CH UltraVires Hobbes Leviathan was supposed to stay in the program for showing and breeding. Mostly, he stayed on my desk while I worked.
He had rituals and demands. He was Hobble Bobble. He was the little emperor. He was my baby.
Hobbes has been special to me since I cut his umbilical cord. He spends most days sitting on my desk while I work.
The little emperor
Hobbes helped with work by occupying the desk and expressing his inner monkey. He wanted to be held like a baby, which he considered normal because he was the relevant authority.
Stud pants let him roam the house without being penned or supervised every second. He had clean pants, a bowl of his own, and a cattery to manage.
Hobbes was a good friend and a very gentle boy.
The first crisis
In 2019, Hobbes developed an intussusception. One section of intestine telescoped into another. The surgical repair saved him, but it left him without the valve between his large and small intestines. He never gained weight normally and was occasionally incontinent.
He remained Hobbes. He sat on the desk. He demanded chicken. He kept the cattery in line.
During recovery he figured out how to unzip his pen. The zipper was tied. The other cats remained indignant that Hobbes had his own bowl of wet food; Oriental Shorthairs have a finely tuned sense of justice as it applies to themselves.
The second crisis
In January 2022, Hobbes went into shock. He was hospitalized on IV fluids, glucose, and antibiotics. The first working answers changed as tests came back. We spent days treating the cat in front of us while trying to understand why he was failing.
There was a blood transfusion. There were subcutaneous fluids and B12 at 11 p.m. and 3 a.m. There was a heating pad. There was chicken, when he would take it.
Eating is the sine qua non of Oriental Shorthairs.
Two voices
My breeder voice and my pet-owner voice were in conflict.
My pet-owner voice said find money and take him back. My breeder voice said this cat was trending down and almost $14,000 had not improved our outcome.
That is the part of breeding people do not put into the cheerful version. Experience does not make the decision easy. Sometimes it only means you understand exactly why every available answer is terrible.
I could not compromise on his welfare when I had some last reserves I could throw into the fight.
Chicken
Hobbes died in February 2022. The cattery was not the same without its little emperor and his weird rituals and demands. His ashes came back overnight. I hated this hobby some days.
I hope wherever Hobbes is they have chicken whenever you want it.
Years later, every time I prepare chicken, I miss Hobbes. There is no way to make what happened right. All I can do is learn and be scrupulous in my breedings.
That is not the neat ending. It is the honest one.