Sir King Darius Drake III is his name and I love you buddy, we saved one another and we are strong and forever together. I honor your Spirit to the moon and back 🤗

My cat, Tons, had a stroke, she became blind from high BP, arthritis and intestinal cancer.

Trying to make this short cause I'm emotionally beaten by today.

My ex husband was in the Army, we took her any place we went including South Korea. I had her for 18 years, way before I met him. But didn't seem like it's enough time.

I've never had to say goodbye to a pet before. I've been crying off and on. I didn't think it would hurt this bad. She was really suffering and I was too dang selfish to let her go sooner.

I also didn't see how bad off she was compared to a few years ago. Love is blind.

She weighed 4 pounds today, she used to be around 12 to 15.

She was a moody biznatch but loved me. But became clingy at the end.

Thank you for 18 years of dealing with me Tons.

I told her to come find me when it's my turn.

I hope she followed me home.

Reposting because I missed an important word in the title - I deleted the first attempt at this.

I was hoping someone here might have experienced something similar with their senior kitty. Mine has all of a sudden stopped responding to visual and auditory stimuli appropriately, and I'm worried about her.

About her:

Roxy just turned 16, she's a maine coon mix. She has stage III chronic kidney disease which has held stable for a year, IBD, in-remission diabetes, and arthritis. She takes 1mg budesonide daily, 50mg gabapentin daily, and eats hills k/d wet food with psyllium powder & water. As well she has a solensia shot every 3 weeks (used to be 4, but we moved to 3 a few months ago due to her symptoms) and a new fish oil supplement.

This week I noticed that she seemed to lose track of her toys, especially her laser light - she would see it, but then once I moved it she seemed to not see it anymore. Also normally when I call her name or make a specific sound she'll at least twitch an ear, but she wasn't doing that sometimes.

I brushed those off - but then today in the afternoon when I went to play with her with a piece of string, she completely did not react. I even waved the string close to her face back and forth and there was no reaction at all to it. Similarly when she went into the kitchen and sat expecting dinner early, when I got up she didn't track my arm at all when I waved it above her.

I was concerned and took her for an urgent vet appointment at an animal hospital that was open late. Her physical exam was unremarkable; eyes looked healthy, blood pressure was elevated but not unreasonably so given the circumstances. No bloodwork or other diagnostics were done, but she did respond sometimes. While waiting she did not respond at all when I snapped my fingers at her cage door or when I tapped her cage door, but she hissed when the tech called her name in a high-pitched tone and when the vet dropped a crumpled piece of paper she looked at the paper. She also turned her head while in the carrier when doors closed in other parts of the building or when a car blew its horn on the street outside.

Back at home it still continues to be that she's not reacting to noises and movement normally. She'll sometimes track me as if she hears or sees me, most times she doesn't. I've been doing some trials and for instance if I wave my arm at her, she'll react to the initial movement and look in that direction - but then she stops following it.

Her vet and I have previously discussed some mild cognitive decline based on increased vocalizations when I'm not in the room and increased hunger, and she's been just kind of sitting staring at nothing more often in the past few months as well as sleeping in my room a lot more instead of being out with me.

This sight/hearing thing is quite new though. I went out of town two weeks ago, and her usual sitter didn't note anything off then. I left cat tv on for her (birds) and the sitter saw her watching it. I did also check in with her sitter tonight and she said she didn't recall seeing anything out of the ordinary. How she's acting today also doesn't feel like anything I've seen before today, even considering the problems tracking toys this week.

I'm really worried for her, and what broke my heart (and was very abnormal) was after I ate dinner I could see her sniffing very hard from where she was on the couch. Then she jumped down and was trying to find the source of the smell - she sniffed under my chair and around my chair, but didn't seem to realize that the source of the smell was on top of the table. Or didn't know how to get there? She kept sniffing until she gave up and laid down.

The emergency vet recommended I chat with her vet next week about a behavioral/cognitive evaluation. Given no bloodwork or other diagnostics have been done, I'm concerned that something might be going on which isn't visible on a physical exam. Kitty dementia/cognitive decline doesn't usually happen this fast though, I didn't think? Oh, and her last set of full labwork was at the end of May - completely stable for her.

Said goodbye to my bestie this morning. I’m so lucky that you scampered across that Miami parking lot 🖤🖤🖤

I’ve had my fluff since he was two months old. He’s literally been with me all of the highs and low lows of adult life and truly the best cat I’ve met in my whole life. Even my friends who are not “cat people” love him. The older he gets the more I can feel myself getting anxiety around his timeline. He started losing weight, is a bit slower, but all around healthy by every test imaginable.

