Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Cat Day

Greetings.

There is nothing really new to report on the Cancer Front. I continue to take chemo pills most days with weekly trips to Dana Farber for my shot of Velcade. I continue to tolerate the side effects reasonably well. My numbers are holding pretty steady, so there is nothing really new to report.

So I will mention the main thing that is going on with our lives. Saturday was Cat Day - the day we have been both looking forward to and dreading ever since we bought the apartment at Fox Hill Village. On Saturday, the cats moved to Westwood. We are now living in a "Cat House".

You might think moving cats is a relatively simple thing. You would be wrong. One of our cats (Puma) does not like to ride in the car. She expresses her displeasure by emptying herself - from both ends - within minutes after getting into the vehicle. This does not always smell really great. Both cats also yowl during the entire car ride.

We decided that the best way to get away from any noise and odor would be to put them in the back of the truck - which is covered. All the way back. Near the tail-gate. You might think that this would be a pretty fool-proof solution. Again, you would be wrong. Let's just say that our cats have strong personalities.

Barbara decided that it would be best to give the cats a sedative. I had to help. My job was to hold onto the cat while Barbara opened the cat's mouth and shoved a pill into its mouth. Our cats fight back when taking pills. I wore welding gloves. My wife is the bravest person I know. Seems to me like a good way to lose a finger or two.

So, with all this prep, the trip itself went relatively smoothly. We did one cleaning of the cat carrier before we even left the garage. Then about halfway, we could tell that there had been additional activity in the back. We turned on the fan to blow air into the front of the truck. This worked fairly well.

The cats made it to Fox Hill Village and seem to be adapting fairly well. When we got here, Puma was still partly under the sedative. It was funny to watch her stumbling around as if she had had a bit too much to drink. I got into trouble for laughing at this.

The cats seem to like it OK here except for one thing. No mice. At least not real ones. Barbara has of course provided them with a number of toy mice - including at least one really obnoxious one that squeaks every time the cats bat it around. But I can tell that the cats know it is fake and miss being able to chase real ones. So, know what I am going to do? Next week when I am in New Hampshire, I will live-trap a few mice and release them here at Fox Hill Village as a Christmas gift for the kitties. They are going to be so surprised and happy. I think Barbara will be surprised as well, so please don't mention it to her.



Barbara wants to spend most of the winter down here at Fox Hill. I too will spend a lot of time here, but I will also visit Meredith from time to time for Zoning Board meetings and to check up on the house. My brother and his family are planning to come up to New Hampshire for Christmas week and I will be in New Hampshire for that.

Meanwhile, when I pulled the truck into our parking place, I discovered that there was no place on the truck into which to plug the charging cable. Apparently, I will have to visit one of those places they refer to as "Gasoline Stations"? Do you know that they actually charge you for refueling at those places. Maybe we are getting spoiled?

I will close with a couple of links that you might want to check out.

The first is our annual newsletter. For faithful followers of this blog, there will be little in there that you have not seen other than a few nice photos. But here is the link if you want to follow it and have not gotten it some other way.

The second is a link to a video of the PassePartout for anyone who wants to see it in action. It is mercifully short - I promise. And here is the link to the PPT In Action Video if you want to see the YouTube video.

That's all for now. Have a great holiday season and much happiness in the new year.