Very sad tonight

[Grandma Ruth]

Tomorrow we have to take the cat to the vet's for the last time. She's 16 and senile and her kidneys are going. She's had a good life and it's the best thing for her but it's still sad, a hard thing to do.

[Blackhawk]

My brother had to take his dog in a couple months ago as he was suffering from dementia and would get stuck behind a door or couch and just forget where he was and he would just stand there until someone helped him out, so I know how hard it is to lose a pet. At least you save the cat from a drawn out and painful end, but it's still tough losing a pet. My deepest sympathies are with you.

[Hawk]

It's hard to let go of anything, or anyone, you love, but sometimes it's for the best, especially if there's suffering involved.
My sympathies to ya' Ruth.

[Knave]

I am so sorry to hear about your cat. Our pets are family members. I really sympathise with your loss.

[Gwizz]

I feel your loss. We lost our black cat almost two years ago, when she was between 10 & 11. But, I think she may still be hanging around.
I keep hearing the noises she made when she was alive.
Tonight I heard something like paws hitting the sliding glass doors behind me.
She use to catch bugs after dark that flew in the light shinning through those glass doors.

When I worked on the Reservation, They gave us a mobil home to live in.
I would see a black cat in the bathroom mirror. It would walk past the doorway behind me. when I turned around it was gone. The first time it happened I asked my better half why she didn't put the cat out. She said she did. I looked out the kitchen window and saw our cat playing in the yard.

I don't know where that one in the mirror came from.
Maybe our cat had special powers and could walk through walls
I'd rather have seen an old steam engine go by.

Tribal members told me there was also native americans in loin cloth who also walked around only to disappear if you looked at them too long. I never saw one.
But, maybe one had a black cat.

[Grandma Ruth]

Thank you, boys. I read your messages before we went to give me courage and it helped me through. It was the right thing to do. She went very quickly and easily, no distress, no struggle. If she comes back, Gwizz, I don't want her making the noises she's been making recently - the howling and the crying - but I'm sure I'll hear her purring for a long time.

[Gwizz]

During our cats last days she was very quite.
On the Res. there was a lot of wild animals that ate cats.
Our cat would sit on the back of the chair and looked out of the window.
So she learned to be a quiet cat, seeing so many wild animals pass by.
Anyway, the vet told us she would have a painless death.
So we kept her home till the end and she now shares a small plot with my two old dogs. She never did complain. So the noises I hear are good noises.

[Moggie]

Aww . My condolences.

[AZ Rail Rat]

Our cat Peaches left us in 2006 at age 20. Her ashes still sit in the little plastic box on our bedroom dresser.

She visits regularly too.

[Grandma Ruth]

It will get better, I know, but just now we're going through the "first times" for everything. Like this morning was the first time I was able to open a tin of tuna without Griselda wrapped around my legs begging for some (and getting it, of course, every time!). You don't realise how much difference they make - this door has to be shut to keep her out, that door has to be open to let her in - and suddenly you don't need to think about those things any more.
Thanks again for your kind thoughts.

[OilCan]

I don't know where that one in the mirror came from.
Maybe our cat had special powers and could walk through walls...

We had a ghost cat in our house for several months. It first appeared soon after we gutted out a bedroom to completely remodel it. It walked across me one night while I was in bed, waking me up and then it settled beside my feet. I rose to get a better look and it was gone. It appeared to every member of my family, at different times, even in day light. The odd thing was we kept these 'sightings' to ourselves for a long time until my oldest son told about seeing this cat curled up on his clothes in his room and when he stooped to pet this cat it suddently was not there. Then we each told our stories. And to my shock, my wife, who is a huge, huge skeptic of such things, had her own story of the ghost cat as well. It took about 8-9 months to finish remodeling bedroom and since then..no ghost cat sightings.

[Grandma Ruth]

Never disturb a sleeping cat!

[WPandP]

Never disturb a sleeping cat!

Doesn't this translate to "never disturb a cat"?

As for the ghost cat stories, must have been a feline blessed with 9.5 lives. Got buried when the statutory 9.0 lives were up, which was slightly too soon.

If anyone wants a little bit of light-heartedness that is kitteh-related, check out the "I Can Has Cheezburger" website, home of all versions of LOL-cats. I've made a few of my own there (some of which are not cat-related), which can be viewed at: http://cheezburger.com/pictures-by-Marvek/

I don't have a cat currently, but I'm definitely a cat person. Sometimes the wit and warmth of LOLcat can be enough to put a smile on my face. Other times, it really just makes me wish I had a pet of my own!

[thegrindre]

I'm really sorry, Ruth. I know how much you loved and, now miss her.
I lost my dog quite a few years ago and said I'd never get another pet again. It broke my heart and I was sick for three days. I never wanted to go through that heart ache again.

No more pets for me. I just can't take it when they have to leave us.

[Grandma Ruth]

Thanks, Rick and WP&P. just seen your posts. Don't get chance to visit here as often as I used to. Love the kittehs - I read somewhere the internet is really powered by cats, whatever the techie types may say.