For the past few weeks, my family and I have noticed that our eldest cat has been acting strangely. She doesn't move around, unless you carry her or she goes to eat, drink or go to her litter box. She normally loves going outside, but hasn't gone to the door and meowed like she has since we brought her home (usually by this time of year, she's begging every few minutes to go out). Granted, she's a cat and cats like to sleep... but she just stays in the same place and sleeps day in and day out. :( She's a very old cat, and we're all pretty sure that she's probably on her last stretch of life.

I love this cat, and I know she lived a good long life. It's still sad to think that's she's so old and tired. :( (She's well into human teen years- although we can't be sure how old she really is). I love her a lot, but sometimes, all you can do is show them how much they're loved. Right now, I've moved her to my bedroom so she can rest with me. I love her a lot, and want her to be comfortable during the time she has left.

What about you menewsha, lost any pets? Have older pets? How do you handle your beloved furry friends getting old on you? :(

When I was 3 I think I got a kitten from one of my moms friends. (I say I, only because I was there when we picked her up but technically she was the pet for the entire family) Anyway, A year or two ago she was a month or so from turning twenty when her behavior changed drastically, much like your kitties. She led a long life though, full of fun and learning, and lots of brushing. She knew the word "fish" meant "get to the door now". She could hear the sound of her food bag from across our monsterous yard and always came running for it. Fishing poles always got her excited....*sigh* I miss that cat. My dad was allergic so she was mostly an out door cat while alive. After her behavior change she started wanting to be inside (less rain, more soft things etc) My mom was the only one living at the house at the time so I don't know exactly what was done to make her more comfortable, but my mom and I talk often and we discussed Kitty a lot at the time and I made suggestions...

I still miss her. She died about two weeks after she changed. She was still affectionate during that time, and purred like a motor boat when my mom would pet her. So while her joints might have been aching (they have pills for that I think) just do what you can to keep her content. (: :hug:

My kitty is still purring loudly- which is how she got her name: Chevy. :) She's laying beside me right now, all cozy and happy. I just want her to be happy.

I'm sorry about your kitty, but it sounds like she lived a very long life! :O

Most of my cats are 10 years old. I got four of the in the same year and my other one is only 2. I can't imagine my life without my kitties. I wouldn't get any more cats for a long time. The last pet that died on me was one of my bearded dragons. I accidentally dropped a rock on him and killed him. That was nearly two years ago and I still feel horrible about it. I had him for about two months and he was still a baby. He died in my hands before I could get him to the vet.

I lost 3 dogs. The first one was Tommy. She was a girl actually. I don't know why we named her Tommy though. She died when she was 3. She got sick. We took her to the vet very often. But one day I got home from school and heard that she vomited a lot then bled then howled a lot and then suddenly dropped on the floor and died, just like that. I miss her a lot! :cry:
The second one died when he was 11. His name was Timmy. At first he just had a bad cold. We took him to the vet too. He have Timmy some medicines and injections and then he seemed to be feeling a bit better. But then one day he just fell asleep, forever.
The third one only a few months old. I hadn't named him yet. My aunt got him for me from another lady. While I was away at school, he tried to run back to his previous owner and got squashed by some vehicle. He had two brothers. One of them managed to get back to his old home while the other went somewhere I don't know about.

My neighbor poisoned my cat that I had for 8 years because it kept coming into their yard.

It died inside my shed and I found it, and they admitted to it when we confronted them. So me and my older brother smashed their taillights and headlights out and keyed their van after a day or two after. I was about 12 or 13 when it happened, and I was beyond angry.

There isn't a word powerful enough to describe the type of hate I felt/still feel toward them.

Wow, Sir... They had it coming. D< That's AWFUL!

I've owned about several mice in the past, and each of them I've managed to grow a very huge bond with. The one that hurt the most to see go was my very first one, Taz. I felt very.. motherly towards her, you could say. When she fell ill the last few weeks of her life I tried to make it as comfortable as I could; I also took as many pictures/videos my phone could allow. I did not want to let her go, and when she did pass, I cried.

The second one that affected me the most was our funky little gray mouse with a curled over (literally, it curled over her body) tail named Terry. She was really peculiar looking, even more so with the fact that she was quite big for a mouse. But, just as Taz did, she fell ill (most mice do when they're reaching their limit) and so the process repeated. We made everything as comfortable as we could for her. One day, I picked her up and held her in my hands: She then had a seizure. Her body shook uncontrollably, and it looked as though she was choking. After that, she fell limp and died. In my hands.

