I buried my best friend today

I lost one of my best friends today. I know that he was only a cat, but that doesn’t make it hurt any less. It’s even harder to take because he picked me to be his buddy, a first for a cat with me. I am so happy that he was a part of my life for the past 7 years.

Let me tell you a little bit about Booger, yeah I named him Booger, but he was always Boogs to me, but more on that later. We found him on pet finder when we first moved to Ohio. He was in a shelter up in Cleveland and we were in Athens, about as far apart as you could get from each other in Ohio. His picture on pet finder was of this beautiful fluffy Norwegian Forest Cat, and we really liked his pic. We contacted the lady who was trying to find him a home, without even knowing that he was slotted to be killed in two days (the shelter was a 2 week kill shelter). Alarmed we asked the lady, who we came to loving call the crazy cat lady, how we could go about getting this cat and saving him. She said she would bring him half way to us, so that night we met at a Pet Smart in Columbus.

I was shocked when this skinny, lanky, and half shaved cat came out of the cat carrier. He looked nothing like his picture and though we were told he weighed a good 15 pounds, there was no way this bag of bones could tip the scales at 5 pounds. He’d been stuck in a barbed wire fence and in an attempt to free himself during a severe thunderstorm, he ripped a huge hole in his side that needed stapled up.

So, while there was this cat that though skinny looked really good on one side, and a Frankencat on the other I immediately wanted him. As he came out of the cat carrier it was obvious that he wanted to be with me, as he headed right to me and crawled up on my shoulders. He had since spent many walks around the yard and house on my shoulders. Crazy cat lady told us his name was Bogart, as in Humphrey. No way could I call this mess Bogart, and not wanting to change it too much, he thereafter was known as Booger. The 2 hour ride home gave him, Julie and I plenty of time to get acquainted. He talked to me the whole way home, answering my every question with a chirp or twill, he and I carried on many conversations over the years. I truly wish I knew the things he tried to tell me, and I’m sure he thought I was the dumbest human alive cause I never did get it.

I’d like to think that Boogs had quite a good life with us. I’ve not had the experience to witness such a gentle, smart, patient, and loving cat as my buddy. When he came home he just wanted our old cat Mikey to love him, but our Mike Man being 18 years old hated the fact that we brought this usurper to his world, he never did warm up to Booger.

A big brother to 5 different cats over the years, he never failed to let them suckle on him, knead on him, chew his tail, and snuggle with him (all at once many times). Our crazy cat Moe, loved him to death, I hope this isn’t too hard on him. Booger never raised a paw to one of them, even after he was bullied by Andy. He could crawl all over me, and never once did he expose his claws while doing so, unless I moved wrong and he needed to hold on for balance.

Julie and I often wondered how Booger got away from his previous owners. One day in Athens, I was grilling out back and cooking something on the stove at the same time. I was going in and out the back storm door. Booger sat by the door watching me. While I was at the grill I saw Booger looking from the door latch to me and to the back lawn. He did this for a few minutes and then stood up against the storm door and reached for the door latch. He hit the latch but didn’t have enough weight to push it and the door open. I figured it out that he was much smarter than I expected, and had to watch out after that.

Our move to Maine found us living on a quiet dead-end road, much safer for being outside than the busy highway in Ohio, so Boogs was able to have free reign on the great outdoors. I’d never seen him so happy. He would run from the house hit the edge of the driveway and road and take that corner on two wheels, going as fast as he could go. He loved it out there. He’d always come back to check in with me just to take off at full gallop. Boy I loved to watch that cat run. He did it so well.

This past week has been very hard for us all. Booger became lethargic, and then he would just lay there like a wet dish rag. He got IV fluids, and sub-Q fluids, but he wasn’t eating or drinking on his own. Lots of blood work and prodding and poking didn’t show us anything. I took him to an old vet who I used to know today, who told me that Booger had tumors blocking him up and the best course of medicine was to end his suffering. He died peacefully in my arms.

The greatest thing that happened in this whole ordeal this week happened on the way to the vet today. As we found ourselves with another 2 hour ride together, I looked over at him in the cat carrier while at a red light. I called his name like only I did and he perked his little head up at me and chirped just once. That was something I hadn’t heard in a week….

 

 

Going backwards.

When I was a kid growing up we didn’t have terms like ADHD, OCD, ADD, and Oppositional Defiance Disorder. Those things most surely existed, but I think that those of my friends who may have had one of these disorders probably got them solved by a good ass beating. I know the couple times I exhibited the Oppositional Defiance Disorder, my dad’s belt defiantly beat that little sucker out of me.

