Hi Brea,
I got my solution. Turns out the instruction "...Second, uncheck the “Automatically retrieve data when the form is opened” does not work -- at least for me in SP 2013/InfoPath 2013. It took me having to reproduce my second field, Subcategory, and leaving that option checked.
I then followed the balance of instructions down to "...If you preview your form now you should be able to select a region and see the correct list of offices populated." and it worked.
Thanks for your response.