Letting Go of the Bay Leaf: Maggie

Showing posts with label Maggie. Show all posts

Sunday, May 1, 2022

Mosaic Monday #175: Five Years in Montana

Tomorrow, May 2, marks the fifth anniversary of our migration from Ohio to Montana. Coincidently, tomorrow we will also be flying home from the UK to Montana, an apt parallel that marks the length of our journey since we first began dating in the Northeast of England in February 1990. What an adventure it has been!

I have written many posts about Montana, and trying to choose my favorites would be time-consuming and just more work than I am willing to do! So, I am taking the easy way out, and highlighting (mostly) the posts that were published on dates closest to the May 2 anniversary. (I might cheat now and then and throw in an extra post that represents a particularly important event in the last five years, but hey! whose blog is this anyway?)

Day 6 - Malta, Montana (5/2/2017)

With two cars, two cats and a parakeet, we had made it this far. "Overnight we are in Malta, a town nestled along the Milk River (think chocolate milk), the railroad that runs from Chicago to Whitefish and beyond, and Highway 2, which will take us to Whitefish tomorrow."

"So, tomorrow, we will finish our emigration, and we are very excited. To celebrate, we cracked open a bottle of Honey Jack, which we have been saving since last Memorial Day. This wasn't just any bottle - it is one that was given to us by dear friends at that time, with a note that said 'Can only be opened in the state of Montana.' Guys, it's open now!"

Day 7 - Whitefish, Montana (5/5/2017)

"Finally, we arrived at the town house, home for the next 9 months or so. The menagerie was glad to unpack the cars (completely) and get settled in. At least, when we weren't too busy looking at the view from the master bedroom!"

Keep Calm and Carry On (3/22/2018)

"June 23, 2016, the day that two-thirds of our household possessions were packed and transferred to a United Van Lines warehouse near Cleveland, Ohio. And on March 19, 2018, Billy, Eric and Levi delivered them to our new house near Kila, Montana."

To Infinity and Beyond (4/21/2018)

"The nights here are quiet, with a velvet black sky littered with sparkling stars. Fresh, crisp air enters your lungs with each deep breath you unconsciously draw, the body's natural reaction to the serenity and awe of standing underneath the mighty constellations. An occasional sighing sound reaches your ears as the breeze rustles the pine boughs. Another deep breath brings the scent of earth and living things. No longer just the figment of my dreams, this is my new reality - as of April 14, our new log house is HOME!"

Graduate with Hat (5/3/2018)

"#1 Daughter (AKA Graduate with Hat) graduated from the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) on April 28.

"A whirlwind week with family and friends began quietly at my sister's house with a morning garden walk. I used to claim Autumn as my favorite season, but these days I give my affection to Spring. Pregnant buds giving birth to unblemished leaves. Vibrant floral hues taking over from the gray of winter. The promise of fruit hidden within the flowers. All of it a fitting metaphor for the bright-eyed hope of spring commencement."

Dithering April (5/5/2019)

"The ski season ended with a cool vibe as Whitefish Mountain Resort hosted Employee Ski/Ride Day. In keeping with the "fun" character of the resort, costumes were encouraged and each department adopted a theme to identify its employees. In the case of the Mountain Ambassadors, everyone decked out in retro/60s gear. We don't often get the opportunity to ski/board at the same time, so this was treasured team bonding."

We have been blessed to build a number of strong friendships in Montana; for Spousal Unit, many of them are fishing buddies drawn from the Ambassador group. In my case, God led me to a soul sister just across the street - Dear Neighbor Friend. Our journeys in life have been vastly different, but we share a deep love for God, and a profound appreciation of the outdoors and the flora and fauna that live within it. I am so grateful to have this beautiful person in my world.

In the five years we have lived in Montana, we have lost all of our feathered and furred traveling companions. Tom the parakeet died while we were still living in Whitefish as our log home was being built. Josie passed on September 20, 2019, and I celebrated her life in this post. A year later, I paid tribute to Maggie in this post after her passing on September 21, 2020. I am so glad that they made the journey to Montana with us.

