Sam as he ever was...

Category: Pets

Tag for posts about my pets

Mavis Ana Ng Pancakes: 2019-2025

“Little Dog, Oh My God!” was a song I made up and would sing to her:

She’s the little dog,
“Oh my god!”
She’s the little dog,
“Oh my god!”
“I don’t know what to do, so I think I’ll jump and dance!”

“Oh my god” was her signature expression, often expressed as the abbreviated OMG. Or OMFG… she had a bit of a potty-mouth. Mavis was somewhat nervous all her life, although that did mellow as she aged.

It’s a Tuesday night (28 Jan) as I start writing this. Finally got it wrapped on Thursday 6 Feb, as this has been difficult to plug through. I knew it was going to take some time to work through this post. Mavis passed away on a Saturday night (25 Jan) approaching two weeks ago. I’ve needed some time to process and recover before I could begin to write about her…

Continue reading

The end of 17 silent-ish months

My most recent post on this blog was 17 months ago today. It vaguely referenced some recent goings on and also teased upcoming changes. Two of those items deserve followup:

New furry family members (one who will be permanent and two who are temporary)

The new family member is our cat Barnacle, and there is so much I can say about him. And I will in detail, eventually. Truly, he was a heart transplant for us after losing BuddyCat. And then there is the whole ordeal (a few months later) and adventure of his broken leg and recovery. That could be its own blog, really. And… probably should be based on how much we learned. I will fill in here eventually.

The “temporary” ones were his litter brothers (Curly and Starfish), who we fostered until finding a home for them. They’re doing great. Again, there could be a lot of follow-up, and probably will be.

A “thinking about it” becoming “getting a plan underway” toward moving somewhere that we can have more space and more quiet

That happened, too. We moved from West Seattle to the west side of Puget Sound, and have been residents of Kitsap County for more than a year. Zero regrets about the move. And, as with Barnacle, numerous untold tales about it all. I’ll work on the backfill.

Otherwise, in the time since that last post:

  • I’ve been through the beginning and ending of a one-year contract job. Which means, oh joy of joys, I am on the jobsearch again.
  • We’ve added another feline family member, Asta. She’s Barnacle’s half-sister: same mom, almost certainly a different dad.
  • There’s more. It’ll come.

Demi: 2006-2022

A morning of crushing grief as we bade farewell to Demi. In the four years I taught at Code Fellows, she was on campus for many of the days as a friend and comfort to hundreds of students. She lived a full life, and left it in peace surrounded by love. Everything was her favorite.

BuddyCat: 2002-2021

The past few days have been an incomparable emotional grind. To recap:

BuddyCat always had something to say

Thursday, 2 September: Kimberly and I made The Decision that it was time for us to help our long-time feline companion BuddyCat to a dignified and peaceful exit from this life. His health was in rapid decline due to chronic issues, especially his kidneys, and it was clearly only a few days that he had remaining. The thought of us getting into a long weekend with him, and him having a crisis and suffering while assistance was difficult or impossible to find, was not something we could bear.

Friday, 3 September: Goodbye, BuddyCat. Perhaps one day I will record the details of the day. Or not. The important thing is that he got a gentle, peaceful, and loving departure. I had never before considered that crying could lead to dehydration, but I learned.

Saturday, 4 September (yesterday): Our first full day without him. It was a hard day, with many moments of intense debilitating grief that somehow felt shocking and surprising, even though we knew we were amongst them.

And now we are on to the next day.

There are so many things I want to write about him, so many stories to tell, and so many photos to share and contextualize. Not now. At the moment, I just want to get through today.

© 2025 samhamm.com

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