following a tail pull injury or surgery. Rest is one of the most important components of your cat's recovery. You can help your cat rest and recuperate at home by putting its food and water dishes, bedding, and litter box in a quiet place. Consider making a cozy space in a separate room or crate for your cat. This can help you better observe your cat and its recovery. Place warm blankets in your cat's space. These can invite your cat to rest often. Make sure to provide fresh food and water at least once every day, even if your cat doesn't have much of an appetite. This can minimize the risk of infection. Understand that cats are very clean and sensitive to their litter box. . Provide your cat a clean little box filled with shredded paper instead of litter. This can minimize the risk of infection from litter dust. Your cat may have very few symptoms following treatment for a tail pull injury. If this is the case, it's still important that you cat rest for at least a week. Limiting activities such as running, jumping, and playing with you or other pets can help your cat heal and minimize the risk of further injury. Let your cat get mild exercise such as playing with a ball in its rest area or crate. Keep your cat indoors if it goes outside. This can also help prevent further injury, infection, and even attacks by other animals. Many cats experience urinary and fecal incontinence because due to a lack of sensation from a tail pull injury. This may continue during treatment, but about 60% of cats recover their continence. If your cat has any type of incontinence, provide as much support during this time as possible. In some cases, cats may never regain continence, which may require manual expression or catheterization. Recognize that your cat's vet will let you know the best way to handle the cat's incontinence. Your cat may require manual expression of the bladder by your vet or you at home. The vet may also suggest a cystotomy, or surgical incision, into your cat's bladder to aid urinary incontinence. Give your cat stool softeners as advised by your doctor to aid any constipation. Let your vet know if the incontinence gets worse or doesn't go away. The vet can suggest different or alternative treatments for it. Your cat will likely need to visit its vet on multiple occasions following a tail pull injury or surgery. These appointments determine if healing properly and is in relatively good health. Avoid missing any appointments to ensure your cat's tail and overall health. Schedule follow-up visits as often as your vets suggest or is necessary if your cat is experiencing additional problems with its tail.
A: Create a cozy environment. Limit your cat's activity. Aid your cat's incontinence. Attend follow-up vet visits.

Q: No matter how you may feel in the moment, it's always best to reserve a serious conversation like this for a time and place when you can be alone. Collect your thoughts beforehand and invite your friend to a place that feels neutral, like a park (if it's nice out) or a coffee shop you can both get to easily. Ask your friend's permission to have a serious talk. Say something like, "There's something that's been bothering me, and I was hoping we could sit down alone for a few minutes to talk. Is that okay?" Make sure you're not angry, hurt, or otherwise upset when you sit down to talk to your friend. Remember that this is supposed to be a meaningful conversation, not a chance to prove that you're right or your friend is wrong. Focus on honesty and straightforwardness, but remain grounded in compassion. Once you're sitting down and talking about the issue at hand, it's important to focus on specific incidents - preferably recent incidents so it doesn't feel like you're dredging up the past. As you recall each incident to your friend, let him or her know how it made you feel. Try to convey why you felt that way, and what it was about your friend's words/actions that affected you so strongly. Use "I" statements. For example, instead of saying "You were mean to me," reframe it around your observations/feelings: "I felt like you didn't consider how it made me feel when you said _____." Don't use judgmental words, and don't make or convey any assumptions about your friend. Say something like, "The other day you said _______. That really hurt my feelings, and it really embarrassed me in front of everyone. It felt like you didn't care about me as a friend." Keep your emotions in check as you talk. Any time you feel tempted to say something out of anger, take a deep breath and think about how you can reframe the conversation without getting upset. Remember that the point of talking to your friend isn't to make him/her feel bad, nor is it to make you feel superior. You should be setting up a real, productive conversation about the nature of your friendship, so your friend will naturally have some input as well. Be open and willing to hear what your friend has to say. Be alert and attentive. Resist the urge to plan out what you want to say in response, and instead focus on listening. Don't interrupt. Give your friend a chance to speak, and if there's anything you were unclear on you can address it once your friend has finished talking. When it's your turn to speak, acknowledge what your friend has said. Say something like, "I understand what you're saying. Here's where I'm coming from." Don't argue or try to invalidate what your friend has said, but accept it and ask for clarification if needed. Once you've had a back-and-forth dialogue about the problems you've been noticing, your friend might understand where you're coming from and vow to change. However, if that doesn't happen, you may need to offer a concrete plan of action on what you need your friend to change. Let your friend know what you would like things to be different going forward. Be specific. Try to give concrete examples - for example, advise your friend on how things might have been said/done differently during an encounter that you felt was condescending. Reiterate to your friend that you care about him/her and value the friendship you have. Remind your friend that you're not trying to nitpick or cut off your friendship; rather, you're actually trying to strengthen your bond.
A: Create a safe and open atmosphere to address the issue. Focus on conveying what happened and how it made you feel. Listen to your friend's response. Offer a concrete solution.

Q: Slugs and snails can chew up your most prized plants, but they are not fond of coffee grounds. Sprinkle a handful of grounds around the bases of plants you want to protect. If you're worried about increasing the acidity of the soil, make a solid ring of grounds farther away from the base. It's thought that this works because the caffeine in the coffee grounds hurts these pests. Coffee grounds aren't just good for tiny pests. They can also be used to keep feline friends from playing in your delicate plants. In this case, use the grounds just as you'd use them to repel snails sprinkle them around the plants you want to protect. The acidifying effect on the soil may be unavoidable here due to how much you'll need to use. If you participate in vermiculture (raising worms), you have a great opportunity to use up your coffee grounds. Worms love to eat coffee grounds, so feel free to add plenty to your worm bin or a worm-containing compost pile. Note, however, that coffee grounds should be part of a balanced diet: fruit and vegetable scraps, newspaper, leaves, and so on should accompany any coffee grounds you add. There is some evidence that coffee grounds can be used to prevent certain types of fungus from attacking your plants. A light sprinkling of coffee grounds may be able to prevent Fusarium, Pythium, and Sclerotinia species of fungi from taking root. Tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers are especially vulnerable to fungal infections, so coffee grounds make an especially good choice for these plants.
A:
Use grounds to deter pests. Use grounds to keep cats out of your garden. Use coffee grounds as worm food. Use grounds to discourage fungal infection.