Surviving Three Cancers and One Recurrence – Page 9

Wadja Say?

My grandson, Jory, and his family visited us in July. He seems quite intelligent for a two year old who will easily break into song about some guy named Bubbah….. Bubbah Black Sheep.

WARNING: Parent / Grandparent Disclaimer: Every parent and every grandparent thinks their baby or grand-baby is the cutest, the most intelligent and most talented baby ever.

At first you might dismiss Jory as a baby talker because he has a little trouble getting his words out. It’s like he’s communicating through a poorly programmed language translation app.

But when he has something to say, if you stick with him he will repeat his message over and over, determined to make you understand. He knows the words he’s trying to enunciate, and he usually composes complete sentences.

One day he announced something like “Blabbagobbywaddahoobanichamuggabee-beewaaba!” I repeated what I just heard the best I could in a questioning tone and he said, “No – Ga pabbadu vue uh-duh ahhhhaaia haaaa riggedraaaa muggabee jain maaliiim!” I mimicked again the gibberish I heard again, and he said “NO” took a breath and repeated it again. This time his words became recognizable, “The property values in your area appear to have risen dramatically just in my lifetime!”

In July I caught a bad cold – actually eye infection and ear infection. I was prescribed antibiotics and recovered, but with lingering plugged ears.

Oddly, for two or three weeks after mostly recovering from the infections, my daily – sometimes constant throat clearing disappeared. I caught another cold with coughing, sneezing, and clearing, but it’s fading away…. will the throat clearing stay? Or did that infection have a positive effect?

Hood Bird

“Grandpa, what’s that?” My four-year-old grandson asked as he patted the old, pitted chrome ’55 Chevy hood ornament mounted on my riding lawnmower. “Well, that’s called a hood bird. Come with me, I’ll tell you about it.”

I lowered the open the hood of my ’57 Belair and pointed to the matching pair of wind splits.

He stood on Uncle Larry’s hand made wooden-box stool and watched as I explained.

“This is a 1957 Chevy and these two things are called ‘wind-splits.’ They were just for style.”

“The hood bird on the lawnmower is from a car that is two years older than this one, a 1955 Chevy.”

“It didn’t have wind splits. The 1955 and 1956 Chevy’s had a hood bird instead and it goes right here,” I said as I patted the front center of the hood.

This is a special moment for a grandpa. I was surprised at the rush of sentimental feelings it brought – sentimental about what?

My grandson may or may not remember details from this lesson, but maybe one day years from now when he sees a car of this vintage he will remember me.

*Grandson, ’56 Chevy, and hood bird –* **All Stylin!**

Pelé is Now Accepting Applications

Rocky is off to his new home. Maybe someone reading this would be a good fit with Pelé.

She is a pure white, fixed, 8-year-old female. I named her Pelé (after the soccer player) because as a kitten she displayed excellent ball control slapping it left and right as she dribbled across the floor.

Also, because the people my wife got her from said she was a male. After several months, Pelé began acting strangely. I took him to the vet who diagnosed him to be a female in heat.

Pelé has been an indoor cat all her life, showing very little interest in going out of the house. She’s always been a shy cat. It takes her a while to warm up to strangers but once you make it onto her “nice” list you’re free to enjoy each other’s company.

She likes to sit on my lap and have her face and ears rubbed while I watch TV. Her shyness disappears at bedtime, maybe because her human is horizontal and doesn’t seem so large. That’s when she wants to nuzzle and purr. She will slip her head under my hand to tell me this is a perfect time for fondling and petting.

She doesn’t wear a watch, but she knows the time. She always has dry food available, but each day when I get home from work (about 5:pm) she will sprint past me on the way to the kitchen to “direct” me to her dish – as if she thinks I will wonder, “What’s all the excitement about over there near the cat food dish?”

When I arrive to investigate, she gets 1/3 can of tuna. On the days I’m home early, she wants the tuna early. If I give it to her, she’ll forget, or she hopes I forgot because she will direct me to her dish again in an hour or so (it’s worth a try).

We feed her 1/3 can of tuna daily, and all the dry food she wants. Years ago, she broke out in a rash and was losing hair. The vet said she has a condition or disease that causes that if she eats grain-based canned cat food.

She didn’t like the grain-free cat food she sampled, but she loves tuna, and since we switched to it she has not had a rash. We also love tuna because 1/3 can per meal costs less than canned cat food.

Pelé is available free to a nice person who appreciates cats. As a bonus, she will bring with her the long sought-after secret to eradicating kitty litter dust.

Let me know if you are interested or if you have questions.

Royal Cat Seeking New Domain

This is Rocky:

Possibly Royal Cat now accepting applications from domestic domiciles that may well benefit from his wise and patient supervision.

He likes to sit looking quite regal but I doubt he actually has royal lineage. I’m also a bit suspicious of his feline pedigree. I personally don’t know any Ewoks, and I barely remember them from the Star Wars movies, but since I’ve gotten to know Rocky, I wonder if he isn’t part Ewok.

I wonder that because of his language. He’ll often say, “Eyaht! Eyaht!” instead of, “Meow, meow.” Sometimes he lets a word slip out in plain English – “NAOW,” as in “when can I get that for you, Rocky?” “NAOW! Ah, hrump-hrump….. Meow?”

He could also be part dog because he dogs your feet, but in his case, he cats your feet. As you walk across the room (if the mood strikes him) he will follow closely and slap at your heels, one after the other with each step. I’m not sure of his purpose for this, maybe it’s a variation of his main compulsion.

His main compulsion, his primary purpose in life is: As you walk from one room through the next as in route to or through the kitchen, he will zig-zag in front of you, making only slight contact (counting coup?) with your ankles and feet.

In this process, he believes he is gently directing you (where you are already going) and when in range of his cat-food dish, he will dash to it and begin eating. He’s done this for years and all I can understand from this daily ritual is that he wants you to watch him eat.

My relationship with Rocky began when he lived with our younger son through his college years and beyond. From the day our son married and moved far away, Rocky has lived here with my wife and me (and Pele, the other cat seeking new domain).

My wife and I are retiring, hope to do some traveling, and have concluded the time is right for Rocky (and Pele) to transfer to another locality.

He uses a cat box, eats only dry cat food, and has been an indoor cat all the time I have known him, except for the few occasions he succeeded at his secondary purpose in life – escape! When he enjoys that success, he’s not sure what to do with freedom, so he comes back.

We’ve cohabited with several cats over the years. Rocky has the “most pronounced personality” of them all.

Rocky is available free to a nice person who appreciates cats. As a bonus, he will bring with him the long sought-after secret to eradicating kitty litter dust.

If interested, please contact me by commenting on this post.