Thomas Anthony Fiction & Practical Guides

Practical Nonfiction

Practical Guides

Practical guides for the passages nobody trains you for.

Cover of No Siblings, No Backup by Thomas Anthony — a caregiving guide for the adult only child

What this is

Practical guides for the passages nobody trains you for.

These are operations manuals for caretaking that arrives without a handover. A parent who suddenly needs you. A house full of decisions once they are gone. An animal whose slowing down might be ordinary age and might be something treatable.

The problem underneath all of them is the same. Someone you are responsible for is changing, you are the one who has to notice, and nobody has told you which changes matter or what to do first.

None of these books are pep talks. They assume you are competent, short on time, and looking for the order of operations. What goes first. Who has authority. What to write down before you need it. What a decision actually costs.

Every money, legal, health, and safety claim traces to a real public source. Where a decision belongs to a professional — a lawyer, a doctor, a veterinarian — the books say so instead of improvising.

Start with the problem

Three different problems, three different libraries

Your older dog has started changing

Something is different and you cannot tell whether it matters yet. Notice it, write the right things down, and know what deserves a call.

Is This Just Old Age?

Explore Senior Dog Care

An aging parent needs help

The calls are getting more frequent and you are becoming the default. Build backup before a crisis picks for you.

No Siblings, No Backup

Explore Aging Parent Care

A parent has died and there is a house

Property, paperwork, belongings, siblings and deadlines, all arriving in the same week. Start with the order of operations.

The House After Mom and Dad

Explore Estate & Home Transition

The guides

Current guides

Cover of No Siblings, No Backup by Thomas Anthony — a caregiving guide for the adult only child

No Siblings, No Backup

The Only Child's Guide to Caregiving for Aging Parents — Without Losing Your Career, Money, or Yourself

You are the default. You do not have to be the entire system.

Cover of The House After Mom and Dad by Thomas Anthony — a guide to clearing a parent's house and settling the estate

The House After Mom and Dad

The Adult Child's Guide to Clearing a Parent's House and Settling the Estate After Death — Without Losing the Family

A house, an estate, a family archive, and a worksite — all at once, and all at the worst possible time.

Cover of Is This Just Old Age? by Thomas Anthony — a senior dog care guide to 101 changes in aging dogs

Is This Just Old Age?

Senior Dog Care: A Step-by-Step Guide to 101 Changes, What's Normal, What Needs a Vet, and How to Protect Your Dog's Quality of Life

101 changes owners actually notice at home, and the question that comes before any diagnosis: what should I do next?

Readers

Start where you actually are

Different problems, different books.

Your parents are still living, and it is starting

The calls are getting more frequent. You are becoming the default. No Siblings, No Backup is about building backup before you need it.

A parent has died, and there is a house

Property, paperwork, belongings, siblings, deadlines, and no obvious first step. The House After Mom and Dad is the order of operations.

You are the only child

There is no sibling bench to divide the work. The whole premise of No Siblings, No Backup is that a network can do what a sibling group would have done.

You are long distance

The caregiving books assume you may be several states away and treat that as a design constraint rather than a failure.

Your dog is getting older

Something has changed and you cannot tell whether it matters. Is This Just Old Age? is built around the 101 changes owners actually notice at home.

Free Resources

Practical starting points, plus the printable worksheet packs that accompany the books. All free, and none of it gated behind an email signup.

Free printable Free No Siblings, No Backup Companion WorksheetsFull-size, print-and-fill versions of every tool in the book. No signup, no email address, no separate purchase. Free printable Free Senior Dog Care Companion ToolsPrintable worksheets for tracking a change, preparing for the vet, and planning before a crisis. No signup, no email address. Practical Guides If I Am Unavailable: What Another Person Needs to KnowThe single page that lets someone else keep your parent safe for two weeks without you. Practical Guides Only Child Caring for Aging Parents: Where to StartThe first five moves when you are the whole support system and nobody handed you a plan. Practical Guides How to Build a Backup Plan When You Have No SiblingsThe five seats worth filling, how to ask so people say yes, and what to do when they say no. Practical Guides What Information to Organize Before an Aging-Parent EmergencyThe seven questions you will be asked in the first hour, and the one page that answers all of them. Practical Guides Long-Distance Caregiving When You're an Only ChildYou are the only sensor, and you are four states away. How to get real information and make visits count. Practical Guides Practical First Steps for a Parent's House and Belongings After DeathSecure it, document it, find out who has authority — and do not start sorting yet. Practical Guides A Monthly Once-Over for an Aging DogTen minutes a month beats watching anxiously every day — because gradual change is invisible from the inside. Practical Guides Making Your Home Easier for an Older DogTraction, access, lighting, and bedding. The cheapest senior-dog care there is, and the part almost nobody does until after a fall. Practical Guides Muscle, Not Just Weight, in an Older DogA dog can hold the same weight for a year while losing the muscle that gets them off the floor. Practical Guides Pain in Senior Dogs Rarely Looks Like LimpingChronic discomfort in a senior dog usually shows up as a slow narrowing of what they choose to do — which reads as age, not pain.

All free resources