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

In what has become a truly epic round of teasing directed at a new club member who has yet to attain the age of 18, or secure a running car, a couple of the guys raised the game to a whole new level last night at M&M with some modifications of their beloved cars.

I just wish I had been there to see the reactions.