Rocky Update

Posted on January 18, 2017January 18, 2017 by Dusty Roads

If you have been following this blog for long you know that I am a Cat Lady. At one point I had 3 cats but old age, cancer and illness have been picking off my furry family. Rocky is 16 this year and he is the only one left.

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Since I’ve been Rocky’s pet parent I’ve lost Little Joe, a Black and White Persian tuxedo kitty.

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Then there was Smokey; a fluffy, sweet natured gray kitty. He passed away from a fast moving cancer in his mouth.

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Before Smokey passed away our family grew again to include Buddy, another Black & White kitty. He was huge, tipping the scale at 17 lbs he was a gentle giant. Then as suddenly as he joined us he was gone, just a couple of years after we lost Smokey. Again it was cancer although tests didn’t find the actual tumor the abnormal cells seemed to be everywhere and my poor boy couldn’t breathe.

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That leaves only Rocky. My concern was that Rocky had never been an only kitty. He has always been surrounded by a fur family. But here we are 6+ months since Buddy passed and all seems well. Rocky has become a cuddly lap kitty, something he never did before. He seems happy. Of course he has the run of the house now.

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For years I worked a sort of 2nd shift, I left for work between 10-12 and got home between 7 – 9 pm. Now that I’m working a normal 9-5 shift I have difficulty getting “Lazy Bones” to get up for breakfast. On the weekends if I let him sleep in he doesn’t come around to eat until 10 am or so.

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As you can tell, he gets grumpy if you wake him up!

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I guess if that’s the worse problem we have then I’m very lucky.

Best of Intentions

Posted on October 11, 2016October 11, 2016 by Dusty Roads

With the laundry done on Saturday I had no excuse not to get out on Sunday and do something interesting to tell you about. But when I woke up it was dark and it was raining…hard. It was a perfect day for sleeping in and my bed felt so warm and comfy. As I’ve gotten older comfy has become very important to me. Even so, Rocky wasn’t going to be patient forever. He wanted his breakfast so began poking me in the face with his paw and walking all over me. Might as well get up.

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I was thinking about making the drive to Vermont today. It’s quite a long haul from where I live but the news was going on about the beautiful colors this year. I’m not much of a leaf peeper but still I thought a dreary day might be good for photographing the foliage and maybe the rain would keep the fair weather tourists away.

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I wasn’t thrilled with my plan but I was determined to have something interesting to write about so off I went, camera and rain gear in hand. By the time I had topped off the gas tank and made it to the highway it was almost 9 am. I should be in Stow Vt around 1 pm. The most direct route was to take Rt 93 which goes through Boston. Since it was a Sunday and raining I gambled that the expressway would be clear and not its normal bumper to bumper nightmare.

I lucked out. The traffic was moving at about 40-45 MPH. Pretty good for that stretch of highway but the rain was getting worse the farther north I traveled. By 10:30 I was just getting to the Rt 95 Split just north of Stoneham and already my shoulders were tight. It had taken me 90 minutes to go 60 miles. At this rate I wouldn’t get to Stowe until closer to 3 pm, not 1 pm and I’d be looking a a return drive in the rain and dark. As the Rt 95 split approached my car seemed to develop a mind of its own and I was off 93 heading south on 95.

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It took another hour plus to get back to Taunton. The rain had settled in for an all day drizzle and we need it but I was done running around in it. I made a quick grocery run and headed inside for the rest of the day. Still no big stories to share.

Time to put on the Pat’s game and welcome Tom Brady back to the field.

Better luck next weekend!

The Best of Plans

Posted on October 10, 2016October 10, 2016 by Dusty Roads

Well folks, I had a fun packed weekend planned but things just didn’t go the way I expected.

Since I’m on a 5 day a week office schedule now I have to cram my homemaking chores into the weekend. My plan has been to do the laundry in the morning on Saturday and get it out of the way. This Saturday was no exception.

By 8 am I had 2 loads going. By 8:30 they were in the dryer and I was on track to be finished by 10 am so I would have the rest of the day to play. The Mystic Aquarium had emailed that they were rehabilitating a Florida Manatee that had strayed too far north.

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They would be exhibiting it just this weekend before sending it back to the warm waters of Southern Florida. I was seriously thinking about taking a drive down to Connecticut to see it. But then I got side tracked.

Rocky was following me around and being very vocal so once I took my clothes out of the dryer I set them aside to give him some attention. Big mistake. I should know better than to get comfy in my recliner with a warm kitty body on my lap.

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You guessed it. Our quality time turned into long nap and I do mean long. I woke up at almost 1 pm! I still had clothes to fold and I hadn’t even showered yet.

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So much for my big plans for Saturday. By the time I finished up it was time for a very late lunch! Too late for a drive to the Mystic Aquarium so I curled up with a book and planed to make up for it on Sunday.

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Things Keep Changing

Posted on September 17, 2016September 17, 2016 by Dusty Roads

Hi Everyone.

There have been a lot of changes at work and more on the way. What makes it hard is that a lot is just speculation right now. Makes for a very uneasy feeling. The biggest change is that we all have to work in the office. No More working from home. Its back to the daily commute. Eventually they were planning to morph my job (listing coordinator) into more of a hybrid where I handled both listings and buy side. Now they are re-thinking that. At the moment there are only 2 of us in the Boston Office that do my current job.

I think a lot will depend on how they can cover vacations. Right now my co-worker is on vacation so I’m holding down the fort. It isn’t too bad. The exception is she has one very high maintenance agent. The first day I was covering I had 18 emails and 3 calls from that 1 person. Ugh! Thankfully none of the others were that bad.

On the home front Rocky seems to be adjusting to being an only cat. He is eating well and playing. He is becoming very attached to his “baby” a toy he has had forever. He carries it around crying at the same time, a very mournful meow. I wake up with it tucked next to me in the bed. Rocky 001 copy

He’s also turning into a lap cat. We have quality time every evening for 30 minutes to an hour. I just love that. For 15 years he wouldn’t set foot on my lap, now as soon as I sit down he’s right there.

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The last thing on my mind is Hawaii. I keep meeting people that have been or want to go. I love comparing notes. The most recent conversation centered on the Island of Kauai. That is the island of choice for the friend I just spoke with. I don’t think my time share has a resort on Kauai. I still love the Big Island but we’ll see how Maui stacks up after this coming vacation.

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Well busy day today with errands and chores…laundry, grocery shopping, eye doctor (annual exam), hair cut etc. Tomorrow I’m driving to New York to take my Mom to lunch for her birthday so I don’t know if I’ll have much chance to get back for another update this weekend. We’ll just have to see how the time goes.

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RIP Buddy!

Posted on August 8, 2016August 8, 2016 by Dusty Roads

stray 002 copy Buddy arrived unannounced on the coldest day of the year in January 2013. He was fully grown, age unknown and he had cattitiude.

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With a little white tip on his tail he could take on the world. He made up his mind that he’d found his furever home and nothing I could do would change his mind. I re-homed him twice but he managed to get returned to me both times.

We had some fun time and he trained me well.

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He would walk on a leash just like a dog.

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He was so big that some of my neighbors thought he was a dog!

He was a very handsome fellow right up until the end.

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It came fast. One day he couldn’t eat, then he stopped drinking and his breathing became labored. We tried to entice him to eat and we ran loads of tests. It was finally decided that although they couldn’t pin point the mass there was cancer somewhere. Fluid was going into his chest cavity.

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Through it all he was brave and kept his sweet disposition. He took all the needles and poking and prodding with grace and dignity. He’s the only cat I have ever had that let me “pill him” without a fuss.

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