Charity Bike Ride to Benefit Wayside Waifs Pet Shelter

Just got a flier in the mail from Heather @ The Wheel Cyclery (a team sponsor). They are hosting a charity ride to raise money for a local no kill animal shelter, Wayside Waifs. The ride is on March 20 and there is a 15 and a 30 mile route, I will probably either try to ride from home or start a little ways away and get some extra miles but I plan on attending. Wayside Waifs is where we picked up Jack, they were very helpful when we found out that he had distemper and the advice, IVs and special care items that they gave us free of charge were just as big of a factor in Jack's survival as Jenn's dedication in caring for him. So if you got the time, come out and support the shelter, all you have to do is bring an item to donate. More info here.

Some people just need to be taken out of the pool

This break-in happened to a no kill shelter here in KC, consider donating a little if you can. They are already hurting for donations this year.

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/09/1800609/burglars-break-into-merriam-animal.html

Update on me & Bandit

Its been along time since I posted on this thing and probably not many people checking on it but I figured that I would give a quick update on me! First off I spend 2009 getting fat and lazy as my motivation to do anything was pretty low, not sure why I just didn't do a whole lot. I started 2010 out lifting with Jenn every other day in our basement, and running a couple days a week. I got about 5.5 hrs on the bike over the last 8 days, just really out of shape.

Jenn left Sunday morning for Austin to do her research so we hung out together for most of Saturday (except for the MU KU game). In the evening we went to Martha Lafite Nature Sanctuary, we have been members there for a few years and we unintentially met up with the director and his wife to watch the Woodcocks displaying ritual. While we where there we found a cat that was super nice and just followed us everywhere he was very thin and dehydrated but he continued following us and purring as we traveled. I ended up having to hold this guy why watching the woodcocks because he made an attempt to catch one. Long story a little shorter, we ended up taking him home which pretty much ruined our plans for a nice night @ home together on Jenn's last night. His current home is our basement, the decision is left to me whether we are going to keep him but @ a minimum I am going to have him neutered, shots and health check-up on Wednesday. We are keeping him separate from our other guys just in case he has something unfriendly to pass along. So here he is, Jenn named him Bandit, but I have been calling him Bandy for short:

So thinking about what to do if he doesn't work out got me doing some interenet searching and I found some interesting info, I found that there are places to catch feral cats, they will fix them for minimal costs and then release. Better than shooting them or catching them and dropping them off in the country. This leads me to the 3rd part of this post....

Just over a year ago we found a little kitty eating from the garbage can @ Knob Knoster State Park, when we walked up the cat ran into the woods, Jenn slowly managed to coax the cat to her arms from the brush, we took her home and we now have my little girl Tiger, she is awesome and we are attached like a kid and his dog, actually as I write this she is on the arm of my chair, hold on I will get a pic.....

While doing my searching to find out what I can do with Bandit if he doesn't work out, I found this story about a kitten someone else found out on its own.

Anyone that knows Jenn and I know that we love our yard and our birds and we have found at least 5 birds and one cardinal nest destroyed by cats. I have to admit that I have thought about shooting the cats to protect the birds but especially after this I couldn't do it. Hopefully between me and my brother we can get all of the stray or ferals we can catch in his live trap spayed or neutered so the incidents in this story are minimized.

welcome Gabrielle

We haven't posted in a while because not much was going on. I have resumed the life of a desk biologist and Randy was been getting busy with his project at work. Then last week we wento Texas to visit my family and await the arrival of my 4th niece. Gabrielle Skye was born Set 15! - her birthday is 1 day after her grandma's. All went fine and dandy and she is now closing in on 2 weeks old!

baby in belly

baby out of belly

I also met my new feline niece - a beautiful kitten only a few weeks ago who looks so much like Snowball that I almost took her home with me!

Precious Belle

Besides hanging with the fam, RC and I headed to the coast with our kayaks. We paddled the Lighthouse Lakes trails in the mangroves. It was pretty cool being up close and personal with all the wading birds - great blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, tri-colored herons, reddish egrets, and 1 roseate spoonbill! We spent ~4 hours paddling, by the end we were heading into a strong headwind and we pooped by the time we came ashore.

