{ Boo Kitty }
March 4 1989 —- June 9 2001
Domestic Shorthair Cat
Back in 1989 I had just moved to Montana.
In case you’ve never been here Montana is not hospitable
to newcomers. Let’s just say that I was having a hard time
making friends.
One friend I did make had a cat who had kittens.
I decided to take the two males. I really wanted the tiger cat;
I took the white male just to keep the other kitten company.
To make a long story short the tiger kitten just did not work
out and I found a new home for him.
The white kitten named Snowbear was a real sweetie and I
quickly fell in love with him.
I don’t have enough room to tell you every single thing that ever
happened in Snow’s life but I’ll give the highlights.
When he got big enough I let him go outside.
One morning I heard this horrible yowling from the yard.
I went outside and couldn’t see anything but the noise continued.
Finally I looked up and there was Snow on the roof.
The silly thing had climbed on the railing jumped onto the roof
and was too scared to get back down.
Snow did this several more times during his life,
and soon it made me laugh.
I don’t know when I started calling him Boo or why but the name stuck.
Boo loved to roll over on his back so I could rub his stomach.
If I didn’t ask him to roll over he’d meow and roll over first!
He kept this up until the week before he died.
By then he felt so terrible that he wasn’t interested
anymore.
Boo absolutely hated to be held. He’d rather go to the vet than be held.
If you knew how much he hated the vet you’d understand.
I guess the best analogy is to say that he hated to be held as much as
a Boston Red Sox fan hates the New York Yankees.
During this time my cat Spook died.
Spook was the best friend I had ever had and I had a very hard
time dealing with his death. Boo understood I think and he made it his
mission to fill the void. I wish he knew what a wonderful job he
really did.
In 1992 I met my husband and in 1993 I moved into East Helena.
The cats couldn’t go out any longer. After a few days they seemed to adjust,
but during the summer I would often see Boo in the open window.
He would just sit there and look out – perhaps remembering other times.
Boo and I shared the same birthday. I thought that was really cool.
I remember taking the day off to spend with him and giving him his
own can of tuna. He loved that!
I don’t know where the years went but this past March Boo turned 12.
He had started to lose weight but he still seemed very interested in life.
He would still play he still liked catnip and he was still the
TOP CAT in the house. He never ever let anyone forget it.
Several weeks ago he really started going downhill.
Then he pulled out of it and had a good week or 10 days.
I made an appointment for him to go to the vet on June 9.
I made the appointment on June 5 and by June 7 I knew that Boo
would not be coming home from the vet this time.
I sat with him one evening and just cried.
I just wasn’t ready to say good bye to my friend.
I started hoping it was just something simple that the vet
could help with.
It wasn’t. The right lung couldn’t be heard at all and both
kidneys were enlarged. Our vet thought it was cancer.
I said that we should just put Boo to sleep.
Our vet really doesn’t like to have anyone in the room when
he puts the animal to sleep.
I think he was ready to let me stay but that would
have made both of us uncomfortable.
I asked the vet to sedate him so I could hold him until he fell asleep.
That way Boo wouldn’t know I wasn’t there and he wouldn’t
be angry that I left him at the vet’s again.
I took about 10 minutes for the shot to take effect.
I held Boo and talked to him about all the fun times we had had
and how much I was going to miss him.
I thanked him for being such a good friend.
I had my husband take some photos of me holding him.
I just had to have that last picture.
Finally Boo was asleep and the vet came back.
I handed Boo over to him and he placed Boo on the table.
I remember saying “Good bye Sweetheart” and I kissed him
one last time.
Boo is buried at my mom’s house next to Spook.
It was a place that he loved and I think he would be very happy
to know he was back at his first home.
We have a new kitten already and she is bringing a lot of happiness
to the whole family. I know that although Boo would be jealous
that he would not want me to be sad.
But I am.
I miss my friend.
It’s only been a week but it feels like years that he’s been gone.
I talk to him daily and I have pictures of him in my cubby at work.
Somedays I feel like he is there with me and that he is staring at me.
I hope he is in a good place and that he’s happy.
I also hope that I’ll see him again someday.
But most of all I’m grateful that I had 12 wonderful years with him.
I’ll never ever forget him or the times we shared.
Liz
| Snowbear |