{"id":3508,"date":"2025-04-16T14:08:04","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T14:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3508"},"modified":"2025-04-16T14:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T14:13:00","slug":"ode-to-mr-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3508","title":{"rendered":"Ode to Mr. B"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are sad to report the passing of our beloved black cat, Mr. B.\u00a0 He was the boss, we were the obedient servants, and I can say without hesitation that he brought a lot of joy to our home over the past 8 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Mr. B\u2019s owner died, he was a big (20 lbs +) momma\u2019s boy (to both his real mother and his human mother).\u00a0 In his time at the Ontonagon County Animal Protection shelter, he grieved so hard he stopped eating, dropped to 12 pounds, and ended up with severe liver damage.\u00a0 A call went out that he was at Deepwoods Veterinary clinic with an esophageal tube (to help administer the liver meds he needed) and was \u2018circling the drain\u2019.\u00a0 The email said it bluntly:\u00a0 \u201cIt looks like he has lost the will to live!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I was in Oregon at the time, my wife called the clinic and asked if she could visit.\u00a0 The Mr. B that greeted her was dull eyed and behind on his grooming.\u00a0 By the second visit, he had perked up and was making a fuss in the back room as soon as he heard her voice.\u00a0 Before she even reported on visit #3, I told Elizabeth and Todd at the WOAS West Coast Bureau, \u201cWell, we are getting a new cat!\u201d\u00a0 Our first black rescue cat from OCAP (another big boy named Mittens although everyone took to calling him \u2018Mr. Mittens\u2019) had a similar backstory – his owner died and he went into a major slump, but without the liver issues.\u00a0 He was with us four years before he died of a fast moving lymphoma.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In that we lost Mr. Mittens only a few months before my wife started visiting Mr. B, we hadn\u2019t planned on getting another cat quite this soon.\u00a0 In fact, we had given away the necessary cat things so they could be used by other cats in need.\u00a0 No matter, a quick trip to Houghton and we were ready to receive Mr. B.\u00a0 We brought him home, feeding tube and all, not knowing if he would survive.\u00a0 We thought, \u201cWell, if he doesn\u2019t make it, at least he will have a home.\u201d\u00a0 Over the next 8 years, he had a few other health issues (IBS, thyroid issues, a benign tumor removed from his belly) but he rallied each time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Age and his health issues caught up to him in early April and when the meds stopped working and he stopped eating, the writing was on the wall.\u00a0 Godspeed, Mr. B., it was our pleasure to have you grace our home.\u00a0 Let us remind you – if you want an animal, visit OCAP.\u00a0 Consider a senior dog or cat – they need homes and have a lot of love to share! \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Top Piece Video:\u00a0 A tune as spunky as our black cats have been – courtesy of Beck, Bogart and Appice in Japane 1973<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We are sad to report the passing of our beloved black cat, Mr. B.\u00a0 He was the boss, we were the obedient servants, and I can say without hesitation that he brought a lot of joy to our home over the past 8 years. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Mr. B\u2019s owner died, he was a big (20 lbs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3508"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3512,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3508\/revisions\/3512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}