We also paddled down a 6-mile stretch of the Colorado River through Bastrop, which was really fun and neat to finally really experience the river that was in my childhood backyard. And we hiked around some of my study sites in Austin one day.

All in all a fun and much needed vacation.

Jack and Tiger were extremely happy to see us when we got home and have been rather needy and attached to us, but it is really sweet:)

The Jack and Tiger Show

Tiger and Jack's close-up

"How cute am I" (a snowballism)

("I'm so cute that I can even be rotten!")

sleepy Jack

Snowball's Memorial Garden

Tomorrow is the 6-month anniversary of Snowball's tragic passing. In honor of him and his memory, Randy and I spent all day working on his memorial garden. It is beautiful, just like him. We planted 4 fame flowers around his grave, a small, but showy magenta flower with gold stamens and succulent leaves. We planted 2 prairie sundrops, 2 New England aster, and 2 blue ice around him in a bed of dark brown mulch surrounded by a border of white rocks.

We love you Snowball and miss you everyday!

update

Check out the latest happenings of field life at goldencheekedwarbler-research.blogspot.com. Can't wait to read about RC's return to the bike today and see pics of the kitties!

last update of Feb

Well I have been pretty busy lately. When I had finally lost hope of getting my permit to band Golden-cheeked Warblers this season, the permit was issued! So I am the proud and nervous holder of a banding permit. With that responsibility came a flood of additional to-dos for federal and state permits and equipment ordering and getting equipment organized. Plus I have been wrapping up work here in MO.



That includes a site visit to Ha Ha Tonka and Lake of the Ozarks state parks last week. Both were nice and I made some contacts. All my techs are hired and sites chosen so the 2nd field season is coming along great.



Jack and Tiger are doing great and looking forward to the spring when the windows are always open! Tiger is a she-devil but sweet as can be. Jack is crabbier than usual this week - I think he is jealous of his little sis - and has been picking on Tiger the last few days. Randy will definitely have his hands full being a single 'dad' for the next few months.



I'm off to Austin at the end of the week, so my next blog will likely be from there.


Here's a cute pic of the 'bears' snuggling:

and then there were four - Introducing Tiger

We picked Tiger up from her boarding home last Friday (Jan 30) and brought her home. She has been with us a week now, so it seems to be an appropriate time to introduce her to you. She is a wild child and a sweetheart. Since day one, she has has sleeping between our heads (she also has a bad habit of walking across us, including our faces, during the night, but she's so light we barely notice). She also swats at Jack's tail, chases the laser like a madwoman, jumps into the plants and throws dirt on the carpet, leaps from the floor to the speaker and through the rails to the 2nd floor, follows us around like a puppy, eats like she may never see food again, and is so cute she charms the socks on anyone who meets her. Tiger is a good companion for old man Jack, and Jack is a good brother, toelrating her nonsense! They are already playing together, and Friday they even slept together in the papasan:

PS Today is the 2 month anniversary since Snowball's passing - we miss you boo.

