Caregiver's cats behaving badly.

Boy! Has my little kitten,"Toots" been behaving badly today....
After my shower,I came out to the kitchen and thhe box I keep the cats and dog food and treats in was on the floor and when I went in the den,in their boxes they play in with leaves and stuff from outside,was an unopened can of tuna,all the dogs chicken treats,1 of my sponges I keep by the sink and a little can I keep crunchies in for them.She was having a hayday while the other 2 kittens just watched.I just wonder how she thought she was gonna open that can of tuna.Something else!

So sorry FF. I am lucky in that my hubby is always on board when the time comes to send an animal to that green pasture in the sky. He will take the small animals to the vet himself or come with me. I find it much more difficult when it is a horse. They are such huge creatures and to see them fall to the ground is incredibly final.
One good friend has the same problem with her hubby, he absolutely will not euthanize a pet big or small till long after they should be gone then like your SO he is very upset.
Will you get another kitty FF? Hubby did not want to replace the last one we lost but I was so upset he finally relented so we went to the SPCA and picked out a sweet tabby called Carley. She is now getting old so i don't know what we will do when she is gone.

Oh FF I am so sorry,, I do know the pain. I am always the one that has to take the cats to vet for the long sleep home,, and I hold them while they go, and I cry. My hubs and daughter are no good at that. We once had a cat with a huge spinal tumor,, he was getting around fine,, the vet said it was a fatty tumor around his spinal cord,, but could be ok. It got the size of a baseball,, freaked everyone out so I caved and it removed. Two months later hubs found him dead in the rec room looking out at the yard he could no longer run around in. Now one of our ferals we have had for 15 years is getting to end.. we just had her hair shaved ( it was all mats) and she is getting only wet food.. looks healthier.. but I know the end is coming.. and my heart breaks again.

FF, I'm sorry. I know you've posted that your cat has been ill for some time. The different approaches between you and SigO reminds me of Hospice thread here on AC. You knew "what time it was" and sig other didn't. If one doesn't understand that the death is imminent and inevitable, it can seem like we should do more to sustain life, to heal them. 

I can't imagine being in great pain and suffering, with death looming, and just wanting to be released but no release coming.  Seems like the definition of inhumane to force that amount of suffering to continue for as long as someone's body will continue on functioning, just for some people's personal moral position of "all human life is sacred, every last moment you can eek out, no matter how torturous."  

I think Bruce is a great name for a cat! I love it, very cute.

Oh....I actually came in here to mention my avatar, which is new.....this is my new kitten, Bruce. Just got him at the beginning of October. :-)

@freqflyer - I'm sooooo sorry for your loss. It's so hard to make these decisions for our pets when they can't tell us what they truly want.

I had to put down my boy cat George at the end of January and it was one of the hardest things I've done. He was definitely the animal "love of my life." He had cancer, a tumor in his jaw. Fortunately it was just me making the decision. I kept him at home (with vet support) for a month after the diagnosis, and he was content enough, hopped up on liquid tramadol and fentanyl patches. But I made a decision that when he could no longer eat, I wouldn't let him suffer or starve to death. And that's what happened. I think I might have kept him going longer if I had not already been there through stepmother's decline and death from cancer - what she wanted more than anything was assisted suicide when the pain got bad, but it wasn't legal in Canada then.

When I think about it from the perspective of all the people begging for assisted suicide in this world, it really brings home the responsibility of being the trustees of our pets' lives.

FF,
Yes. I made the decision to “say good bye “ to our 15 yr old Choc Lab in June.

I fed him, took care of him during his 6 month decline.

The Vet came to the house. Hubby was here. Hubby was so mad, upset, pouting that I had called the vet that it was “time”.

When the Vet got here Hubby tried to stay with us but kept having to walk away because he was sobbing. Hubby was very upset with me and the whole situation for a couple days.

And no, this was not Hubby’s dog. And no, Hubby was not unusually bonded with this dog.

Technically it was my sons dog given to him on his 14th bday. Son grew up and moved but dog stayed. The dog and I were always together, I took care of him, etc, etc, so I made the decision when to let him go.

I guess that’s what the problem was. Think Hubby thought in his mind I was out of line, had a heart of ice, I don’t know.

When the Vet got to our house she agreed it was “time”. That didn’t make it any easier for Hubby.

He settled down in a couple days. This was the first time this decision has had to be made in our household.

I too grieved as our Lab went downhill those last 6 months.

Glad you posted your story.