When we were kids we didn’t have playstations, xbox, or gameboys. We did have Atari and that little thing that went back and forth on the black screen. Computers were nothing like what we have now, cell phones? What the hell were those things? Boy have we come so far…so far from those stone ages, as well as so far from that kind of life that was so damn better for us.

Julie and I were driving to Agway to get some pine horse bedding pellets (we use it for cat litter), and as we usually do when in a vehicle we talk about a lot of different things. Today it was how much different life is now than when we were kids growing up. I think that I had a great childhood growing up. My parents instilled in me the skills and morals that make me the man I am today. Though both my parents worked, I wasn’t babysitted by the television, and the games I played were outside with other kids my age. I was able to ride my bike down town to get a slurpee from 7eleven if I had the money. We played in the creeks and fields around our houses. Life was grand.

Where have those days gone? Boy how far we’ve fallen from that time period. Don’t get me wrong, I really like the technology that we have today. Hell, without it I wouldn’t be typing this without it. We weren’t knocking life today, too much. What Julie and I were saying is how we are drifting back towards those days of self-reliance.

We’ve been gardening for the past couple years, canning the bounty from those gardens, and enjoying the simpler way of life that this offers us. As we continue on this path of self-reliance we notice that the technological things we have are used less and less. The television has been silent for the past 3 nights. Working outdoors in the garden and helping tend my mother-in-laws sheep sunup to sundown has made for good sleeping at night. It feels great.

We came to the conclusion in our debate while driving to and from the Agway, life would be so much easier and healthier if we were to go back to the way life was. Our ancestors worked hard for what they had, nothing was handed to them like a lot of people these days. They grew and raised their own food. Today people are so far removed from their food it isn’t funny. The other day in a conversation, a woman said to me that she couldn’t eat an egg if she saw a piece of fur on it. FUR?

Our ancestors knew how to grow and save the food they needed to get through the hard winters. They were so more active than we are today (I know that I am not one to talk being as I’m morbidly obese)but because of the lifestyle they led, they were so much healthier than we are today.

 What Julie and I are working towards is a freer, healthier, self-reliant, and sustainable lifestyle. I think that with the state of our Nation, we could all stand to learn some lessons from our ancestors, and work for a better way of life.

Don't we have more things to worry about than raw milk?!?

Today marks the start of the trial for a farmer that was doing what all good farmers do...supplying his customers and family with wholesome, good, ethical food. Are you people as pissed off about this as I am? I have no idea why the government must get involved with this? I can understand food safety concerns, but come on, they are allowing genetically modified food to be produced and sold without labels. This doesn’t raise any questions?

The customers of Vernon Hershberger are well aware of the risks (few that there are) of consuming raw milk. He was not selling raw milk to a huge population like Hood does so where’s the risk? The supermarkets like Kroger, Hannaford’s, Shaws, Shop and Save, Market Basket, IGA…all sell raw meat. Why isn’t the government stopping this and taking the butchers to court? Isn’t the buying of raw meat just as dangerous as buying raw milk? How about the overwhelming bacteria that is found in raw hamburger in these stores? Yet they can still sell it.

I think that our government has whole lot bigger problems to solve than whether a farmer sells raw milk to a select group of private buyers. Like say why they can’t balance a budget, or figure out who’s to blame for Benghazi. I have no idea how we can make a difference, but I know that we need to come together with a solution pretty damn fast.  

Julie and I were talking about some of this just the other day as we often do when driving anywhere. We talked about the problem we are currently having in this Nation with illegal immigration. We were saying that we could possibly solve a couple problems here, and it involves our prison system.

Why can we not kick all the illegal’s out of our country and use the current population in our prisons to do the migrant work that we are paying the illegal’s to do? Take the money that the migrants get paid and hire some veterans that are out of work, and pay them to guard the prisoners as they do the work. You have created jobs for out of work veterans, and got the no good low lives in prison out in the sun and doing something useful for once. People will say that the prisoners have rights and this is an infringement on those rights. I say that the moment they decided to break the law, they gave up those rights, why should you and I have to pay for them sitting in prison, good square meals, a bed, TV, books, etc…

I don’t know folks, but I think we need to take a hard look at what we are doing, this place is going to hell in a hurry and I see no light at the end of the tunnel. What if we got rid of all three of the branches of government and rebuilt it from the ground up, with people who cared about our Nation and fellow man, more than the paycheck, benefits, and power? Probably would never work…cause we can’t seem to agree on anything these days.