Dearly departed
Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15 Comments I was just about to start looking for photos on Flickr for tomorrow's post when I noticed that this month was a very sad month last year. On October 7th, 2009 I took one of my stray cats, Seymour, to the vets because his eyes were really goopy and I didn't want him to go through another winter sick. I was hopefully going to get his eyes fixed with some medications, get him neutered etc. and get him a forever home. That never happened. The vet ran some tests and he had a really severe case of FIV (cat's version of HIV). I had to have him put down that day. He was sooooo sweet and would have made a wonderful pet.
Then on October 14th, Oscar, another of my strays, showed up at my house wheezing REALLY badly. It was constant and he had a hard time breathing. When I got home from work, he was even worse. A mobile vet came to my house to check him out (he was a wild one and a trip to the vets would have been traumatic) and determined he had an upper respiratory infection, likely caused by FIV. She gave him a good dose of a sedative and put him in my powder room sink. Once it took effect I went in, said my goodbyes, and she went and gave him the shot. And then carried him out in a bag. He was a tough little f*cker but he was my pal and we spent a lot of time hanging out on my porch together.
And a few weeks ago, an Ottawa Flickr friend, "jadeblade", had to put her cat Poncho down. He was 17 years old and had kidney failure. He was a gorgeous Maine Coon and I loved checking out the new photos that would pop up on her photostream of Poncho.
RIP our furry little buddies.
Reader Comments (15)
thanks Kim...and big hugs to you :(
Thanks for sharing these lovely photos. I can't think of how I should ever be able to say good bye to my lovely tigers, my comrads for 12 years now. I know it makes no sense to hope this, but I really hope it will never occur... Big hugs to you , only imagining how sad you feel
Awww. Thanks for sharing; the pics are sweet. We are better people for having had pets in our lives, no?
Me again... sorry, I had just hit the post button on my previous comment when someone sent this to me and I couldn't resist sending it to you, so on a lighter note:
"Jean had a great big cat
Who ate some wool of aunties
and when all the little kittens came
They all wore woollen panties."
I definitively don't know what I'd do without pets in my life. And when I hear of people who don't have pets, I can't help but wonder what's wrong with them. LOL
Thanks for the "lighter note" WOL. That had me chuckling.
I'm so glad these strays were able to find great people at the end, though. It makes me so sad to think they're suffering terribly with no pain medication or affection.
I don't have pets now, but I had a cat when I was little.
I love the way you and your friends love these kitties. It's sad that they passed away, but they were loved by you.
My friend told me the following about her boss, and it really makes my angry:
Her boss is selling her place and moving downtown. The perfect apartment she wants to rent does not allow pets. She has a 17 year old cat. To move there, she's decided to put the cat down. Here's the reason: because no one would adopt an old cat and the cat probably won't survive because it loves her so much, so she HAD to do it. I don't know what to think of this person. :(
That makes me angry too Helen. How insensitive. I could NEVER do that to any of my cats. But luckily I would never have to. Here in Ottawa you cannot have a rental with a no-pets-allowed clause (last I heard anyway).
Hi. I hope you won't be offended but I think those veterinarians gave you some terrible advice.
I have been taking in strays for more than 25 years. Sixteen years ago I was feeding a dozen cats on the patio, plus had
my own house cats. They all developed respiratory infections eventually, spread by one of the strays. (I didn't realize at
the time that house cats needed to be vaccinated.) Our veterinarian gave me antibiotics for them and they all survived.
Many lived to be 17 to 19 years old and I still have two of them today. Two years ago I took a sickly stray covered in scabs,
with his eyes swollen shut to the vet to be neutered. He turned out to be Fiv positive. He was vaccinated, treated for mites, etc. and he is now the healthiest looking cat I have. He lives in a separate area from the other cats, but there is an Fiv vaccine available for any other healthy cats. There are drugs to boost the immune system also. I feel so sad that veterinarians discourage people from giving these poor animals a chance to live.
you have written a very touching blog entry. It reminds me of our cat Cuddles, she went through something very similar towards the end of her dear life. God rest her soul! AMB .
Ouch, I'm sorry for your loss. Pets are wonderful companions that know us in ways that humans don't ;)
My cat, Bruno, died last year from cancer. I always credit him as the best life coach ever, he was always such a positive, sweet, friendly animal. I felt lucky that he decided to live with me for a while!
Sorry for your losses too Adam and ginger.
coffeecat, I didn't have a much of a choice because I had too many cats already and needed to find other homes for these guys, for at least Seymour anyway - Oscar might have been too wild to have taken to being indoors. No one is going to adopt a cat with FIV.
It will be a year next month that my darling cat Grendel passed away. I emailed pictures for 'Pets on Furniture" to you few days after that. The photos wern't great, I had always been hoping to get a 'model cat' shot, but you posted them on the site and it ment a great deal to me to have him featured, thank you so very much, I hope you and you kitty family have a wonderful holiday season.
Thank you Rebekah - hope you have a super holiday as well. (When I receive photos of pets who have passed, I always post them regardless of the quality. I like to think of it as a tribute to their life, and an act of kindness to their owners).
This post made me really cry. But thank you a lot for all the work and care you do for cats.
Many greetings from Germany from two former stray cats amd their devote butler :-)