Nikki Sixx, The Best Tom Cat I Ever Knew

On November 30, 2023, I took one of the most painful actions I have had to take in years.  Our wonderful tom cat Nikki Sixx, otherwise known as Bubby, had progressed into the final stage of kidney failure after 13 years, all of which except the first 6 months or so of his life, he had spent in our house. One summer day in 2010, he had wandered into our yard about half grown and nearly starved to death.  He might not have weighed 2 pounds that day and in his adult prime he reached 16 pounds. As I have always said about him, you could have held him up to a light and candled him like an egg.  At the time our awesome dachshund Giggles was in her prime and immediately began to bark at him, harass him, and try to drive him away.  I was amazed when I saw him just walk up to her, purr loudly, and rub against her.  He was completely unfazed by her.  

 

We decided to take him in and keep him, had him vaccinated, neutered, etc. and he quickly began to work his way into our hearts.  He was a handsome devil with his Siamese Cross good looks and beautiful blue eyes.  He had a perfect disposition, was always loving and quickly became deeply attached to my wife Candice.  Like Giggles, he spent a great deal of his time in her lap in her wheelchair.  It was one of his favorite places to be whether she was in it or not as the photo below shows.  He was totally devoted to Candice and the feeling was mutual.  I loved him too but he was never as close to me as to Candice.  He had about 12 great years with us without any kind of health problems or problem behaviors but as he aged he developed kidney failure which I am told is the most common cause of death in elderly cats.  We took him to the local veterinarian, had him tested, got the results, and realized that his time with us was going to be limited.  He was flushed out with saline and perhaps some medications and placed on a special cat food for kidney failure.  The good times lasted for a few more months and he had another episode of deterioration with another episode of the same treatment.  That episode gave him a little more time but he quickly got to the point that he couldn't even make it into the cat box and we realized that he needed to be let go.  It was time to have him euthanized and end his suffering.  That was a tough decision.

When we took him to the veterinarian on November 30, 2023, to be euthanized, Candice couldn't go inside with me and Bubby for the end.  I took him in and was eventually taken back to a treatment room.  The veterinarian and her vet tech were both great in how they dealt with us.  The vet tech took him back to another room to insert a catheter and give him a mild sedative to help him relax.  Then she brought him back to the room and left us alone for at least 15 minutes.  I held him on my lap, talked to him, told him I loved him and that he was going to Kitty Kat Heaven.  When the veterinarian and vet tech came back in they asked me if I was ready, and did the necessary work as he lay on a table.  We all petted him as he fell off to a peaceful sleep and the end came.  I had been present on many occasions in the Thoroughbred horse business in which I worked for several years when we euthanized horses, some of them very successful and famous race horses.  But I had never had an animal euthanized before with whom I had such a deep and loving connection.  I managed not to cry in the office but I have cried many times since.  He was one of the best cats I have ever known and I have known many good cats.  He was more like a child and the other nickname I had often used with him was "Son".  He had been a major part of our lives for 13 years and had been a very important part of Candice's support system with her life in a wheelchair.  We brought him home, placed him in his favorite Cat Napper wrapped in a blanket and I buried him in the front yard near the edge of our porch beside Giggles who had died in 2015.  We still haven't ordered his tombstone like hers but will do so in spring.  He will be forever missed in our hearts and minds.  He was a fine cat and, as I have said many time, we had him for 13 year and he never lied to me, never stole anything from me, never asked me to borrow money, and never voted a Republican vote in his life.  You can't ask anything more from a cat!  

 

Hiking In Greenbo Lake State Park

 A few days ago on my birthday, one of the big ones, my wife, Candice, wanted to take me somewhere so I could hike in the woods and we could eat out which we haven't done much of in the last fifteen or eighteen months due to the Covid 19 pandemic.  The numbers in Kentucky hadn't quite fully turned the corner as they have now and we decided to take a chance since we are both fully vaccinated.  We had been to Greenbo Lake State Park once before and enjoyed that trip a great deal.  Greenbo Lake is one of the smaller man made flood control lakes in Kentucky.  The largest, Kentucky Lake has over 160,000 surface acres.  Greenbo Lake, at 225 acres, is not much more than a pond compared to the largest lakes which all have over 100,000 acres.  But it is a very pretty little lake with some really good hiking trails in the state park which contains it.  

 

Greenbo Lake State Park also has some historically important coke ovens, a restored one room school, and two unmolested small cemeteries which is unusual in the Kentucky State Park System.  I have written in other places on this blog about the relocation of graves during the construction of lakes and highways in the state.  I have hiked in numerous Kentucky state parks situated around lakes and nearly everyone I have ever hiked in has relocated cemeteries in them which usually were placed in a common government cemetery near or in the park.  I have also published a short story about the relocation of family cemeteries for the construction of a lake this past spring in Seeds 2021, the literary magazine from Northeastern Illinois State University.  My short story is entitled "Damn!" and can be found at numbered page 74 in the online journal at the previous link.  However, the page numbers in the online version do not synch with the page numbers in the table of contents.  That story is actually located at page 85 according to the internet counter.  

 But, let's get back to the hike at Greenbo Lake.  The park has three marked trails which come to a total of 32.8 miles of possible hiking without leaving marked trails and striking off into the woods with a compass or GPS.  I chose the trail which begins near the handicapped fishing pier not far from the boat launching and storage area because Candice has been in a wheelchair for over twenty years and wanted to read near the pier while I hiked for an hour.  I  rarely hike an entire trail anywhere but instead hike out for a little over a half hour and double back to wherever Candice is waiting for me and we always choose a safe location for her to stay.  This particular trail, so far as I hiked it for about 1.5 miles is within sight of the lake in the woods with a few relatively easy uphills and downhills.  I would rate that portion of this trail as easy.  I never saw another human on the trail except for one fisherman in a pontoon boat who happened to be fishing alone within sight of the trail.  He and I had a friendly conversation as he fished for a couple of minutes which was a unique experience for me while hiking to be able to talk to someone actively fishing although I have done it at Eagle Lake on the campus of my alma mater, Morehead State University.  I hiked outward for about 40 minutes and turned around which brought me out of the woods exactly on the one hour mark.  Early in the hike, I encountered the only interesting wildlife of the hike, a small black racer about two to two and a half feet long.  It froze when it saw me on the trail about ten feet above it.  I started to bend over to pick up a small peeble to toss near it to see how it reacted and it instantly turned and disappeared into the leaf mold below me even before I could grasp a pebble.  It was about 85 degrees at the time and any cold blooded animal such as a snake was in firm fettle for traveling on such a day.  I did not have a camera with me and do not have a photo of my little friend.  

After my hike, Candice and I returned to Grayson, Kentucky, to search for a place to dine inside which we hadn't done in quite some time.  After driving all over Grayson looking for an open dining room, we wound up at Huddle House which was the only one we could find with indoor seating.  We went in wearing masks, which is my suggestion to anyone in public until the pandemic is over.  The only people in the restaurant in early afternoon were the cook, the manager, and one waitress behind  the counter and one other couple eating in a booth well away from us.  So we took off our masks which is necessary if you intend to chew anyway.  The hired help was friendly and we talked freely about whatever popped up.  The manager said the day before had been his birthday and I mentioned that this particular day was mine.  A bit later an older man and a young boy who appeared to be his middle school aged grandson came in and sat down well away from us and also ate.  No one else came in the place during our meal.  We actually felt safe in the face of  Covid 19 in light of the low population, good social distancing, and our vaccination.  After eating, we drove back home and it was, according to all measurements, a day well spent.