Nice Winter training Weekend

This weekend it was an unseasonably warm 60 degree day on Saturday. I set out to meet up with a group at the usual Northland Tuesday route. I left from my house about 1 hour early to make the 18 mile trek to the ride start, I intended of making it a 3 hour 55 mile road ride. Off the bat the 18 very hilly miles were straight into a super strong headwind and I got smoked prior to the start after barely making it on time, most were late and then the group threw a wrench into my plans and we did the route backwards which meant that I was in store for about 75 miles instead. A good group showed up, the Wheel Cyclery boys, Team Chamois Butt'r and a few Cowtowners. The group had some different levels of fitness so it started out and remained fairly calm for this group for most of the ride until we hit a monster hill, I purposely lagged back (not that I could've hung with the 5 that broke away) because I knew I had at least 25 miles left. I ended up about 15 seconds behind the main group at the top of the hill with nobody behind me for some distance, I tried to bridge up for about 6 miles but the neverending stiff headwind meant that since I was stuck in no mans land by myself I wouldn't catch the group (Ryan Halloran, Curt Shelman, Dan Jordan, Fred Herron and some guy I don't know) until they stopped for a minute to let me back on. I ended up riding back to Liberty the shorter way with the Wheel guys so I ended up with 72 miles in about 4 hours. Not bad workout for early season. Sunday I got up and tried to drag Jenn to the Smithville trails, she declined and decided to just go birding instead. Chris called and gave me a heads up that only the west side was dry so I made up my own route riding the same trails about 5 times over. I was surprised but my legs felt good after the prior days ride. I ended up with about 1.5 hours. Jenn and I spent the remainder of the day at home with the new kitten, I bottled my new Boulevard Beer Clone and vegged out the rest of the day. BTW I think I finally got a BLVD Wheat recipe that tastes just like the real thing, I will post the results and recipe after I get a good taste. I'll stop rambling now, I told Jenn I would make a cat scratching post/perch so I better get back to work. Adios.

first post of the new year

First off, Jack is doing fantastic - he is vibrant and healthy and has put some weight on those sagging bones. Now that he is feeling better, we are really starting to see Jack's personality- and he has a lot of it! He is a pretty funny character. In other feline news, I coaxed an abandoned kitten out of the woods of a state park a couple weeks ago. She is super sweet and adorable. She is currently staying with R's sister, who also has 2 other kittens for Tiger to play with, because of Jack's distemper and the contamination of the house. After her 2nd round of vaccinations, we plan on brining her home and testing her out with Jack, who is very needy for attention and would probably do well with a rambunctious friend.

Tiger en route to his new temporary home










Secondly, the weather here has been atrocious, so I haven't ventured out as much as I'd hoped. But I did swing by Eagle Bluffs CA on Tuesday where I picked up 4 Savanna and 1 Vesper Sparrows! Plus a few others for my Jan list.

The last couple days have been a whirlwind. I went to St Louis with my boss for my 1st professional meeting with project collaborators. It was quite the learning experience. I met people I only knew through e-mails, so I got to do some networking. Our efforts are to provide a recommended point count protocol and to get multiple state and federal agencies to adopt it - not an easy task!

In other news, I am officially off to Austin for Golden-cheeked Warbler monitoring in March. I'll only be there through early May becuase I am headlining the woodland restoration project here in MO starting in mid-May.

Adios for now!

just Jack

Jack is doing great - he gets healthier every day! Now that he is perking up and acting like himself, he resumed more typical cat behavior, such as scratching. We had bought him scratch mats, because his first few days here he demonstrated a preference for carpets. That turned out to be a side-product of his illness though. Since feeling better, he has taken to scratching both horizontally on the carpets and vertically on our beautiful comforter! He uses his mats - when he feels like it! But he has no qualms about tearing at whatever he is closest to, and we won't even discuss the kneading on the lap. After some investigating, we discovered Soft Paws - nail caps for cats. I trimmed Jack's nails and placed all 10 caps on presto. It took a couple minutes and Jack has been totally fine with them. He has been wearing his 'nails' for several days and we have seen no problems. He continues his normal scratching behavior, but now when he tugs at the carpet, no carpet pieces go flying up in the air.


Check them out:

introducing Jack

While grieving for Snowball the week after his passing, Randy and I stumbled upon Jack. I enjoyed seeing pics of him because he reminded me of Snowball and in some odd way it comforted me to see his picture. Besides just looking like Snowball, Jack is Snowball's age - it was fate! We met him at the shelter and knew immediately we wanted to take him home.

In a strange twist of fate, Jack got very ill the following Wednesday, only 4 days after we brought him home, and was diagnosed with feline distemper the next day. Distemper is highly contagious and usually fatal. It is very rare for a vaccinated adult cat to contract this virus. In fact, the shelter vet had never encountered this situation before. Jack had been vaccinated on Halloween, the day he arrived at the shelter, and we adopted him 6 weeks later. I can only guess that the vaccine didn't take because he was not healthy when he was brought in (which we know).

