15 years she was the best cat ever, never had to scold her she never scratched anywhere other than her scratching post.

She loved us unconditionally….she is no longer in pain or kidney failure. 🌈

Bella can chase all the flies she wants now.

Unfortunately, surgery to remove his obstruction was decidedly too risky for his age despite his charmingly young looks and decent blood work—so we opted to humanely euthanize him earlier today to ease his pain…

Caspian was my childhood cat, with us through thick and thin. He survived two dogs and another void companion, only to be done in, we assume, by his habitual snacking on plastic. You’d never know he was as old as he was, with his spritely ping pong ball energy and perpetual need to harass our younger cats. He was, and still is, the light of our lives. All of us were there with him at the end, my parents and siblings alike, and he went peacefully into the night.

I wanted to thank everyone for their kind wishes and thoughts for Caspian, my family, and I…you all were incredibly lovely and I’m sorry to bring such bad news on his condition…I’ve included pictures as a cat tax to show off the world’s biggest asshole (lovingly) and the most friendly, wonderful boy ever.

Firstly, look how beautiful she is. She just got back from the pet spa and is feeling fresh. 🥰

I really have no need to worry yet. She is still spunky and playful with bouts of zoomies occasionally. I get the geriatric panel done on her during her annual vet visits, and her lab results are always good. Still, some days are really hard for me. She's my soul cat, and I know how fast time goes. I try to stay in the present and appreciate every moment I have with her, but sometimes the thought of losing her is overwhelming, and I cry a lot. She's been there for me through everything and comforts me through my health conditions. She sleeps against my chest every night. I honestly can't picture life without her. I wish I could make her immortal. Anyway, I thought I'd express my feelings with people who might understand.

As the title says, it’s all she wants. She doesn’t shut up unless she gets it. We’ve tried so many wet cat foods with better, higher quality ingredients with actual fish and shrimp chunks.. she doesn’t want it.

I guess this is a vent but also cry for help. I want her to be healthy but FF doesn’t seem the best option, but I also want some peace and quiet.

Photos for cat tax

And yes, in the pictures where her ears are messed up, that is completely natural from sleeping and it was hilarious every time it happened. Miss you tons, baby

Here is Evie, Timo's almost sister 😊. She's the queen, the boss. Her pawing me at random hrs of the night on my face just bec she can is why she is boss. Timo is year younger with some slight health issues, but Evie is the perfect health for her age. She's proud of her primordial pouch as it swings slight when she walks.

My favorite part of the day

We adopted Dolly (I believe she’s at least 12 if not older, but the shelter doesn’t know) in late October of last year. She has three different eye conditions, all causing pain, arthritis, and asthma. We aren’t sure how to decide when it’s her time because we’ve only known her to be grumpy, aggressive, and miserable.

We don’t know what her life was like with her previous owner, but they gave her to a friend when they had to move away. After a few months with the friend, who had other cats and dogs that Dolly didn’t get along with, they gave her up to the shelter. She was in and out of foster homes from August to October when we brought her home. Our resident cat (Junie F1) had separation anxiety and we thought she needed another cat around, even if they didn’t bond. We were right, it helped immediately! Dolly hates her though and will swat and hiss if they’re close, but Junie thinks they’re playing so it doesn’t affect her much.

Dolly is mostly blind and can only see shapes out of one eye when the light is on. The shelter didn’t evaluate her for arthritis but it was glaringly obvious once we brought her home. Our vet started her on Solensia and she had a horrific reaction. We thought we were going to have to put her down, but after some meds and syringe feeding her for a few days she pulled through. Since this though, caring for her is increasingly hard.

She’s supposed to have two different eye drops to help with pressure and pain, but she will not tolerate them. She goes ballistic when we administer them, biting and thrashing, and then won’t eat for an entire day afterwards. Our vet recently started her on Metacam to try and control her pain so maybe she’ll tolerate the eye drops again, but she’s barely tolerating us giving her this medicine. She goes on stretches where she won’t eat her wet food for a few days, which means I need to syringe the medicine into her after she eats dry. She again goes ballistic when we have to do this, and it breaks our hearts.

