In the good old days, our Twitter buddy, Boris Kitty (@BorisKitty ) checked himself out of sick bay to answer the call whenever Pawfleet needed him to lead a dangerous space mission.
Gabby and Asia saw the little guy in action aboard the USS Crusher a year or so ago. (Ok, full disclosure. Gabby stowed away and Asia was negotiating her release from the holobrig when the cadets crash landed on the planet Victus.)
That time, we ran into Boris as he reported to lead the rescue mission, but the past year hasn’t been easy for him.
“I hab been in and out of sickbay fur most of the past year (and missin loads of misshuns too),” he said in kitten speak. “Dis makes me sad. But when I am sicky I must stay wif my humanz or da doctors.”
Over the past couple of weeks, his doctors drained fluids from his chest a couple of times.
“My condishun (Chylothorax) is a baddy and I wishing it wuz az easy to combat az our Pawfleet baddies,” he told The Gabby Dog this week, but he’s hopeful some new medications will fix him up.
They had better work. Pawfleet and the anipals need him.
If you haven’t heard about Pawfleet, you’ll be pleased to find out it all started – as so many good things do — when two anipals (Twitter characters based on pets or stuffed animals) wandered down the bunny trail.
According to Admiral Watson, “Pawfleet was founded on May 31, 2012,” when Watson and his sidekick Bones Amdog led a mission to remove a rabbit from a human’s lawn.
“Shortly after, a picture was released of all of us wearing classic Starfleet Uniforms from Star Trek and the name stuck,” he said. Pawfleet was born.
The mission evolved from rabbit runs. Now, they protect the anipals of the universe and boldly go “where no anipal has gone before.”
Membership is open – to anipals, of course – and it’s worked out somehow that many, if not most, Pawfleet commanders started out in life as feral cats.
Boris and his brother turned up in a neighbor’s shed when they were about three weeks old. Their mother was a feral cat.
His adopted family already had three senior cats, all female, and did not think they wanted a kitten.
“I wormed ma way into der hearts n had a forever home wif dem shortly after arriving,” he said.
Since then, he’s had so many adventures, he had to check the log before he could remember the day he saved all the cadets.
“O yes, dat wuz a fun misshun,” he said.
“I first decided I lubbed flyin da ships in da academy,” Boris said. “I put in lots of hours on da simulators and in piloting small shuttles afore I could fly da Crusher. I lub to zoom at maximum warp speed whenever possible. But I likes to gets da crew der safe too,” he said.
Rescues are what Boris is all about. He started the #SCIFIpawty on Twitter to raise money for shelters, and he’s spread the word when a pet’s been in need.
Of course, he’s brave about his personal crisis.
“I have had a good year (mostly) since da doctors found out I hab dis problem and wuz able to have my big megacolon surgery. Dis wuz a year I might not have been able to have wif my humanz and online pals utterwize,” he said.
He doesn’t want to follow Captain Kona across the Rainbow Bridge yet.
“Pawfleet recently lost a valued member,” Boris said. “Captain Kona did cross da rainbow bridge. I miss he but I am in no hurry to meet up wif him der. I’m getting new meds dat we hope will help remove da fluids from my chest and make it easier fur me to breath.”
Gabby’s keeping her paws crossed, but the procedures are expensive. Twitter friends are raising money to help pay for his medical care. Check out this link if you want to donate, and click here to check out Pawfleet.
“Shame dey cannot just beam da stuff out of me, but da transporters don’t seem to be able to lock on to da bad stuff inside me,” he said.
Have a tip or story idea? E-mail Margo Ann Sullivan at TheGabbyDog@gmail.com and
Follow @The_Gabby_Dog on Twitter.
Margo Ann Sullivan is a pet columnist who has written for ZooToo, and numerous publications in New York and in New England. She’s had pets all her life, starting with a rescue collie named Lollypop. The Gabby Dog column chases the news that helps pets and people. It also chronicles the adventures of Gabby, the peke-a-poo, and Asia, the tabby cat, and their many pals, hitting the high spots between Providence, RI, and Manchester, NH.
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