RIP Dragon the Cat

[JKL2000]

I had to decide between the illness and injury thread or here.
Our poor, poor kitty finally was in such bad shape we had to have her put to sleep. According to the vet, a major crisis was probably only about a week away (this photo is from maybe a couple of months ago). She had a mastectomy last summer, but the cancer had spread again, including to her lungs which was making breathing very hard, and also to the nerves in one leg, which she'd lost the use of. A very hard decision, but the right one.

My son (now 15) named her when we got her (about 8 years ago - she was a stray about one year old). He named her Dragon because she was kind of wild back then - she climbed up my wife to try to get to one of our other cats which she was holding. She was some kind of cross between Siamese and Burmese or something. Pretty mellow once she got used to us. She was the only cat we had now (just a corn snake left!), so we have to decide what's next. My wife and sons want a dog, I want to get two cats that are in need of a home.

Well, she was cute, eh? I love cats - they really never do anything objectionable once they love you.

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[ForeverAutumn]

Awwww. I'm so sorry for your loss. I've experienced your pain and the heartbreak of your decision. It's never an easy decision to make. RIP beautiful Dragon.

Why decide between a dog or cats for your future? Get both. Dogs and cats can live very happily together.

[JKL2000]

Awwww. I'm so sorry for your loss. I've experienced your pain and the heartbreak of your decision. It's never an easy decision to make. RIP beautiful Dragon.

Why decide between a dog or cats for your future? Get both. Dogs and cats can live very happily together.

^ Thanks! And good question. I guess it's that I'm not really a dog person, but when we've had dogs I was the one who ended up doing most of the work taking care of them. We've also had big problems with excessive barking, etc. Cats are just so much easier. You can leave them on their own for a few days, you don't have to walk them. I prefer the couple of times a day encounters with cats to the constantly in your face of having a dog. Of course, there's always the possibility of adopting an older, more sedate and quiet dog. But you still have to walk them. I do overall like the idea of adopting older pets that need a home and might be having a harder time finding one. I don't mind skipping the kitten or puppy stage.

[100423]

Sorry to hear about your cat. :(
She was a beauty.

[GentleG]

Sorry for your cat ,same case was with my cat "Pepsi" who died in 2010 at age 14
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Now I have a tomcat " Martin" 4 years old and 10kg weight
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[Rarebird]

Sorry for your cat.

Last month my cat Touta was put to sleep, which was quite unexpected. The last week before we went to the vet, for the vaccinations, I got the impression, my cats didn't eat that much and one of them put something outside the litterbox. When I put Touta in her transportcase, I had the impression, she had lost quite some weight. The vet put her on the scale and her weight was a mere 2.7 kg. Two years ago her weight was 3.73 kg. He felt a big lump in her body and it apeared to be cancer, which was pretty advanced, so there was no other choice, than to put her to sleep. I didn't had the change to make a last picture. This is one from November 2012. The one on the right was Touta, the other one is Soussou, the male, who weights something under 3 kg.
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[Supersonic Scientist]

So sorry for your cat and you. Putting them down is very tough. When it was "Kramer's" time to go my Wife and I cried all day. next month it will be 3 years since that fateful day and it still hurts a bit when I think of him.

[progeezer]

I've had to put down 2 dogs and a cat in my life, and it's inevitably hard and very sad. My sympathy.

[JKL2000]

Sorry for your cat.

Last month my cat Touta was put to sleep, which was quite unexpected. The last week before we went to the vet, for the vaccinations, I got the impression, my cats didn't eat that much and one of them put something outside the litterbox. When I put Touta in her transportcase, I had the impression, she had lost quite some weight. The vet put her on the scale and her weight was a mere 2.7 kg. Two years ago her weight was 3.73 kg. He felt a big lump in her body and it apeared to be cancer, which was pretty advanced, so there was no other choice, than to put her to sleep. I didn't had the change to make a last picture. This is one from November 2012. The one on the right was Touta, the other one is Soussou, the male, who weights something under 3 kg.
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Thanks, Renate. I just reread your post and realized how recently it was that you lost Touta - what beautiful cats! My condolences.

Thanks everyone else, too. At least this wasn't a surprise, so it gave us time to appreciate still having Dragon around.

The good news is, we're going this weekend to see a momma cat and her kittens that are all up for adoption. Our intention is to adopt the mother and two of the kittens once the kittens are all old enough. MUST...HAVE...CATS!

[ForeverAutumn]

Thanks, Renate. I just reread your post and realized how recently it was that you lost Touta - what beautiful cats! My condolences.

I missed this! I'm so sorry Renate. My condolences also.


The good news is, we're going this weekend to see a momma cat and her kittens that are all up for adoption. Our intention is to adopt the mother and two of the kittens once the kittens are all old enough. MUST...HAVE...CATS!

