My baby girl was put to rest two days ago. I watched as the light left her eyes. I am beyond heartbroken. The tears are endless. The void she left is suffocating. I just want to be with her. I’m just so tired.
She will be missed for her major attitude and adorable sassy cuteness. She has been the absolute best baby in the whole world. She was found while I was in graduate school on the campus and she wandered over to my vehicle looking for some help and has never left my side since. She was fixed already and chipped by someone in McAllen TX and somehow found us 800 miles away in El Paso.
She lost her tail in some story she could never tell us and she has been the stubby cat ever since. She has gone by so many different nicknames through out her 15 years w us: (1) the stublet (2) bubby (3) bubble baby (4) bubble baby beans (5) chunkleberry chins (6) bublet chublet (7) nurse bubby and (8) beans are some of the most recent.
She has been there for a decade and a half - through thick and thin. Always ready for treats, snacks, her favorites were turkey, temptations of the shrimp and lobster varieties- she would ask you for your ice cream but always end up throwing it up later on. She has kept us on a pretty tight schedule of treats - even body slamming the bedroom door on days we had the audacity to sleep in and not give her the morning treat in time. She always had food and snacks.
She’s developed a pretty aggressive growth in her nasal cavity recently and she’s so exhausted from breathing this week that we cannot bear to let her suffer for a long time - you know it’s time when there is no appetite and the litter box stays empty.
She was with us since 2012 and we found her when she was at least a year old already. She has had two doting humans staff for the last decade.
It’s pretty hard to say good bye with no words and hope they know but she’s been there through everything and been one of the very best friends for so long. She’s is loved and she will be sorely missed. We have scheduled her appointment to cross the rainbow bridge in peace at home in our arms air she doesn’t have to take the ride that everyone dreads.
A toast to stubby cat - the best house cat I have ever had
Appreciate your toast to one of her many names ❤️🩹
July 17, 2018 I was browsing the pet store like I did on occasion and upon looking at the cats I met this little boys eyes. He was being loved up by another man but when her turned to look at me he sprinted over and demanded love. I adopted him that night.
A few days after his adoption I was dropping him off at my mom’s house as I was going out of town and when I opened the car door he jumped right out and ran straight for the woods. I panicked and yelled his name and he stopped dead in his tracks and let me pick him up.
I knew the first time I saw him he would be my soul cat, and I knew when he didn’t run away into the woods he trusted me.
Years of health battles, a courageous and successful bout of FIP we are finally here. My baby goes to peace tomorrow and I’m devastated. I love him so much it hurts. I know it’s the right call, he’s been on the decline for what feels like years and bandaids can only take him so much farther.
To anyone who’s loved a cat, I know you know the feeling, and my heart goes out to anyone going through this.
My best and most handsome boy turns 13 today! He's the sweetest cat I've ever met and doesn't have even a bad hair on him. He's had a tough year with hyperthyroidism and an almost month long hospital stay for the radioactive treatment but he remained his ever loving self through it all. I just want to celebrate him! Has lived with me 12 years this September and I've treasured it all.
He's so much more than just a cat as he has the most pure soul ever.
He's a rescue/rehome so I don't have any proper baby pictures only from when he was about 16 months old onwards - those are the 2 at the end.
Happy birthday Leo!
My sweet 13 yo girl Arya was diagnosed with an aggressive bladder cancer in February. She also ended up having two episodes of acute kidney failure, maybe related to the cancer, likely related to the sedation for the diagnostic procedure. She miraculously survived both episodes and has stayed mostly stable since then.
On the quality of life scale we’ve been using, she scores between a 24-29 out of 40, depending on the day. Because of the cancer, she urinates a lot more frequently, and sometimes it looks uncomfortable for her. She has intermittent episodes where she has a lot of blood in her urine, which is when it seems uncomfortable, but she hasn’t been passing any blood for a week. Until this week, her appetite has remained totally normal, and she’s enjoyed going outside to explore the garden. She loves being with us and comes to find us to hang out whenever she’s awake. We give her subcutaneous fluids daily which seems to help a lot.
About a week ago she started throwing up, and threw up once a day for a couple of days in a row. We know this is a sign her kidneys are probably going again, so we were going to schedule a home visit for euthanasia for Friday. I was worried she wouldn’t make it that long because she stopped eating entirely on Monday and half of Tuesday. Then last night her appetite seemed to come back a bit and she’s eaten better today, though not her usual amount. But we’ve been giving her extra fluids and transdermal mirtazapine for nausea and it seems to have helped considerably.
