Passages

This evening at 5:30 P.S.T. our dear friend and companion Floyd passed away at the Fairhaven Veterinarian Hospital.  Last night he took a severe turn for the worse and we decided with discussion with the veterinarian that it would be best to end his suffering.  I've never witnessed and animal die before let alone have one pass away in my arms.  It was a quiet passing with just M, myself and the doctor in the room.  M had already made arraignments with our friend Hannah to bury Floyd on their property.  After we left the vets' we went over to Hannah's house and choose a nice quite spot in the woods to put him to rest.  We said our goodbyes and marked the spot with stones we had found around and from with in the spot we left Floyd.  

He was my first cat that I had ever had the pleasure to live with.  After M had gotten Kunnie I felt that I should adopt a cat as well.  So once we had looked on line we made the trip up to the home where Floyd was at.  We had actually gone there to see another cat when Floyd made his decision to pick me.  Where Floyd and these other cats where the foster Mom made an open outdoor enclosure for them.  It had ropes, branches and other items for the cats to climb on.  I was next to one of these branches when I felt a tug on my belt loop.  I looked down and there was a one year old Floyd looking up at me.  Both M and I took it as a sign and decided to adopt Floyd instead of the other cat.  A day or so later we went back to pick him up to bring him home.  Once we got home and Floyd had checked out our apartment he made himself right at home.  We put his bed right out side our bedroom door, and Floyd took it upon himself to guard our room from Kunnie.  He would go after her if she tried to go into the room, and also attack my feet when I was lying down on our bed.  

Admittedly it feels weird not to have him here right now.  A part of our family is gone and we will miss the cat that thought he was a dog.  

Life & Family

This picture was taken by our burgeoning photographer, Adrian.

Here is a very happy Mom and a very happy son.  As of today M has about 77 days left in the pregnancy.  

Hovander Park

Last Sunday Adrian went up to Hovander Park to have guided tour of the homestead.  It turned out that Adrian and I where the only ones who showed up for the tour.  So we ended up with a personal tour of the Hovander home and grounds.  Here is one of two female Peacocks that we saw at Hovander park in Ferndale.  In with the peacocks they had large rabbits to keep them company.

This is one of the many large geese that they had in at the park.  They had Turkeys, sheep, goats, ducks, roosters and horses too.

It turned out to be a fun day.  While we where there M's co-workers were holding a baby shower for one of M's co-workers.  Adrian and I also ran into our friend Nancy and her family.  They were having a big family picnic with her in laws.  It was pretty muggy but then the wind picked up and it cooled off a bit, we also got a lightning show too.

Heritage Flight Museum

This is an A-1 Skyraider which Adrian and I saw when we visited the Heritage Flight Museum just outside of Bellingham.  They had about seven planes when we were there only because the museum had moved to a smaller building.

This is the A-1 Skyraider again.

Here Adrian is showing me one of the wheels to the Skyraider.  

This is the AT-6D Texan.

This is the L-13 Grasshopper which folds up it's wings when it's in the hanger.

Here is the AT-6D's logo.

This is the inside of the cockpit for the Grasshopper.

Here are a few more of the planes that where are the Flight Museum.

Our dear friend Floyd

The other day M called me at work sounding very frantic, and asking me if I knew where the cat carriers where.  She told me that Floyd had vomited up blood earlier and she had made an appointment to take him to the vet.  About an hour later M calls up sounding very upset, and begins to tell me what the vet found.  He had found a very large mass inside Floyd and told M that there where a few options.  One was to do an ultrasound, the second was to take a biopsy , and get the results the next day.  He did however tell M with out the results and with Floyd's symptoms that the prognosis was not good.  The mass was large and that Floyd was still quite young to be having this happen.  

When the next day came M called me once she had talked to the Vet.  It was Cancer.  He told her that we had some options on how to make Floyd comfortable during his last couple of months.  SO we decided to get some special food for cats with sensitive stomachs, and to get prednisone  along with an anti nausea medicine.   He's less than half the cat he used to be and now is only a matter of time be fore he leaves us fir a far better place.  He was my first cat and we had a special relationship, and I will miss him very much.  Our dear friend Floyd.