we said goodbye to bradley today. as I wrote about on his birthday this year, he's been fighting cancer for the last few months. this last weekend, we realized it was his time after he lost more weight and started having trouble eating solid food (including his pills). fortunately, we were able to do it at home. he likes his vet, but hates the car and there was no way we'd make him go through that again if we didn't have to. he went in our lap on the couch; he often spent time there to watch tv with us.
he's been @kadybat's since the beginning (9 weeks! i imagine they will write more about this, they're a better writer than me anyway) but i'm lucky he's been in my life for eight years now.
my original version of this post spent too long talking about the last few months and not nearly enough time talking about the last 8 years, which was dumb because that's how we want to remember him. luckily, he's very well documented. he was alive at just the right time for us to have so many photos and videos of him, often just being Completely Fucking Normal, often talking, always being a sweetheart full of personality. we have photos, we have art, we have a fucking stained glass portrait of him. before he got sick, we always said he was gonna live forever; it's more true now than ever.
on the fridge,
on boxes,
on the cat tree we bought that he literally never used again
lounging together in the coolest part they could find
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just fucking wherever
the big orange motherfucker Jaco
in his brief time with Website
here is a list of some of my favorite features of bradley:
- talkative
- personality that is somehow even bigger than he was (and he was not exactly svelte at 13lbs)
- soft belly and chest, likes belly rubs
- his silent meows when he's especially happy
- his loud-ass purrs
- became Flat whenever he was comfy
- that he always sought us out to spend time, no matter what we were doing
all his time in my lap
he's been parked,
as you might expect, this has been an unbelievably hard few months for us. we've had to see our favorite guy, who has always had a big personality (and a big body to match) slowly shrink into someone that's still him but only sometimes. he's a 13lb cat currently stuck in a 7.5lb cat's body; he doesn't wear it well. he's always been talkative; for the last few days he's been nearly silent. he'd been a bit more talkative today, but it was different; just small complaints. he was done. all we could do was help him finish up.
whenever we went out (on vacation, to the grocery store, etc) we would make the joke "where's bradley? why didn't we bring him with us?" fully aware that he would be miserable in the current environment. he's being cremated and we're planning to store his ashes in a way where we can bring him with us.
z"l, may his memory be a blessing. we'll miss you, little guy. you'll always be with us. rest easy.