The thing is, she’s so sweet and wants to be around us all the time, so it’s hard to say goodbye when it doesn’t feel like she’s ready to leave us. My husband is especially reluctant, because there may still be some options to treat her current issue (like vitamin b drops for her nausea.) She’s still been up and about and going in the garden and was a bit playful last night. But I’m living in terror of another episode of acute kidney failure or a urinary blockage. It feels like we’re gambling every day but every day the odds grow slimmer.
To complicate matters further, I’m 31 weeks pregnant, expecting our first baby in mid July, and there is so much to do around the house to get ready, but it’s been hard for both of us to find the energy to do those projects when we’re worrying about our poor sweet baby so much every day.
Do we keep the appointment for Friday, knowing she might have a few more good weeks left? I’m worried we’ll regret it and feel terribly selfish for doing it sooner than we had to. But I also feel like we need time to grieve her before the baby comes… and so does her poor cat brother, who will be facing so many changes losing his sister and getting a new baby.
Any words of support or advice are appreciated.
There are trees and a field directly outside my front door. The living room and entryway looks out onto the front porch which there are always a flock or three of birds hopping around in. Hes stopped sleeping with us in bed because he wants to keep watch at the window downstairs all night lol
Yesterday’s vet appointment validated our gut feeling: Darla is nearing the end of her time with us. We have an appointment scheduled with our trusted vet on Friday, and she has vet approval to wait until then for my mom (she’s her person and out of town until then).
We’ve been in denial, but what gives me peace is this: how beautiful it is to outlive your body. Darla has spent all 16 years of her long life (minus eight weeks with a fabulous humane society) at the side of myself or my mom or both of us. She has been fed, pampered, and loved by so many friends and family. She has helped me grow for more than half of my life.
Darla and her sister Ashley are truly my siblings. I was supposed to be a middle child of an older and younger sister. While my family felt heartbreak then, we think Ashley and Darla were meant to find us and give us the opportunity to share our love with them.
Any tips for how to help Ashley adjust is appreciated. She’s the stoic, independent sister (classic tortoiseshell), and I worry for her. I will certainly rely on her this weekend, and want her to feel comfortable too. My boyfriend has been such a blessing (and he’s probably person #3 for her, so him being here all week has made Darla happy too), and friends have come out to make sure we eat and take care of ourselves, too.
Even considering all of the above and how much it hurts, I would do it all again in a heartbeat. Thank you Darla for your silly, beautiful love.
I need to take my senior cat (14 years old) to the vet. Her her activity and eating has slowed in the last week. The problem is, she hates going to the vet. Like, she becomes frantic, screaming, pooping and attacking. For this reason I’ve avoided taking unless it’s urgent. The one vet I took her too a few years ago wouldn’t even examine her she was freaking out so much.
How do I help her calm down to get her there? Any ideas?
Purrfa came to us via the Cat Distribution System. A friend had this random kitten show up at his house, and we became her adopted family. We estimate that she was born in June of 2014.
As a kitten, she would often lie in wait in the bushes around our walkway and pounce on our legs as we walked by, not unlike the Velociraptors of Jurassic Park--hence her nickname Raptor. Rather humorously, she discovered the soft JP Blue Raptor mask when it was lying around somewhere, and she often uses it as a bed.
She loves to cuddle, but on her own terms: if she lies on you, she's happy. If you pick her up to set her on you, she'll hop away. She has a super-loud purr, audible across the room. She's also a super-empathetic cat. If someone is sad, she will always come up to console them with her cuddles.
She is still trucking along, happy and healthy, still able to leap up a tall china cabinet in a single bound to perch up high and look down on her domain.
Hoping for many more good years with her.
My sweet baby boy Ludo
14
Has hyperthyroidism and a slight heart murmur.
My sweet boy suddenly has GI inflammation and won’t eat even with an appetite stimulant(been using only for 24 hours currently). We are starting steroids tomorrow but it’s been about 3 days since he’s eaten anything. Vet gave a couple rounds of fluids and anti nausea meds over last couple days. Anyone here have a kitty like this? We just really want him to eat and hope the steroid help with that. Murmur has been stable for many many years at a 2-3. Help!! Thank you!