YAY!!! Good for you for taking the momma cat too! :) I'm sure Dragon would be proud.

I agree with "MUST...HAVE...CATS!" LOL! We have three. A day doesn't go by that they don't make me laugh, give me a cuddle and a purr, and enrich my life in some way.

[Rarebird]

Lovely, a mother with kittens. I got Soussou and Touta, his mother, when they were a bit older. Soussou sometimes still misses his mother. I love him, he is the sweetest cat I ever had, perhaps a bit to sweet. His mother had a bit more character. She could be a little bit cranky at times, but as soon as she tried to bite, or do something with her paw, she took fright and backed off, which was quite funny, as if she thought "hey, I'm acting out of character".

[jlneudorf]

Just saw this thread. Sorry to hear about Dragon. It's always tough losing a pet. In August we lost our cat Aaron of 15 years. A real hard pill to swallow.

Did you adopt the mom and kittens?

[bob_32_116]

I still miss my poor old cat Bung-eye, many years gone now, whom I adopted as a stray.

Urban myth has it that cats do not take well to moving house, but I lived in four different dwellings with that cat and he happily settled in to each one.

[ForeverAutumn]

I still miss my poor old cat Bung-eye, many years gone now, whom I adopted as a stray.

Urban myth has it that cats do not take well to moving house, but I lived in four different dwellings with that cat and he happily settled in to each one.

Sorry to hear about Bung-eye. :(

My cats hate change! My husband painted the bedroom last week and two of the cats were totally freaked out just from having him move some of the furniture around to get it out of the way. The third cat just wanted to help him paint. :)

[bob_32_116]

If you haven't already, read "The Silent Miaow" by Paul Gallico. A foreword explains that Gallico is not really the author; supposedly it is "translated from the feline", the original text being a bunch of manuscripts generated by a cat's paws at a typewriter. Every cat owner will recognise their own cat in this book.

[Rune Blackwings]

Sorry to hear! My sister is having to decide on her cat Taz, who was just diagnosed as diabetic. Taz also requires hydration IVs several times a week and apparently cannot move around so well and has lost a lot of weight. Of course, if you go by the whole "one year equals seven years" thing, Taz is the cat equivalent of approximately a 150 year old human...

[JKL2000]

Lovely, a mother with kittens. I got Soussou and Touta, his mother, when they were a bit older. Soussou sometimes still misses his mother. I love him, he is the sweetest cat I ever had, perhaps a bit to sweet. His mother had a bit more character. She could be a little bit cranky at times, but as soon as she tried to bite, or do something with her paw, she took fright and backed off, which was quite funny, as if she thought "hey, I'm acting out of character".

Very funny behavior! And sweet.

[JKL2000]

Just saw this thread. Sorry to hear about Dragon. It's always tough losing a pet. In August we lost our cat Aaron of 15 years. A real hard pill to swallow.

Did you adopt the mom and kittens?

Yes, we did, and the kittens are of course crazy! Enoch, the boy, delights in attacking my toes periodically throughout the night and morning, and climbing my legs at feeding time . Ouch! I've lost quite a bit of blood. The little girl, Iris, is adorable and likes to sit on my shoulder and lick my sweaty hair, then just curl up on my shoulder and sleep. Very nice! But I have to admit I'm more into older cats, and need to spend some time each morning holding Nana, the momma cat, as we warm and wake each other up. I was hoping she'd take to me and it seems she has. If I try to put her down before she's ready, she just climbs up onto my shoulder and perches there - and she's no kitten, though she is on the small side.

Anyway, we all love each other by now. :)

[ForeverAutumn]

I'm so happy to hear all of that. When we adopted our kitten, Baxter, he did the same thing with our feet. Loved to play Catch the Toe to wake us up in the morning. Now he's a 14 pound two-year-old and, although he doesn't play with our feet as often, I'm still woken up at 3am by a Toe Attack every now and then. But I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Thankfully, the other two cats have no interest in our feet

[tom unbound]

My cats hate change! My husband painted the bedroom last week and two of the cats were totally freaked out just from having him move some of the furniture around to get it out of the way. The third cat just wanted to help him paint. :)

JKL - Sorry about your loss, but hey, it's great the new family is doing so good !! That kitten energy!

FA - I do remodeling in people's homes and find there's two kind of cats. One hides for the duration, and the other just wants to help all the time !! LOL!

[Vic2012]

This was in the news this past week. Not sure where this is, might be Florida.

GO CAT GO!!!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZRHgoKLJY

[notallwhowander]

My condolences. I'm typing with my cat, with a very similar story, on my lap right now. The loss is a real and deep one.

