The Cat (and I) Get a Reprieve

[Rose Pink]

I took the cat to the vet this morning fully anticipating not bringing her home. Some days she just looks at me with what seems like misery in her eyes. Of course, I'm not sure what she is really feeling. This morning she seemed a little perkier and jumped up on my desk and visited with me. As I put her in her carrying box to go to the vet, I became even more unsure what to do. It seems like I am watching her starve before my eyes and yet she does eat. She is more solitary now than before and doesn't come inside when I want her to. Sometimes she'll sit under the car for hours and hours and hours only to come back inside in the morning to eat. Othertimes she won't go out for days. She doesn't wake me up any more (I'm not complaining about that--it's just a reflection of her changed behavior). She sleeps when she is not eating.


The vet said her weight was about the same as last month. He said she seemed okay and not in pain if she is eating. He gave her another shot, said to continue with the vetalog pills and come back in two weeks. I feel better but will have to reassess in a couple of weeks. He said at her age she probably has some dementia. (my sweet aging neighbors, my FIL and now the cat--do I cry at the sadness of it or laugh at the absurdity of being surrounded by confused beings at every turn--I've been doing both)

The dilemma I have is that I am going to be gone most of the month of October and she does not always take well to other people. I think if I am going to have to put her to sleep I should do it before I go instead of leaving her "alone" so to speak until I come home. But I don't want to let her go before her time. That seems like murder, not kindness.

Anyway, for now, we still have some time left together.

 

[AwayWeGo]

Lifetimes Of Pussycats.

Strange thing about pet cats -- more so than dogs, I think -- is that all of them are the same yet no 2 are entirely alike.

According to the wisdom of their creator, their lifespans are different from ours -- i.e., shorter -- & so we if we have cats in the early & middle parts of our lives, we are apt to outlive them. One of ours is buried out in the back yard, not from the final resting place of a sweet little non-yappy Maltie-Poo doggie that my mother in law loved & cared for.

Other cats that we outlived are buried out behind houses where we no longer live. The earliest cat to reach the end of its days as a member of our household went to sleep in its accustomed spot under the couch, near a heat vent, & never woke up. I don't know what make me suspect it had passed on. Without saying anything (because the kids were still awake -- little guys ages 1 & 3 at the time -- I sat down over there & reached under to check. Sure enough, the cat was unmoving, stiff & dead.

After the boys were asleep in bed, I said to The Chief Of Staff that the cat had died. "No," she said. "He's sleeping in his usual spot, right over there. See?" After I told her why I put off mentioning it till the kids were sleeping, she went over to see for herself.

The next chore was burial, right then so it would be over & done before the next day. Unfortunately, it was not only nighttime, it was also raining. So, I carried out my final responsibility to our 1st pet cat in the dark & in the rain. May he rest in peace.

In all, that was easier on us than other times when our human responsibilities for other 4-footed friends has included the decision to bring their lives to a conclusion as a way of ending their suffering. When it was entirely clear that it would be doing the pussycat no mercy to keep her going any longer, the decision to call it quits & call the vet still tugs at our hearts & leads us to shed some tears.

One time when our younger son was still in grade school, a cat with an extremely strong resemblance to ours at the time (brown tiger-stripe female domestic short-hair, about as generic a domestic cat as you can think of) got run over out in the street not far from our house. Our nephew across the street (son of The Chief Of Staff's sister) ran over to give his cousin the awful news out in the schoolyard next to our house. "Hey, your cat got run over & killed out in the street. Want to go see?" They went to look, & the sight was devastating to our boy. He came home in tears.

We didn't know why he was bawling. His cousin told us. "Well," we said, "you can just dry your eyes. That was somebody else's cat. It's too bad anybody's cat got run over, but as you can see your cat is alive & well & happy to see you right here." The reunion was joyful.

After several more years, inevitably, that old generic tiger-stripe pussycat reached the end of the trail. She lived on about 15 years after her partner passed away that rainy night when the boys were little.

Instead of taking her to the vet 1 final time, we called a vet that comes to the house. It seemed merciful not to put the poor old thing in a carrier & subject her to a car trip. For some reason The Chief Of Staff assigned herself to the burial detail afterwards. I don't know how I got out of it -- looking back, I surely would have been willing to take on that task. It wasn't raining. It was still daylight. So it goes.

We remained catless only a short time, no more than a year or so. Then the preacher's cat had kittens, which in time were offered to friends & friends of friends. The 1 our teenage kids picked out from the preacher's cat's litter was another generic brown tiger-stripe female, with an extremely strong resemblance to her long-lived predecessor.

The generic replacement pussycat also lived a long time, but not forever. She's the 1 buried out back near the boys' grandmom's Maltie-Poo. By then the boys were grown & gone.

