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Had To Put My Cat Down: Completely Surprised By The Depth Of Emotion


Okrahomer

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This has been a surprisingly sad and melancholy day: Our 21+ year-old cat finally gave me that "look" this morning--the one another poster described as: "I'm done--I can't do this anymore." I had expected my wife and daughter to express sadness but was caught off guard by the emotions that washed over me in waves in the moments immediately following her last breath. I tried to suppress the feelings by self-talk: "Its's just a cat for crying out loud--an old decrepit cat!"

Tonight I take comfort in the hope that we will see our beloved pets in the hereafter.

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I have been owned by two cats in the past and have been part of their passings and I understand your emotions. I still feel the vibrations on my bed when they jumped up on it.

Edited by Ron Beron
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Hello Okrahomer...

I understand your feelings... I had to put down my Charlie-cat about 3 years ago when he became very ill and the vet could not find the source. He just got weaker and was not able to eat... so rather than keep trying to find the cause, I finally just said we should let him go. So he just went to sleep in my arms. His ashes are buried in my backyard. I know the emotions you speak of... he was with me for about 12 years... people think cats don't have real personalities but they most certainly do, and Charlie was sooo smart. It was months before I could think about getting another cat.

I finally went down to the shelter and picked out another one... a big beautiful boy completely different looking from Charlie... named him "Bob"... he weighs 20 pounds and is strictly indoors so he is with me 24/7. He would talk if he could, but we do communicate. He understands words and phrases, has many funny "ways" about him that give me many a chuckle. Like right now he is sitting in the doorway meowing because he wants me to come out of this room and into the den. He gets antsy when I stay in here at the computer for too long and comes to get me. He'll lie on the desk for a while, but he wants to go into the den where the big comfortable chairs are... Guess I'll go... he rules...

GG

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Sorry about your cat.:( 21 yrs. has got to be the oldest cat I've ever heard about. It's hard to lose a pet. They are truly God's gift. I lost my dog about 3 yrs. ago. This past weekend I got another one, a Yorkie but had no idea they are so territorial. It's hard to not compare him to my other dog.

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Yeah, putting down your cat (or any pet really) can be tough. Just know they are at peace! =)

Also, when you feel like it, if you feel like it, consider getting another cat (or pet). It helps fill things up a bit, I have found.

Edited by TAO
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I am sorry for your loss. All good pet owners are emotionally attached to their pets because they are living beings, with personality and you go through so much with them, they can bring such joy, it is a huge sadness when you have to let them go, even when you know there is no choice.

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Read this line year ago, not sure the source, but it sure fits in:

"Pets add so much to our lives that we bring them into our homes knowing in advance that they will break our hearts. And when they do, we almost always go out and choose another one to do the same thing."

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Our last cat is still living, but living with someone else, which is a good thing. One of my adult sons inherited him from a friend who moved away, and this cat was not friendly at all. He must have had a bad experience early in life, I don't know. Eventually, he moved out. I am serious, he left the house one day and didn't come back. A few weeks later some lady down the street came to ask if the cat that had taken up residence at her house was ours. We said that he was ours, but moved out, and you can have him. I presume he is still there. I was happy to have him gone -- he was not personable, and even though I treated him fine, every time I attempted to pet him he cringed and looked like he was going to bolt. He would also "stand his ground" when laying in the middle of the hallway, cringing but refusing to move. I tripped over him more than once.

Just a few mornings ago an orange tabby tomcat I had seen here and there in the neighborhood started spending the mornings in a chair on our front porch. He looks quite a bit like the orange tabby tomcat we had before the unfriendly one -- and is probably his grandchild. I just came home for lunch and this cat comes right up to me and started rubbing himself on my legs. He's making a play for being adopted, but I am NOT going to do it. If he is a descendant of our old orange tabby, whose name was Sir Thomas More, then I have a soft spot for him, but he is NOT going to be adopted. Fortunately all our little kids have grown up and moved away, so I won't have them at least begging for a place for the cat.

Gosh, I hope I do not soften on this.

