RIP for my Cat

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Had to put my good buddy 'down' yesterday.

My cat has been with us for 9 years, and frankly he's been kind of a pain in the backside. Constantly crying for food about an hour before feeding time, throwing up hairballs, and chewing whatever plastic we forgot to lock up. If you pet him for too long or in the 'wrong place' he'd bite your hand HARD. He bullied our other cat at the food bowl or any time we tried to give her attention.

Well, over the past week we noticed his appetite drop to nothing (very out of character for him) and he was meowing all the time for no reason. Yesterday took him to the emergency animal clinic an hour away...and several tests and hundred$ later learned that he had some sort of infection in his chest cavity that was making his breathing difficult. Prognosis for antibiotics not good...needed super-invasive surgery to clean the crud out of his chest.

Well, I just couldn't do it...for financial and humane reasons. I drove back down in the middle of the night to be there with him when they knocked him out. By then he was rasping when he breathed but still had the mojo to purr when I pet him for the last time.

The amazing thing is how much you miss an ornery cat when they are gone. There's probably a lesson in there somewhere about the people that you take for granted every day.

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Sorry about the loss of your buddy! I can relate to your PITA stories 100%. We currently have a 6 pound west highland terrier pup and a 17lb house cat! Watching the two of them play is hilarious!
 
I'm sorry Matt
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Perhaps, even if financial issues weren't a concern, putting the little bugger to rest was the best decision; time to end the suffering for the little tyke.

I know all about the PITA aspect! My cat is 21 years old and can not digest dry food anymore, so he's on a 3 hour feed window for canned food. 3 hours on the dot, YOWL, YOWL, YOWL. He's also def, so he has no idea how loud he is. It sucks having to get up 3 times a night to feed the little buggy. But when he's sittin on my lap purring away, I wouldn't trade him for anything.

Merry Christmas
 
I never was a cat person. My daughter (very young at the time) got a cat via my wife. We didn't get it fixed soon enough and she had 4 kittens. This was okay...and actually entertaining. Mother Cat, would bring in live animals in an attempt to train the kitties on how to chase them. I had to save quite a few smaller rabbits from doom. They would all line up trying to figure out what mom was showing them. It really looked like a classroom situation
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We got all but one of the kittens fixed before she had more kittens ..this continued until we had up to 12 cats. Having a larger house, some ended up taking up residence in certain rooms/floors. All but 2 died of feline leukemia.

Then, there was a fluffy yellow cat that appeared in my backyard. It was obviously looking for attention. It would sit on our patio chairs and would respond to petting. It hung out for about a month. I finally started feeding it with the other cats. I took it to the vet and asked if it had been spade. The vet said that she couldn't tell ..but agreed with me when I reasoned that over a month on the loose would have surely resulted in a pregnacy. Well, shortly after becoming an inside cat ...we got three kittens ..two yellow ringtails and a pure white kitten.

Now we just lost one of the ring tails somewhere. So we're down to 5 cats. Two of the original litters (father and son) ..one pedigree shorthair that has been in the neighborhood for years ..but chose my porch to gravitate to and move into ..and the two surviving kittens. The yellow mother got killed shortly after the kits got weaned. So much for saving a cat from the winter cold
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Most get along with my beagle and Rot-n-lab ..although, every once in a while, the rot'n'lab will engage in "cat tossing". It's a riot to watch ..but I usually stop it before too much hair is flying around.

Again, I'm not really a cat person ..but I did end up interacting with a few of them. They seem pretty good at communicating with you if they're motivated.
 
Thanks, Guys.

Yeah, ironically the 'financial aspect' of the decision really makes it a little easier. If it was really inexpensive, most people would probably say "Sure, let's give it a shot" and next thing you know you've opened up a whole new can of suffering for the animal without much thought.

An interesting aspect of the experience was that the first on-duty Vet was very competent and explained in great detail what was going on medically, but wasn't of much use helping me weigh the actual decision I had to make. The second on-duty vet (woman) seemed to be more open to looking at the situation 'big picture'. I was glad that she was the one there when we had to do the deed.
 
Sorry Matt.

Its hard losing a pet. We lost our cat of 13 or 14 years two years ago. I took her to the vet to be put down. She died with her head resting on my hand - her favourite spot. My wife still cries and I have to blink back tears whenever we talk about her.

Another vet milked my wife for several hundred dollars on the dying cat. I wasn't home and they took advantage - big time.
 
I had a cat when I was small, and loved it. when it lost an eye in a cat fight, its last days were miserable...my mom, seeing that I suffered far more than the cat, didn't let me have any cats ever again.
 
Sorry to hear about your cat. I hope my Captain Kirk hangs on for another decade.
 
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The first was a big red tabby-and-white Maine Coon. He and I were buddies from his kittenhood, age 6 weeks, up to his death from cancer at 16 1/2 years. When the vet approached him to give that final shot, he turned his big shaggy head and growled . . . at her. His ashes are up in the Colorado mountains, near Winter Park, and a lucite plaque to his memory at the Denver animal shelter reads, "Arizona: I [meaning me] handled quarters and rations, you handled the rest."

The second was not really my cat, but we were good friends. Black, semi-longhaired Marie-Antoinette passed away from liver failure a year ago this March, age 13. She could be noisy, and was the most stubborn cat you could imagine. But she was also one of the smartest, adapting to new situations with ease, and most confident. She loved to walk on a harness and leash, and clearly enjoyed human company.

I have two younger cats now, but I miss these two nearly every day.

Yours enriched your life.
 
Yeah we lost two old cats in the last few years. Sad parting. The old black male, Max, we hung on too long. He suffered too much. The female's (Mango) time came and we all knew it. Both were over 20 years old.

Now we have this cat named Winston. My goodness, we forgot how mellow the old cats were. This dude is psycho. He seemed untrainable at first. He's bitten the khrap out of my little toe several times, scratched us (my gut once, really bad), bit my hand....I have been teaching him, and got a collar with lots of jangles, bells and tags.....slowly he's becoming a good kat.
 
I dread the day... BUT, I did promise to whomever that I would not flinch when the time comes. We owe that to them. You did well by him. Good for you. He was lucky to have you, in my opinion.

John.
 
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