For those of you who haven’t met Mulder (named for Fox Mulder of X-Files fame), he’s a small black and white cat [...]]]> A few hours ago, I got off the phone with our trusted veterinarian, Dr. Rosalyn MacDonald, having just booked Mulder’s final appointment at the Bytown Cat Hospital for January 6 at 10AM.

For those of you who haven’t met Mulder (named for Fox Mulder of X-Files fame), he’s a small black and white cat with a pink nose. His paw pads are a blend of pink and black blotches and his belly is all white. He has been our beloved friend since 1995 when I picked him out at the Humane Society and pedwar chose him to be the newest addition to our family.

From the moment we got him home, we knew we had someone special. He could fit in my palm, but had enough attitude for five cats twice his size. He took over. In the first few days, he amazed us with great feats such as jumping from a perch 30″ off the floor to the top shelf of a closet, covering a good four horizontal feet, all so he could knock all the board games off that shelf. His intelligence was apparent, too. Like any kitten, he clawed at his toys, but his claws were never used on us, not even when playing. He charmed his way into our hearts, spending evenings on the couch with us, half of him on me, the other half on pedwar. He knew we were his.

Mulder’s intrepid nature also caused us a few scares over the years. During his first summer with us, I accidentally left a screenless window open. By the time we discovered it, our little Mul was gone, disappeared into the night. I was beside myself with fear that our little friend was lost, or worse, that I would find his broken body on the street. Thankfully, he had found a safe spot under a parked car. When we found him, he was scared — little pink nose glowing red — but with a little coaxing, he did his patented Mulder flop into my palm. I still remember the relief I felt as I pulled him out and held him.

As Mul grew, it became clear that he was the German Shepherd of the cat world. He would do periodic patrols of the house, from window to window, door to door, making sure that everything was in order. He would spend his days watching the world go by from windows, alerting us to anything out of the ordinary. When Bobo joined us in 1998, Mul began a mentor-ship program, eventually leading to Bobo’s deputization, and a reduction in Mulder’s workload.

Mul’s devotion to patrolling spanned three residences. In each place, our bed was the centre of his world. He slept by my feet or sometimes by pedwar’s head, always with his gaze towards the door. When Trish was recovering from some minor surgery, years ago, he spent all his time in bed with her, keeping her company as she recovered. Through each of our two moves, it was obvious how the reassembly of the bed served to calm him, providing a clear signal that this new place is now our home.

Mul won’t get to watch us pack for our next move or explore the new house later this year. He has been struggling with a thyroid condition and renal failure for the last few years, in a battle to find the right dose of medications. For the last few years, his good days were greatly outnumbering his bad days, but more recently the balance has shifted. He’s now suffering minor seizures at least two or three times per week and his stomach is constantly upset, preventing him from eating well. His constant pleas to be held, comforted, and reassured in the arms that have loved him for so many years are now telling us that he knows it’s time to go.

Mulder is my first pet and it’s breaking my heart to have to say good-bye to him, but we can’t allow him to suffer any further. I thought this would be easier than when we lost Bobo last year since we’ve had time to work-up to it and since Mulder is a genuinely old cat, but I’m finding it to be just as hard. Mulder is… I can’t find words…. He’s a 1o-pound cat that will leave a mile-wide hole in his wake. Our home will feel empty for a long time without him.

If you have a pet, cherish him or her while you can. Mul, you’ll always be our Number One Bear. I hope you know what you’ve meant to us.

Some of Mul’s nicknames: Mulder Bear, Number One Bear, Mulder T. Bear, Mul, Darth Mul, Mulder Berry, Mulder Berry Bush, Shrub, T-Bear, Bul Head, Mul Face, Smallish Bear, Mully, Stinker Bear, Ranch Bear, Bear Cub, Shrubbish, Wee Bear

In approximately 18 hours, we will be saying good bye to our beloved, 13-year old Siamese, Bobo. We’re both full of emotion. Pedwar has had tears streaming more or less continuously, whether or not she was crying. I’ve gone from solid and philosophical to sobbing in less than the blink of [...]]]> September 20th, 2010 10:18PM

In approximately 18 hours, we will be saying good bye to our beloved, 13-year old Siamese, Bobo. We’re both full of emotion. Pedwar has had tears streaming more or less continuously, whether or not she was crying. I’ve gone from solid and philosophical to sobbing in less than the blink of an eye on several occasions. Neither of us can imagine our home without this lanky, 10-pound, good natured, and overwhelmingly affectionate cat.

