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I missed Eddy unbearably today.

At one point I was chatting online to a friend who lost her dog some time ago and couldn't stop myself from crying.

Everywhere I turn in this house, all of the routine things that I do, point out to me that he isn't here any more.

This was one of his favourite spots.  He's actually guarding against cats.  I'm afraid he really, really didn't like them.  If one dared to venture into his territory, he went absolutely mental against that conservatory door until he was let out and then he'd charge down the garden to shoo it away.

The awful thing is that I can't get out of my mind the feeling of him dying in my arms.  He died a week ago, he was a family member, and I know I shouldn't be too hard on myself.  Am I sounding morbid?  Eddy was just so lovely and I miss him terribly.


 
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So, after rushing into everything as usual, I sat back today and wondered what I'd done.  Answering forum posts, manning the Facebook page, adding to the website, posting the Project's links wherever I could, and reading xylitol links is hard work.  I know it's always like this at the beginning of any project but I felt really tired today.

We talked it over and decided that grief is a contributory factor to how I feel right now.

There is a small group of us but, mainly, it's me doing most of the slog whilst the others come up with ideas and advice.  That's fine really because Project Eddy was my idea.

I expect things to calm down over the next few days.  I hope so because I'm keen to get more into the campaign.


 
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I have never created a website before!

I'm a newbie at this!

A good few years ago - more than I care to remember - I was quite skilled at DTP (desktop publishing) but I'm sure all of the software that I knew is now seen as Bronze Age.

In a fit of eagerness after starting off the Facebook page, I set to with a free Google package.  I know Google stuff quite well, regularly use Google Docs etc, so I thought I'd stick with what I know.  Well what a nightmare it turned out to be.

I chose a free template and was working on it for hours.  Despite not knowing much about website creation, even I knew that what I was working on was definitely from the Bronze Age.  It was HORRIBLE!.

So, after about 5 hours and when I was half way to completing the website, I decided it looked vile and binned it.  It wasn't even possible to properly align 3 photos on the stupid template.

A very good friend, Katherine, told me about Weebly... the package we're using here.  Like Google, it's free.  Unlike Google, it doesn't look ancient and is relatively easy to use.  It took me a day to create this... which involved a steep learning curve in how to create a website, and it was launched on 17 February.

The only thing that has disappointed me is the lack of flashing buttons, tiny icons, smilies, and jazzy banners between sections etc.  It's all a bit basic!  I was looking forward to adding all those exciting little touches but it'll have to do for now.  My fella says that we may upgrade if Project Eddy goes on for a while.

Anyway, let me know what you think.  I can take construction criticism... I think.


 
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A community Facebook page is a little different to an individual Facebook page and I felt completely disorientated at first.  But I was determined to start it and began on 15 February.

We invited friends initially, then trawled through our email lists - I think councils and water boards even got invited because we had emailed complaints in the past - and then began to look at pet forums.

Being a member of a forum is nothing new to me.  But joining quite a few in one go showed the vagaries of registrations and membership rules.  Most of them were fine, but a couple weren't at all and I was accused of breaking rules and spamming because I linked Project Eddy's new Facebook page.  Trying to explain that PE (Project Eddy) was a genuine cause, on a community page, and certainly not a commercial enterprise fell on deaf ears.  One of them banned me "forever".  I just moved on and found other, friendlier forums.  Of course the members asked me all the ins and outs of xylitol and I simply wanted to point them to the PE page so that I could move on to the next forum!  Most of the members were incredibly friendly though and happy that I was passing on an important message.  And the majority knew nothing about xylitol.

I also found pet pages on FB and, initially, posted a couple of sentences and a link directly onto those pages.  That is until I got a warning from Facebook for spamming!

Sometimes it can be hard to get a genuine message out there!