Tag Archives: animals

D.W. Field Park

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D. W. Field Park is located in the middle of the city of Brockton, Ma. I have heard of the park but I hadn’t been there before today.

I dropped Smokey off at the vet first thing this morning and wanted to stay close to home incase they called so I gave my friend Nancy a ring to see what she was  up to for the afternoon. I was thinking of going over to the Fuller Craft Museum where there is a pond on the grounds.  I thought I might be able to get some pictures there.

Nancy lives in Brockton so through the wonder of miscommunication she thought I wanted to go to the D. W. Field Park that surrounds the Fuller Craft Museum. Sometimes things have a way of working out just right!

I picked up Nancy and her 5-year-old  daughter Dawn and we headed over to the museum. I missed the turn into the Museum parking lot but Nancy assured me we could get in at the next left.

 I found myself pulling through an iron gate set in a stone fence. A paved road led us on into the park. As we drove Nancy pointed out picnic tables and pull offs for parking.

The park itself is over 700 acres of woodland and ponds that support a wide variety of native wildlife. There are over 7 miles of paved roads that wind through the park along with paths and trails for walking and hiking.

As we drove along we spotted a pull off across from one of the ponds. There were benches and loads of ducks, geese and swans. There were even some pigeons. I’d never seen a  brown/red pigeon before but there was one in this flock.

Dawn found some fuzzy caterpillars and seemed more interested in the bugs than the birds although she did feed a whole loaf of bread to the riotous avians and watched the feeding frenzy that followed.

We walked a little way along the pond until we came to a man-made waterfall that is the out source for the pond.

It’s a really beautiful area. It’s hard to believe you’re in the heart of a city. Once the leaves really start to change color this is going to be worth a return visit!

We wrapped up our afternoon with a visit to Asack’s Turkey Farm where they have 24 flavors of soft ice cream. We had the ice cream first then considering the time picked up Turkey pockets for dinner..yummm! The Turkey pockets have turkey breast, stuffing and cranberry sauce. The pockets are really stuffed full. They don’t skimp on the turkey, an excellent value.

Our bounty in hand I dropped Nancy and Dawn back at their home. Young Alex, Nancy’s 7 year old son, had just come home from school so I said my good byes and headed on to my other errands.

What a nice afternoon break!

Day 2 of the Great Kitty Collection

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Well It’s day 2 of the so far fruitless pursuit of a urine sample from Smokey. 

 I’ve decided that I am not going to bother separating the cats. Yesterday was too stressful on all 3 of us. Rocky still isn’t eating which is not good for cats. When I got up (earlier than normal) I checked the cat litter hoping to get to it before Smokey let loose a flood but no luck. The Litter with special pellets is now sitting in the middle of the living room so I can keep an eye on it. I have to make sure Rocky doesn’t use it.

Of course Rocky is the cat who is showing interest not Smokey. He keeps going over and sniffing it. I keep calling him away. Of course that’s the way it’s going to be. If we aren’t successful today I won’t get to try again until next week because of my work schedule. It might be easier on all of us if I just take Smokey to the vet after all.

How Do you collect Bodily Fluid from a Cat?

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As you know if you have been following this blog recently, I have a sick cat. Actually I have 2 cats and one of them was having excessive bathroom issues. Hmmm. The problem was that neither I nor my pet sitter had been able to catch the culprit in the act so I didn’t know which one.

Don’t get me wrong. The culprit was very clean. He wasn’t missing the litter box or anything like that. It was just there was so much volume that there were not puddles but lakes in the box when I’d go to “scoop” it.  That kind of thing can be a sign of kidney disease, diabetes or thyroid just to name a few. All are very common in senior cats.

Smokey is 13 (as best we can figure out) and Rocky is 10. That meant that they were both considered seniors and were both candidates.

$400+ later and a couple of stressful visits to the vet for blood tests and the results were in. Rocky was fine but Smokey had elevated levels. Don’t ask me which levels. I couldn’t spell them even if I knew what they were. But I do appreicate the vet telling me and not “dumbing down” the results. The next step is to collect a urine sample for more testing.

I’m sure most if not all my readers have had to “pee in a cup” for their doctor at one time or another. Sometimes it isn’t easy to “go” on demand but at least we can understand why we have to do it. How do you explain to a cat that you need him to “pee in a cup”?

My vet had 2 options. One was to bring him in and they would keep him in a cage until he decided to “go”. They said sometimes it can take up to 3 days because the cat will “hold” it  in since he is in a strange environment.

Option 2 was for me to take a little kit home and collect it myself. (Fun).

First problem..I have 2 cats in a 1 bedroom condo. Isolating one is not easy. The current set up is that the “Kitty commodes” are in the closet next to the human bathroom as the human bathroom is so tiny there’s no room for litter boxes in there. If I close the bedroom door then one cat will not be able to get to their bathroom.

 So I made a trip to Walmart for a Mini-kitty pan ($1.98) and put the pellets from the kit in that. I then got water and cat food and put all of that in my tiny bathroom. I next caught my poor, trusting kitty and dumped him there too and closed the door. Starting his solitary confinement.

