The last photo of Bandit - taken last week while he watched dad split wood
We lost Bandit last night. Dad worries that he may have gotten into some of the anti-freeze a couple of weeks ago when he was flushing the tractor's radiator. He was very careful about it, but Bandit was staying very close to the work, as was his habit. Given that he only had one hind leg, it's also possible that the one hip joint finally gave out and it disrupted his digestive system.
Bandit loved to perch on the firewood in the back of the pole barn and watch dad split wood. He had learned that the safest place to be was elevated on a wood pile, since pieces of wood tend to shoot out from under the maul.
He was born in the spring of 2003, born to Hershey the meth cat (who was brought to us by Mike Bradfield, who rescued her from a meth house). Sometime around 2006, he showed up one day with most of the fur/skin removed from a rear leg, probably the result of a trap or other pinch point from which he pulled himself loose. The leg had to be amputated, but he was very mobile until the day before he died.
His death leaves us with only one barn cat now (Pumpkin). In just this year, we've lost LillyGray (disappeared), Scruffy (run over), and Boots (disappeared). Dad buried him at the cat section of the pet cemetery down at the bottom of the hill in the Persimmon orchard.
What a sad story man. My cat disappeared after a block party. Someone has hit it with a fire cracker. Too bad it had a foxy tail and Blue Sapphire eyes.
ReplyDelete