roger wrote:Someone (msbbg on abuzz, actually) once said "cats don't know that cats die." It seems true, and it's a blessing.
I do hope msbbg was right, Roger! That makes me feel a whole lot better!
Maybe it's just their human companions that fret?
littlek
Yes, yes!
And all the very best with your menagerie! I know they keep you very watchful & busy. But they are worth it!
Piffka
My tuxedo cat is a decided a HE ... His name is FlatCat (a long story. I wasn't responsible for the choice of name.) He was actually STOLEN from some flats he lived in because of shocking neglect. Amongst other things, he was covered in sores, some of which were badly infected. Anyway, 3 years later, he's doing fine. Just a wee bit neurotic from his earlier life, but doing pretty well despite this. I find it hard to call him by the name chosen for him, so he's become "Flatty" to me. He didn't really relate very well to my other cats, but in a strange sort of way he adapted well to being a cat family. I honestly think he feels rather confused to being the "only cat" now.
I liked your Stripe stories very much. They made a lot of sense, too.
And I can strongly relate to your tendency to "read into" what an animal does, how she/he expresses themselves. Maybe sometimes it's just our own anxieties at work?
And I have no doubt that you are a "good mom"!
I had a cat, Floosy, who was bitten by a snake. She survived a few days in intensive care at the vets, but finally died.
When I got home that night, the other cats were howling, the most eery sound. They knew, without me saying a thing. They knew. They were mourning.
The next day, the battle for top cat started. Floos had kept them all in line.
margo
what a story! It gave me goose bumps!
If I may check in...
Just got an email from my dad that "my" cat, Jasmine, is probably dying. She is 16 or so, has been an indoor cat for the past decade, and escaped from the cat-sitter when my dad was out of town. Was outside for several days, now listless, fur matted, not eating.
Two sentences are giving me a terrible time, though, "We don't think it is for a Vet to handle, this time," and "I suspect cancer, but at any rate I'm not going to go to any expense with her at her age."
Jasmine (mostly black with white and peach markings) is one of three long-haired calico sisters, born to my sweet long-haired calico Tillie when I was 17. Their father I had named Earl Grey, and they were Jasmine, Ginseng, and Pekoe. On my first visit home from college, I immediately noticed that Pekoe (mostly white calico with black and peach markings) looked terrible. I examined her and found a huge gash on her abdomen. My dad said he had no idea what happened -- he didn't know anything HAD happened. I ministered to her as best as I could on that short visit, and made my dad swear to take her to the vet -- he didn't want to. He did, eventually, and was told it was too late.
She died a few weeks later, at a little over 1 year old.
My dad moved to a new house in the suburbs a few years later, and I begged him to give the cats their shots. He wouldn't, said they'd be fine. I came to see him and his new house shortly after they got settled. He said all the cats had been sick when they first moved, but were fine now. It was clear to me that Ginseng (mostly gray, with white and peach markings) wasn't fine. I had the vet discussion again, he again refused. I enlisted the help of his wife. They promised. Too late.
Ginseng died a few weeks later. She was about 4 years old.
I have known with each of these three that it would be the last time I saw them. Pekoe was the most startling -- at the time I thought it was just a flesh wound that would be fixed. I remember clearly seeing her at the top of the stairs, saying "Bye, Pekoe, get better, see you soon", and her look at me. It made me rush back upstairs, pet her and kiss her and reassure her, and say "I WILL see you soon." I did this up-and-down the stairs thing several times, crying, shaking my head at my silliness -- just a scratch, after all.
Ginseng gave me the same look. I thought, I hoped, I was just projecting my fears after what happened with Pekoe.
Jasmine gave me the look just a few months ago, when I went to visit for the first time with the sozlet. I told her how happy I was that she'd met my baby, and petted her and kissed her and said goodbye.
It was her time, or at least close enough to her time. But when I read those words about vet and expense, I get so angry about the sisters who died well before their time.
oh Sozobe I am so sorry. Your father should go to the vet, if only for pain relief and euthanasia. It must be heartbreaking. I hope he has no more animals.
Vivian, I share your hope. I have discovered that a free kitten is going to cost $100.00 to $140.00 in vet bills the first month.
Yeah. It just costs money. I was there to insist on all of the start-off shots, but once I left...
He does have Tillie, the mother cat (who I also said goodbye to last trip), and two dogs. I only just found out (in the last year or so) that a childhood dog who I was told was killed instantly by a car was in fact only injured, and my dad refused to pay for the operation that would have saved him.
Obviously, issues there. (This info also makes me wonder about the "too late" verdicts, which I got through him.)
Thanks for the sympathy. I'm feeling much more sad than I expected to.
Aw, sozobe, I'm so sorry!
It is expensive to have animals and to keep them healthy with vet visits. I am so sorry that yours didn't, Sozobe. (Loved their names, too. Pekoe? Omigosh, too cute!) Their illnesses can be extremely costly, though I notice that our dogs have invariably cost more than our cats.
I'm not sure what it is about animals; they seem to sense things - not always a foreboding, but it happens.
Margo -- what kind of a snake would bite a cat? Shivery to read that the other cats knew. They'd probably seen the fight between Floosy and the snake, don't you think? Errrrr, how many cats did you have? My sister-in-law has either nine or eleven. She admits to nine, my brother says eleven. <shrugs> Either way, that's a lot of cats.
