My Very Old Cat :( Need Advice....

[biogeek]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

Hi Speedy! It broke my heart to read about your beloved kitty! I have no words of wisdom to offer, but only to let you know that I'll say some prayers for you & your cat. Perhaps that will be of some comfort to you.

Best of luck with your kitty! Please keep us informed of how she is doing!

[Piasabird]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

You've had her for 14 years and she's really even older than that. That's a pretty long time. I just read where the average well cared for house cat only lives to the average age of 15. Sooner or later you're going to have to do the loving and humane thing.

Knowing When To Let Go.

[Moochiecat]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

It's a very difficult thing to say goodbye to your pet, and it's even more difficult when you are faced with making the decision to do so, as we were with our Moochie last august.
I hope things go well and you don't have to deal with that sort of thing for a long time.

One thing that I read, that gave me great comfort in the days following was from the Rainbow Bridge website and it said something like this(...get your kleenex ready.)

"I let you go not because I didn't love you, but because I loved you too much to make you stay."

[slimndown]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

Speedy - I wish you the best w/kitty. Whether kitty is inside or out, naysayers or no - you know your kitty's personality and what IT would consider to be cruel or euphoria, which is the most important thing. Best wishes!

[Peytonn]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

the crate thing is what I was thinking... if there's room..... and let her out for visits when you're there to supervise her.. she might actually like the security of it...

[Peytonn]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

or.. if there's a building.. like a utility building or something where she could stay.. (I have 2 young kittens locked up in one now.. until they're older).. with a light bulb hanging from a cut in the top of a rough tote (so they're warm at night)... they love it... and they're not tearing my HOUSE apart anymore.. I kept them in for several months... until they started climbing the curtains...

[BikerGoddess]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

Cats that are used to being outdoors will hate the crate. However, it might make sense to keep her confined to one room when you're not there to watch her. I ended up making a house for my cat in a walk-in closet towards the end.

Putting a pet down is a very hard decision. It's especially hard when you feel like you're doing it for selfish reasons. Remember, though, it can be hard on the cat, too. She probably doesn't enjoy not being able to control her bladder (cats are fastidious animals) or she's in pain that's causing her to not use her litterbox (they associate the box with the pain and go elsewhere trying to avoid it).

You wanna talk about guilt over putting an animal down - my last cat had kidney failure and we'd just found out she'd need (much) more expensive treatment and I was planning to move in with my boyfriend, who is allergic. He wasn't going to be able to have a cat in the house and it was the last sticking point in our discussion.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), she developed an unoperable bone cancer and I *had* to put her down. The vet told me all along that it was my decision, but that she'd never put her down if it wasn't the right thing to do.

Laura

[Analog6]

Re: My Very Old Cat Need Advice....

Our 5 cats are all inside cats but I have built them an oputside cattery. It cost less than $150. I bought 3 garden arches for $10 each on special. I put these 2 metres apart (in a line) in the garden. We put reinforcing weldmeash up to the bottom of t curve, lashed it to the arches with wire, and covered the whole with netting. It has 3 benches across, walkways between the benches, a hammock and even a tree growing in it. It is joined to the house by a wire tunnel (board base to walk on) and they love it and are perfectly safe. We can close the tunnel at the cage end with a board if we don't want them inside for any reason.
One of our older girls, the 13 year old long hair, Fan Fan, has a problem that she gets the runny poos - everywhere. So we have restricted her to the outside glassed in verandah at night. She only comes inside when we can keep an eye on her, and we keep the bedrooms closed off when she is in. We are lucky to have the verandah area for her, though. If she gets worse we will have to consider euthanasia, as she hates it being stuck to her fur, yet violently resists us cleaning it off. Catch 22. But for the moment our solution is working.
Maybe you and your boyfreind could construct an outdoor enclosure for AShley, and she could sleep in the bathroom at night. If you would like me to send you a document with photos and materials used email me at analog6@ozemail.com.au and I will email it to you (state MsWord doc or pdf format preference).