Cats and Dogs, and it's not even raining

[captainsblog]

In a way, I'm glad for not having made the trip that would've had me away today, because in hindsight it would've been another in a series of Bad Things Happening When Ray Goes Away (© 2007 Deux Ex Machina Productions, all rights reserved).  One of my happiest-ever visits to Boston got retrospectively ruined several years back, when I came home to discover Tazzer (our then-youngest, now-older of the two remaining kitties) lying almost motionless in a cardboard box. Several days and several thousand dollars later, he'd recovered from his disastrous swallowing of a large clump of string, and no, my being here that weekend wouldn't have changed a thing, but I felt awful after the fact about the whole business.

This time's not so bad, at least we don't think so, but our older dog hasn't been eating since early yesterday. It had seemed we were going through 17-pound bags of their kibble awfully quickly, so when I saw a 35-pound bag for much less than twice the price, I grabbed it. Tasha, on the other hand, reacted with something kinda opposite to "grabbing" when it turned out not to be the identical feed, and so the big bag went back to the store last night (and immediately got put in the trash compactor, which pained me), but whether she was having a bad reaction to the new brand or something else, she's still got it. (I tend to think it's not the food per se, since the other dog's fine.)  We'll give her usually hardy constitution another night to work itself out before calling in the veterinary troops.

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Yesterday's grocery run also involved some bittersweet memories on the feline side.

As you may remember, one of our newer kitty friends passed away over the winter. Unlike those who went before him, his was way too young and highly unexpected. We've had his ashes for quite some time now, and as with our previous trips to Rainbow Bridge, we knew we'd know when it was time to put his little box out among the flowers.

Earlier this week, I just knew that it was. And I knew instantly what else was needed.

Perhaps our fondest memory of the boy, for the barely two years we had him, was from the first of the two intervening holiday seasons, where he led the charge of the Light-Headed Brigade in knocking over and devouring an entire tray of Christmas cookies in the middle of Christmas night.  The incident was recorded poetically at the time here.

I therefore set out, after exchanging the kibble, to the Wegmans bakery for an empty cookie tray. My intention is to use it as his headstone.

Much as I love the place as a purveyor of cheesy and non-cheesy comestibles, there is, unfortunately, a certain type you occasionally run into in that store. In our former neighborhood it was known as "typical Pittsford." Nothing you'd fire somebody for, or even complain about them over, but just a sense they convey, wordlessly, that they're better than you are and don't necessarily understand life in the same way you do.  The bakery employee was one of these. She had no sense of the significance, of why someone would ever want to buy (and I offered to buy it) an empty cookie tin, even after a brief explanation of the story. All she could do was refer me to the baking aisle to see if they had something similar to sell (they didn't).

My neighbor's granddaughter works at the Dessert Deli, and Erin certainly understands our thinking, so I fully expect we'll be having our ceremony in the next couple of days. We've even decided to get it with some cookies, to give the boy a proper sendoff. And instead of flowers in the middle of February? I'll bet the deer wouldn't mind us putting a few sugar cookies out in his memory.

Comments

[angledge.livejournal.com]

You inspired my most recent poll.

[headbanger118.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping your doggie is back to her usual self soon! My kitties will eat ANYTHING as long as it comes out of a DeliCat plastic jug. The jug is the key.

Hope your kitty rests in peace soon.