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This has been a surprisingly sad and melancholy day: Our 21+ year-old cat finally gave me that "look" this morning--the one another poster described as: "I'm done--I can't do this anymore." I had expected my wife and daughter to express sadness but was caught off guard by the emotions that washed over me in waves in the moments immediately following her last breath. I tried to suppress the feelings by self-talk: "Its's just a cat for crying out loud--an old decrepit cat!"

Tonight I take comfort in the hope that we will see our beloved pets in the hereafter.

They do wiggle their way into your heart...don't they? Means you have a good heart...be glad. :) Edited by Bill “Papa” Lee
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Our last cat is still living, but living with someone else, which is a good thing. One of my adult sons inherited him from a friend who moved away, and this cat was not friendly at all. He must have had a bad experience early in life, I don't know. Eventually, he moved out. I am serious, he left the house one day and didn't come back. A few weeks later some lady down the street came to ask if the cat that had taken up residence at her house was ours. We said that he was ours, but moved out, and you can have him. I presume he is still there. I was happy to have him gone -- he was not personable, and even though I treated him fine, every time I attempted to pet him he cringed and looked like he was going to bolt. He would also "stand his ground" when laying in the middle of the hallway, cringing but refusing to move. I tripped over him more than once.

Just a few mornings ago an orange tabby tomcat I had seen here and there in the neighborhood started spending the mornings in a chair on our front porch. He looks quite a bit like the orange tabby tomcat we had before the unfriendly one -- and is probably his grandchild. I just came home for lunch and this cat comes right up to me and started rubbing himself on my legs. He's making a play for being adopted, but I am NOT going to do it. If he is a descendant of our old orange tabby, whose name was Sir Thomas More, then I have a soft spot for him, but he is NOT going to be adopted. Fortunately all our little kids have grown up and moved away, so I won't have them at least begging for a place for the cat.

Gosh, I hope I do not soften on this.

I lived in a condo in my youth and I begged for a cat, but it had to be an indoor cat. Little did I know that my new cat would terrorize me on a nightly basis. It had to stay in my room and would get up on my bed and scratch at me constantly, it was the cat from he#%! After a few weeks (?) of this I told my parents about it, and they thought it should go to the pound. I thought it'd be adopted out and was glad to see it go, but my mom, bless her heart, was tearing up when we took it there. I felt like such a cold person for not showing any emotion but I guess I had a good excuse.
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Thanks to you all for the empathy and comforting thoughts; and thanks especially to BCSpace for the great laugh. We used to have a big dog who was very much subservient to this cat--it was a great pleasure and sometimes hilarious to see the two of them (a big German shepherd and a smallish tailless cat) "relate."

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I am so sorry for your loss Okrahomer. I had to put down my 14-year old labrador retreiver last year, and it was more heart-wrenching than I ever anticipated. I knew it was the right thing to do, as he was in a lot of pain, but I cried like a baby in the vets office as I held him while they injected him with the shots that would end his suffering. Easily the most painful loss I've gone through since the loss of my grandfather.

Like Buzzard's phrase above, I went out a few months later and got another labrador (from a rescue foundation) and essentially have set myself up for the same heartache again in a few years. But the numerous moments of sheer joy and constant companionship that are provided by a good pet are worth the heartache at the end.

My condolences.

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So sorry to hear it. :( When my parents put our old dog down, my mom said she had never seen my dad cry so hard.

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Sorry to hear about the loss of a four-legged family member. :-(

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My daughter's boss found an abandoned cat in the Fall of 2010. It was smaller than a kitten. I don't think it had ever nursed. She wasn't much bigger than two fingers. My wife nursed her with some kind of droplet thing. But then the poor thing couldn't go to the bathroom. The vet said that she might not make it. She needed to poop. This all happened in the context of our two youngest moving out of the house within a few days of getting the kitten. Oh man. I think I even prayed for the kitty. I really wanted her to live. Well she did, and she has a place in my heart like I never knew for an animal. She is still young. My wife and the girls always accused me of hating animals because I didn't get lovey dovey like them. Well, I am pretty silly with our Mina.

Okrahomer, you never thought you'd care about a dead cat. I never thought I would care about a live cat. She is still only a little over two years. I guess the good news is she might outlive me! Heh. Anyway, that'll be a hard day if it comes after twenty-one years (the cat, not me. heh) My condolences, Okrahomer.

3DOP

Edited by 3DOP
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Gosh, I hope I do not soften on this.

