Pico developed her third UTI in just as many months over the past weekend. We treated the first two, each with a month long course of antibiotics and multiple flushes of her SUB (fake ureter, placed in 2022 when she had a stone block her ureter). But we decided not to put her through that again. Her quality of life wasn't bad while on the antibiotics, but it wasn't great. So at a month short of her ninth birthday, we euthanized her at home after a gourmet meal of bacon and tuna steak.
She spent the last few days before developing the UTI at her favorite place on earth, the North Carolina house. There are slick floors to slide on, stairs to stampede up and down, and sometimes surprise bacon hidden not quite out of her reach.
She truly was the best cat. I work a lot of swing shifts and so arrive home between midnight and three am to a quiet house. We had a ritual where I would get ready for bed and then lay on the couch while she laid on my chest, purring, helping me let go of the stress of the day. That's where I'll miss her the most.
But her absence is felt everywhere since she was "the omnipresent cat". We joked that she was Bob from the movie What About Bob, "you think he's gone? He's not gone! That's the whole point, he's never gone!" She was always in the same room as me. I started setting up a towel to attract her off the yoga mat during my workouts. It only sometimes worked, she still often insisted on lolling on her back square in the middle of the mat. I, of course, worked out around her.
She was the most people oriented cat I've ever met. She was infinitely trainable. I clicker trained her to beg on her hind legs and to give high fives. Ryan, not a cat person in general, trained her to politely ask before inviting herself onto his lap. She tried out new sounds all the time, sorting out which coos and chirps were best at getting her humans' attention. She always announced when she jumped down from things, but shockingly never made a sound when she was jumping up to explore the counters.
She assessed new visitors and insisted on rubbing her face on their hand before allowing them to pet her. After that introduction she pretty much insisted on being petted. She had the softest fur and would deliver world class purrs for some good ear scratches. She always assumed they would adore her, and they universally did.
One of my favorite pictures- her and my mom, my mom intent on reading and Pico confused about her lack of attention
She was incredibly playful as well and trained humans to play her games. A favorite was "Kitty volleyball" where she sat on top of her cat tree and smacked the toy mouse down when a person tossed it up to her. There was also "fetch, human" and a chase game. She was happy to help teach you the rules, but also had that cat characteristic of looking at you like you were completely out of your mind if you didn't play properly.
She didn't like other cats, but tolerated most dogs and did meet almost all our baby poultry. She was the softest cat ever- she caught a mouse twice but failed to deliver any kind of killing bite. She thought about biting me once when I was holding her poorly for an IM iron injection, but she settled for just making four tiny red dots with her canines in my bicep.
She was such a trooper for her extensive hospitalizations, surgeries, and treatments over the past 2+ years. She made friends with her doctors, nurses, and students. If she hadn't tolerated everything so well we wouldn't have kept going for so long. But this time, well, it was time. Her last day was full of cuddles, naps, and good food. She passed peacefully at home with the two people who loved her most. May we all be so lucky.
Given Butterball's love of food and his propensity to potentially, maybe, try to take advantage of situations on occasion, we have pretty strict rules about food when I'm interacting with him. Unless I say "snacks" he is not allowed to snatch grass. Once I start to do anything other than passively hold the lead rope, he has to stop eating and stop trying to eat.
But he found a loophole and is definitely exploiting it.
He's noticed that I let him eat grass while he pees. I certainly don't want to discourage him from peeing when needed, especially when he is peeing before going into the trailer. However, we now have a lag time of 30-45 seconds from when he postures, starts to eat, and then actually starts peeing. Goober!
Sunday morning was equally leisurely with a touch up bath, alfalfa into the hay net, and then loading up. The trailering did take place during his morning nap time. I was delighted when I saw that after chowing down on alfalfa for an hour, he backed up slightly and took a full on nap standing up in the trailer. His old owner shared that he takes his naps very seriously and at away shows was always either eating or flat out in his stall. I absolutely love that. To have that degree of relaxation no matter what the setting? So sweet. It also made me glad that I had given him the box stall for the weekend journey. He travels fine in the straight load set up, but I do think he appreciated the freedom of the box stall since he rode angled most of the time.
We arrived in time to watch our friend head out onto the prelim course to have a stellar XC round. Then JT and I walked stadium.
Stadium:
The rocking horse ring is a good bit smaller than POP and Majestic, so the instructions were ones we've had before - get a canter you like and then add one more notch of energy and forward to it. He warmed up really well, although with some bucking, which may just be his way of expressing his show excitement? Another trainer asked her if he was for sale in the warm up. NOPE.
