 I have some sad news and I think this is the fifth time I've tried to film this, so hopefully this one's the charm and I can do it without crying. The big boy is gone. I had to have him put down four days ago while I was in Abilene, Kansas. So right now I'm in a small town in Illinois, but I'm telling you guys this now. I won't tell the rest of the world probably for three or four weeks just because I can't talk about it without crying and I want to put together a nice video with pictures of him and stuff and I just don't have that in me yet. So this is what happened. You guys know that he was like 18 or 19, but he was with me since day one and he was my best friend and my co-pilot and my sounding board and my living stuffed animal and my buddy and people wonder how I could travel alone and I was never alone because I had the boy. So now it is different. But he was going into renal failure like a lot of old cats do for the last year, year and a half, drinking a ton of water and I mean he would pee through an entire box of litter in like three days and he wanted gravy or some kind of sauce on his food or he wouldn't eat it. And you know that was okay because he was still enjoying his life. But when I got back from my vacation my mom took care of him and I got him back and he didn't want to be held and he wanted to go into his back bin where the litter box is and I thought okay well it's just the stress of the change but that's weird because my cat was a champion traveler. Well he adapted all the time to everything really fast so I thought that was weird and then you know we hit the road and he didn't want to ride with me up here and he stopped eating and he stopped drinking and he never wanted to come out of that bin. So when I got to Abilene, Kansas I got a spot in an RV park originally for four days because I wanted him to have the AC and see if that helped but it didn't. So I got another three days and I tried but he wouldn't come out and so I had to go out and open up the back bin just to visit with him. He didn't want to be held. He didn't want to jump up on the bed. He would like lick the top of his food. That was it. And on his last day I went and got him a McDonald's hamburger to see if that would do anything but it really didn't so I took him out of the back bin like I did every day and tried to hold him and you know pet him in the sunshine and try and get him to see the squirrels or something and you know he was just lethargic and his coat had changed. It got crunchy so I knew that that was probably near the end. Now when I go to tell the world this I have to be really careful I think because people have very strong opinions when it comes to animals as you know and I'm sure all of you do too but as RVers or potential RVers you know that we have some considerations maybe some other people don't have. I don't know if I would have euthanized him the same day if I was in a house. I don't know probably but you know I would have had a luxury the luxury in a house that I don't have on the road because my concern was and also this just happened to my friend Donna who had to put her dog down last week who was like ancient also. You know you have to start thinking about what if and then what because I would drive down the road and be sure that if I drove for two hours I would find him in that back bin you know baking dead and if that happened in a rest area or a grocery store parking lot or something what do I do? You know I don't even have a shovel it sounds awful it sounds macabre but I mean this is a consideration I have a tiny refrigerator so I needed to stay in one place for a little bit to make sure that I knew he was going to get better he wasn't going to get better and he didn't he got worse so I had to make the very hard decision of taking him to the animal hospital and having him put down I've never done that before I'm sure some of you have gone through that but it's kind of excruciating to be honest and you know you second guess yourself and you know I had a nice long talk with the vet who was amazing and clearly he was near the end and I don't think he would have enjoyed himself I just took him to the vet a month ago to get his shots and his certificate for him to go over the Canadian border with me later on this year and I thought he had a year left in him the vet thought he had a year left in him but he didn't so he's gone and after the procedure I just drove around the cornfields and screamed which I think was good actually for the soul and then I had to pack up and go no more bed, no more bowls, no more litter box I think he's next to me all the time and underfoot but he's not so I know a lot of you are fond of the big boys some of you have met him and others of you feel like you know him because he's been in so many videos but he's gone and I don't know what am I going to do you guys just blubber on to you all day I'm going to put together a nice video like an in memoriam for him with a bunch of images for everybody else to know in a few weeks but I have had work to do to get back on schedule for the last week and I haven't been able to do much without crying so I'm trying to get back on it you guys but wanted to let you know and I know that you guys love your animals you're in an RV or you want to be in an RV and these are considerations that we have to think of and I actually have to go back through Kansas in a couple months and pick up his ashes so I don't know why I'm laughing it is a sad week for me so that's what's going on you guys and thanks for being there for me and be my friends I'll talk to you soon big boy what is that it's 2.45 in the morning he's a little early on hey Betty are we on the lake do you see a bird outside you go get it big boy what are you doing are you really sleeping like that you're so funny well boy the weather changed again it's going to be another night under the covers huh