Hello,
Hopefully this is a good place to post this. My cat Stanley is 9 on paper but the vet seems to think he’s well into his teens. I adopted him three years ago and he has been a medically complex cat. First he was diagnosed with CKD, then heart disease, and finally hyperthyroidism. He’s on medication for the hyperthyroidism and a renal diet for the CKD but the vets are hesitant to treat either the heart or kidneys with meds because it could exacerbate the other. About a month ago he wouldn’t stop vomiting so I took him to the vet where on xray they noticed degenerative disc disease in his back as well. He was doing well but recently I’ve noticed he has been really wobbly on his back legs. They keep falling out from under him and he doesn’t take more than a few steps at a time before sitting down. This morning it was really bad where he wasn’t using his back legs at all and he was vocalizing in a way that made me think he was in pain. I took him to the vet but didn’t get a straight answer. They did bloodwork and noticed all of his levels are up for CKD and heart disease. They sent the xray off to the radiologist and I won’t hear back for a few days. In the meantime they want me to schedule an ultrasound. He’s home now but still having trouble walking. It kills me to see him like this. I asked the vet about quality of life and she said as long as he is still performing basic functions (eating, drinking, litter box) we aren’t at that stage yet but I just can’t help but think about him being in pain walking and how that can’t be a decent quality of life. Has anyone gone through this before? He’s my first cat and my soul cat. We’ve only had three years together but I love him more than life itself. I’m just not sure how to measure quality of life for him
Sorry, no pics -apparently my phone deleted my pets folder 😭
My 15 yo female just got her diagnosis of hyperthyroidism today. Vet said the T levels are at 6, but supposed to be no higher than 4.
The nearest radioactive treatment place is over 2 hrs away. There's an ear cream, an oral liquid, & a pill.
Her biological brother has diabetes. Her meds are prob cheaper than his insulin.
Any experience or advice appreciated. Tyia
My cat suddenly started begging for food all day. He was eating more than usual, drinking tons of water, and using the litter box constantly. Then I noticed he was losing weight and seemed tired all the time. He stopped playing and barely moved around the house.I honestly didn’t know what to do 😞
I adopted my cat 8 years ago. The shelter I adopted him from did not know his age, they guess anywhere from 6-9 years old at that time… fast forward a year he developed FIP which I cured him of 🎉
6 years ago he started developing upper respiratory issues which were on and off but became chronic (constant sneezing, buggers, bad sinus infections that re occur) so he has been struggling with this. Which I manage as best I can with natural therapies and medication when the sinus infection gets bad.
About 2 years ago he developed high blood pressure (no underlying condition) and due to this he lost a portion of his sight based on me seeing him bump into things. He adapted pretty well and we immediately got him on amlodipine. About 1 year ago he had a high blood pressure spike that further altered his vision but we managed with a higher dose of amlodipine. It did impact his vision further but again we managed quite well!
In January of this year he started peeing outside of his litter box which slowly progressed to him not using the box more so than using it. We treated him last month for a UTI with convenia and metecam and he did great and stopped peeing outside of the box. Bloodwork did come back with early stage kidney disfunction so I have started him on a kidney related diet.
He started peeing outside of the box again and quite frequently again and this last Tuesday his urinalysis came back with bacteria so we did another convenia shot. A day after his vet visit he became extremely disoriented around the house, so keep in mind he is blind or blind ish already, he had a great mental map of the house and otherwise did great. He is now getting lost in the house peeing in very random spots, pacing and bumping into literally everything. I took him to the vet last Wednesday and the vet prescribed metecam and gabapentin for pain related disorientation (he assumed) he did mention it could have been a stroke but less likely. I did not notice any signs of stoke either.
He is also losing protein from his urine quite a lot which will mess with his weight. There IS a medication for this but will likely affect his blood pressure so this can be an issue in the future if we take this route. That is if we even get him back to “normal” cognitively wise.
I’m really at a loss on how to help my baby, and am looking for opinions on if it is “time” or I should keep trying. I ask this because I asked my vet what I should do if he did not recover cognitively in a few days (it has almost been a week) and the vet told me we should have “the talk.”
I’m pleasantly surprised with the way I painted it. The softness of the brushstrokes matches perfectly with the serenity of the sleeping cat.
just wanted to share the progress of my little brother. he’s going to turn 20 in june. he has started his subcutaneous fluid a month ago due to stage 3 chronic disease. wanted to share because he’s my mother’s (who recently passed away) favourite cat. she was worried that we wouldn’t be able to take care of him and look where we are now! i hope she would know and that my little brother would be able to do well in the coming years!
thank you so much for reading ❤️
I don’t want my first post on this sub to be saying goodbye. She is turning 15 this year and I love her to tau ceti and back. I’m hoping for more years with her to come
*Thank you to everyone for your kind, warm words, condolences, and reading Little Kitty’s story .. in part or entirety, I really tried to not make it so long. You are all so very kind. 💜💚.*
Our oldest family member, Little Kitty, crossed the rainbow bridge Friday at 11 AM.
