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I’m Obsessed With Bagged Salads

As 2025 looms, I crave the tasty, proportioned limits of a salad kit.

Dana DuBois
Age of Empathy
11 min readDec 28, 2024

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A salad in a handmade purple bowl
It’s more than just a salad… photo by author.

I awaken at 1am to a stench foul enough to pull me from slumber.

I have two elderly cats. At my vet’s urging, I placed a litter box in my upstairs bathroom, adjacent to my bedroom, so the cats have access on both levels the house. Mostly, this is fine. Tonight, it is not.

I can’t sleep through this stink.

This is a problem I can solve.

I trudge out of bed to investigate. Yep, my cat Josie has left me a gift in the decommissioned bathtub where her litter box now resides. Why did she leave her poo six inches outside the box, instead of inside it? Unknown, but fixable.

I clean and flush it, wash my hands, and crawl back into bed.

I awaken once again at 5:30am, this time to the sound of my other cat retching near the base of my bed. I groan and put the pillow over my head to block the godawful sound. This is also a problem I can solve — but I’m too exhausted to right now. It can wait till a more civilized hour.

The quandary of what to do with my two geriatric, mess-making cats? I can not solve that problem. I knew when I adopted them that eventually they’d grow old and more challenging. So they’re my…

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Age of Empathy
Age of Empathy

Published in Age of Empathy

We publish high-quality personal essays, humor essays, and writer interviews. Our goal is to provide a place for experienced writers to share authentic stories and connect with others, collectively celebrating a common passion, striving toward an age of empathy.

Dana DuBois
Dana DuBois

Written by Dana DuBois

Publisher for Pink Hair & Pronouns and Three Imaginary Girls. Boost nominator. I'm a GenX word nerd living in the PNW with a whole lot of little words to share.

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