Losing pets is hard. I lost two of my dogs recently. One got in an accident, but there was nothing they could do, so we had to have her put down. Even if they had been able to do anything, she was pretty old and most likely wouldn't have survived anyways. I still miss her very much. Its been a few months now since then.

Our other dog died of old age. She was about 12.

I've lost a lot of cats before too. And in one case, a bunch of my cats stolen from me. One of my neighbors. She moved not long after that. That was quite awhile ago now, but I'm still very pissed off about it. She took my absolute favorite cat to. One I raised from a tiny kitten, she was quite a small cat. I loved that cat very much. She would follow me around everywhere, and she would even sit on my shoulder as I walked around.

I have had pets -- canaries and rabbits -- fragile animals to begin with who passed away. Two I had to put down because of cancer -- it's like having to suffer a small death. I had a dream of one of my beloved bunnies last night -- she was so shiny and healthy, nothing at all like the last time I saw her. They are such good friends and family members, and I always feel like I let them down when they go...

That's so sad... I'm sorry. :(
I recently lost my kitty, Nibbler... I still cry when I think about her or look at pictures of her (I have tons of pictures of her on my phone.) She was an indoor-outdoor cat (mostly in) and just vanished one day. I tried posting about her (in my area), telling everyone I see about her, offered $150 for her to be brought back, went to the animal shelter, and called the animal control. :(

Its really hard to deal witha deloved friend growing old and dying, there is no real set way to deal with it...I usually just show them as much love as I can, and when that day inevitably comes, they will find peace knowing that they were loved. In some cases though, I feel that it is harsh to let them go on suffering (assuming they are suffereing from anything inparticular) it may be hard, but often I feel the right thing to do is ease their suffering and allow the Vet to put them to rest.

Aww, I'm so sorry. :( Something similar happened to my cat, only we had to put him down when he became too weak to get up, even to use the litter box. You might consider taking your kitty to the vet to make sure there's nothing but old age causing this, if funds allow. But either way, show your kitty lots of love, take a few pictures of her to remember her, and enjoy the time you have left with her, be it months or days. :hug:

I'm currently petless... all of my pets have passed. My dog passed away last Summer. He had been going downhill for quite a while, and we think he had some form of doggie dementia because it got to the point where he was extremely confused all the time and didn't seem to be "all there." Poor puppy, he was quite old. My hamster passed away about a week before that, and he was 2, which is old for his breed. He had been sick, the poor thing. We took him to the vet and got him some medicine, and they helped him for a while, gave us two more weeks with him, then he passed in his sleep.

Sad topic...

My recent hamster had passed away. Strangely I didn't feel bad that he did. There was only one pet I actually shed tears over and that was my pet caterpillar.

Originally Posted by Sir D . L O Van Lobsters

There isn't a word powerful enough to describe the type of hate I felt/still feel toward them.

I know what that's like.

Someone ran down our neighbor's cat Steve right in front of me & Anni one day. I actually kept seeing it in my head for years after, which sucks; if I couldn't do anything then, what could I do ages after? But for a few weeks I went hunting for that car. I'd have smashed out their lights....and heaven help them if they were stupid enough to come out and try to stop me, because I'd have killed them too.

Finally I just did some witchcraft on the spot where the cat died. I hope that hurtin' I put on em is still torturing them today.

I'm sorry about your cat.
I've had five pets in my life, four have died.
My dog Bearbear died when I was 4 so I wasn't really broken up about it because I didn't understand it.
About four years later, our 16 year old dog, Girldog, died. It happened really suddenly, but she was old so we were all prepared for it to happen. My mom cried a lot because she was very attached to her, but again, I didn't really get it then. When I see photos of her now I get a bit teary-eyed though because she was my favorite out of all of our dogs, and I used to play with her all the time.
When I was 10, my guinea pig, Cookie, died. At the time, my mom told me he had a jaw disease that was common and it killed him. The truth was that his airway was blocked by a piece of hay he didn't chew, and he basically choked and suffocated slowly together before the vet could figure it out, which I found out a few months ago when asking about him.
Two years ago, Our dog Stretch died. I was turning 11, and was having my birthday party that day. Stretch was blind, and he was losing his sight. My dad picked him up about an hour before my party, and he bit him really hard. They decided it wasn't safe for him to be around children he didn't know so they had him put down. I personally still think that was a horrible decision, because he had never bitten me or my mother. My dad picked him up in an uncomfortable way. If they had been worried about children, they could have just as easily put him in their bedroom until the party was over.
My current dog, Junior, is very alive and is only 3, but I imagine he'll be the first pet I ever cry over when he dies, because he's the first one i've been really close with and he's the first pet that is solely mine.
Maybe it's because I wasn't very close to any of the animals, but I never cried when any of them died.

