About

REMEMBERING BALOO

In the morning when I would wake up, Baloo (Baba) would get up off the happy bed and follow me to the bathroom. Then he would lead the way down the stairs and wait for me to feed him breakfast, hollering all the way. At night when I would take a bath, he would sit on the countertop and watch. Sometimes when I would first turn on the water, Baba would stick his head in the shower and watch the water. Sometimes he would scratch and knock until I opened the sliding doors, so he could see inside. I used to sing Hakuna-Mababa to him, while in the shower. Everywhere I went Baba would love to rub up against my legs, no matter if I was standing or sitting. Baba loved to sleep on his back. I would say he's "airing out his tummy". He would curl up his little toes and get so relaxed. Sometimes he would snore. When I would be on the computer, Baba would come up and grab me around the arm with his two front paws and hang on or he would grab and scratch at my leg. He also loved to rub his face and neck on my toenails, his Uncle Boogie taught him that. Baba loved to climb the walls even when we moved to the new house. He always wanted to explore the Blue Room. He loved to play with his tiny balls and would chase them up and down the steps. Sometimes it sounded like he was falling down the steps, he would make so much noise. He loved to go outside, but he wouldn't go far except the time he went in the woods and went to far and started hollering because he got lost. But he could hear our voices and he came home. He liked Whisker Lickins' Tartar Control Treats, the crunchy ones in the tube. He had a pee-pee problem and because of it he took Ammonil tablets and he ate Hill's Science Diet Cd and Sd food. He liked to squat by the side of my tub on the green carpet to pee. He also liked to squat right where you first come in my sister's room and under my cabinets under my front window. He didn't used to spray until he got down here at the new house. He liked to spray my mom and dad's bedroom door and the closet outside my room. He even sprayed some places in the kitchen and the bottom of my bedspread. He once peed in the middle of my bed, but that wasn't his fault because he had a peepee problem then, and the Ammonil tablets had opened him up. Baba loved Punkin. He thought she was pretty because he had never seen an orange striped cat. He loved to sit on his sissy, Chibi, and his Aunt Beanie. When Beanie would wake up from her nap, she would crawl over to Baba and Baba would clean her face and ears, then they would slap each other playfully, sometimes Beanie would get a little carried away. When it was suppertime Baba and his mommy, Mookie, would hop on the counter and help themselves when I would fix their food. Then when I had it fixed, Baba would fly in front of me and lead the way, stepping on his tiny 6lb mommy and his sissy and his Aunt Beanie along the way. He loved to sit on the airbike and wait for dinner. He would sit with his front legs hanging off, I made a picture of this. On our way to the vet, he sat with me in the backseat of the van. He sat on his blue kitty blanky, I didn't have to hold him, not that I didn't want to, but it was warm and I didn't want him to get too hot. He would get up and turn around on his blanket, sometimes wimpering a little. Then he would sit up like he was fine, enjoying the ride, and sniff the air that was wafting out from the front vents. Along the way, he would look out the window as we would pass by different things, sometimes. When we got to the vet, I waited in the van with him until it was ok to bring him in. As we sat there, I opened up the van's sliding door, so he could get some air. He leaned over to smell it, then he stood in my lap and he sniffed the fresh air. I hugged him as he stood there in my lap. I kept telling him that soon he would be with Jesus and his brother or sister, Angel, and Bella and Bere and all the other animals that would be there, in Heaven. I told him how much I would miss him and that I loved him and that I didn't want him to go. I pleaded with him to try just one more time to pee, but he didn't. Mom said it was time to come in and reluctantly, I carried him inside. The girl directed me to a room and I laid him down on the table. He was sitting on his blanky trying to hide his head under it, like he did so many times before. The girl carried him to be weighed, I guess so to know how much to inject him with. When she brought him back, we both petted him, trying our best to comfort him or maybe ourselves. The vet came in and felt under his belly and said that his bladder was as hard as a rock, so he was blocked again, but I already knew it. We made the decision to put him to sleep, the vet shaved his right leg and then the vet asked if I was ready, then he stuck the needle in his right front leg and injected some pink stuff. The girl held Baba's head up by the neck, I guess so he wouldn't bite the vet when he stuck him-but Baba never would have bitten anybody. At first he was straining from the girl holding his head but as the injection took effect, he just all of a sudden stopped fighting, stopped moving and breathing and rolled onto his right side. He was right, the injection took effect immediately. For a moment my Baba was alive and moving and crying a little, then he went lifeless, his poor tired body was limp. As the vet injected him, I said I love you Baba! Bye Baba! and I pet his little head. When it was over, the vet and the girl left, leaving a box of Kleenex and I started sobbing and crying, like I never had in my intire life. Then I leaned down to kiss him on the side of his little head one ...last...time. I saw his eyes were still open but I didn't close them, they had grown dark instead of the bright yellow eyes I knew. I asked Mother on the way home, "They will close his eyes won't they?", she said they would. BaBa was put to sleep on March 12, 2007 at around 2:37p.m.