Bubbles

Bubbles came to us in 2013, along with his brother Mooch (caution, that blog is a tear-jerker). 

I'll be honest: at first "Bubba", as Eva and eventually Mark called him, was almost an afterthought. Not because he was any kind of bad cat: because Mooch basically demanded affection 24/7. When Mooch died suddenly in 2017....well, we half joked that Mooch didn't really die, just jumped into his brother's body, because it was as if somebody flipped a switch. Bubbles took up duty purring Mark off to sleep and his affection level increased about seventy percent. 

He was always a big cat. A HUGE cat. A dense example of felinity. In the vernacular, a heckin' chonker who could tip the scale over (literally) into an oh lawd, he's a comin'. He topped out at about 30  pounds, and if he wanted to, he could put one paw on you seemingly with three hundred pounds of force. But somehow he was always soft and, until just recently, sleek. And hellaciously strong. I recall him BOUNCING from the floor three quarters of the way up our patio door, trying to get a bug. How he could haul his hindquarters that high I still have no idea.

They weighed him today to determine dosages, and he was less than 17 pounds. But the big problem with Bubba was his ear. It got infected about six years ago, and we have spent thousands trying everything to get rid of it, to no avail. Over the last few weeks Eva has been almost scooping pus out of that ear three times a day, and it was hurting him to the point he would bite her. The only option left -- short of the one we took today -- was an ear-ectomy that the vet said wasn't even a guarantee. 

Why do I always feel like I have to justify this?

Probably because, in this case, Bubbles purred in my arms the whole way to the vet. He gave me several of his patented head butts. He was completely calm in the vet's office, no wriggling, not even a meow. 

And his eyes were bloody and he was starting to have accidents and....he's no longer hurting. He can be with his brother (they were inseparable in life). He can be with Papa Mark....pretty sure he is already. 

Bubbles got along with every animal he encountered, even our dog Georgia-Peach, whose sudden attack on Bubbs was the reason we put her down. It truly speaks to the nature of this cat that he became best friends with the Dollydog.  Here is a link to the Dolly and Bubbles channel.

And here he is on top of Bitsy. 

And who could forget his brief career as a pole dancer? 

We aren't bereft. We still have Dolly and Bitsy and Jack and Cricket, plus the Q.T.-cat. But you know, I tend to think in terms of tapestries, and from now on his thread will be missing and missed. 

We keep bringing pets into our worlds, don't we? Knowing full well we'll be taking them out of our worlds too? We judge the pain at the end is worth the love that gets us there. And it is. Bubbles, Bubba, Bubbs, Chubbs, Bubbachonk....we loved you, we love you still, and we always will.