Jackie and Mary's Big Adventure

Jackie and Mary, with their two cats and their dog Charlie, left yesterday on their move back to Philadelphia.  We're sad that they'll be so far away, but are excited about their future.  And Phillie is a great place to visit.

 

R.I.P. Fred

Portrait of Fred by Hugh Harris West

I've never had to euthanize a pet until today, and it's hard.  We got back to Valdosta last night, and it was immediately obvious that Fred the Cat had deteriorated.  Shirley Crowder, who helps me, feeds her, and Mary, my daughter-in-law, comes by when Shirley can't, and they both have been concerned lately.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Fred was 20 years old.  She was a stray that took up at our house years ago, and when I finally decided we were stuck with her and took her in for shots in 2004, they said she was  an older cat, maybe 8 or 10.  I'd been calling her Fred for a year by then, thinking she was a tomcat, and when the vet told me he was a she, it was too late to start calling her something else.

Today she looked thin, bedraggled, was unable to control her bodily functions, and was barely able to eat or walk, and  appeared to be in pain.  When I called her, she hid under the sofa on the porch.  She must have sensed something was up. I lured her out with a piece of meat and drove her in her pet carrier to the vet, with her meowing and me crying all the way. When they brought her towel-wrapped body back to the car for me, they said she had been in bad shape, and that I had done the humane thing, but still...

I buried her in the backyard by Teddy the chihuahua, with Mama's statue of Francis of Assisi standing watch.

Go Dogs!!

Jimmy is very, very, very serious about his Bulldogs, and he doesn't want any distractions when Georgia's playing.  Kenny and Jane Youmans are as big Dawg fans as Jimmy, so they're perfect companions for watching Spurrier get stomped.

This boar's head hangs over the TV downstairs.  About 10 or 12 years ago , we were staying with Mac and Susan at their beach house in St. George, and we went to the St. George volunteer fire department auction.  "Sister, do you see anything you want for your birthday?"  It happened to be my birthday.  "Yes, I'd like to have that big old boar's head over there," I answered.  At the time I had no idea what I was going to do with a boar's head, but Jimmy and Mac bid on it and won it for $100, and I smile every time I look at it.

Be young, be foolish, be happy

My children Max and Elizabeth are in Denver celebrating their 5th anniversary, and I think they might be having just a little fun.

Revlimid increase

We got the results from Jimmy's blood and 24-hour urine collection tests today, and the cancer is stable and at the same level as last month.  It's good that it isn't going up, but we need for it to keep dropping, so Dr. Lonial is going to double his Revlimid dosage and see if that gets it moving in the right direction.  We hate that it zaps him so hard, but we've got to do it.

He's having pain in his ribs and back so he's getting an MRI at the end of the month.  It could be nothing or it could be the myeloma causing trouble again.

He's doing well, all things considered, although chronic fatigue continues to be an irritant, but if he gets plenty of rest and paces himself, we can enjoy a relatively normal life.

Globetrotters

I think Jimmy and my traveling days are over - I just can't see us dragging suitcases and negotiating airports any more.  We have friends that travel a lot though, so we get to vicariously enjoy their adventures, just hearing about them.  Carolyn Eager and Dan Coleman have a house in Highlands, but we've hardly gotten a glimpse of them all summer as they've kept up a hectic pace, bouncing from one continent to another.

They were here for the Labor Day weekend however, and we enjoyed being with them.  Carolyn was showing me some pictures she'd taken of the different courses they'd had at a fabulous dinner in Paris. The presentation of each course was very artistic and beautiful, but the picture I liked the best was the one the waiter took of them.  I liked it so much I e-mailed it to myself, and here it is:

True grit

I marveled today, watching Diana Nyad wading out of the ocean after swimming 103 miles from Cuba to Key West in a little under 54 hours.  She's 64, the same as I am, and this was her fifth attempt in 35 years. Through swollen, sun-burned lips, she said she had three things to say: one, never, ever give up; two, you're never too old to chase your dreams; and three, it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team.

Watching her, I started mentally comparing her to my friend Janice Allen, who is also 64 (well, almost- she'll be 64 on November 23rd).  Janice doesn't swim the Florida straits like Diana Nyad, but she DOES regularly hike from the Dillard Road here in Highlands, up to her condo at VZ Top and back down again in 45 minutes.  It's only about 3 miles round trip, but the elevation rises from 3600 feet to 4200 feet, and it's a steep climb.

My first memory of Janice - she was Janice Wisenbaker then - was when we were in the 2nd grade at Sallas-Mahone.  She looked like a little doll, with blond hair and big blue eyes, but what I REALLY remember was this sweater she had.  It was all pink and fluffy and I coveted it something awful.

In 2009, the year before I was diagnosed with lymphoma, Janice was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and like mine, her prognosis at the time looked pretty scary. But 1949 must have been a good year for tough women, because here we are now in 2013, and Diana is conquering oceans and Janice is scaling tall mountains (but with bells hooked to her belt to ward off the bears), and I'm ...hanging in there.

Janice's (and Reuben's) portrait by Fay Bridges Hyatt