A "Wait"-y Month (5/3/2020)

"#1 Son celebrated his birthday during the month, and on one our Skype calls he jokingly threw up a picture of a $800 Lego set of the Millennium Falcon, with “Birthday?” scrawled across it. We couldn’t (and wouldn’t) get close to buying it for him, so I did the next best thing and stitched him up a Falcon. This joined several other quirky items meant to create a mini-Grand Cayman care package – sun cream, mini bottles of rum, a sea shell, biryani recipe, cardamoms and bay leaves. After all, it became very apparent as April marched on, that we would not be going to Grand Cayman to celebrate his college graduation. This care package would have to do for now." In the end, there was no graduation ceremony and no trip to Grand Cayman. Glacier National Park cancelled all backcountry camping permits that summer, and the Alaska fishing trip for Man with Hat was cancelled. It was tempting to complain, but not in the face of thousands of people dying around the world from COVID.

Three Years in Montana (5/10/2020)

"Can you believe it? May 3, 2020 marked the third anniversary of our arrival in Montana. (If you need a refresher on our epic cross-country journey, check out this post.) I perused my blog and came to the shocking realization that I have not written about this anniversary. You can read posts about the first, second and third recurrence of my retirement, but you will find zip, zero, zilch about an event that was a decade in the planning. Well, I ask you - what's more significant, the retirement or the destination? It's the destination, my friends. So, I am about to rectify this disappointing oversight. Buckle your seat belts, and welcome to Montana!" This collection of 32 pictures and collages is a photographic diary and National Geographic magazine rolled into one. Featuring some of my best photos from those three years, you can quickly experience hikes, Halloween fun in Whitefish, skiing, critters of all kinds, my garden and our house. Here are just a few.

Since our arrival in Montana, we have been honored to host a number of guests, documented in the collages below. Would you like to add your name and comments to our guest book?

Under the Weather (5/2/2021)

"I need a distraction. I had my second COVID shot yesterday, and I am racked with chills, a headache and a tight feeling across my chest. I have no appetite, much less a desire to write a blog post right now. Also, it has been a tough week for other reasons that I am not prepared to write about at this moment. But maybe focusing on something other than my symptoms would be beneficial. This might be a short post, or maybe I will get a second wind." I did recover, and this post recounts fun Spring activities such as visiting baby goats, coloring Easter eggs and celebrating the birthday of #1 Son. Looking at this collage is especially poignant since I am typing this particular section on his 24th birthday! As I have written in other posts, we relished a year of his living at home AND we are thrilled that he moved on to Idaho Falls after landing the job with the Idaho National Laboratory.

Keeping Her Memory Alive (5/9/2021)

"On April 28, 2021, my Mom joined my father, one of my sisters, a beloved niece and all of her siblings in Heaven. If it is like any other family reunion I have attended, it would begin with Mass. Faith was front and center for the German Catholic families on both sides, and especially for my Mom; you wouldn’t think to begin anything without having given thanks to God. And THEN you could tuck into the bountiful buffet before you – home-made fried chicken, roast beef, chicken with noodles, potato salad, Jell-O with the requisite shredded carrots or cabbage, and desserts that seem to outnumber the stars in the sky." It is hard to believe that 12 months have passed since her death. I think of her often, and miss her terribly. It is especially at family celebrations, or significant life events, that I wish she could be with us. Such as ...

The Engagement (11/7/2021)

The engagement of #1 Daughter and The Boyfriend while the entire family was on vacation in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "Later, over dinner, The Boyfriend would recall the minutes leading up to his proposal. His heart was about to pop out of his chest, while #1 Son and I leisurely read the historical information. And I was shooting a picture of a bush, of all things, while he was trying to get me, the better photographer, to focus on what was about to happen. Oh my! And this is how wonderful family stories, ones that get handed down and told repeatedly, are made!"

The moral of the story? The circle of life continues. Children grow up, get married and move away. World events can impact us in ways we can't possibly anticipate. Parents and friends age, and some of them have made it to heaven before us. At the least, we cope. At the best, we adapt and thrive. On the fifth anniversary of "living our dream", I am reminded - don't become complacent. I pray to God that I will be blessed enough in five years' time to give you another such report, chock full of new adventures!

Mosaic Monday

Welcome to Mosaic Monday, a weekly meme where we get together to share our photo mosaics and collages.

Please include at least one photo mosaic/collage in your post.

The link will be open from 1 p.m. Sunday until 11 p.m. Tuesday (U.S. Mountain time).

Remember to add the link to your Mosaic Monday post and not the one to your blog.