Then we headed in and did our thing. The first seven were great. Photos by Xpress Foto.
I missed to the third fence, and he took the gappier spot, so I did catch him in the mouth over that one (with lovely photographic evidence of it too, sorry dude).
After seven he kinda started playing in the corner. I said the words "you're not done yet" but didn't back it up with a leg-on firm half-halt. So the last few we did not jump as well. We came around the left hand roll back to 10 and I thought "crap, I don't have enough canter and that's a small vertical" and sure enough, he tapped that rail.
Oops. But like dressage, I know exactly what to do to fix that. Sometimes with Ben, the rails were a bit of a mystery - the times we jumped things very poorly (like 3 strides in a 2 stride) he wouldn't touch the rail, but the times things felt great, we'd tip one out of the cups.
Cross Country: I shot a lot of distant pictures, I think because for once at Rocking Horse I was struggling a bit to find the next fence. So no close up views of the jumps. But most of these should be prettyfamiliar at this point.
1 - our standard, friendly yellow cabin
2- Log on box
3- Triple X (they've stopped calling it that, but I always will...) - not visible from 2, you had to carry on and then make a right hand turn, these fences were behind some trees from the view from 2
4- Red bench, a left hand turn from 3
5- Hanging log
6- cabin hanging out in the tree line near the T/M and P trakheners. When Ben and I jumped the one that modified and training share, I definitely blacked out and just heard JT with "leg on, hands to the fence". He jumped it fine, but it is scary AF looking cantering down to it.
7AB- coop at top of a little hill to a bending line to B. This combo was the source of all of the problems in the novice division on XC.
View of 7B from 7A, you can't really see the terrain, but you had about 1/2 a stride on landing then a significant but short downhill
8- Brushy roll top
9- Right hand turn from 8 to a water crossing
10- second water crossing, you can see 11 out of the water, slightly right
11- our fave ye old corner
12- Left hand turn and a bit of a gallop from 11 to Big Red
13- triple bar then a right hand turn through the sunken road, which I guess I didn't photograph
14- up out of the depression to the hanging log. You could certainly go around the depression, but it would put you on a bit of an angle to 14. We went through, the more terrain questions we ask now, the better.
15- right hand turn and a gallop to the mushroom table
16- another bit of a gallop to the "Feeder"
17- finishing over a table
We had 50 minutes between stadium and XC. I should have spent more time at the trailer, but we thought potentially they would let us head out early.
"you should've let me eat more!"
Not the case since everyone ahead of us was ready and waiting for their times too, so we walked for a while, really getting his steps in this weekend! Once we were three out, we jumped the starter coop, a BN cabin, and then a N hanging log in the warm up. He didn't quite step up to the spot I saw at the N log, so he got tapped and then we came back around. That time when I closed my leg, he moved up. JT said "now he believes you". Then we moseyed over to the start box and chatted with the starters. One commented on how relaxed he was. Yes, he is, and it is so lovely.
Video of the 3rd and 4th and then last fences, courtesy of JT. We had so much fun out on the course. The only question mark was 7A where he was scoping out the terrain behind the fence and the coffin to our left. I was glad we had practiced jumps with a downhill landing at Naked Horse. That practice was useful in two ways: I knew he might have a bit of a question about the downhill landing AND I was confident that we COULD do it just fine. He hesitated a bit a few strides out and then didn't necessarily go when I closed my leg, so I gave him a solid tap off the ground, and he stepped right up to it.
They had not moved the upper level jumps out of the water crossings, but he slowed to a trot and let me show him the clear path through the water. I could imagine both Goggles and Ben sight seeing and spooking respectively, so it was really nice that he was confident and allowed me to direct him. We jumped the corner squarely in the middle of the front face of it, but even the widest part is narrower than the cabins on the course.
He handled the terrain between 13 and 14 really well, but I didn't establish enough of an uphill bouncy canter on the way out, so our jump over 14 was unimpressive. From there we had just a few long gallop stretches and then we were home. Seeing the video I still need to work more on the "new" galloping position and staying out of the tack and off his back.
Finished and so happy!
Celebratory snacks for him
And me
We finished up 7th out of 14 on a 37.1. One of my goals for us is the medal program. I would like to aim for the gold medal at novice, but this gave us a qualifying silver medal score. I'll take it!!
It was such a fun weekend!! Butterball is just the most pleasant creature to be around and have as a partner. We have lots to work on, and I'm going to enjoy every second of that journey. Cross country felt like a great mix of questions for us, so I know we'll continue to learn with each schooling session and competition.