Let us know how things are going in a couple weeks... Ha! Let me tell you about my mom:

My folks always had dogs, and my mom actually hated cats. To the point that it nearly affected my relationship with her when she'd talk about wishing she could get rid of all the cats, etc. Well, in her neighborhood there was this abandoned Black/white tuxedo cat living under the hedge in the neighbor's yard. Mom would throw rocks at it, squirt it with water, and shoo it, etc etc. because she didn't want it coming into her yard.

Anyway, one day it was by the hedge looking very hungry... Mom went to the fridge where she had some old weiners so she threw one out to the cat. Well the poor thing devoured it so fast that she felt sorry and went and got another and threw it out to the cat and again it devoured it. So she started putting out a bit of food in a dish under the hedge. Slowly she started moving the dish closer because she didn't like having to go clear out to the hedge. Soon the dish was on the front porch and the cat would wait for her. Soon she was petting it and it gladly returned the affection, which made her feel guilty after the way she had treated it. The cat would come and sit on the porch with my folks in the evenings... soon Mom put it in her lap. Her letters to me were suddenly filled with talk about "her cat." A complete turn around from her former behavior... she'd cut out pictures of cats from magazines and paste them to her letters... she'd write in big letters "I LOVE MY CAT!!" She went absolutely nuts over cats. Suddenly one day "Whiskers" was gone. Someone must have taken him because he never would have left and he was beautiful. It broke her heart, so they went to the shelter and got another... this one got to come in the house... she loved that cat dearly until the day she died. After Mom's death I shipped her cat back to my sis's to add to her household, which included several cats and it continued to have a wonderful life for about ten more years. But one of my best memories of my mom is how a cat made it's way into her heart and changed her completely...

GG

Edited by Garden Girl
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Why do we get upset about the death of some stuipid animal, especially a cat that hates us, wakes us up in the morning, eats any meat left out on the counter, demands to be let out at the most inconvenient time and then bites our ankle as it walks past us on the way out the door, pukes on the floor after eating, coughs up hairballs when we have company over, and wakes us up in the middle of the night demanding that we listen to him sing the song of his people.

The reason is usually very simple, blood only makes us related, loyalty and trust makes us family....though a cat usually decides the definition of what loyalty and trust is. I had to put down a great friend several years ago, a silly cat named "Not Me" who was a member of my family for 15 years. We raised it from a kitten. Not Me put up with my boys and me in spite of us blaming every bad thing that happened in the house on him. "WHO MADE THIS MESS?" "Not Me dad."

Adam said, "Lord, when I was in the garden, you walked with me every day. Now I do not see you anymore. I am lonesome here & it is difficult for me to remember how much you love me."

And God said, "No problem! I will create a companion for you that will be with you forever & who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me. Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are & will love you as I do, in spite of yourself."

And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased.

And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam & he wagged his tail.

And Adam said, "Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom & I cannot think of a name for this new animal."

And God said, "No problem! Because I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG."

And Dog lived with Adam & was a companion to him & loved him. And Adam was comforted.

And God was pleased.

And Dog was content & wagged his tail.

After a while, it came to pass that Adam's guardian angel came to the Lord and said, "Lord, Adam has become filled with pride. He struts and preens like a peacock & he believes he is worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught him that he is loved, but perhaps too well."

And the Lord said, "No problem! I will create for him a companion who will be with him forever & who will see him as he is. The companion will remind him of his limitations, so he will know that he is not always worthy of adoration."

And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam.

And Cat would not obey Adam.

And when Adam gazed into Cat's eyes, he was reminded that he was not the supreme being.

And Adam learned humility.

And God was pleased.

And Adam was greatly improved.

And Dog was happy.

And the cat didn't care one way or the other.

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We've had to put 3 pets down. Our Siamese lived to be 19. She convinced me that cats were pretty cool.

Astro, our 185# Great Dane left us just almost 2 years ago; he was 11.

Daisy, his 150# little sister joined him almost a year ago; she was 12.

They were so big, there was no way I could dig a grave large enough, so we had them cremated. The urns for them are the same size used for humans.

Each one of the those days was very difficult.

We have 2 other Danes now that are 18 months old.

My condolences.

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