The vet sent me home with fluids, meds, and AD (special wet food for recovering dogs and cats) and wished me luck. The next 3 days were tough. I administered his oral and SQ meds, and gave him fluids. I started force-feeding him AD through a syringe over the weekend. By Monday he showed signs of improvement. Yesterday he started really eating on his own and finally he is drinking on his again.

We are starting to see Jack's personality finally. He actually got quite playful last night and chased around a twistie-tie (also one of Snowball's favorite games). He likes to follow us around and is even running up and down stairs and around the house. He is really claiming us and Snowball's things and loved his new home.

When we initially adopted Jack we knew we were likely saving him because very few older cats get adopted. Little did we know we were really saving his life. Had he gotten these symptoms in the shelter, they would have been forced to put him down because of how contagious the virus is, especially for kittens.

Snowball's tragic passing enabled this cat to live. We will always miss Snowball, but everyday I get to see some of Snowball in Jack, which brings me some peace. Welcome to our family Jack!

PS His story is on http://blog.ourdoglog.com/search/label/adoption%20stories

Jenn and Eggnog (Jack)

For those of you who don't know, we adopted an older cat just about a week after snowball passed. The cat looked exactly like snowball and he was the exact same age, one month over 10 yrs, well that is what the shelter put him as at least. So we brought the guy home and he followed us everywhere and seemed to love having a loving home.

I should take a step back, his shelter name was Eggnog and Jenn especially felt guilty looking for a cat after Snowbs passed. We found his pic online and decided to just pay a visit to see if we would be compatible. Jenn must have looked at his pic online about 100x, when we got to the place we said to each other that we wouldn't bring him home unless he was special. When we walked into the cat wing of the shelter, we saw that the old man (that's what we call him) had his own penthouse right beside the entry way door, he had a 6'x8' kitty condo as far as shelters go. We had one immediate concern, that he was not in the enclosure. We couldn't believe it but the cat must have already gotten adopted. Well we were wrong, we found that the weasel had gotten out and overtaken another cat's kennel. When we finally found him sleeping, we found that he immediately responded to us, he purred and he continually put his head under our hand when we stopped petting him. Jenn right away knew we were taking him home. As Jenn left to find the shelter people, I decided to test the new cat. I got up and slowly walked way. Just as I hoped, this guy got up and followed me down the hall. I knew as well, we were taking this guy home. Just a note, Eggnog has the crappiest meow that I have ever heard - if you can imagine a full size adult male cat meowing as a little kitten with a chest cold, this is what he sounds like, we thought it was adorable...... but it could have been a sign.

We brought him home and were so happy with him. He ran after us when we walked away, he slept on the foot of the bed (as Snowball did), and he walked very gingerly showing his old man age. From what I have heard, a ten year old cat is equivalent to a 65 yr old man, that is how this guy was acting.

Well fast forward a couple of days, we noticed that "Jack", our new name for this guy, was very lethargic, he wanted to sleep and wouldn't follow us around the house. Finally one morning we woke up and we found that he had very bad diarrhea and he vomited several times. Over a series of vet visits we found out that this old cat had contracted feline distemper, despite being vaccinated when he entered the shelter on Halloween. His prognosis is still very bad, and we were not given alot of hope. Wayside Waifs (http://www.waysidewaifs.org/) helped us out alot and gave us all the meds that we would need to give him a shot. Jenn has previously done animal (wild) rehab and knows the ins and outs of a syringe. At this time Jack's room resembles an ICU, Jenn has a medical chart and she is attending to him at all hours. We are hopeful that this little guy can make it through. The shelter basically told us that if we wouldn't have adopted him, he would have been put down, maybe it was fate that Snowbs passed and gave this guy a possible life. To this minute, Jack is struggling, he won't eat unless Jenn forces food down his throat via a syringe, he is only getting fluids by injection under the skin. From our online research, cats that make it 5 days, have a good chance of making it. It is now day 4 and we hope that the little bear can keep on. We are giving him constant companionship and love. If nothing else this little bear has at least a home. We hope he can pull through, we are doing all we can. Jenn is unbelievable, getting up at all hours to attend to Jack.....

