Fifth Avenue Forum

cats are good, and death is bad. sorry mamae

We had to let our oldest boy, Bruce, go last Monday. Even though he was almost 17, and in end stage kidney failure, it was one of the single hardest days of my life. I don't think I've felt normal since. Just really freakin' sad. The house is somehow quieter and bigger now.

We have his little sister, our tripod baby, still at home. She loved him so much. My heart breaks for her, now by herself, wondering where he is.

So sorry to hear this, mamaemeritus. 17 years is a terrific run for any cat.

Very sorry for your loss.

I'm sorry for you and your family, mamae. That's one of the worst feelings in the whole world.

son of a dodint

Sorry for your loss mamae

Thanks, guys. It just sucks out loud. I miss him so much. We are big time animals>>>>>>>people people, so it's been really hard for us.

There was a big age gap between Bruce & Annatha Christie (11 years) and she was very attached to him. She clearly loves other animals. We had talked about when the time came for Bruce, we would have to get another animal so that she wouldn't get lonely. But I can't even think about it right now, as much as it breaks my heart that she is alone.

So I'm all kinds of torn up inside.

We didn’t get another kitten/cat when our second to last passed because our last cat was 19 years old already. Yours is around 6-7, right? When you’re ready, I think you’d be okay adding a new fur ball to the family.

Yeah, she'll be 6 (we think - she was a stray) this month. My fear is letting it go too long, and she gets used to being the only cat and hones in on the natural solitary tendencies of felines. Then we upset the applecart trying to bring a new one on board.

Yeah, she'll be 6 (we think - she was a stray) this month. My fear is letting it go too long, and she gets used to being the only cat and hones in on the natural solitary tendencies of felines. Then we upset the applecart trying to bring a new one on board.

I don’t know about your area, but some of the rescues near me will allow you to give up the cat if they don’t work out in your household, no questions asked. Some will even let you foster them before adoption to make sure it’s a good fit.

We’re adopting another kitten in a few weeks, and since it’s a female, we’re not sure how she’ll be around two brothers who play constantly. I hope they all get along, but if not, we may have to go another route.

We're sort of in that same boat. I've born the primary responsibility of caring for the doggos over the years (meaning I'm the one that schleps them to and from daycare and such), and my car is the one that has perma-dog aroma and embedded pet hair and such. When we say goodbye to Lily, I'm going to want to take a break from the dog business for a while, but I'm sure that pause will be a lot shorter in duration that I'm imagining it in my head as I type this.

My brother and SIL wanted to take a break from dogs when their last one passed. They lasted like 12 days or something like that.

My brother and SIL wanted to take a break from dogs when their last one passed. They lasted like 12 days or something like that.

We lasted less than a week. Granted, this was partially due to timing (four strays had just been rescued). We wanted to take a bit of a break, but rescuing two kittens felt like a good thing, so we made an exception. Still miss our girl, though. The kittens don’t really cuddle with me when they sleep like she did.

I would like the companionship of another dog. But I can't.

So sorry for your loss mama

I would like the companionship of another dog. But I can't.

Don't even want to think about that decision we will be facing (hopefully) a few years down the road. We will probably get another goldendoodle because they are so good with our children and the lack of shedding is wonderful.

But yeah, I hear you man.

Reposting this. Gets me every time.

Love it. And even moreso because it's Jimmy Stewart.

I recently picked up a "Furminator" deshedding brush for my cats, and I have to say it's the best brush I've ever used. It's supposed to reach through the topcoat to remove undercoat hair, and from my experience that's exactly what it does. It gets way more hair off the cats than the conventional brush I was using before. And both my cats like being brushed by it. I now use the Furminator to get undercoat and then use the other brush to get the last bits of loose hair off the surface. It wasn't cheap at close to $30 on Amazon, but I think it's worth it. They have models for both dogs and cats in multiple sizes and coat lengths.

http://www.furminator.com/products/deshed.aspx

My family and I volunteered over the last couple days at our local humane society because of the sudden influx of animals for whatever reason. If any of you have done this work or are doing it, I take my hat off to you good people. That is not an easy job and it was wonderful to see people truly caring for these animals. Well done planet earth, you showed me how good humans can be. Bravo

We're on the opposite side of that - rescuing cats. One more next Friday.

We're on the opposite side of that - rescuing cats. One more next Friday.

That's awesome, it was so hard not coming home with another one or three. I think we'll be back soon with another addition.

The one objectively good thing about COVID has been that there has been a huge spike in animal adoptions. Not sure about elsewhere, but here in Los Angeles there were multiple shelters that were straight up emptied out in April and May; they literally had zero animals in-house.