[Jerjo]

My condolences on your loss.

We've got a dog and cats. Everyone gets along. I think if a dog grows up around cats it works best. As far as the barking issue goes, just make sure you get something with a some retriever in it. Labs and goldens are the mellowest when it comes to barking.

My wife and I lost three cats in the last two years. It was brutal. Now our oldest, who's sixteen, caught some sort of upper respiratory infection. He's a big Maine Coon and he eventually shook it off. Now he's back to talking up a storm, stomping around the house, and making sure everyone knows who is boss in this house.

[ForeverAutumn]

My wife and I lost three cats in the last two years. It was brutal. Now our oldest, who's sixteen, caught some sort of upper respiratory infection. He's a big Maine Coon and he eventually shook it off. Now he's back to talking up a storm, stomping around the house, and making sure everyone knows who is boss in this house.

I'm glad to hear that he's feeling better. Is your Maine Coon fascinated by water? We have a tuxedo who we suspect is part Maine Coon. He has many of the physical traits. He is fascinated by water. Doesn't like to get wet, but could watch the tap run for hours. He loves to lie on the counter and watch me wash the dishes. It's weird. I've heard that's a Maine Coon trait. Is that your experience too?

[Jerjo]

Yeah, they love water. We had one that actually liked to go out and walk in the rain. A dripping faucet can hypnotize a Maine Coon for at least an hour.

[JKL2000]

This was in the news this past week. Not sure where this is, might be Florida.

GO CAT GO!!!!!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7ZRHgoKLJY

Damn, what's with that dog?

[ForeverAutumn]

LOL! Thanks. Just more confirmation that our Baxter is, at least part, Maine Coon. He was a lost kitten that someone found and we adopted so we don't know his history for his first four months or where he came from. I've been reading up on the breed and he is pretty much bang on for all traits. I didn't know that Maine Coons could have tuxedo colouring, so I wasn't sure. But apparently they can.

[JKL2000]

Just saw this thread. Sorry to hear about Dragon. It's always tough losing a pet. In August we lost our cat Aaron of 15 years. A real hard pill to swallow.

Did you adopt the mom and kittens?

Just a little update - we did adopt the momma and two kittens, then just about seven weeks ago we took in three kittens that a friend needed to find homes for. All are doing well, but six cats verges on "crazy cat person" status. The kittens are so cute though.

[Dave (in MA)]

Here's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFUXhPIFIN8) what we have to put up with several times a day. If I'm standing in the kitchen, he circles my feet. It's not uncommon to wake up because he's in the bedroom in the middle of the night circling the parrot's cage and meowing, and the parrot's saying "Hi Poo".

[Rarebird]

Here's (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFUXhPIFIN8) what we have to put up with several times a day. If I'm standing in the kitchen, he circles my feet. It's not uncommon to wake up because he's in the bedroom in the middle of the night circling the parrot's cage and meowing, and the parrot's saying "Hi Poo".

It's a beauty. Looks a bit Siamese, my favorite cat.

[Jerjo]

We've lost four cats in three years with a seventeen year old Maine Coon dying a few weeks ago. My wife gets replacements every time, now she wants to get a vile little dog. I'd rather grieve the loss of my big guy and eventually replace him with a big dog, like a golden or a lab cross.

[Dave (in MA)]

It's a beauty. Looks a bit Siamese, my favorite cat.

He's a Cornish Rex, with cerebellar hypoplasia. It's a mild case, but he gets stuck in a loop every once in a while.

[ForeverAutumn]

Just a little update - we did adopt the momma and two kittens, then just about seven weeks ago we took in three kittens that a friend needed to find homes for. All are doing well, but six cats verges on "crazy cat person" status. The kittens are so cute though.

Congratulations on all of your newly acquired cats! I could so easily become a crazy cat person. My husband keeps me in check at three. Every time I start to break down and want another he drives me past our vet's house, which is worth about five times what our house is worth, and reminds me how much we have contributed to it. It's a really good cure. :)

[bob_32_116]

He's a Cornish Rex, with cerebellar hypoplasia. It's a mild case, but he gets stuck in a loop every once in a while.
Some musicians have that problem too - doesn't seem to hurt their sales though.

[JKL2000]

Congratulations on all of your newly acquired cats! I could so easily become a crazy cat person. My husband keeps me in check at three. Every time I start to break down and want another he drives me past our vet's house, which is worth about five times what our house is worth, and reminds me how much we have contributed to it. It's a really good cure. :)

Yeah, I hadn't really thought about vet bills. Oh well, the family does get a ton of enjoyment out of them. We spend a lot of time just doting on them (and we have kids!).

