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Just came back from the vet.
Our four year old, Simon, has a couple chipped/broken teeth that may need to be removed. Otherwise very healthy.
Rusty, almost 20 years old, has lost a pound - 1/8th of his weight -- since this summer. He has blood in his stool, is somewhat anemic and his colon feels thick and abnormal. This on top of his kidney disease and heart murmur.
They did tests. We find out Monday.
They gave us some meds to ease his symptoms.
The vet first thought colitis but given his age and the abnormal feeling bowel... quite possibly cancer.
He may be but a mere short hair domestic house cat ...
I want to cry.
John in Wauwatosa
Comments
My sympathies
John,
You have my sympathies. Pets grow on you, even if you don't particularly want them when you get them. When my kids were young, a stray dog got dumped out of a car (literally dumped out the window without the car even stopping) right in front of our house. Come the weekend, I was intending to take the dog to the pound, but Saturday morning, the kids asked if they could keep "Dusty." It's really hard to take a dog your kids have named to the pound. So he became the kids dog. They loved him, I tolerated him.
Ten years later, the dog's health had deteriorated to the point that he needed to be put down. It surprised me that I was emotional when the time came. I didn't really think I was attached to the dog, but there I was blinking back tears.
So if you really wanted the cat and have had him for nearly twenty years. I can understand your feelings. You should keep it in perspective; in human years, Rusty is 97 years old.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin eine Mann
Cats, you have gota love them
We have always had cats, sometimes as many as ten at a time. All are strays, cats that were thrown out, or ones their owners no longer wanted. They are our children. Their personalities, their quirks, just grow on you. When one gets sick, or just has lived his or her life to the fullest it is so heartbreaking. Most of our cats live to fifteen to twenty years old. When their health no longer becomes bearable it usually is my job to take them to the vet. Of course we have them checked out, but quite often it is their kidneys, resulting in a slow and not pleasant last few years. When I have to have one put to sleep, it tears at me in the worst way. Usually I end up driving back from the vets with tears rolling down my cheeks.
They are great friends, excellent children, and so often comfort us in our own problem times.
I hope you remember your loved one and find peace in all the good times you shared.
Hugs
Heather Marie
A friend is a friend
John even if they have four legs.
Grover
Thank you all for your kind comments
What hurts the most is that Rusty's impending end mirrors my own father.
Though relatively healthy he IS 87 .
His parent's made it to their mid nineties.
His brother and sister are still alive, older than dad but far more frail.
Someday his day will come.
I don't wish to lose either.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Understand too well
John,
With a cat just over 20, who also is losing weight, I understand that part far too well.
And older parent? Yeah, I'm there too.
Wish I could do more than hand over a virtual handkerchief, but you have a sympathetic ear at need.
Itinerant
Nicole (a.k.a. Itinerant)
--
Veni, Vidi, Velcro:
I came, I saw, I stuck around.
Pets are more than pets
They are friends, companions, sometimes soul mates. To have one around for nearly 20 years has created a tremendous amount mental dependence. I can't just be ripped away and forgotten. I know how you feel, and I have cried and cried after losing a cat to its infirmities. We've lost too many, and after a loss would say never again, only to break down a few weeks later and bring in a couple of more warm bodies to share our home.
Portia
huggles, John
pets work their way into our hearts, and we're better for what they give us.
hugs
I agree with all the sentiments here regarding cats
I don't have a personal cat at the moment but my neighbor's daughter's cat makes it her business to visit me regularly, even when it is pretty darn cold outside. I give her as much attention as I can and she appreciates it no end and no I do not even feed her. It's a relationship strictly based on companion/friendship.
On Saturdays I would drive out for chores and she would often as not be sitting on my porch waiting for me to come back. People think that she is my cat given how we interact but that is not the case. She is a very loving, trusting and giving little soul. Her only flaw, like most cats, her claws dig into my lap when she wants to sit in it but is remedied with an old denim jacket on top of my lap.
Anyway, I am not getting a big head about it as she greets all humans that way I think and she has a regular route in the morning where she would send off a neighbor's kid as he goes to school and then heads over to my porch to say hi and spend a bit of time with me before heading to work.
It is lucky we are in an age where videos and pictures are easy to come by, to record ones loved ones while they still live.
Pets
I was one for a "terrier" cross (aka mutt) for just shy of 20 years ... that much time and energy invested in a relationship would make Ebenezer Scrooge shed a few tears at the sundering of it. Max's one bad habit was chasing cars ... tried many things over the years to convince him it was a bad idea, but nothing every took. I'm almost glad one carried him off, tho ... his health was failing over his last summer with us, the signs were on the wall, and given how much of a fighter he was, he would have hung on to the bitter end. At least it was quick. I was in mouring for over two years before a ginger ninja and her black-furred brother adopted me and brought me out of the doldrums. By the way ... anyone who hasn't experienced the love of a Domestic Shorthair, if you're assuming "shorthair" = less shedding ... (hollow laugh).
Cutting short here, Scooter is insisting upon "cuddle time", and typing one handed is distracting me from doing my duty.