In memory of Snowball (Oct 1998-Dec 8, 2008)

Monday was the worst day of my life. Tuesday was the second worst. Today is starting off pretty hard. Life post-Snowball is lonely. But I want to share his final day. Monday morning he crawled to my side and sat. Then he got up and crawled to his spot at the foot of the bed. I immediately knew something was wrong - this behavior was strange. I got up out of bed and he jumped off too. Then he slinked into the hallway. He started the ugly head bob that indicates he is about to throw up. So I quickly slipped a towel under him. And waited. But he didn't throw up. He laid on the towel. I continued watching him and sitting with him wondering what could be wrong - did he eat something bad and have a tummy ache? Then he did something really strange - he threw his back legs from under him and laid on his side in a weird position. At this point it clicked that something was wrong with his hind legs. I closed the bedroom and bathroom doors so he couldn't hide from me and ran downstairs to get his carrier. When I returned he was still sitting in that same pathetic way, and only protested a little when I forced him into his carrier. (Snowball hated that thing with a passion and usually resisted going into it vehemently.) I raced to the vet and demanded emergency vet care. The vet (who was not his usual vet) checked his pulse in many places. She felt no pulse in either back leg and said his back legs were getting cold. By this time, Snowball was howling in pain and stress from being there. She diagnosed him with saddle thrombus - an extremely serious condition. Saddle thrombus is a blood clot resulting from congestive heart disease that restricts blood from getting to his hind legs. It is a very painful condition and recovery is highly unlikely. The only options were devastating - put him down or rush him to the animal hospital in KC. At the animal hospital, they would try to restore blood flow to his back legs, but he would be paralyzed. Through intense therapy and daily medication, he may recover some function in those legs within 6 weeks - if he lived through surgery, which many cats don't. Then he would spend his remaining days on medication (Snowball, like his mother, is not a good patient), just to suffer from another episode within months. In later research on this condition, I could find no instance of a cat living past 1 year; most die or are put down much sooner than that. Snowball and I stayed in the examination room waiting for Randy to arrive from work. During that time, Snowball's condition got noticeably worse. He had dragged himself back to his carrier while the vet and vet tech were still present, which was so pitiful and sad knowing how much he despised his carrier. I tried to comfort him in his carrier, but he kept trying to find a comfortable position and cried at my touch. Finally Randy arrived and spoke with the vet. We decided to take Snowball to another vet for a second opinion. Wes recommended the vet she had spoken with about her cat's medical condition and who she really liked. Once there, we discovered 'her' vet was Snowball's vet - she had, unbeknowst to me, moved to a new clinic. She gave us the same unfortunate diagnosis and prognosis. She remembered Snowball and was very caring and gentle and she was noticeably upset giving us the bad news. It comforted me to know Snowball's vet was there, and to see how much it pained her telling me to best option was putting him down. By this time, Snowball's legs were cold to my touch and his paws were turning blue. He winced in pain when we touched his back half. I didn't know what else to do, seeing my little angel in so much pain, and being told that the medical options were extremely unsuccessful. Randy and I decided to let him go. We held him and kissed him as the vet gave him the sedative. He kept looking in my eyes and fighting for me. The vet returned several minutes later surprised to see Snowball still awake. He continued to growl at her touch (but not mine and Randy's) and she administered another dose. I moved behind him so he wouldn't see me. It took a long time, and when he finally fell asleep, his eyes were open. We held him til he was gone and kissed him goodbye. We brought him home and Randy built him a coffin and dug him a grave in the back yard where he loved to look out at the birds. We buried him in his blankie and a sock (he loved to play with socks), and placed some rocks around his grave for now.