Roger -- that cat poet was funny. She really wants you to answer in rhyme!
my 2 lil kitties were/are each more expensive by far than my dog.
ok i have told this story on abuzz.
my sig. other's dog killed my cat. my cat was 9 years old at the time. this nasty bitch (sorry it is appropriate--she is female) was only in the family about 2 years.
there was a field mouse in the house. a field mouse if you don't know is a very tiny mouse. for several nites my cat was hunting it. well one nite he almost got it but knocked something down. the noise startled the dog. so the dog came running and took a chunk at the first think she saw.
this dog did not mangle the cat. just that one bite. but she punctured soemthing inside my babie and she died that nite.
the vet says it was an accident. i still say if that dog wasn't so dominant it would never have happened.
my sig. other and me do not live together. but he has a big yard.
now i have another cat but she lives with me. she can't go outside tho due to the busy road.
her name is Cher. she is a dream. smart, feisty, pretty.
Cher would be honored to know that this beauty is named after her.
sorry for the downer but it is a true story. and i DO have a great cat.
i have had Cher for a little over a year now.
sozobe
I don't know how old your father is, but I do know that many of the "older generations" have tended to consider cat/dog vet bills unnecessary. Especially people who are stretched financially, or have been in the past.
My own parents, who grew up in a country town, would never have considered spending money on a "mere" domestic pet when I was growing up. It was only after they retired, had a bit more cash, that the "luxury" of spending on a pet was considered a reasonable thing. Prior to that it was solely for theirdiary cattle, their livelihood. I think the theory was that if a domestic cat or dog developed an ailment, then nature would "take it's course". But that was quite a few years ago.
Recently a friend of mine, who was visiting her parents in a regional area here in Victoria, was so upset by a quite large growth on the body of the family dog (which turned out to be cancer, obvious to her) that she threatened to report her father (who said the dog would be "fine") to the RSPCA unless he consulted a vet. Her mother knew that the dog was ill but was too frightened to contradict her husband & arrange for a vet examination.
It seems, whatever the differences between your family & that of my friend, that there are some people who think that their pets do not warrant any concern, or expenditure of money. They just sort of exist. I don't know why this is now, it is hardly the 1950s!
What perplexes me is why your father continues to have these pets if he is unwilling to take their wellbeing seriously. Is there anyone else that can take them if he doesn't want them?
msolga, my dad just turned 60. I'm not sure what his thought process is. He loves the animals dearly -- his second wife never had any kids, and they bought two puppies together several years ago, and dote on them as if they were their children. (Spoiled children, to be sure -- they are the kind of pet owners who grimace and throw their hands up helplessly when the dog won't stop barking, or jumps on a visitor.) The cat who is dying is his darling, he tells fond stories about her and has taken tons of pictures of her. He would take great, great umbrage at being told that he doesn't care about his animal's well-being. And yet...
-sigh-
The 6 am alarm woke me on this freezing cold morning in Melbourne ... Brrrrrr!
Turned on the bedlight & what did I see? My tuxedo cat, fast asleep under the covers with his head on the pillow! Cats a very good at adjusting to adverse circumstances, aren't they?
Cats try to hunt snakes.
We had a mum/son pair, when I wa slittle. A (deadly - especially as babies) brown snake laid her eggs in our garden (I found her cast skin).
MANY babies hatched.
The cats killed 12 or more of them, working asd a co-ordinated pair. They were lucky.
Have been reading about these brown snakes. They are NASTY!
Three Kinds of Brown Snakes -- All Bad
Watching two cats hunt for something so dangerous must be thrilling. On the one hand, you're rooting them on -- on the other, you're terrified for them.
I was talking to the health food store owner about the Taurine I bought for Stripe and he said, well, that cat must not be much of a hunter. I admitted that Stripe was a lazy sort of cat, then asked how he knew. He said that a single mouse will have about 2000 mg. of taurine and a cat that kills & eats mice is not likely to have a taurine deficiency. Meanwhile, Stripe needs to have 250 mg of taurine powder dumped on his "wet" food twice daily.
Love the image of the tuxedo cat carefully curled up with head on pillow. How cold can Australia get???
OK - it's the common or eastern brown snake - unpleasant critter, and quite aggressive. I've had a number of experiences of them, none of them good.
The first cat to die was a hunter for sure. While I was living out there, there was a bit of a field mice infestation in the empty fields / reserve at the back of my house. A neighbour told me she saw this cat coming back from the known field mice nest nine times in one day, with a mouse in mouth. And that doesn't count the times the neighbour wasn't in the back yard.
This cat was very generous with her mice, and was happy to share. I got up one morning, a just felt like a mushroom omelette for breakfast. Cooked it up, and was just about to sit at table when I found a headless mouse just under my chair. My gut did a great lurch, and I haven't been able to face a mushroom omelette since.
On one occasion, during this mice plague, I was home on a weekend, and heard this cat yelling out. When I looked out, she was in the yard, near the back of the house, with a live mouse in her mouth (calling out is not easy!). I said the usual "clever girl, now take that away" things, but she wasn't happy, and continued to yell. I couldn't work out what she wanted, but finally went into the house, got the camera, came out and took the shot. She shut up immediately and took the mouse up the yard to eat!
How cold does it get in Oz? Cold enough! In Melbourne, where MsOlga lurks, it probably gets down to 30F, with some wind. In Sydney and, I think, Adelaide (dlowan home), it doesn't get quite as cold. Houses here are not really built for the cold. I have reverse cycle air con but no heating. Cold enough to be a nuisance, but no snow.
edited to cover inability to spell breakfast!
