Note to cat lovers

[uclajd]

The cat I've had in my sig for years had to be put to sleep last night. Pet your cat tonight. You will miss the chance to do it when they are gone!

Kit was cool, a beautiful, six-toed cat with a great personality. The vet staff loved him. He'd come running up to you like a dog. He knew my car and would come up to it when I drove up.

He was ornery and would bite you gently when he was hungry, or claw you when you walked by just for the hell of it. Always made me laugh.

Would someone engineer one of these gawddamned things to live 100 years already? TIA!

[uclajd]

Thanks. We couldn't figure out what was wrong after $2K in vet bills. I think it was cancer of some sort. He just stopped eating a few months back. Vet force fed him and he started eating again, then stopped again. The second time he wouldn't start eating on his own again. This from a cat when he was healthy would eat 10 X a day.

Did a bone marrow thing, without result, then he took a bad turn Sunday, obviously dying, so we had to put him to sleep. Not a pleasant experience. No easier to lose a pet now than when I was 9 years old!

Died of old age ? Sorry for your loss. How old was the cat ?

I agree that cats and dogs i wish would live longer it sucks i wish all my animals would live for al ong time iv had my 2 cats MR and Miss Kitty for about 6-7 years now miss kitty went missign for a month luckily i found her one days ina storm drain and lucky she was a fat cat otherwise she woulda died cuss when i found her she was really skinny.

Iv also have a german sheperd in my avatar for 8 years now, they only live for like 10-12 years maybe if your lucky more he is starting to show his age a litte having a hard time walking up the stairs but other then that he is still my little puppy dog lol. I hope he lives for another 8 years

Edit : nvm 14 years. If you think about it 14 isnt that old for a cat, they can live for 18 or so years. Did he die from something other then old age ?

[Sparky]

Sorry to hear about your cat

Cat back home is about 11 years old now. Outdoor cat (dad is allergic to them), has been a good hunter, but also got himself into numerous scraps when he was younger and before he was fixed. He must have stolen another cat's nine lives because he's gotten himself near killed on multiple occasions (hit by a car, caught under the garage door, really really sick once, fights... He just keeps going though!).

He is a very personable cat, loves attention, and like yours would come running when you got home. Also loves picking on the dog and my dad for some reason lol. He'll stand on his hind legs to get your attention when he wants pet badly.

He's gotten to be a little heavier lately, a bit more lazy so we had to put him on a diet. We nicknamed him Garfield

Here he is in the garage wanting attention:



Outside



Oh yeah, I found this pic too, our dog thinks the cat door is a good lookout point

[sierra_bound]

Sorry to hear about your cat. About two years ago, my cat stopped eating. When we took him to the vet, we were told he had an enlarged heart and that there was no hope. A few days later he seemed to be getting worse, so we took him to a 24-hour emergency clinic. A vet there recommended we take him to the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital which has an animal heart specialist. The specialist told us to stop giving him most of the medications that the first vet had prescribed. It turned out the medications were making him even more sick. Right after that, our cat started eating again. He takes a supplement every day, but that's it. Again, he was basically given a death sentence two years earlier. So my advice to pet owners is to always get a second medical opinion if possible.

[Noob-ftw]

RIP Kit. I absolutely love cats with 6 toes! Just think back of the times you enjoyed your cat, that will most likely lessen the pain.

[RAW-Raptor22]

Sorry to hear about your cat. About two years ago, my cat stopped eating. When we took him to the vet, we were told he had an enlarged heart and that there was no hope. A few days later he seemed to be getting worse, so we took him to a 24-hour emergency clinic. A vet there recommended we take him to the UC Davis Veterinary Hospital which has an animal heart specialist. The specialist told us to stop giving him most of the medications that the first vet had prescribed. It turned out the medications were making him even more sick. Right after that, our cat started eating again. He takes a supplement every day, but that's it. Again, he was basically given a death sentence two years earlier. So my advice to pet owners is to always get a second medical opinion if possible.

The Davis university people are awesome, too bad there isnt anything else good about the liberal craphole of a town in which I live...

Im sorry for your loss man.... my cat is 16 years old (older than me) and doing great, but I still know that there isnt much time left...

[Leora]

I am very sorry for your loss I can totally empathise with what you are going through. Last year 4 days before his first birthday and 3 days before Christmas, Cola ws run over All i can say is that pets become part of one's family, and his loss was especially difficult to come to terms with. It hurts still to this day

All i can say is keep their memories alive by celebrating, cherishing and remembering the good times you had with them It still brings a smile to my face to look through and share these photos of Cola, especially remembering how he loved sitting in the grocery shopping bags, and how cute he looked at 5 weeks He was a truly amazing and special cat.