Snowball has been my baby and light of my life for 10 wonderful years. He tolerated me traveling all over the country and the world, bringing him when I could and waiting (impatiently!) for me when I couldn't. It took us a long time to find him a real home. He moved in with Randy long before I did, and he claimed this house, and let Randy know it, as his own right away. Snowball's full personality really developed after he moved here - a full 6 1/2 years into life. He had seasonal modes here - he switched to his winter mode last month. His habits and favorite spots changed when he switched from summer to winter mode. I had recently thrown a comforter over the papasan in the office, and he had taken to laying on it beside me while I worked. He loved basking in the sunlight and moved with the sunny spots as they moved during the day. He loved when Randy or me 'chi-chi'ed him up the stairs at night to go to bed. He usually ate one last time and then he would jump up on Randy's side and walk across him to my side, almost without fail. Sometimes he would walk up to my face and demand more pets (by firmly pressing his face against my hand) before he retired to his spot at the foot of bed, just beyond my foot. But sometimes he would plop down right beside me, forcing me to sleep more in the middle! Every night while Randy and I were watching TV downstairs, Snowball would be looking out the sliding door in the kitchen. We'd hear the swishing of the vertical blinds and Randy would say 'Did you hear that? What was that?' And then Snowball would come look down through the bars that divide the kitchen and den (split-level home) - I called it kitty jail - cause he would put his face close to the bars and it looked like he was imprisoned. Then he would gingerly step down the stairs, investigate the little entryway to the garage, meander into the den, sniff around one spot, and plop down. He would rub and rub all over this spot, and eventually he would leap up and race up the stairs like a bat out of hell. And Randy would say "what was that?!' while I just laughed. Sometimes during these little episodes he would let out a loud wreouw. Snowball had a full and intricate language, with a different meow for his every whim. And he even had a bark, recently developed for Randy when he got up in the morning and started moving around and turning closet lights on. He was saying 'come on dad - can't you see we're trying to sleep'. It was so super cute. Randy would respond 'Can I help you sir? Excuse me, can I help you?' And Snowball usually replied with another bark. During the past year, Snowball developed a little snore. We usually only heard it on those rare nights when he fell asleep in his night bed (on the floor beside Randy). But every now and then, we'd catch him snoring on the bed too. It was a soft quiet barely audible snore that I adored. Sometimes he would get up with Randy in the morning and run around, but he always was right there snuggled in his spot when I woke up an hour plus later. He typically waited for me to officially get out of bed before he would jump off and we'd start our day. Sometimes I took too long and he would walk up to me and nudge me to get up. But he never left me in bed alone. From there we spent our days together in the house, but not always in the same room. He often enjoyed his mornings in the living room, either in his day bed or sitting in grandpa's chair looking out the big window. Eventually, he would come upstairs and bug me to pet him before settling in for an afternoon nap in the papasan beside me. He'd stay there until I left for the gym. He usually greeted Randy at the top of the stairs when he returned, meowing furtively and acting like he had been alone for so long (so dramatic). But really he just wanted daddy to get him his 'greenies' (our name for any treat). I liked to wait til Randy got home and they'd go get his greenies together. All we had to say was 'greenies, chi-chi, greenies' in a high voice and in a flash, Snowball was there purring and meowing. This was pretty much the only way to rouse him from a dead sleep too, or get him out if he was under the bed. We sometimes liked to tease him and stand in the hallway, instead of going in his room. He would have none of that. He would meow at us from the doorway or walk down to our hiding places (inside the doorways off the hallway) and look up at us, meow, and run back to his doorway. He did this until we relented and gave him his greenies. Snowball was very protective of his room, which was really the guest bathroom, but we always called it his room, cause, well, it was his room. And you couldn't enter it without Snowball. No matter where he was in the house, somehow he just knew if you had entered his room and within seconds he'd come flying through, cock his head and say 'meow' (translation - what's going on guys?). If you shut him out of his room, he's stand right outside of it waiting for you to come out. He didn't come in my bathroom with me while I was in the shower, but usually, when I exited the bathroom I would see my Boo standing right there waiting for me. On those occasions when I took a bath, he would push the door open (yes, he forced his way in) and come in and stand up against the tub to see what mom was doing ('ew, that's wet, I think I'll wait outside'). His favorite games were not toys - oh no, he was not one for those cat toys, and Randy only got a reaction from him to the laser on his last night, but he was one for more involved games. He loved loved loved peek-a-boo and hide-and-seek games, chasing each other around the couch and hiding under Phil the plant, and around corners. And Randy and I always liked to see if we could 'get him'. When he was not apparently paying attention to us and looking away, we tried our best to sneak up on him and poke him. If we made the poke before he caught us ('meow') - we got him. If he meowed at us first, he got us. He usually got us. He also loved to play with the laundry. He always came in the bedroom with me while I was folding and lounged on the neatly folded towels, and batted around socks - I would hold them in front of him and he would jump up and try to get them from me. Randy and I called it 'playing socks'.