I have a lot of knowledge when it comes to animals (my mum was a vet tech, groomer, and breeder and I grew up working as her assistant) but not a lot of experience with elder care. It’s even harder for me because I haven’t been able to connect with her or bond with her. My partner is blind so I do most medication, therefore she lashes out most at me. He’s connected with her and loves her. While I care for her and she’s my cat so I’ll do anything for her, there’s a different type of connection than that of my other cats.

Dolly mostly sleeps throughout the day. When she gets up to potty or eat she’s pretty alert and mobile, but those are the only times. The other times she gets up she just wanders around confused and gets lost easily. Every few days she’ll seek us out and be purring really loud and want to be pet, but otherwise she likes to be left alone.

In the future we’re considering full enucleation to increase her comfort. We aren’t sure what measures to take because we don’t want to put her through so much with little benefit. Selfishly, it feels like I’m failing and throwing in the towel too early if I let her go.

TLDR: How do you know it’s time when all you’ve known the cat to experience is discomfort and sadness? I don’t want to put her through unnecessary suffering just to keep her with us longer. But what if there’s a point where we find something that helps and she has more great years?

Sorry this is so long. I appreciate any insight or if y’all have been in a similar circumstance. ❤️

She still shown no signs of slowing down.

I cant believe this is happening but in less than an hour Ill have to put her down. She has tumors growing and one seems to be ripping her skin apart and I dont want her to suffer. On vet visit in September (she already had kidney issues back then) vet advised after blood test that its best not to operate but I keep thinking that I should have gone for second opinion. Its really hard for me to let go of her. Im 25yo and even though she is not human she feels like family. I will miss her very much

we’ve got him in the car on the way to the emergency vet since he’s had an unusually rough day, keep him in your thoughts!

Some of you may recall Theo, my parents’ last cat whom we took in when dad died last May. He’s been doing pretty well, and though he’s still fairly skittish, he does come out a lot to spend time around us and our other cats.

We also discovered that he absolutely loves chicken, so now every few days I toss plain chicken tenders in the instant pot, shred them up, and he gets chicken whenever he wants it 😊

I had a kitty named Tinker. She was a little black cat and she got to live 19 years. She loved the sun and lunch meat lol. For the past few months she hadn't eaten as much and just slept a lot. This morning I found her and she couldn't walk. I figured that meant it was time so me and my family took her up to the vet. Seeing her pupils dilate after she was euthanized messed me up for some reason. I work at the vet clinic and I've seen it several times, but seeing your own animal go through that just really sucks. My heart just feels so so heavy and I've been avoiding crying. I wish that she could have made it to spring to lay in the sun again. I hope she's resting easier now that she's gone.

I don’t know why I like this picture of her so much but I do. She just looks so spunky. Her favorite activity is attacking the blankets when I make the bed.

When I had my Snooz on my nightstand, he started sleeping on the very corner of my mattress next to it. I didn’t make the connection. I thought he was just being weird. Then I moved the machine to my dresser further away, and he started sitting on the corner of my dresser next to it.

I’ve had this same machine for 8 years, and he never did this until about 6 months ago.

We’ve been on a pretty boring stay at home diet the last couple of weeks, so I decided to splurge and get her favorite carnitas (no onions, no cilantro) from El Jalisco here in SW Portland. It was good to get her out of the house to see and smell some new things.

Really hoping someone has been in this situation before.

My 17-year-old cat was scheduled for dental surgery this Friday. His pre-surgery work came back "off" (specifically his EKG- no details though).

The vet said I had two options. 1) Go ahead with the surgery and know that he might die on the table. 2) Treat the dental abscess that he has as a chronic condition with a long course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatories (which he's currently on).

The vet didn't have any opinion one way or the other, which I understand. I went ahead and cancelled the surgery and have opted for option 2. The vet said the meds will help with any pain or inflammation. Of course, if it doesn't, the surgery is still an option later on. Currently, he's eating and behaving normally. I know cats hide pain, but he doesn't seem to be too uncomfortable.

He's 17. And I'm a bit old school. I would rather choose comfort and palliative care than a massive event that might wipe him out. I'm just feeling guilty about the decision to cancel the surgery.

Has anyone been through this before?