2021 Wallboard

[Lissa]

Get a cat, then you'll feel like you still have the kids in the house as the cat ignores you and only comes when it wants attention or needs something...  

Got one already. Every day he wants you to get up, wants 1st breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd breakfast, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 1st dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants 2nd dinner, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants crunchies, wants to go out, wants to come in, wants you to stay still dammit while he's lying up against you on the couch, wants out at midnight, wants in at 2am, wants a flat space on the bed, wants out at 430 am, wants in at 6am, then wants to do it all over again.

He also wants at least two shoulder rubs a day, but it's random where they occur in the above sequence.

(Each meal has two sessions of canned food because if he has a whole can, he throws up. Crunchies is the dry food he has after that.)

-V

Sounds like you have a kid still then...  

This saddens me. Just a little over four months after I wrote that, he died suddenly and unexpectedly. It's been six months now and I still miss him a lot. He was over 10, so he lived long enough to not be considered an early loss, but we could have had him a few more years. The positives are that he didn't suffer and we never had to decide when to put him down. Over the years, our previous three cats all lived over 10 but they all developed inoperable medical conditions (similar to cancer) that eventually meant we had to make the call. But this one was happy and healthy until the day he died. .. I really wish that I was still having to open the door for him every half hour.

Another positive - a month after he died, I decided we could fill the "gap" by adopting an old cat that probably would not be adopted by anyone else. So we did. We now have a 12yo cat, who has allergies or something that make her have coughing fits a few times a day. (Think hairball episode without the hairball.) She's an indoor cat, and I expected she would be "retired", that she'd sleep and eat and just sit with us on the couch. Well, this one demands vigorous play 20 minutes twice a day, and ... okay, so I'm a catlady now.  

But I also have to be thankful. My son had a car accident two months later, and was not injured. Given the impact, from the side, it could have snapped his neck. If two things had to happen, and one had to be fatal -- here I imagine the cat actually volunteering to be the one. It's childlike thinking, but when it comes to cats (and maybe dogs) I'm just a big kid.

That's pretty rough overall.  Glad your son is fine.

I know that feeling of having a cat for a long time and then having them suddenly go downhill.  My cat Saffron we had left with the vet while we went on a cruise for a week.  Came back and within a few days of getting her back she got pancreatitis and went downhill quick.  She did suffer for that week as we tried to turn it around and it seemed like it she would, but eventually we had to end her suffering.  It was hard to be sure.

At least your cat went quick and didn't suffer.