Bye, sweet Baxter boy.

I do not believe in luck or curses or any other silliness, but I do seem to have an inordinate number of really yukky things happen on or very near my birthday. This year, we moved my birthday from the 3rd to the 1st. I started out having a busy, normal, and fairly pleasant day.

Baxter woke me up, as he frequently does, especially on weekends, to remind me that he needed his treat—Really needed it right that minute. The husband brought me breakfast in bed—fake bacon—and Baxter was the ring leader in bullying me to share with all of them. He then followed me down the stairs in anticipation of the breakfast I was about to prepare. We came down, and as always, he went into the dining room to wait while I prepared their food. By the time I got all nine dishes put in their proper places, I noticed that Baxter wasn’t eating. That is definitely cause for concern.

He was sleeping all cozy and cute under the sewing table. I went over and rubbed his side. He was warm but was most definitely gone. He was a very healthy 6.5 year old with regular health checks and a very high-quality diet. It was such a shock!

He clearly didn’t suffer. He was completely peaceful and relaxed. I have that as a consolation at least. He felt great, happy, and loved right up until he left us. The vet feels that it was probably and aneurysm, because it was so quick and painless.
We miss him so much! I’m not sleeping well at night, because he was my sleeping buddy. He was on top of me, holding my hand, every night, all night. He followed me everywhere (unless there was company he had to hide from) and jumped into my lap the second it formed. He was the daily reminder to give morning treats, morning feeding, evening treats, evening feeding, and a piece of any food that I was preparing or eating. I can’t tell you how many times, and in how many ways we’ve missed Baxter already. Luciana and I have been very weepy over the last couple of days. He was unique, special, and loved beyond words. I will never put a bite of food in my mouth or climb into bed without missing my sweet Baxter boy. He left WAY too soon!

We did have a good Halloween, and I have pictures to post from that, but tonight is just Baxter. I'm so glad I take thousands of pictures of our animals. I'm also glad I have the little video of him taking imaginary bites and chewing his imaginary food with me. This is one of the more effective tools he used in conning me out of my food. About 15 seconds in, he starts, and you can see him take a bite when I do (though you can't see me) and proceed to chew.