Thanks, guys. It all went down as expected this afternoon with the vet. Cat had stopped eating the last couple days, was sleeping most of the time, and when awake often seemed anxious or confused. Time to let her go. My wife buried her next to the lavender plant she would dart outside to sniff and try to eat.
… It might be a while, but I’ll have another cat again someday. They help make a house a home.
I’m so sorry for your loss, and hope peace will soon share space with your pain.
They certainly do. After I put my cat down a couple of years ago (posted upthread here somewhere - kidney failure), I said pretty much the same thing you just did there, but in truth, I was in no hurry. I was kind of enjoying the freedom from taking care of him and worrying about him when I was gone.
I went 2.5 years without a cat, and was doing just fine.
But what do you do when in the dead of winter, you go outside when it’s -25F, and you see this adolescent cat wandering down the middle of the snowy street?
Well, I called him over, and he obviously wanted to come over, but he was very, very cautious. He acted half-wild, and had no collar, but didn’t appear to be starving. In fact, he seemed quite healthy, so I was sure he belonged to someone down the street. But he kept coming back and hanging around at a distance, always at night, and all of this during a cold spell of between -20F and -30F.
Finally, I went out one night and caught him huddled in front of my front door. He ran far off whe I came out, and wouldn’t come back. So, I retrieved an old can of wet cat food I had left over, and dumped in into my old cat’s dish, and went out and managed to lure him over. But he would only eat if I left the bowl and backed far away from it. And then I watched in amazement as he scarfed down an entire can of food in about 15 seconds. Night after night.
Eventually, I lured him into the house, and now, months later, he stays here all day while I’m at work, but demands to leave at night.
I do not want an indoor/outdoor cat. I want indoor only, but I’m afraid I’ve fallen in love with this guy. I suppose my next step is to get him neutered and have his shots, as I’m guessing now that nobody actually owns this cat, and so it will be up to me.
Anyway, I went off on a tangent there. Condolences, @mrcjhicks, but yes ineed, there will be another cat in your future. If you don’t go out and find one on your own, one will find you. So many cats out there need homes, and now I don’t know how I went so long without one. He is amazing, and totally worth it.
Go to the SPCA and get two cats so they can keep each other company. There are a lot of cats or there who need a good home.
I don’t know how you get two cats to love each other like that. My four cats barely tolerate each other.
I have had a mixed results, too. I had 2 cats in high school that got along very well, but they were together for a long time before we adopted them. OTOH, I have a cat now that does not get along with any other cats we sheltered temporarily, and the dog is not fond of him either. Actually, I don’t even like him either. A shitty cat IMO.
They fight sometimes, but they love each other too. They’re like siblings.
I just picked them both up at the SPCA a while after King died. They weren’t from the same place, and I was honestly worried they would not get along, but here we are.
Back when we were looking around at various cats on offer from various rescue organizations, there were a lot of bonded pairs - siblings, usually. I’m told it can take six or seven years for cats that didn’t grow up together to get along, otherwise.
My cats are siblings that were adopted together. At the pound they were good friends. They were even housed with a third cat that they were both aggressive towards, but they seemed quite affectionate to each other.
That all changed after a week of bringing them home. Now, they do play together sometimes, but usually want nothing to do with each other. They do tolerate each other outside of sleeping spots though, where usually a bit of hissing settles any disputes. The only time it gets to all out fighting is over catnip. One cat gets very aggressive when there is catnip involved. She goes after her sister for no reason and will bite me if I interfere. Shockingly, she’s kind of a bitch even when she isn’t high. :-)
Still, I will gladly take 2 cats that tolerate each other. I just wish they were better at keeping each other entertained. Two young cats require a lot of attention/play time. Not that I mind, but I can rarely just sit at the computer without a cat wanting to play.
Mine weren’t bonded, they didn’t even know each other until I put them in the same room to see if they would fight.
And they didn’t. Max is sometimes overly affectionate and wants to lick Claudia’s face for too long, but then she just kicks him in the face, and then it’s fine.
I can relate.
Cats are generally solitary animals (only lions are social), which is why they tend to have weird dynamics. We got our two cats as kittens. Neither one is dominant and get along mostly ok, although each will randomly paw swipe the other out of the blue. We have to feed the female in a separate room, else she’ll just scarf down the other’s food. Weirdly he doesn’t mind. He’s much bigger than her, but she’ll hold her own for the most part (despite being a drama queen with the yeowling and hissing when they play chase.) Licky face though always ends up in a fight. Without fail.
Some breeds are more friendly though: Norwegian forest cats, ragdolls and Maine coons. Uh maybe towards humans though not sure if this means they’re less hostile towards other cats.
I have always found males in general to be much friendlier than females. That has been true of every cat in my life (mine or friends/family), but the internet says that is not true.
That has been my experience as well. Actually, once I did have two cats that were rather fond of each other. A male (Cookie) and a female calico (Izzie). Izzie loved Cookie, and would always “present” herself for him, but usually by laying on her back and looking up at him, longingly. And he’d lean down and give her a few licks on the head but that was about it. It was a little weird, because they were both fixed. However, they never cuddled like in Timex’s picture.
My latest cat is a male (Ziggie), and he gets along ok with the other three females. But they generally don’t want anything to do with him. There is no cuddling, and the best we can do is for Ziggie and Izzie to both sleep on the bed 1-2’ apart and only when we’re in it.
Really sorry to hear about your loss, @mrcjhicks. And I agree with your thought that a pet is what makes a house a home. Well put.
I had a good friend with a very large and loving Main Coon cat. He would let you pick him up and drag him all over, he loved human affection. But man was he the terror of any outdoor pet in the neighborhood. He ran the hood so to speak, and would frequently stay out all night and show up with battle scars and wounds the next morning, and still ready to be that wonderfully affectionate indoor cat to his humans once they opened the door.
An outdoor cat is not a pet, it’s a feral animal.
Sorry, one of my pet peeves, so to speak…
King was a Maine Coon, and they are a great breed. Super smart, that cat could open any door that want locked with a key. It was nuts. He was very picky about who her interested with. He was extremely Liam and friendly with me and some of my friends, but my parents and sister were terrified of him. I must admit that amused me.
Max and Claudia are both super friendly and like being pet and held. So I think that may be why they get along despite not being from the same litter or anything. They are generally just friendly cats, which is what stressed me to them at the pound.
Max actually reached out of his cage and grabbed my arm while I was reaching up to scratch the cat in the case above him, like, “hey dude, check me out!”
In terms of indoor vs outdoor, I keep my cats inside because I lost some cats to cars when I was a kid and I can’t deal with that. But I also tend to have a bunch of cats outside from the neighborhood that hang out around my house because I grow catnip.
I went to the animal shelter to pick up a cat who was featured on the local cable access adoption show. Came out with her and another one too, completely unplanned, purely on the basis of she kept meowing at me. I have no filters at all.