That left us catless again -- but only temporarily until our accidental cat moved in with us. He's still here, & he now is part of the family.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​

 

[jules40]

Rose,
My cat, Frank, is 16 years old and I dread the day when we have to make that hard decision. My kitty is almost totally blind now and has very little muscle mass. Though he eats pretty well, he is really thin (to be fair, he's always been a pretty lean cat). We've had blood work done on him and surprisingly he is quite healthy. No kidney or liver problems that often plague older cats. He'd been slowly going blind for a while, but then all of a sudden his sight was nearly completely gone. He's adjusting and has no problem finding his litter box, food and water. He does get confused sometimes and cries, so we just talk to him in order to comfort him and help him find his way.

I've had Frank since he was 9 weeks old and he's the first pet my husband and I got as a couple. He is my 11 year old son's best buddy (Frank is most comforted by the presence of my son and searches for him when he's not around). I hope that one day he will just not wake up so that he never suffers and I don't have to make that decision. I had to make that decision twice before (12 year old dog and 15 year old cat) and it is so hard.

I feel for you.

 

[Jestjoan]

Cat Years

I wondered about this the other day and looked it up because of your post. I'm sure other web sites will have different numbers.

I'm glad you have some more time with your cat.



Cat years in human terms

We often want to think about the age of our cat in human terms. We cannot necessarily say one cat year equals so many human years, since the comparison changes with the age of the cat. The following table provides a comparison of cat and human years.

Cat Years Human Years
1 15
2 20
3 25
7 45
10 58
15 78
20 98

There is no specific definition of a 'senior' or 'geriatric' cat. In general, cats are considered to be 'senior' when they are 8-10 years of age. Cats over 12 years of age would probably be considered 'geriatric' by most veterinarians. These classifications are rather arbitrary; a cat on his 8th birthday is not suddenly a 'senior.' We need to remember aging is a gradual and lifelong process.

The oldest recorded age of a cat is 34 years.

 

[taffy19]

This is only my opinion

The dilemma I have is that I am going to be gone most of the month of October and she does not always take well to other people. I think if I am going to have to put her to sleep I should do it before I go instead of leaving her "alone" so to speak until I come home. But I don't want to let her go before her time. That seems like murder, not kindness.

Anyway, for now, we still have some time left together.

We faced the same problem with our feral cat that was 17 plus years old. She wasn't in great health but putting her to sleep, just before our vacation, so we could go away without worrying about her, didn't seem right to us. We are lucky to have a pet-sitter who is a qualified animal technician too so we asked her to make the final decision for us if she thought it was the kind thing to do for our cat.

When we came back, our old cat was still there but she could hardly walk so stayed in her basket most of the time but still went to the sand box but wouldn't get up for drinking water that she needed so much. I would give her water but obviously not enough because her kidneys failed.

One day, when I drove home and saw her trying to get out of the way of the car, I knew it was time because her back legs completely gave out. Poor cat but we didn't feel guilty of letting her go because of OUR CONVENIENCE. I don't think I could live with that decision for myself nor my husband, who is against putting animals to sleep, which I am not.

As long as a pet wants to eat, it still wants to live. Once they stop eating, they want to die so don't force them to eat and that is the time to put them to sleep which may be kinder to them. JMHO,

What a difficult time this is for any pet owner when you love your pet but you see them suffering.

I wish you strength.

 

[rapmarks]

Our two cats will soon be 11 and 12. This year, Ariel swallowed a needle and thread, unknown to us, but visible on t he xray. she is okay now. We came back from a trip and Reznor was in bad shape, would not come out of hiding, listless, etc. Three trips to the vet, IV each time, and we fed him mashed, watery food with a turkey baster, and made sure he drank that way, for 10 days, he finally came out and ate on his own, his hair was all spiked out as he had not groomed himself for all that time. he could not climb up on anything for another week, but was soon back to his old self. Our little pals are doing fine and telling us they are about ready to make the trip from Wisconsin to Florida, as the weather is turning cold and they miss the lanai.

 

[Rose Pink]

As long as a pet wants to eat, it still wants to live. Once they stop eating, they want to die so don't force them to eat and that is the time to put them to sleep which may be kinder to them. JMHO

Thanks. That seems like a reasonable/responsible marker for an aged cat. I just need to convince the someone she knows (and who loves her) to come live in my house while I am away. I don't want just any housesitter at this point.

 

[Rose Pink]

Our little pals are doing fine and telling us they are about ready to make the trip from Wisconsin to Florida, as the weather is turning cold and they miss the lanai.

Happy to hear of the positive outcome for you and your furry family. (That doesn't sound right. I mean the furry members of your family. That doesn't sound quite right either. Oh, you know what I mean.)

 

[taffy19]

I just need to convince the someone she knows (and who loves her) to come live in my house while I am away. I don't want just any housesitter at this point.

I really hope for you and the cat that this special person will look after your cat as that will give you some peace of mind. It is really hard to deal with the fact that animals age so much faster than we do so we lose several over the years and each time, it is so painful again.

Our cat will be 18 in October but right now he is fine but it is always a worry to leave him behind. No more pets for us until we stop traveling! This was an easy decision with this cat because he doesn't like other animals around so we didn't need to get him a companion but most pets thrive by it as it "perks" them up again.