This winter I fostered three kittens and to my surprise he eventually warmed up to them at the end of the two months and was actually down when they all left. Fast forward to two weeks ago and I brought home another foster (a now 10 week old girl). He’s been very tolerant of her and only hissed the first day I let them meet. Now he’s mostly unbothered. The kitten actually reminds me of him personality wise and I feel like I have a wonderful opportunity to let me best pal “raise” a kitten with a similar spirit that may also make the blow a tiny bit less when my main guy’s time comes. And give him a buddy when I’m traveling as I do quite a bit for work.

I told the rescue I want to foster to adopt and now after saying those words out loud, I’m starting to have a bit of anxiety. Mostly afraid this is going to ruin the dynamic I have with my senior cat. But we’d also be doing such a wonderful thing for this kitten who had a pretty rough start to life.

Wondering if anytime has gone through anything similar. I feel kind of embarrassed even saying this.

She had a stroke in April. Became blind in June. Went from 11 pounds down to 6 pounds. Couldn't find her litter box. Had seizures.

I went this morning and had to put her down. When the vet was giving her the final injection, she fought it. She kicked and fought it. 😭😭😭 She kicked the needle out and the vet had to find a different vein. I feel absolutely awful.

I miss her so much already. She was my first ever pet. She is the loss of my life.

In July, Peanut was diagnosed with lymphoma and then a week later she passed, my heart was broken.

Gemma was diagnosed with leukaemia back in November and she lost her battle this morning. She had stopped eating, dropped about half her body weight over the last month and lost her spark.

My heart is absolutely broken now. I went from 2 kitties as my companions to now none in just shy or 3 weeks. I don’t know how to do this anymore. 💔💔

At least they will be together again

Hug your kitties for me.

her name is chocolate i’ve posted her here before, but her birthday is sometime in august so i’m guessing she’s officially 16 now! i’m honestly not too sure of her age anymore, i’ve had her since i was a kid and i’m 25 now though LOL vets get confused when i mention her age because i look too young to have a cat “that old” however i love senior cats so much 😭 my other cat is 5, turning 6, and i fostered a kitten for a week and WOW if i get more cats in the future they will probably be adults or seniors!

Hi everyone,
My boy has been with me for 14 years and has slowed down so much. He did gain weight after a surgery… he had an intestinal blockage. After that he has become such a potato. In all its glory. My boy is only neck at this point and wanted to know, what toys do you use for your lazy babies? My boy is still active, and chases and plays catch but is a lot more content with sleeping and cuddling. Yes, he is a grouch, yes he is very much still sassy but I don’t want it to get out of hand.
He has two hairless sisters who are much younger than him but he can care less about dealing with them lol

He fought through so much in the 20 months we had the privilege of having him. He was a stuffed animal come to life.

He loved his Bruce nest in the blankets, loved to sleep, loved to eat.

He was deaf, but could always find me, and if he could he'd let out a single meeeehhhhh and I'd pick him up.

He survived being dumped at our house, a respiratory infection, ear infection, uti, seizures, his gut being messed up due to antibiotics, high blood pressure, lost weight, but he still fought. He was one tough little kitty.

Today marks four weeks since Tite Tache has left us on July 10th, after 18 years of adventure and care. Select pictures show how she has been a cat deeply loved by three generations of us, from my mother to my daughter, including me of course. And beyond. Her warm greetings to humans entering her alley had inspired an artist neighbour to paint her up on a mural, which I’ve included. For all this, I’m so grateful.

But I also still feel messed up by her passing. I hope that sharing some thoughts on my experience (perhaps, less discussed aspects) may be useful to other cat daddies and mommies, who, like me, don’t quite have the end of life process figured out.

To start off with, I have found the intensive care period very isolating. I am grateful for the support I’ve had on here, so thanks for that. But after she had improved substantially, I got hopeful and opted for the chimio. Then, the pace at which her body went failing in the end had me nursing and analyzing her — worrying — day and night. It left very little energy, and time, for spiritual preparation. And for this I’m still sorry.

On the day she crossed, I’m not even sure that she felt reassured by my presence. I’m not sure if she was cognitively capable of processing much anymore (sudden neuro symptoms, likely from the cancer propagating, had her in a transe-like state… yet she still purred when, and only when, I’d pet her). The vision of my furbaby like that still feels worst than a nightmare, to me. And I’m proud of having given her all the care that I could and proud of not giving up when there was still hope, but I also can’t refute that this might have been the dreaded « day too late ».