So many sad posts here lately, it is so heart-wrenching- I’m sorry for the long post..
(I have low vision, so there might be a lot of mishaps in this post. I apologize in advance)
She was left on our doorstep in a cardboard box in 2009, right before my youngest daughter started kindergarten. Inside the box was a beautiful, very young white and light orange kitten, with a brand new white face cloth and hand towel purchased from Walmart. I cried, the kitten was not crying. She just looked up at us with her big blue innocent eyes.
We took her into the vet, got her all fixed up and started bottle feeding her. I was still crying, so my husband took over and bottle fed her until I could control myself.
. I let her bottle feed until she felt comfortable enough to transition to formula in a saucer.
We had four other cats at the time so this was number five. All of our other cats were also rescues.
Little kitty live very well with everyone and became part of the family. The only difference was that as she got older, she could not tolerate my blind Jellybean, who would chase her in fun. She became quite anxious, like having an anxiety disorder. Regardless of the medication, she only wanted to be by herself, no cats around her. I think she developed sort of a cat form of PTSD.
We gave her my daughter’s bedroom and then she became my daughter’s cat. Everything was set up for her in there, but she could come out if she wanted to sometimes she did, but she was happy in the ‘pink room’.
When my daughter went off to college, she could not take little kitty with her so I took over and became her Mommy, and spent countless hours in that pink room watching bird TV on YouTube with her Spoiling her, brushing her, letting her pop bubble wrap - everything that she like to do and sending pictures to my daughter to make sure she saw her little kitty being treated well. little kitty was living the good life. Peace and security, on her terms
When my daughter was a junior in college. She got a private dorm room, and could not bare leaving little kitty behind, visits were not enough. So against all the rules of the University, she snuck little kitty in with her boyfriend’s help. Luckily, little kitty was a quiet cat, never made loud noises, never wanted for anything but to live her life laying in the sun, being with my daughter and just be herself
I was very happy for little kitty because she finally got to relax and enjoy the things that she couldn’t enjoy at our house .. the freedom to move around, not worrying about being harassed by other cats
Luckily, no one was the wiser, and the pictures that my daughter sent me were so precious little kitty was having a blast laying on the keyboard of the computer, laying on the windowsill catching sun watching TV, regardless of the program sleeping in her favorite boxes all the things that cat should be allowed to do on their own terms.
In my daughter senior year at the university she moved into an apartment off campus with some friends who also had cats kittens ( in this case the apartment manager allowed pets with a deposit, especially cats.) She was cool about it so little kitty was able to really thrive in this new environment.
My daughter bought her a cat stroller of all things, and took her out for walks with her boyfriend. He was so good with her too little kitty really loved him a lot.
She loved to lay on the balcony in the sun under the Supervision of my daughter of course, little kitty was not interested in venturing anywhere.
Sometimes little kitty would wander out into the living room and just scout around, even in the kitchen. She was found in another bedroom with one of the other cats at one time which really shocked me, I was so proud of her and my daughter and so happy for her that she could finally feel free to relax And just be herself. What a blessing, I was filled with, I guess you would say, a mother’s joy,
Unfortunately, she recently went from stage 1 kidney disease to stage 4 very quickly. It happened in a matter of weeks. There was a rapid decline on her weight. She wanted to drink only from the bathtub faucet, and she was becoming more lethargic.
This is my daughter‘s first experience in helping a beloved friend cross the rainbow bridge. My daughter is 21 almost 22 little kitty would’ve been 17 in a couple of months. They grew through all of her school years together.
This is my daughter‘s first lifetime pet and the pain is real. I felt so horribly awful for her. It tore my heart. Even though my daughter brought little kitty to the vet on a regular basis and did all the things she was supposed to do, there is nothing you can do when kidney disease sets in and starts its course, especially when it escalates at that rapid pace as it did so quickly.
I was so happy to at least see little kitty laying on the bed watching YouTube TV for cats, with my daughter and her boyfriend two nights before she passed away. It was one thing she thoroughly enjoyed, and she fought to the very end
The last photo is little kitty on my daughter‘s bed watching TV two nights before she passed away
So, our beautiful LittleKiitty, rest easy in your new place with space that belongs to you, enjoying your new freedom again without pain. We are missing you and will always miss you. You are with Sammy Cocoa and Shimi, who will take care of you and love you. 💜😿💚😢
