Rest in Peace Goobers (12/25/04 - 8/24/11)

This morning when we woke up, we discovered that Goobers had taken a turn for the worse. His insides seem to have liquefied and are leaving his body. He had fluids coming out from every orifice. Kyla and Tim had decided last night to see if he would make it until Saturday and if he was still worse, we would have him put down. After seeing him this morning, we decided that it would be cruel to make him wait that long.
Goobers wanted to be near his family, so he painfully climbed the stairs to get to the girls' bedroom. He had to rest for a long time.
Luella gave him a good snuggle while trying to make him comfortable on Kati's bed.
Kyla gave him a last long hug before we went to the vet's office to have him put down.
Tim came home from work and dug a grave for Goobers. We had a short memorial service for him. We shared our favorite memories of Goobers.
One of Kyla and Tim's favorite memories of Goobers was while we were moving from Colorado to Missouri in the spring of 2006, 5 months pregnant with Luella. We stayed with Audrey and Jesse Anderson on Ft. Leavenworth for a few days until we found a place of our own to rent. A tornado had blown through the week before we got there and all the screens were missing from their windows. The Anderson's had a dog and 2 cats (and 2 kids then). Goobers does not play well with other animals. Their two cats decided to sneak attack Goobers. They came from both sides and pounced on him. Goobers ran upstairs, past Tim, past Audrey who had just finished bathing one of her kids, into the bathroom. We all went on a search party for Goobers upstairs. It took a few minutes to realize that Goobers must have tried to perch on the window sill, but had too much momentum with no screen nor window to stop him, and he flew out the window! We ran outside and there was Goobers, growling at us from the juniper bush he fell into. We kept him in our room for the rest of the time we stayed there. He just kept growling at us and we kept laughing harder with every growl!
Another flying memory of Goobers was our first Christmas together in 2005. We had our first (and only) real Christmas tree set up. Tim and Kyla were getting all dolled up to go to Tim's unit's holiday reception. Moments before we had to leave, Goobers decided to climb the tree. Both cat and tree fell over. Tim was so angry, he picked up Goobers and threw him into the bathroom...quite the feat when trajectory was taken into account because there is not a straight line from the living room into the bathroom, and Tim was in his Dress Blue uniform that doesn't have much for arm movement. We righted the tree and after a few hours everyone was friends again.

Goobers brought us many happy days. He was a good kitty and will be missed dearly.