It all started about a month and a half ago when pedwar noticed Bobo having a very hard time using his litterbox. His straining resulted in him vomiting up his breakfast so she took him to our vet at the Bytown Cat Hospital. The exam revealed that his colon was full of impacted fecal matter, hence the constipation. A few enemas and some sub-cutaneous fluids later, he was back home with a new diet and various medications aimed at softening things up and keeping things moving.  We were hopeful.  Unfortunately, hope wasn’t enough and poor Bobo found himself in the same painful situation two more times, each about 1.5 weeks apart. He has been diagnosed with megacolon, a condition where his colon is so stretched that it no longer contracts to move matter through his digestive system. The result is that his upper intestine dumps stuff into the colon, and it just sits there getting more and more compressed as new material comes in. No amount of straining on his part can move it out.

At this point, the options are few. We can have his colon removed — a pretty invasive procedure with a long and complex recovery, or we can bring him in for stressful and uncomfortable enemas (which are decreasing in effectiveness) every one to two weeks. Neither option is acceptable to us. Sure, we’d have our friend around, but it would hardly be fair to him given the stress involved in such visits. The only other alternative, the one we’ve reluctantly selected, is to have our vet euthanise Bobo. Not wanting this to happen at the vet, where the normally calm little guy is decidedly stressed, we asked our vet, Dr. MacDonald, to come to our home where Bobo can go to rest in his favourite chair, where he feels safe and loved, and she has agreed.

While we both understand the situation, it is so very hard to accept that this otherwise vital cat, full of curiosity and with so much warmth in his heart, has to die at what is a young age for his breed. We’ve both cried a lot tonight and I think there’s much more crying to do, but we’ve also done our best to enjoy this last night with our little miniature camel. He got his favourite treat for supper (BBQ sirloin steak), he played a game of fetch, and has been the target of liberal and unrestricted cuddling all night long. He has also been lounging on heating pads to keep him warm (he’s normally always chilled).

Tonight marks the beginning of the end of our lives with Bobo. It will be the last time he sleeps with us, something he has done every night for the 12 years he has been part of our family. It will be the last time he waits for us to settle down before jumping into bed and scratching at the covers between pedwar and I. It will be last time he moves between ped’s arms and mine over the course of the night, giving both of us the benefit of his rhythmic purring. He is ingrained in our lives, his name a part of our own private vocabulary.

September 21, 2010 11:06AM

I woke up this morning to find Bobo in Pedwar’s arms, I put my hand on him and he was purring away as he always does. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep… Later, he roused me with his traditional pawing of the covers and flopped down in my arms, head on my upper arm and purred us both back to sleep. Eventually, we all woke up, but just lay there. Trish told me how in the night, she had woken, to find him in her arms, his chin on her cheek…

He is now resting comfortably on a couple of warm heating pads with his last dose of pain killers. We’re trying to hold it together for him. He can tell we’re upset, and he has tried to comfort us several times.

Photos also available here, at higher data rates.

September 21, 2010 4:32PM

Bobo is gone…

He spent his last 45 minutes standing in the foyer with his toys, refusing to go very far from the front door, as if he knew what was coming.

He might be gone, but he will never, ever be forgotten. He brought us so much joy and happiness, so many memories that will always live in our hearts. Here are but a few…

The first time we met Bobo (he was known as Bojangles back then) was at his breeder’s home, where he lived in a large play area with his extended family. Before we got to the area, the breeder, Pauline Bratt, told us he was extremely friendly and curious. She wasn’t lying. As we rounded the corner into the room adjoining the play area, a little brown and beige head, topped with the biggest ears you could ever imagine, popped up in the observation window. You could see the look of “Oh, visitors!” on his face.

Bobo was fully clawed with what were pretty large and serious claws, but he thought they were strictly for use on his scratching post (and no one wanted to disabuse him of that belief). One night, we were doing some furniture rearranging and placed is post, which normally rests against a wall, in the middle of the floor. Spotting it there, he sauntered up to it and leaped on sinking every claw from every toe on every paw into the post. Now, the post’s base was designed to be stable when the cat using the post is standing on the base and when the post is against a wall. You can imagine what happened next. The post tipped over on to Bobsie, smacking him into the floor. He got up, shook it off, and walked away looking embarrassed and very suspicious of his post. We were in stitches. Right up until last night, Bobo gave his post a working over on his way up to bed.