 

[Lee B]

I know my cat's day is coming, but maybe a year from now. Recently I saw that he lost weight, and also he drank water like a dog and peed more than ever. As I know diabetes first-hand, I looked the feline version up on the web and began giving him tiny doses of Lantus insulin. Now it's 1.5 units in the am and 1 in the pm.

He pees less and drinks less now, about like the old days, so I guess it's working. I had made myself a solemn promise not to spend big amounts of money on him when I adopted him in the back yard, not yet fully grown, and it's just him and me so far. I'm not sure I'll keep that promise indefinitely. I think he is getting a little fatter, but that may take a long time. He's only been on the regimen for about three weeks. He is about 18 years old. His appetite is vigorous.

Will I "do the right thing" when the time comes? I think so. I may drag my feet a bit, but when he gets no enjoyment from life, even from me, then I expect it will be an easy decision.

Good luck.

 

[Rose Pink]

My mother is staying with me for a few days while her room is being painted. Her paraphernalia includes a rather noisy oxygen concentrator with a long, long length of hose, her nebulizer and other stuff she needs.

The cat usually is nowhere to be seen most of the day--and went into hiding when Mom first came with the noisy machine. She finds someplace quiet and out of the way. Well, this morning--Mom's third day here, the cat appeared at breakfast time. She jumped up on a kitchen chair and stared at Mom for awhile before curling up on the chair and napping. I was pleased to see some socialization from my otherwise reclusive old cat. But I was wrong. It wasn't socialization. When Mom and I returned from an errand, the cat was laying right in the middle of the kitchen table on top of Mom's stuff as if to say, "I was here first. This is mine." The cat may be old, but she's still got her pride.

 

[Htoo0]

It certainly is hard to deal with. Our pug (11 years) just had a stroke. He seems to be recovering but it's only been 3 days. Got him back from the vet today.

 

[Rose Pink]

She's gone

Our kitty passed away last night. I received the phone call this morning. DH and I are out of town and I was concerned this would happen while we were gone. We considered putting her to sleep the Saturday before we left but she perked up that day and we just couldn't do it. My sister came to stay with her and reported that they had a good day yesterday. They spent some time outside. Last night her back legs gave out. My sister was going to call the vet but the cat died during the night. The hard part is going to be telling my daughter. She said her good-byes before heading back to college but it is still going to be hard on her to hear the news.

 

[cindi]

I am so sorry to hear that she passed away when you were gone. It is so hard no matter how it happens, but I am sure you at least wished you were with her at the end.

It seems like she had one last good day, which they often do for some reason. At least she passed on her own. It is such a horrible decision to make to put them to sleep.

 

[Htoo0]

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Jestjoan]

I'm very sorry, too.

 

[Eli Mairs]

My heart goes out to you.

At least your cat died peacefully at home, when it was her time to go.

We had to put two of our aged cats to sleep last year within two months of one another, due to terminal illness, as they were suffering. It was the hardest thing we had to do.

Our 17 year old diabetic Woody, whom we kept stable with daily insulin injections for several years, developed a tumor, and was gone within two weeks. My daughter and I were in the vet's parking lot crying, while my husband comforted him until the end.

We have one precious 13 year old tabby left, and dread the day when we have to lose him.

 

[Rose Pink]

Thanks for expressing your sympathies. As anticipated, DD took it rather hard but she'll learn to cope.

 

[rapmarks]

I am sorry to hear this.

 

[IngridN]

I am so sorry for your loss. I'm also dreading the day. Our two babies, litter mates, are going on 16 and both have medical issues. As I hug and kiss them goodbye when I leave for work in the morning, I am always appreciative of the unconditional love they have provided for the past 15+ years. It will be really painful when the days come.

Ingrid

 

[bass]

So sorry for your loss. We had to put our 14.5 year old male tabby to sleep 2years ago. It was very hard. We have a 15.5 year old, a 5 year old and (2) 2 years old. We love all of them dearly and dread when the end will come.

 

[Banker]

To Rose Pink

My kind thoughts are with you and your family regarding your loss. Don't we love our pets? They sure do keep us going if we are ever down, etc. We had to put our dog to sleep on Wednesday, Oct 3rd. She was having such hard times, diabetes, Cushings disease, etc. She was my husbands child for about 12 years or so. He cried, and this is from a quiet, non emotional kind of guy. He took her food, etc to the vet as a donation. The vet will use it with some rescue groups, etc. She was put to sleep just a few days before our vacation. We just got back last night and so it was our first night without the dog being at the house. Even my cat Daphne seems happy to see us back, but I think she thought we had the dog with us. Again, remember the happy times. Sue in Georgia

 

[taffy19]

To Sue and Rose Pink,

Very sorry to hear about the loss of your pets. It's so hard to part with them as they are part of the family but the good memories of your pets will stay with you forever.

 

[TerriJ]

I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your kitty.

Terri J.