Aw Clair! That's the same thing that happened with my first cat, Tess. Though, she had cancer . . . I still miss her.

The only pets I've had die from old age are hamsters, parakeets, and small lizards.

I've had so many pets and so many die, I don't even cry anymore. -sigh- I still feel sad though.

I've lost a hamster by sending it down a hole in the yard (I was way young and it had always come out of the hole before... :sweat: ), another hamster by not knowing it was between the door and door frame and pretty much smashing its poor little body, a dog get hit by a car in front of our house, another dog get hit by a car while crossing the street, discovered dead baby bunnies under my bed because I didn't know the mother had them :gonk:, had our pet chickens get attacked and eaten by the neighbor's dogs, a puppy drown in its bowl of water, a rabbit die from old age (and probably the heat), our rat eat the other rat, and a chinchilla who chewed a hole in her cage and tried to get out, but got stuck and pretty much hung upside-down for the whole night until we found her in the morning.

Way too many pets... too many deaths.

aww :( poor thing..you know cats live longer indoors? mine are indoor. though,they don't have claws anyways plus we live by the road so i don't wanna let them out anyway for their safety.. :( its sad to lose a pet. my 2 cats are going to be my last deffinatly thats for sure.

Originally Posted by Alaunt

Aw Clair! That's the same thing that happened with my first cat, Tess. Though, she had cancer . . . I still miss her.

I lost two rabbits to cancer -- one because the vet told me not to get her fixed because there supposedly because anesthesia was "too dangerous" for rabbits (except there was one for rabbits and they just weren't up to speed), and she ended up with uterine cancer. What a horrible way to go. I had to start my internship the day I had to put her to sleep. That always left a bitter taste in my mouth.

My other rabbit had a brain tumor because (a rabbit friendly vet, and believe me, that is not easy to find) took too many x-rays of her head. Mind you, she was 6 years old and lived an extra four years because she had problems and she needed a lot of surgery. I didn't get angry at them -- she couldn't eat on her own and she would have starved without their care. She was bred too small and her teeth overcrowded and then there are horrible problems associated with that. I took her to so many vets and they all said she was fine and she wasn't. With her, it always felt like she was living on borrowed time, but it didn't make losing her any easier... :(

When I was about 8 we put down our male boston terrier. His spine was disintegrating from some illness.

About 5 yrs ago, we put down our female boston terrier (the first I really remember us having[she outlived the male]). She was 13, and blind and deaf. We just weren't doing her any favors by keeping her alive, especially when she started having seizures.

2 months ago, we had to put down my sisters bull mastiff. There were complications with her birth, and she was the equivalent to a child with down syndrome. She was starting to forget people and attack, so it was better for everyone.

Now we're going to have to put down our female boston terrier(she was the replacement for our male). She's 10 yrs old, nearly blind, but she has a lump on her throat and is getting severely territorial, which is bad for our 2 1/2 yr old Boxer, as well as us, since us people are getting more injuries than the dogs. We haven't decided when yet, but it will probably be soon... Probably before the end of April....

Lets see... as well as dogs, I lost my first chinchilla 6 yrs ago. He tried escaping from his cage, and got stuck, breaking his spine. Came home from grade 8, and found him there, trying to get free, his back half not responding. That was tough...

The day after we put my sisters Bull Mastiff down, my second chinchilla (got her a few months after my first died) died. I fed her before I went to bed, and I woke up to find her on her side. Since she was clutching the bars of her cage (ferret type multi-level), and she seemed in perfect health when I went to sleep, we assumed that she had a heart attack of something during the night. It was just kinda rough...


Now lets just not count he number of fish I've lost to my older brother deciding that he wanted a pet lobster -.- (his lobster ate my black mollys *cries*)