Please link back to this post so that your readers will be able to visit and enjoy more wonderful mosaics; taking the MM blog button from my sidebar is an easy way to link back.

As host I will visit every participant and leave a comment so that you know I stopped by.

Please try and visit as many other blogs as you can, especially those that join in later, so that everyone's creativity can be appreciated fully.

Thank you for joining in today and sharing your mosaics with us.

Sunday, September 27, 2020

Mosaic Monday #98: The Maggie Tribute

Scene: Rescue Village, Chesterland, Ohio

Time: 2005

Setting: A family of four considers adopting kittens, but is overwhelmed with pity for a pair of cats that have been languishing at the shelter for over 6 months. They wait in a small room for the cats to be brought in.

MOTHER: Won't it be nice to give these poor cats a home?

DAUGHTER: That gray cat is so pretty.

SON: Can we go look at the tarantulas?

FATHER: I just want a cat that will sit on my lap.

Members of staff cradled the cats as they entered the space, placing them both on the floor. The gray cat (Josie) was skittish, even when the young girl sat on the floor. The black and white cat? Maggie promptly jumped on Father's lap and began to purr. Within a half hour, the family was on the way home with two new members. Little did they know the joy, laughter and companionship that lay ahead for the next 15 years, as Maggie purred and kneaded her way into all of their hearts. This is her story, which ended this week on September 21.

Maggie quickly established herself as the dominant cat, not just with Josie, but with everyone in the house. No lap was immune from her attentions. Over time, her reputation as a lap cat became legendary among family and friends who were frequent visitors. "If you don't want her to sit on you, don't sit down!" became our constant refrain. #1 Daughter captured Maggie's character well in her memorial FaceBook post:

Maggie was our lap cat, our climb-up-and-snuggle cat. We always used to say "I have a cat", meaning someone needed to get something for us because we didn't want to move the cat off our lap.

One of my earliest memories of Maggie was her attempt at licking my long hair. I think she thought I was a fellow cat that needed grooming?

Maggie loved soft blankets and couches and sun spots. She was the older of our two cats and definitely thought she was queen bee (she was).

Give our love to Josie. I miss you already, Maggie Cat. Hope there are plenty of comfy places to nap in heaven.

In the oddest of coincidences, Maggie died a year and one day after Josie (see Josie's post here). Despite being two years older than Josie, Maggie persisted through weight loss and arthritic hips. But I am getting ahead of myself.

In the early years, Maggie was, shall we say, well-proportioned. Spousal Unit gave her the nickname "Bagpuss", a polite reference to her rotund form. Looking back at the photos, it is shocking to see the stark difference in her size and the luxuriousness of her fur. At the time we adopted her, she was 4 years old.

She was not an active, playful cat, and eventually the vet advised a weight-loss plan. I remember moving the food dish and litter box from the main level laundry room to the basement; in a matter of months, navigating the stairs brought her to a more desirable weight. Life was busy back then; I travelled often for work and Spousal Unit had his hands full with managing the house and two kids in school. We also did not have cameras in our phones, always at our fingertips! Most of the photos are from Christmas, when we could pause for breath. For 2013 and 2014, I could not find any pictures of our dear cat.

For most of her time with us, Maggie definitely preferred the lap of Spousal Unit. She would sit on anyone, but if his lap was free, off she went. So, this is a rare picture with her on my lap in 2015. Rare because I am not in motion, and rarer still that she is with me. I love this picture.

In 2016, life began to change dramatically for the family. #1 Daughter was already in college, and #1 Son made us empty nesters that fall. We downsized and moved from Cleveland, Ohio to Troy, Ohio, an interim step before my planned retirement in 2017. Neither of the cats liked to be in the car, least of all Maggie. She might have run off if she had known that the four-hour drive was a drop in the bucket compared to the journey to come. In the meantime, we celebrated one Christmas in Troy; this is the only photo I have of Maggie from that time frame.

On April 27, 2017, we began our epic journey from Ohio to Montana. Spousal Unit had the parakeet in his car, and Maggie and Josie accompanied me in the 4Runner. I can't tell you how many meows I heard over those nine days; all of us were relieved to get to the hotel each night.