The duvet cover episode took place in our apartment on Brittany Drive, where we lived for a little less than year. We were putting clean sheets on our bed, and pulled out a clean duvet cover. Bobo decided he wanted to climb inside the dirty one that was sitting on the floor. As he explored inside, his body formed a moving hump in the otherwise flat piece of fabric. Enter Mulder, who upon seeing the moving hump pounced on it. Not knowing what was happening and with his view blocked by the fabric, Bobo tried to jump away. The hump gained altitude quickly until the slack in the fabric, now anchored by Mulder’s mass, was taken-up. At that point he fell back to earth forming an new hump upon which Mulder would pounce. Repeat.

Bobo also had a special relationship with bags. He would find them and conjure-up a way to get the handles stuck around his neck, if not his neck and one paw. He would then run around thinking bag was chasing him or hobble about on three paws until one of us would see him and rescue him from himself. He did this as recently as four days ago.

During his short life, Bobsie was many things. He was an international cat show champion during kittenhood; an accomplished mouser; a skilled player of fetch-the-sproing; a trusting and loyal confidant who was always there when you needed him. Most essentially, however, Bobo was a friendly, loving, and gentle cat who tried to befriend everyone he met, both bi-ped and quadra-ped.

We were privileged to have him in our lives and honoured to have earned his trust and friendship. All we hope is that he understood how much he will always mean to us. I’m very thankful that Bobo was one of the only two pets I will ever have…

Bobo
Forever in our hearts
July 6, 1997 to September 21, 2010

Bobo’s various nicknames… Chameau (rhymes with Bobo), Bobo Sha-mo-mo, Shammer, Camel, Bobesie Brains, Bobes, Bobesie Wanna-Wanna, Shamrock, Shamrocker, Camel Brains, Stinker, The Bobo with the Big ‘Reilles, Sham-Sham, Baby-Sham, Baobab, Baobab Tree, Camel Face Chippendale, Miniature Camel, Bobi Wan Shamobi, Rocker, Irish Camel, Bobsie Face Chippendale, Bobo Buddy, Chameau for Brains, Li’l Honker.

Sun-drenched meezer

While Schmoo was autocrossing in Picton at the end of May, Mom and I took a boat cruise from Kingston (see pictures below), had a beautiful lunch at Brandy’s, then toured Old Fort Henry in the afternoon of the 29th.  Cooling off with [...]]]> OK, all right — here’s a (brief!) update from me, too. 

While Schmoo was autocrossing in Picton at the end of May, Mom and I took a boat cruise from Kingston (see pictures below), had a beautiful lunch at Brandy’s, then toured Old Fort Henry in the afternoon of the 29th.  Cooling off with ice cream from White Mountain afterward, I got a message from Schmoo that everyone was coming to Kingston for supper.  I replied that, as we were already there, we’d go find a place to sit and sip on a glass of wine until they got there.  Dins was had at Ye Olde Speckled Hen.

Sunday saw Mom and I head to the Picton Airfield to check out the action.  After about an hour, we wandered into Picton and had a light lunch at Budda Dog, then gelato at the place next door (forget the name, but the gelato was delish).  We explored Picton for a while, then drove the tour of Prince Edward County, starting with Sandbacks National Park, then a hunt for a winery that we could return to on Monday for lunch.  We met up with Schmoo at the airfield to help him gather up all his gear.  Dinner was at Shoeless Joe’s (we had eaten there on Friday evening as well).

On Monday morning, Mom and I got up at a leisurely hour, and meandered to our winery of choice: County Cider Company and Winery Estate (thanks to Mike and Amanda for the recommendation).  We had a beautiful lunch at the entrance to the vineyard, which overlooks Lake Ontario, and left with several bottles of cider and wine.  On our trip to meet Schmoo at Shannonville, we stopped at Black River Cheeses, and picked up more of what we had sampled at lunch.  Dinner at a pub in Kingston.  Dropped off a tired but happy mother at 10 Monday evening.

Mom and her new best friend, Hannah

Anyone for a ride?

Lunch at County Cider

Surveying the beach at Sandbanks Park

Kingston boat cruise

Out with the guys at Ye Olde Speckled Hen

Old Fort Henry staff and David the 9th

The first outing of the season was St. LAC’s traditional test and tune on April 18th. A few of us convoyed down to the Picton airfield [...]]]> Man have I ever been slacking when it comes to this site, but I’m back and the 2010 driving season is well underway, so here’s the scoop to date…

The first outing of the season was St. LAC’s traditional test and tune on April 18th. A few of us convoyed down to the Picton airfield that morning for a day of autox fun with our St. LAC brothers and sisters. I was running the same Hankook R-S3 (225/45R15) tires I ran all last season and things were fine. No big surprises except for the normal “rattle the car to death” issues that Picton reveals. In this case, the blow-off valve rattled off, then the throttle body inlet pipe did the same. It was a test and tune, remember? I didn’t pay much attention to times as I was more concerned with finding all the clamps I hadn’t quite tightened enough. Big positive? The brakes remained firmly attached to the car!