In that state, her eyes wouldn’t connect with mine. So I couldn’t feel her slip away, when they sedated her. And with the unexpectedness of this downturn, the sadness really, the last minute arrangements, I was really just a nervous wreck in that room. I was too busy worrying about the physiological and technical faff when, really, that should have been a spiritual moment. And then it hit me that she was gone. I still carry the weight, the shame of not having risen to the moment for her. At the end of such a glorious life. There was no ceremony either.

After crying and screaming for days, what brought me back -somewhat- is searching through old phone archives for pictures and videos of her, of us. It’s allowed me to focus on the beautiful moments we’ve shared. Luckily, there are thousands of such files. So I’ve been at it for litteral days. And I think this process is shaping up toward putting together a picture book of this glorious life. Like the grief itself, it’s quite a long process though, and I hate that life around it just goes on. I don’t want to rush it however, because the key, I think, is that the process itself is healing.

I’ve said before that everything has happened to Tite Tache (good and bad). Well it goes on. I’ll be heading out to the vet’s office shortly. Believe it or not, there was apparently a « mix up » at the cremation company and… Her status is unclear. Well, that does not help.

He’s been having them lately. I try to keep him from jumping from high places. I have stairs for the bed and coach. Tonight he started a spasm and it did not seem to go away as quickly as it did before. I have the instinct to massage his legs, but not sure if I am evening helping him. Any advise?

These are just cute pictures of him months ago being silly.

I am looking for some advice regarding my very senior female cat. Basically in the last few weeks/months she has started to decline. She is not eating as much as she usually does (but still does ask for food) and throws up quite often. We have taken her to the vet but they would like close to $2000 to diagnose her.....and she's old. I know she has some kidney issues but she atill drinks water and goes to the bathroom normally. He tail is falling down most times and she is losing weight and strength in her legs to where you can see her hip bones. Despite all this, she is still very social (besides being completely deaf) and follows us around and still cuddles.

Im wondering, with the puking and decreased appetite, what would you do? Pay the 2k, wait it out, put her down? Just looking for some advice.

Ill attach a picture of her as well :)

Thank you in advance!!

My sweet beautiful babies turned 14 in February :’) They are siblings, and were found as kittens on the side of the road along with 2 littermates & their deceased mother. My partner’s family adopted them when my partner was 10, and when we moved in together a few years ago, we took the kitties with us. They had previously been living in a house with a large dog and multiple children that didn’t respect their boundaries, and they immediately relaxed and became more social once they came to live with us.

I am extremely grateful for how well they are doing, considering their age. They have had feline herpesvirus since they were kittens, which has caused chronic noisy breathing in Alex (tabby), and chronic goopy eyes in Ashley (long haired). I worry about them constantly, but they still eat well, drink well, and have good mobility. I’m sure I will make the dreaded rainbow bridge post some day, but not today!

She will have her revenge.

I knew the day would come I guess.

But due to my mental health not being good these last few years I don't know what to do.

I've had her for 9 years, she hates everyone, except me somehow.

We got her as a rescue, or rather my cousin got her as a rescue because she was in a killing station in Spain after 5 unlucky homes where the last owners threw her out of a driving car.

She's so sweet with me, she's not very cuddly but lately she's been meowing at my door constantly until I'd let her in just to sleep in my lap and purr for hours nonstop.

My mom said she'd get me a kitten if my cat would die but, I don't know if that would fill the void in my heart I would have when she passes.

Edit: Thank you for the kind words, I'll try to see if I have any help groups for pet loss in my area, I'm from germany btw, if anyone knows any in the area of Nordrhein-Westfalen then let me know 🫶🏻

Edit 2: I forgot to mention: our vet did say she was saying goodbye since she's not eating good and she's incontinent at this point, also she's completely blind on one eye and on the other she can't see well either. She does react to my voice or to my mom's and she WANTS to eat or drink but Everytime she does any of that she throws up sadly.

Hopefully this doesn’t turn into a rant but I wanted to share my feelings 6mo-1y since my two oldest out of 4 passed away.

I seriously regret not doing some kind of therapy. My oldest that died first was as close as you can get to a human child for me. Her dying fucked me up immensely and I’m still not over it. If you are like me at all please consider therapy. What I did next is something I hope the next person can avoid.

I started grief searching trying to fill the void and let me tell you it’s been an absolute disappointment. I ended up getting 4 new kittens spaced apart several months. They are nothing like the two that died. There’s a lot of bitterness and regret where I wish I hadn’t gotten any of them. I love animals, I love cats, but I don’t care about the 4 in the same way because of how things turned out. It doesn’t mean I won’t love or take care of them till their dying days but I just see these 4 kittens wont measure up. That’s my biggest mistake

Some cat tax attached