Bubba: A Celebration of his Life

Bubba must have considered me as his child, because he often gifted me with "food items." My favorite reading location used to be at the kitchen counter, where I'd sit on a stool and enjoy my morning coffee while I read the newspaper or a book. For almost a week during one warm spring, I found baby snakes on the floor next to my stool. I'll mention here that for most of his life, Bubba was an indoor-outdoor cat, which was the norm in those days. Although some people still subscribe to that belief, many cat lovers have found that cats are safer indoors.

Because I understood Bubba's motivation for these peculiar gifts, I always made a great show of appreciation, and quietly disposed of them out of his sight. My acting talents were sometimes challenged though, as in the night I stepped on a very dead, very smelly catfish arrayed on the floor on my side of the bed.