TheBanyanTree: The Perfect Cat

[Margaret R. Kramer]

I took the day off from work yesterday.  I’m back to having just two weeks
of vacation with my new job, so I have to be careful on how I use my few
days.  I didn’t think four weeks of vacation was enough when I was at my
other job, so you can imagine how I’m suffering with just two.

At my old company, I just took days off when I needed a “mental health day,”
but at my new company, days off need to be approved in advance.  Then if I
miss a day, it’s like missing a month, because so much happens during just
one day.  This company is like a soap opera, except it’s not really a people
soap opera, but a work soap opera.  The work has a life of its own with
twists and turns and bizarre merges and contested relationships.  So if I
miss a day of work, it’s like missing a Friday episode of a soap opera.  I
would be lost when Monday came around and have to spend a day catching up
with the plot.

So no one at my new company takes time off.  At my old company, people were
flying out the door in droves to take their vacations, but here, because of
the soap opera and fear of missing something, we stay chained at our desks,
reluctant even to make a dentist’s appointment.  Our company’s vacation time
is set by fiscal year, and I couldn’t believe how many people had to
scramble in June to use their vacation time or lose it by July 1.

But I decided to take yesterday off.  Other than the day I’ll take off in
September to go to the State Fair, it will be my only day off this summer.
And it’s always nice to hook a lone day off onto a long holiday weekend just
to make it a little longer.

My pace was leisurely yesterday.  I went to the gym, and after working out,
I sat in the sauna for a while.  I went to Target and bought a 4th of July
paper tablecloth for one of my tables.  I went to my favorite grocery store
and bought wild rice hamburgers and sausage for our 4th of July picnic along
with buns, strawberries, baked potato chips, and loads of other goodies.

While I was working out, I remembered that yesterday marked the fourth
anniversary of my quitting smoking.  My lungs have been smoke free for four
years.  I spent that whole summer four years ago being miserable, because I
was constantly craving cigarettes and slowly gaining weight.  It’s good to
mark this anniversary, because not only I haven’t smoked for four years, but
I also have lost the weight I gained (about 35 pounds in all, well over the
7-10 pounds the “experts” tell people they’ll gain!) when I quit smoking.  I
’m back to the same weight as I was when I quit – 35 pounds lighter than
last summer thanks to Weight Watchers.  The desire to smoke has faded away,
but my food intake is a daily battle.  Obviously, my addiction to food is
much stronger than my addiction to nicotine.

The low, angry clouds of yesterday’s early morning moved on out and were
replaced by brilliant sunshine.  The day didn’t warm up to summer heat, the
temps stayed in the 70s, but it was great to spend a chunk of the afternoon
outside weeding the gardens and mowing and trimming the yard.  Our garden
looks great this year, even though the deer have munched on the flowers.

My final required chore of the day was to take our black cat to the vet.  I
had locked him up in Ray’s office all day, so he wouldn’t run outside.  He
spends a lot of time outside, which is fine, but I wanted to be sure he was
home when it was time to take him to the vet for his annual shots.

He wasn’t thrilled about being stuffed into his cat carrier and he moaned
the entire way to the vet.  Our vet’s new partner is a young vet and I just
love her.  She’s so enthusiastic about animals, so gentle, and informative.
She told me last year that it was good for cats to be outside, because it
kept their brains sharp, which I thought was unusual, because I know cats
who are outside a lot have shorter life spans than cats that stay in the
house.

September (we got him shortly after 9/11, that’s why his name is September)
didn’t want to come out of his carrier, so we gently took him out.  He let
her look at his teeth, listen to his heart and lungs, and feel his body.
The vet was so pleased with him.  She said he was a perfect cat, because he
was at a good weight (probably from being outside all the time and working
off his food intake), and his heart and lungs sounded good.  She said she
saw so many overweight cats, it was good to see a cat that wasn’t fat.  I
told her that she wouldn’t want to see my overweight dogs!

September got his three shots and didn’t cry.  He went back into the
carrier, back into the car, back to moaning, and was thrilled when he got
home.  He loves to rub up against the dogs and boy, he couldn’t leave those
dogs alone last night.  September is back to normal this morning, running
outside when the dogs went out for the first pee of the day, and is now
patrolling the back yard.

My leisurely and well thought out day off is over, and the pace will pick up
considerably today.  The grandsons are coming over later and we’ll take them
fishing and swimming.  We already made our run to the Wisconsin border and
bought our illegal fireworks, so I think we’ll shoot a few of them off
tonight for a 4th of July preview.  The boys will spend the night, so I’ll
be hopping to it tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow night we’ll go out to celebrate
my son’s 27th birthday, and then on the 4th, well, it’s the 4th of July with
food and fun and fireworks.  And then back to the never ending soap opera on
Tuesday.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

http://www.bpwmn.org
Business and Professional Women of Minnesota

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not
with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a
show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw
Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness.  You
may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. .  ~Erma Bombeck