A big thank you to EVERYONE! I really do appreciate the time and thought you invested in responding. My husband dug a hole this evening and installed one of those dog waste management systems: basically a 36" deep hole that perks with a box and a lid on top. The plan, as it stands right now, is to do what is described above: harvest the old bedding, put it in the bottom of the hole, wash the worm bin, rinse the worms with water from our rain barrel, put the worms into the clean bin with fresh bedding and with non-meat/non-fat/non-dairy kitchen waste that we've been accumulating. I figure we can use that mature worm bedding in place of the enzyme tablets that came with the waste management system, at least as a start. We'll see how that works out. I think I am going to try to compost the cat poop in the worm bedding in the 36" hole in the interim before Puppy comes home. That way we'll have a trial run. We'll either know we have a problem before Puppy gets here, and we'll know that we need to punt and try something else, or we'll have a good system up and running when he arrives. I figure that one of three things will happen: 1. This will work well as a compost bin for cat and dog poop. As the hole gradually fills with digested waste we'll harvest it for use in our ornamental perennial bed. Value added, the waste management system is actually buried in one of those beds. 2. This will not work well as a compost system. If the hole fills too fast we'll switch to using lots of water, the enzymes as needed, and let it work as a septic field. The hole appears to perk well. It's not near our water supply nor any edible plants. 3. This won't work at all and we'll have to punt and do something else. At any rate we have a deep hole into which to deposit the "contaminated" worm bedding- so that much is working out well! I also have an email in to Kelly Slocum to ask whether or not I've missed anything here. I wonder if 3 feet down will yield a stable enough temperature to keep the compost cool enough in the summer, warm enough in the winter? Per the instructions, my husband didn't dig the hole very wide in diameter. As hot and as dry as it's been, I'm surprised he was able to get the hole dug by hand (with a manual post hole digger) at all. I suppose the hole is wide enough for a little worm bedding and some cat poop. We'll see how it goes! Again, thank you one and all for your help!

This thread is bittersweet. Comforting to know so many others have struggled with “the right time”. I don’t know if anyone will read this, but I think typing this all out will help. I begged to get Luna for my 14th birthday and with my grandma’s help, my mom finally agreed. I had a chaotic upbringing/family and Luna often was my only source of peace in the darkest times. She is a very special dog and many people have said she’s a once in a lifetime type (you know the kind, naturally didn’t need a leash, very docile and sweet). She’s had arthritis for years and I’ve had her on prescription food and pain/joint meds for years. I’ve always been attentive of her health and was a vet tech for a few years so pet health is nothing new to me. Neither is euthanasia. This year, she lost weight, developed dementia, and started having accidents inside. I take her out multiple times a day (at least 6). She likes walks, but gets confused in the yard. I’ve noticed she also cranes her neck a lot. She also licks the carpet or her bed obsessively at times. The last two weeks, she’s had accidents inside almost everyday. We celebrated her 16th birthday on Monday. She couldn’t get up on Tuesday night and was really wobbly this week. I can see her front legs are also starting to shake. When she greets me, she wags her tail low and close to her legs. I don’t want to bump up her meds again because she sleeps all day anyways. When I look into her eyes, I can tell she’s tired. I thought maybe we could celebrate Christmas one more time. But maybe the best gift I can give her is peace…like she’s given me so many times. I don’t know if it’s the right time, but I don’t want her to reach that final stage (not getting up, seizures, crying/barking out of confusion/distress, etc). I am struggling with depression and the sadness I feel thinking about it all is heavy, but I am so grateful for this soul that showed me unconditional love and light.

I also agree about elevating the older dog to a dominant position in the house. When our dog died, and we brought in a new companion for Ricky, we intentionally always went to Ricky first, and said so. Ricky, let's go outside. Our pup learned to "wait for Ricky" as he would walk proudly out the door first. When we fed them, we would say Ricky eats first. Actually we only set down his bowl first, then fed the pup. Even now a year later, we always let Ricky go first and make a big deal of it. Blaze knows nothing else. Ricky leaves and enters the house first. He eats first and gets in and out of the van first. We brush him first and pet him first. Even if Blaze runs up to us to the gate first, we often will stop petting him and pet Ricky when he arrives. All of our dogs are lap dogs. We just sit on the floor. In time when the older one feels more comfortable, the little dog may be a more exclusive lap dog, but for now, I would sit on the floor, and pet the older one first. We keep our dogs in the most popular area of our house, so we go to them. They are rarely alone, but we do not allow them into our living room or bedrooms. Those are off limits, so we don't have dogs with us 24 hours, and we sleep without dog dander since we are very allergic. Therefore we can easily declare that Ricky is first in whatever we do. I don't think you will have a problem after a couple of weeks. If you do, you might consider discussing this with the Vet to see if there is a mild medication you can give your older dog for anxiety. One more thing - when we were walking our dogs, Ricky used to always poop. We would scoop it up, and walk with it. Once my husband hurt his back and had to stop walking with us for a couple of weeks, I quickly got tired of this process. Before our walks I would take the dogs out as usual, and I began telling Ricky to do his business. He would walk inside, and I would call him out. I kept telling him to do his business, and he began doing it. Now he understand that he must do it before we walk. We haven't needed the bags for about 6 weeks. It may be that your dog is performing for you in a more dramatic fashion than the pup can do. You might keep the dog outside with you (and not the young dog), and insist that he poops before he comes in. Even give him a treat if he performs for you. We all know that a dog's brain is wired completely different from ours. Sammy

This occasionally happens to my cats too. Though, being short haired, it's usually caused by them ingesting MY hair. They both like to lick peoples heads. So..sometimes things are being..strung along a little while, til they fall off somewhere. I wouldn't worry, unless it was a whole, full poop and not just a piece.