Special "Kitty Pellets"

About 2 hours later I need to use the facilities so I figured it would be a good chance to check on Smokey. He was on strike. He hadn’t touched his food , water or his “special” litter and the bathroom was getting pretty stuffy and warm. Time for an alternative.

I pulled out the “Kitty walk” tunnel and moved the food and water to one end and put the kitty litter in the other end. Smokey was in the middle. I located this by the open slider in the living room. Now Smokey could see outside and Rocky and I would be there with him. No isolation this way.

Within the first 1/2 hour Smokey had flipped both his water dish and the kitty litter box and was hunkered down for a good sulk. I refilled the water and scraped up the little pellets and put them back in the litter box but did not give up. Smokey stayed in the enclosure. He just gave me evil kitty looks.

Ok two hours later the water and litter are both upside down again and Smokey is huddled in a lump in the middle of the Kitty walk. I don’t think this is going to work.

The last idea I can come up with is to drag one of the litter boxes into the living room for Rocky. Close the closet door so Smokey can’t get in to use one of the other boxes. I emptied  Smokey’s favorite box and pulled that out and set the “mini” box inside it. I gave him fresh food and water and showed him the box. He is now confined in my bedroom. He has a window, my bed, a chair, cat toys, food and water and the Special litter box. Rocky is on the other side in the living room.

I didn’t count on Smokey having an accomplice to escape captivity. Rocky can open anything. All of my cupboards have child safety locks to keep him out. The tri-fold doors all have stools or something in front of them because he can open those too. Anyway, within 10 minutes I see 2 fuzzy bodies come racing around the end of the couch and the bedroom door is open. It was the Great Kitty Escape!

I caught Smokey and returned him to the bedroom. I then closed the bedroom door and stuffed a dust cloth in the door so it would stick. Hopefully “Houdini” cat won’t be able to open that.

Success…sort of. Rocky started to work on the door right away. When he couldn’t get it open he turned into a maniac cat. He raced around the living room yowling. I guess that was his way of venting his frustration. Right now he is standing on top of his cat tree with his tail whipping back and forth in aggravation.

one very aggravated cat

I have seldom seen the Rockster so upset.

Well he’ll just need to “get over it”. I can only hope that Smokey will finally get the message and “pee in the cup.”

Smokey Update

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Editor in Chief

Editor-in-Chief  Rocky here with  an update on Smokey. We got the blood tests back and there were some elevated enzyme levels. Basically Smokey is showing signs of possible kidney issues. He is not in renal failure but there is cause for concern. More tests are underway but the Vet is hopeful that the progression can be delayed with a change of diet. That means a “prescription” diet, no more off the shelf cat food.

If the condition is confirmed then there is no cure. It is just the natural progression of old age in male cats and all we can hope to do is delay the inevitable. At this point we don’t know if he has one year or 10 years but at least we have identified the problem early.

Smokey

As the results of the additional tests come in (probably next week) we will update you here. Even though Smokey doesn’t hold any “position” like Rocky does, he is still an important part of the Dusty Roads Family and we will continue to share developments.

How we Spent our Morning In Brewster, MA

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Brewster Ma is located on Cape Cod, a wonderful place almost anytime unless you dislike snow. But spring, summer and fall are certainly beautiful times to explore the Cape and Brewster is right in the middle.

Mapquest wanted us to get there by following route  6A. This is a great way to see the sights as the little country-style road meanders through all the little hamlets and towns along the coast of the Cape.  However we had two young children in the car (Can you hear the famous query? “Are we there yet”) so we chose to take  the Cape Highway also known as RT 6. It’s not as scenic but it’s certainly faster. We got off at the Dennisport exit and crossed the cape back to 6A South for our last little bit to our destination.

We were heading to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.

 The Museum is pretty tiny but it’s really well-appointed. The mission statement or purpose is to increase awareness of the environment around us.

There’s a library for research, an activity room where the kids can look at terrariums with snakes and toads, or enjoy the stuffed animals and birds in glass cases.

 There was a video feed from the Osprey nest and a large window looked out on bird feeders and bird baths. There were binoculars supplied to help with the bird watching.

In the short time we were there I spotted a family of cardinals, a yellow finch as well as an assortment of sparrows. The chipmunks were in attendance too.

There’s also a long activity table where the kids can color or trace the animals etched on the surfaces.

 Downstairs was a small aquarium with local fish, crabs, lobsters  and turtles. The jelly fish tank is a see through tank. Everyone was taking pictures through the tank, myself included.

A large shallow tank that looked like a “touch tank” was really a “No Touch tank” which was monitored by a volunteer who answered questions and pointed out the various creatures.

 She also made sure that no little fingers made their way into the tank. This was a bit of a disappointment for the kids but there were quite a few animals in this tank that would not do well with handling.

The museum is set on the edge of a salt marsh and mud flat but there is no admission for the trails. The only admission is charged for going into the museum itself. Even that is nominal, less than $10.00 per person.

You can go through the museum fairly quickly as we did with 2 energetic children towing us along but if you are an adult and go without  the kids , you may want to linger at some of the exhibits or sit in the comfy chairs in front of that big window and spend some time bird watching. I could have spent more time there without question. But today’s trip was for the kids and we moved at their energetic pace.

If you get to Brewster this is definitely worth a stop.