My second outing was probably the most highly anticipated — 3 days of lapping at Calabogie Motorsports Park! We started on April 30th and as a CMP newbie, I was assigned to a driving instructor who would show me the line and then “sign me off” to drive solo. I got Canadian Touring Car driver Alex Healy who came showed the ropes as I built up speed over the first couple 20 minute sessions on track with the beginner run group. Alex was great, giving me great tips throughout the lap, but I swear that I made him flinch at the end of Rocky Road as I resisted braking too early. After a couple of sessions, Alex gave me the green light, I thanked him, and off I went to drive CMP solo. During this first day, the track was intimidating with complex corners, tons of elevation change, and some intimidating walls, particularly in turns 1 and 2. In the afternoon, I moved into the advanced group and ran with buddies Rob, Bill, and Physk. Bill, in his boosted Miata was predictably lightning quick and while I could hang with him if I really pushed, I couldn’t lead him. Impressively, Rob in his M3 stayed with us, but Physk’s super-charged NA miata couldn’t. A couple of weeks later, he would purchase an NB Miata with an FM II Turbo Kit.

Day 2 saw us leave the full track layout to run on the East course layout, which felt considerably different because turn 1 now went right instead of left and Deliverance was now a genuine problem spot. I started to get more comfortable and started to get faster, slowly building to Shawn’s pace in his BMW. I figured if he can do it in that car, on those tires, I can do it. I was right… thankfully. Around mid-day, was switched to the West Track, the shortest and fastest layout for a couple of hours. While not as entertaining as the other layouts, some hard braking zones made it exciting, especially in the rain. And believe me, it rained… hard. I did a few laps in the downpour with fellow MCOer Ian before we decided to pull off and take a break. Pulling into my parking spot, we noticed everyone’s stuff was drenched. Luckily, I had my waterproof bags keeping my gear nice and dry. :) As the rain slowed, it was time to return to the East Track. While it continued to rain lightly, by the end of the day, I was able to run top down again. Oddly enough, I seemed to be going faster in the wet than I was going in the dry the day before. Felt pretty good.

Day 3 began on the East Track again. It was hot and sunny and suddenly, I was having to watch my temperature gauge and run with the heater on to keep Ginger from over-heating. It was obvious I was going even faster today as I tried to hang with Steve Fong and had a couple of “moments”. The weekend wrapped-up on the full track with me turning my best laps of the weekend and feeling relaxed enough to check my watch on Rocky Road. :)

I had brand new Toyo R888 tires on (225/45R15) with the standard baseline alignment. The car tended to understeer the whole time and the inner shoulders of the tires took a real beating. They were pretty good in the wet, perturbed only by standing water.

The next event was the Rumble at The Strip — Regional Double Header at the Picton Airfield, hosted by SPDA and St. LAC on May 29 and 30th. This was a terrible weekend for me. In an effort to manage the understeer I felt at CMP, I had altered my alignment a bit to decrease the level of negative camber overall and make the front and rear camber settings equal. Combined with the tire wear from CMP, the grip of the airfield, and the very different conditions (autox vs. lapping), the alignment transformed high-speed understeer to low-speed oversteer. The car would rotate rapidly — great in slow sections — but would tend to want to spin in high-speed sweepers — not good for Picton. I softened the rear shocks and stiffened the front and it made the car drivable. Still, I didn’t make out particularly well netting only the most mediocre times. Still a good time with good friends. The R888 tires looked like hell at this point.

The double header was turned into a long weekend with lapping at Shannonville with St. LAC on May 31st. It was another hot day so managing the car’s water temp was a primary concern. I tried a few different things, but still saw water temperatures as high as 257F. Yikes! Met some guys from miataphiles.ca and took Physk for a ride with me for some valuable feedback. Unfortunately, he had some issues towards the end of the day and had to tow his car home to Cornwall — St. LAC autox fairy Bill to the rescue. A few weeks later, Rob and I headed to Cornwall to help Physk with an engine swap as the car’s motor was done.