Yesterday afternoon we had to say "goodbye" to our 17 year old cat who we had since she was 5 weeks old. What a sweetie she was, never had to say "no" to her, she was a Maine Coon tortie color. Lot of wonderful memories of her :)

Has anyone here ever run into a situation where you knew it was time to say good-bye but someone in your family didn't? That they weren't seeing the same suffering that you were seeing. Where if the pet ate a teaspoon of food, that means the pet was going to recover, even though the Vet said the pet was seriously ill?

My sig other had me so angry over this situation. He didn't want to let her go, he thought she would improve. Yes, she still did some things out of routine, but those were just moments out of the day, the rest of the day was heartbreaking. I finally had to tell sig other that he was being selfish with what he was doing. He eventually agreed. He's a basket-case right now, can't stop crying, his grieving is so different from mine. I did my grieving during the past couple of months when I saw that she was failing. The Vet recently spotted stomach cancer.

It's tough when the household has elderly pets. Just this past June we said good-bye to another cat, who was 18, she had a second stroke that did too much damage. She was in the Animal ER ICU, hooked up to breathing tubes, etc. which did make it a bit easier to say "now is the time".

Get dog a square of fake grass, place by the front door and steal a fire hydrant. You will need a big wrench and some WD40 to loosen the nuts. better take the wheelbarrow as they look pretty heavy. Also take dog (on a fine day) to act as a decoy. Oh and a feather duster so you can tell the nice officer that you were just dusting it as a public service.

Okay. Our options are:

1. Stay home
2. Wear a coat
3. Get wet

Dog wishes it to be understood that none of the above is acceptable. Dog demands further and better options. Why can the control-freak human who is always saying "do this do that come here stop down idiot dog" not bring a halt to this incessant rain, then? Hm? Yah. Not so big and clever then, eh?

Pepita...I have never heard of Simon's Cat Channel but it sounds good and I'll be sure to check it out.Thanks!

Anyone else follow the Simon's Cat channel on the internet? When I'm down I just watch a few of the animations and soon feel better!

Dorianne...I'll bet your babies become best friends in no time. My babies,Toots,Trouble,Lovee,
Bootsie,Odom and Precious send good night hugs to Carmella and Bruce and hope they have good cat dreams tonight~nite!

Oh yeah....they are Carmella and Bruce, respectively. :-)

@luckylu - well, the kitten is having a good time! My girl is only just learning to tolerate him, lol. But he really wants her to be his friend! She does have an escape from his exuberance....she goes into mom's room when she wants to be left alone, and he won't go in there unless I do. I don't know how they worked out that mom's room is a "sick room," but they respect it.

I brought the big carpeted climbing gym over from my place for them. Currently she is dozing on the bottom and he is zonked out on the top platform. I really hope they become BFFs! :-D

Hi Dorianne.....How kind of you to get your Tabby a playmate and it's an all black kitten...I bet the 2 of them are having a lot of good times together~

Oh hi everyone! I have been reading this thread and wanting to join in. Me and my 13-year old girl tabby started staying with mom this past spring. At the beginning of October I adopted a little boy kitten, all black and a tiny bit fluffier than the short haired cats I've always had. Partly to keep her company - it's pretty boring here for her. (Mom lives on the 6th floor overlooking a mall and a couple of busy roads....nothing natural and no wildlife for kitty to look at.) And partly because I was getting so depressed and feeling isolated doing this caregiving. The girl is ALMOST over being mad at me for doing this!  But at least it's keeping her tiny little brain occupied....

Our Anniversary is on Valentine's Day.We got married on that day because Mom and Dad got married that day and I wanted to start a tradition and hoped that if I had a girl,she would get married that day but we didn't have any kids.Somehow,wev'e survived together over 30 years.Which is a miracle.

Send, good news about Charley. I hope he has found his forever home.

Speaking of anniversaries..........Hubs and I were so busy moving that we both forgot ours this year. I still have his card and haven't signed it yet. :)

Send....I'm SO happy that Charley was adopted!That's wonderful and whoever got him,is really lucky...And I hope you and dH have a really nice Anniversary.You were wise to remind him....

Peanuts, they didn't take any from the porch, by the time we got home, just now, and the sun will be gone in an hour.  There are probably more squirrels on their way....named Bonkers, Nutter, and just plain Insanity.
Dh and I went to check on Charley, who has already been adopted-they say Border Collies are very popular.  How can I be sad that he has a home?  I wanted a photo of him after he was all cleaned up and bright-eyed.
We were talking about our upcoming anniversary and maybe going out to dinner, sitting on a patio-type restaurant. It all sounded too hard to find the time. I told hubs that I was not at all sure we would still be married by then. He laughed, saying it is only 6 days away.