[JKL2000]

We've lost four cats in three years with a seventeen year old Maine Coon dying a few weeks ago. My wife gets replacements every time, now she wants to get a vile little dog. I'd rather grieve the loss of my big guy and eventually replace him with a big dog, like a golden or a lab cross.

Sorry to hear about the Maine Coon!

[ForeverAutumn]

Yeah, I hadn't really thought about vet bills. Oh well, the family does get a ton of enjoyment out of them. We spend a lot of time just doting on them (and we have kids!).

If you can afford the premium, you may want to consider Pet Insurance. We have it on all our cats. There are different price levels...ours runs us about $30/mth per cat. But when our cats get sick we NEVER have to question whether we can afford the treatment. Brandy got really sick a couple of years ago and the vet couldn't figure out the problem (we have since changed vets as it turned out to be a bad bladder infection, but she never ran a urine test!). It would have cost us about $1800 for all the tests and treatment. Intead it cost us less than half of that.

Stanley ate a 10 inch ribbon one Christmas. Luckily for us, he just pooped it out a few days later and there was no damage. But if the ribbon had gotten caught in his intestines, it could have meant surgery to remove it.

Vet bills can add up very easily. It doesn't take much to come up with $100/mth for insurance premium (for all three), but if we have to fork out thousands of dollars for surgery to remove a ribbon from a cat who is too stupid to realize that he shouldn't eat them...or for any other reason...that would be far more difficult.

Not everyone sees the value, or can afford it, but I like having the insurance coverage. It gives me piece of mind if anything happens to them.

[bob_32_116]

Stanley ate a 10 inch ribbon one Christmas. Luckily for us, he just pooped it out a few days later and there was no damage. But if the ribbon had gotten caught in his intestines, it could have meant surgery to remove it.
When I was a child the family cat took it into his head to snack on a pyjama cord. (He didn't eat the whole thing; he must have bitten it off at a certain point.) We were unaware of the fact until he later passed it, with no observable nasty after-effects.

As for my own cat, who I adopted and kept for eight years until he died, at one point I did the sums and figured out that he cost me a couple of thousand dollars over the time I had him. A good third of that was vet bills when he got sick at the end. That's not bad value, considering what I got in return in terms of entertainment and companionship. I considered it money well spent.

[No Pride]

Just found this thread (I hardly ever visit this corner of PE). Sorry for your loss and congrats on your new family, JKL! And condolences to all who have lost your little buddies! I've had to put a cat and a dog down and it's a tough thing to go through, no doubt! It can be difficult to do that because we tend to be in denial about their suffering. They don't complain and they're still happy to see us, so we figure they're not that bad off. My wife's dog, Ginger (who she's had since she was a puppy) was 16 years old when we had to put her down. By that time, I had to hold her up when she was eating, because she couldn't even stand for very long on her own. A week prior, she was lying under a wooden chair while we were away and couldn't get up. She figured the chair was the obstacle and tried to chew her way out of it. We waited too long, obviously.

We went for about 6 months without a pet, then my wife decided she wanted a cat, which surprised me, because she was never really a cat person. Her kids had cats when they were growing up, but she never bonded with them. So we got a cat from the Anti Cruelty shelter (which I picked because she couldn't make a decision) and we're both madly in love with him! Cats are supposed to be so independent, but this one doesn't have an independent bone in his body. Wherever we are, that's where he is, cuddling, wrestling or nagging us to invent new games for him to play. Unfortunately, he hates my guitars and whenever I take one of them out, he lets me know it; non-stop meowing until he finally walks away. I explained to him that he's stuck with a dad who plays guitar for a living, but he could care less. Oh well! We've had him for about 3 years now and he definitely enhances our lives!

Extreme Fundamentalist Christians don't believe that animals have souls. I don't understand how anyone who's ever lived with one can believe that.

[ForeverAutumn]

I'm sorry to hear about your dog. It's very tough when they get old and we don't want to admit that it's time to let them go. You obviously did the best that you could for her.


Cats are supposed to be so independent, but this one doesn't have an independent bone in his body. Wherever we are, that's where he is, cuddling, wrestling or nagging us to invent new games for him to play.

I've never understood why people think that. I grew up with a cat and we have three cats now. They are all extremely loving and affectionate. Two of them don't like to be picked-up or held, but are happy to jump up and sit on your lap or on the couch beside you...they just have to know that their exit plan can be executed whenever it's needed. They are in the same room as us constantly. If not sitting on us, then they are near us. And they all sleep in our bed (we need a bigger bed!). I suspect that most people who feel that cats are not affectionate, are themselves not very affectionate towards the cats. You get what you give. I've never known a cat who isn't affectionate after a good a chin rub. :)

And my kitties often lie outside the door of my practice space to listen while I play guitar. They seem to like it. :)