We’re now into June and still no MCO event (damn hockey play-offs), but that was to be rectified on June 5th when I drove Jeff’s Protege in MCO Event 1. Ginger was fine, but I was kind of in the middle of a job so rather than rush to reassemble what I would end up disassembling later, I just asked Jeff to co-drive. If someone had told me that going back to a softly sprung, under-powered front wheel drive would have been so hard, I never would have believed them. I was shocked at myself be shocked. I found myself yelling, “Turn, damn it, turn!” Jeff ended up being quicker on the day, which was appropriate, but I wasn’t too far off at only half a second behind. MCO 2010 – Event 1 Results

With no MCO event until late June, I was happy to have session scheduled at Shannonville the evening of June 25th with the guys from midnightruns.com (thanks to Greg and Carey for organizing). In addition to my regular partners in crime, Jeff (Protege2886) and Pat (condor888000), we also had Kevin (Karmaboy) heading down for the 2 hour session. I ran at wastegate boost (7psi) to avoid any over-heating, which worked beautifully aside from hurting my straight line speed. Still I managed decent lap times with a few onlookers indicating that I was among the quickest three cars out there. My best lap was a 2:06.295, which is way off anything that could be considered “fast”, but I was pleased given how poorly the car was handling with over-steer in just about every phase of every corner — I think my R888 are done. This outing was also my first with the AiM MXL and SmartyCam. I think the video speaks for itself regarding the coolness of those two gadgets.

Jeff had a bit of drama that night with a dramatic off-course excursion into the very muddy grass. Luckily, car and driver were unaffected. It was good to see Jeff maintain his aggression after that off. I guess is sense of self-preservation is waning.

June 27 brought with it MCO Event 2 at Scotia Bank Place. Ginger was back in action and the course was a fun one. However, it was becoming more and more apparent that the R888s were done as I continued to battle over-steer throughout the event. Still, I managed 5th in class, although the time was nothing to write home about. At the end of the day, I gave the car to our favourite Canadian Tire service manager for a fun run. I figured it would be good to determine whether the over-steer was in fact the car or just my driving. Ralf enjoyed the drift-fest that ensued and agreed that the car had no rear end grip. At least it wasn’t me!

MCO Event 3 came up the very next weekend on July 4th. I offered Jeff a drive in Ginger so he could help be burn-off the R888s. He agreed and had a good time, although I felt bad as the car was downright evil. Evil enough that I spun it three times on one run! Suffice it to say that I didn’t rank well, but Jeff kept pace, about 1 second behind. The tires were done and they were coming off. MCO 2010 – Event 3 Results

Given the handling issues I had been experiencing, I wanted to minimize the variables at play so rather than mount the brand new Hankook R-S3 I had at home, the R888 were replaced with the very well worn set of Hankooks I used last season. With them mounted and the alignment returned to settings I liked last year, I headed out for two hours of evening lapping at CMP on July 9th. It had been pouring on the drive up the track was drenched and greasy, but still the Hankooks restored Ginger to the happy fun-loving, do anything car I loved. Gone was the evil demon threatening to spit me out of every corner ass end first (yippee!). I guess the R888 required fundamentally softer rear suspension set-up. Further vindication came as Christian (eyemaster), a longtime R888 driver, was funding his car had gone to crazy oversteer with his new, stiffer suspension.

Laptimes weren’t great given the wet and my worn rubber, but it was still a blast. In particular was a dice with Greg (1morelap) in his Mustang. Greg had completed a big CMP-organized lapping event the week before and had clearly gotten faster.

No rest for the wicked as Pat and I left for Peterborough the next day in preparation for the July 11th Regional Series Event at Kawartha Downs and Speedway. Thanks to Greg, who despite living in Peterborough, drives hundreds of kilometres to come to MCO events. Going to this event, which he was organizing, was the least we could do, particularly as he offered us a place to sleep the night before. It was almost as hot as Event 3, which was a scorcher and for the first time, I drove with the top up on a dry day. Having the A/C on made it quite comfortable, but I still felt weird until I put the top down around the junction between highways 7 and 37.

The event itself was very interesting with the course set-up on what appeared to be a quarter-mile, banked oval track. This made it even hotter, kinda of like standing in an oven. Thankfully, the event went smoothly and the driving was fun. With Ginger back to being her old self,  I pushed and managed to win my class (STU) by nearly 2 seconds, PAXed 2nd overall, and landed 5th overall in raw times, albeit nearly 2.5 seconds back. Thanks to Greg and the Peterborough Motor Sports Club for putting on a great event. PMSC Regional results can be found here: Raw Times, PAX, Run Times By Class

That brings us to now and the upcoming MCO-CADL Inter-Provincial Cup Event on July 18th. Can’t wait! And yes, I’ll keep up the site… I promise.