Without any furniture, we made do with camp chairs our first night in Whitefish, Montana. It didn't matter to Maggie; she was going to seek comfort in that lap no matter what! We soon settled into new routines; #1 Son stayed with us that summer, and several family members came to visit the townhouse and see our log home under construction. Maggie even played with some yarn I was using to make a prayer shawl. Both of our children came for Christmas and we made sure to get a picture with all four 'kids'.

The calendar spun to 2018, which proved to be a hectic year. The log house was finished and we moved in on April 14. We hosted my in-laws in the new house, and also traveled to the UK for three weeks. Maggie took readily to her surroundings; sleeping in the sun spots alternated with sleeping on the air vents. We could imagine that the warmth helped soothe her increasingly old bones; she turned 17 that year. (As you can see in the mosaic below, Maggie would often extend one paw and put it possessively on one part of your body. Little did she know she owned every part of us. It was also after our arrival in Montana that Maggie and Josie started to share Spousal Unit's lap.)

With the arrival of 2019, Josie began to have health issues, and we started to keep a closer eye on both of the cats. Maggie continued to monopolize the sun puddles and the air vents, and she was losing weight, but she kept on ticking. With the loss of Josie in September that year, we wondered about the impact on Maggie. After all, they had been together for at least 15 years. Maggie seemed to pick up Josie's role as the vocal one. Frequently, she would sit outside our bedroom door and meow, especially if she had decided we were late for breakfast. It also seemed, after Josie, that Maggie became firmly attached to one spot on the left end of the couch. Everyone knew that was Maggie's "spot".

Another endearing aspect of Maggie's character related to food. It always seemed that she was afraid to eat unless we were in the vicinity. Without fail, when we would return home from a morning in town or another excursion, she would greet us at the door and then immediately start eating. Even now, five days after her passing, I am still looking for her when I come through that door!

Over the years, we have been very fortunate to have good friends and neighbors to look after the cats when we were traveling or camping or otherwise engaged. You know who you are! A special shout out to my Dear Neighbor Friend, who would take the time to sit with Maggie and give her that one-on-one attention that she craved so much. This was especially important to me after we lost Josie. Thank you, DNF. I know you had a special place in her heart!

And so we entered 2020. Will any of us forget this year? Maybe some of us would like to!!! As one month passed to the next, Maggie got creakier and skinnier. In parallel, she grew seemingly more desperate for attention. Even in the middle of the day, she would circle my chair at the dining room table, rubbing my legs and meowing. I would take pity on her and lift her up.

Maggie was not allowed in areas with carpet, so our master bedroom was off limits. But at times my heart was breaking with her meowing, and we would lift her up onto the bed for an afternoon nap. I am not sure when it happened, but at some point Maggie transitioned to a preference for my lap over that of Spousal Unit. Maybe because I always sat in her "spot"? I will never know, but I am grateful that we had the special time together. I am sure that some of her fur is woven into the cross-stitch that I have been working the last few months! It is also a blessing that the kids had a chance to say goodbye, in their own ways. # 1 Daughter and the Boyfriend were here in August, and although we had no idea Maggie would pass so soon after their visit, a blind man could have told you that old age was taking its toll.

The weekend before Maggie died, she stopped eating. She would hover over the food dish, and meow, but she didn't take a bite. I imagined that she felt nauseous. We got her into an emergency appointment on Monday afternoon, and #1 Son sat with her on his lap that morning; we all anticipated that we would have to make the tough decision. As it turned out, the vet said Maggie was very constipated. After some treatment, the vet said that we should take her home and let the treatment work its way overnight. Relieved, I went home with a lighter heart. We made Maggie comfortable and then went on a previously arranged kayaking/fishing trip for a few hours.

Upon our return, imagine our dismay to find Maggie hiding in the one of the benches with her litter box. This was her go-to location when scared by something, such as thunder. At first, I left her there, but after a while, I grew concerned. When I picked her up, she was so limp. It was the worst feeling in the world. For the next couple of hours, Spousal Unit and I took turns cradling her. Occasionally she would try to lift her head, and through a cascade of tears, we told her it was OK to let go. #1 Son was with us when, resting on the chest of Spousal Unit, she finally gave a little sigh, and was gone.

Fifteen years. Four homes. Two high school and two college graduations. She was there through it all, and gave us untold moments of joy and laughter and companionship. That is what we will remember. At the end, she may have been deathly skinny, and her fur might have lost the luster of the early years, but she will always be a beauty in our hearts.