On weekends, Randy liked to keep him active and awake. And Snowball loved it. But he was a cat, and as such, still liked to sleep. Randy and I were so amused when we'd see him sitting up looking at us after breakfast, with those droopy eyes, fighting to stay awake, but falling asleep. After all, staying awake 2 whole hrs after a full night's rest is so hard for a little boo. When he woke up from his slumbers, he would look around with his 'blinkity-blinkity' eyes. Randy and I would usually spend a couple hrs in the office and Snowball made sure to always join us. Often I would curl up in the papasan while Randy paid his bills and balanced his accounts, and Snowball would jump up on top of me. We enjoyed our weekend routine. Recently, he discovered another white cat outside the windows at night. He would poke his head through the blinds and see his reflection. Not understanding what he saw, he would move around, switch windows (we have 3 in a row with a ledge running beneath it), and climb the glass, his little ears pointing forward in perplexity. I don't think he ever did figure it out. But don't think he wasn't sharp - he knew all his names. Randy and I had many many nicknames for him, most variations on boo and bear (and boobear). It always amazed me that a cat responded not just to his name, but that he grasped his other names - what a smart boy. The best years of his life were spent here at this house and these past months have been Snowball's dream - he in his house, and me working from home, we were together all the time. Our family had developed so many routines, and I expected to see Snowball enjoying his life for so many more years.

Snowball was a loving, complicated, strong, stubborn, unique, charming, quirky, delightful, loyal cat who depended so completely on his mama bear and whose mama bear depended so completely on him. It gives me some comfort that he had his mommy and daddy with him as he passed, and to know that every day of his life he was healthy and pain-free up to the last day. But his absence leaves an unbearbale void in our lives and our home, and memories and pictures aren't enough to heal a broken heart. Since Randy and I met almost 4 1/2 years ago, Snowball has been part of my memory of this house, because I always brought him with me when we visited and then Randy invited him to move in. I hope somehow he knows how much he is missed. Snowball will forever be mama's little bear.

To learn more about the horrible disease that cut his beautiful life short, click here http://blog.ourdoglog.com/2008/03/fritzs-diagnosis-saddle-thrombus.html

silly snowball

I am just too sad right now to write, but I wanted to put up a couple pictures of my baby.

Snowball

It is with a heavy heart that I write this. Today snowball very unexpectedly passed away. Jenn called me from work and she knew there was a problem. After seeing two vets we had to make a very hard decision. Snowball has been a part of my life for the last 4 years and Jenn has raised him from a tiny kitten for the past 10. We brought him home today and buried him in the yard, we intend on making a memorial native garden around him this spring. Jenn and I will be very lonely without his antics around the home.

silly snowball

To lighten the mood, I added this pic of my silly boy sitting in a box lid

SAY HI AUNT WESSIE

Snowball received a new bed from his aunt Wes for Christmas and he never used it. However I thought it looked so pretty in the new living room, Randy and I tried again. I put him in there and we both sat by him so he wouldn't run out. He looked around, sniffed a little, did a turn, and plopped down for yet another much needed nap (I had pulled him from his bed in the bedroom!).