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One of the things Mum really likes to do is to feed the ducks and geese at the creek. She never forgets the ducks are there and always wants to give them bread. Bread isn't really good for ducks, but the occasional bit won't hurt.
When I take her out of the nursing home for the day we often stop and feed these ducks. She loves it.
I'm dreading when the day comes that she's too badly behaved to take out for the day, yet I know that day is probably coming. On the way back to the nursing home at day's end, she's generally quite obnoxious, though not as bad as before she started on risperidone.
I couldn't resist this. It's funny and it's not funny, because when Mum was living at her own house and at my house I used to do things like this! I also tried:
*Putting cellotape over switches I didn't want turned on or off. This worked - the transparent tape was too hard to find to rip off.
*Chaining the cat food bowl to anything nearby so she couldn't keep moving it and putting it somewhere weird, like the cupboard or the fridge. But she was smart enough to go and get another dish and tip the cat food into it.
*Putting chains around gates
*Chaining gates open that I didn't want shut
*Locking kitchen cupboard doors with chains, but she just ripped the doors right off their hinges in her desperation to get in there - who knows why.
*Having a doorstopper screwed into the floor near the bedroom door so she couldn't keep locking cats in there.
*Having the back windows screwed shut so she couldn't open them in the middle of the night and go "Puss puss puss!" while trying to let cats in via the windows.
*Turning off the water so she couldn't flood the place while I was gone, and only leaving enough water in the jug for her to drink.
*Pulling out the fuse that worked the kitchen stove
*Taping the mobile phone together to discourage her from pulling it apart and removing the battery. But she can remove tape.
But really, nothing will prevent their extreme agitation and determination to do weird stuff.
Mum is doing pretty well. She's still able to enjoy a day out. On Anzac Day, we must have walked three miles to get to the march and three miles back. She wasn't even out of breath. Here she is wearing her brother-in-law's medals. She had a very happy day. After the march she came to my place and sat on the lounge with one of the dogs, watching the Dawn Services from Anzac Cove and France. Back at the nursing home, I showered and dressed her for bed to save the staff a bit of work, being a public holiday.