I'll bet that was "Crackers","Nutjob's" cousin.I know she was coming to visit him soon.They were going shopping for some new Fall nuts.I bet she'd Love a snack if she's still waiting on "Nutjob"" to come home.Got anything for her Send?

Can you just wait an hour?
A squirrel came to the front porch at 1:00 p.m.
It peered into the screen door.
Aggressive much?
This was not even Nutjob, the squirrel I have named.

Thanks Cwillie for your cat avatar.

Love cats too! I find myself wishing for a week of Cat avatars from all cat lovers.
There are many photos, and even cat art online.

So, can we have pictures of your cats in your Avatar, or a favorite online photo, and more cat stories? I love the cat antics, and stories. Sometimes wondering if cats know more than we do.

Cat Avatar week starts now......

I have two cats to keep me sane(ish) - ginger sisters I got at six weeks old, the last of five rescue kittens from a litter of ferals who lost their mother at four weeks. They were never properly socialised, and still hide from strangers, but have learned to relax with us - unless the doorbell rings. We used to watch Frasier years ago, and every time Frasier's doorbell rang they'd be off at top speed down the long corridor to hide under the saggiest bit of my ancient saggy mattress (now long defunct), and God help anyone who got in the way. They'd sleep inside the gas heater (switched off of course), in the tiny space between the gas cylinder and the wall of the heater - took me ages to find where they'd gone - and wave their claws and hiss if anyone so much as looked at them. Funny and sad at the same time. I still have the scars from catching them to take to the vet to be inoculated and spayed - its amazing how strong a small desperate kitten can be, and how hard it can bite. However, all that is now behind us. The fat one will sit with (or rather on) my Mum on the sofa (poor Mum, a small thin lady pinned to the sofa by a large furry feline!) and lick whatever skin is handiest. The smaller one proudly presented me with a dying sparrow the other day. They both fill up with biscuits and water, go out into the yard and eat spider-grass, and then come in to vomit lavishly and in several places on the carpets (I learned long ago that cream carpets were an impossible dream - we have old Persian rugs that don't show the stains). Not to mention on the bed, and in my shoes, and once very nearly on the computer keyboard... Yeesh! But I would never part with them - they make my day, every day.

Ff, An amazing cat story!

Been back and forth to the new Vet for my aging two felines. Really like this new Vet :) Now I am back in caregiver mode. My male cat decided after watching over his sister for a couple of weeks that that was enough.

The cat with the thyroid problem is still losing weight, not a good sign. Vet did a sonogram, either its a bad infection in her stomach or it is cancer. MORE PILLS !! This time I needed to wrap her in a towel so that sig other would shove the pills down her throat.

Found some senior "soup" type cat food that is easier to eat... they come in packets. Of course, now they won't eat anything else.... [sigh].

Our wild child sees the Vet tomorrow for his follow-up glaucoma eye issue. And while there I will have the Vet check his head as it looked like he had a disagreement with a bird and lost the argument. Probably was a crow, as the cat's collar was taken, which was shiny. The boy never has realized that not everyone wants to be his friend.... [sigh].

littlemisskitty...Your cat's are so lucky to have you and you them.They sound like they have alot of fun.
I havve an old male cat and a MaMa cat with 3 of her kittens..They have alot of fun too.
I don't know what I'd do without mine either.Cat's are awesome!

I have a 18 year old cat, a 3 year old cat and a 2 year old cat, all rescued. (I collected cats since my mom dies as it gives me someone in life who loves me and never complains about me no matter what I do and prefers my company and doesn't yell, "GET OUT OF HERE" when I am tending them.)

My 18 year old cat knows just where to sit at dinner time. She's so smart. If she smells a sea food meal or a chicken meal, she runs over to sit under grandma's table. She knows that grandma is a terrible eater always dropping food on the floor so like a dog, she sits and waits for the food to fall, it always does, and she gobbles it up. It always makes me laugh to see how excited she is for falling food.

My three and two year old cats like to run and play chase. It makes me laugh to see them running around the house knocking things over playing hide and seek. The cats will hide behind things even though we can see them so we know the other can see them but they dont care. They hide behind trash cans, people's chairs, under tables, behind chairs, on top of shelves, etc and wait for the other cat to come find them. My 3 year old is too anxious and always jumps out before the 2 year old who is willing to sit all day under a bed, waiting for it to be quiet to come out. She always wins every time but that doesn't stop them from jumping about. My favorite thing ot watch is when Annabelle jumps up on a shelf hiding from Willow who heard her and knows she's there. Just when Annabelle's butt wiggles to ponce, Willow always scares her either jumping up or yelling or something to make Annabelle jump and run away. It's so funny to watch.

I love my cats and need them to keep me sane in my insane life.