[HungryForHertz]

I am very sorry for your loss I can totally empathise with what you are going through. Last year 4 days before his first birthday and 3 days before Christmas, Cola ws run over All i can say is that pets become part of one's family, and his loss was especially difficult to come to terms with. It hurts still to this day

All i can say is keep their memories alive by celebrating, cherishing and remembering the good times you had with them It still brings a smile to my face to look through and share these photos of Cola, especially remembering how he loved sitting in the grocery shopping bags, and how cute he looked at 5 weeks He was a truly amazing and special cat.

Oh wow. I think I just died a little inside

OP: I'm sorry for your loss. I too am a cat lover and had to suffer seeing my 18 (at least, was taken in by my family as a stray) year old cat go into a fit from cancer, obviously we rushed her to the vet's to be put down. Couldn't see her suffer like that. Still got the other cat though!

[uclajd]

Thanks for all the kind words. 14 is a good run, although I've had cats live to 17 and I've known people with 20-year-olds. 14 sure beats a young pet being run over.

I know some people claim having an outdoor cat is cruel, but there are some cats that forcing them inside would be cruel. Anyone who knew Kit for 5 minutes and saw him howl if trapped inside would realize that. Some cats just like to be outside, live free or die. We were lucky he didn't get flattened in the street all these years.

Haha, Garfield looks very cool, and has that old, grizzled face. Kit would stand on his kind legs to reach your finger for a scratch.

Sorry to hear about Cola. The street is always a risk and I have lost strays that way, but never an indoor-outdoor thankfully.

This has been really hard on my mom. Kit was a replacement cat for her after losing the greatest cat ever, Sugar Baby (named that because as a kitten, she ate some candy called Sugar Babies that was dropped on the floor) like 15 years ago (she was 17). All my Mom did was complain about Kit's orneriness and call it "your cat" for years. I didn't realize how close she was to Kit until the end.

I'd like to get her a kitten but she said no more cats, she can't lose anymore.

Seriously, some day they will genetically engineer cats to live like 100 years. That way, they outlive you, no more sadness at the vet.

[Kingcarcas]

Sorry man, just a few years ago we finally got a cat and i can't imagine what it's like to lose a pet. At least i'm a little bit older now, it would probably be harder as a child.


^ Yup, the previous owners said he terrorized their house, probably because they never let him out. I just let the bastard out right now in the rain he always comes back and he's fairly calm with us.

[uclajd]

Yup, the previous owners said he terrorized their house, probably because they never let him out. I just let the bastard out right now in the rain he always comes back and he's fairly calm with us.

I read something about cats that they need room to disperse their energy, like a light bulb. The more room they have, the more diffused and less intense. So outdoor cats tend to be more calm, more room for diffusing energy. Cooped-up cats, OTOH, tend to be more crazy, the theory goes...

[ataky]

im sorry for your cat.

well actually, we always had cats till like 4 years ago.
got a busy road in front off my house, so we always had to buy 2 ore 3 cats because they 9.8/10 times died because of a vehicle runned them over.

really sad, but we had a lot off mouse and rats her on the country

[Brother Esau]

Thats awful to hear and I'm sorry for you're loss . I understand....... my Cat Marshall I have had for 16 years now and he's my bestest friend in the entire world and I don't know what I would do without him!

[\/icious]

Sorry for your loss. Looks like my cat except mine is black and grey. Pets are awsome because if you love them they will love you back. They let you know how they feel and you dont have to worry about they lying to you. I dont think i could ever not have a pet. I found my oldest car in a parking lot. He was skin and bones and no bigger than my hand. He is the most loving cat i have ever owned.

[Rawcat]

Sorry for your loss mate, i know how you feel.
I've been keeping this mentality for a quite a while, and it does seem to sooth the sorrow for your pets.. You just need to remind yourself that you have done all what you could to make their life better, and if not for you, that cat or any other pet could have eventually ended up in hands of someone who doesn't care, or even outright mistreats animals...

Have had 3 cats and 6 hamsters (excluding their kids ofc, otherwise the hamster count would be up at the well known and beloved number 32), now taking a break since i have very little time with my studies and work...
We do have our neighbor's cats coming over 2-3 times a day though, living in parcel house quarters surrounded mostly by nature is truly a heaven for cats when compared to my old apartment. Two very different kittens, a boy and a girl, daftness and arrogance in examplary form, yet very caring about each other and very friendly to people in general. They seem to be excelent hunters too, being under a year old both. Over the course of this summer i've gathered 5 dead birds, a very big dead rat and 2 dead mice lying around, and that's just our garden.
I could go on forever... Cats are awesome.