I’ll note here that there is very sad news to share. If you don’t want to read sad news, that’s ok. Just enjoy the picture and don’t keep scrolling to the end of the post. If you want to read it, you can keep scrolling down after today’s cat picture.
Boo Boo
Sadly, Boo Boo died yesterday. A dog got into our yard and mauled him to death. It was absolutely horrible. I came home from doing some errands and found his body. The dog kept trying to return to our yard and was not one that we were familiar with, so we had to call Animal Control to take the dog away. The other three outdoor cats managed to escape, but they were very deeply traumatized. Spike ended up at least 35 feet up the magnolia tree, and for a little while it looked like he wasn’t going to be able to get down. One of many heart-breaking things about it all was watching the three surviving cats go to Boo Boo’s lifeless body and pay their respects (or go to the spot where Boo Boo died to pay respects, in Spike’s case, because we’d buried Boo Boo by the time Spike managed to get down from the tree–Spike immediately went to that spot as soon as his paws were on solid ground.)
I know with outdoor cats this is the risk–early death in any number of ways. These guys adopted John and I, even though we don’t have room inside our house, so John and I will always look out for them even though we know outdoor life isn’t ideal.
I will miss Boo Boo so much. He was an extra large cat with an extra large personality. He was Spike’s best buddy and his second in command. Boo Boo smacked the other cats around just enough to let them know he was Number 2, but he also cuddled with everyone and kept them all warm at night with his massive body. He had all kinds of commentary for us at meal times and when his bowl was empty–or when he thought it was empty because he’d eaten a hole in the crunchies so he could see the bottom of the bowl. He joined me in gardening. He loved to roll in the grass and slept under big hosta leaves. He loved life, often lifting his grand, golden belly to the sky with not a care in the world.
I still have a month’s worth of Cat a Day cat pictures that include Boo Boo and all of his expressive, goofy, wonderfulness. You’ll see him regularly throughout May. I think the moments I captured are too wonderful not to share, so I’ll leave them as a tribute to his wonderful, goofy fuzziness.
John and buried Boo Boo in the circle garden at the base of one of my bottle trees. He loved hanging out in my garden areas, but left me exasperated because he always casually walked over and used them as kitty litter boxes. On my to-do list for this weekend had been “put up Boo Boo butt shields,” which meant putting bird netting over my lettuce to protect it. So, it seemed appropriate to bury him in this spot. The broken angel now watches over him. This summer, I’d already been planning to get rid of the ivy that was in this garden space. Now I think I’ll plant some hostas for him to rest under.
(Breakfast time with Spike, Junior, Mark, and big ol’ Boo Boo.)
Squirrels and Tomatoes 