You Shouldn't Have to Say Goodbye

By the time this is published my cat will be dead. It's not easy to make the decision to end your pet's life. It sucks, and I hate that word, but it does.

She is/was almost 16 and 1/2 years old. For a pet, I know this is a fairly long life. She's been peeing and pooping outside of her litter box for almost a year now. She barfs up her food at least once a week. She yaks hairballs every other day.

I took her to the vet almost a year ago about the elimination outside the litter box. We tried the medication which caused her to have diarrhea. The vet told us to stop it. We bought a new box. We moved the box. We moved her food. We have done everything.

I am writing this in the present tense because she isn't gone yet. I made the appointment today (November 14) and I have cried on and off since.

It's silly, really. I know she's had a great, long life. SIXTEEN and 1/2 years! And for a cat I never wanted (I inherited her from a friend) she's grown on me a lot. I never was particularly fond of cats since I nearly had a cat claw in my eye as a kid. I thought they were stuck-up PITAs.

Chat was different from the start. She had fleas so we had to treat that. She looked pitiful in the bathtub of our college apartment. Then she had ear mites, then she needed to be spayed...then declawed. All of this fell to my roommate, who was her owner.

Then, about 6 months later, circumstances led to me taking Chat as my pet. (Chat means cat in French and is pronounced like "shah.")

Within a few months I had taught Chat to come when she was called, and to sit and then lay down for a treat.When I awoke, (if I was home) she'd be asleep on my chest. If I was not home during the evenings, she'd have pooped on my carpet.

So she's always expressed her distaste if she needed to do so.

At this point, she's ruined multiple carpets and medication hasn't been the answer. We have tried everything I can think of to help her change her bad behaviors but nothing has worked.

I already miss her, and by the time you read this, she will be gone.

Still Struggling With the Cat

Our cat is still with us. (I'm sure everyone is thrilled with the cat status updates!)  I just don't know when the time is right that it is best to let her go. Ideally, (which seems an odd word choice) she will pass on her own time, without too much pain and too much more destruction of our carpeting. My husband's patience has long run out on the cat. Mine is getting very close. She's 16 years old so I know she's probably not long for this world, but it's irritating to clean up cat pee and poop from outside the litter box. I thought one of the best parts of having a cat is they did their business in a box.  Not so when they start to get old I guess.

I never ever WANTED a cat. I took her on when my college roommate could no longer keep her and she was actually a pretty social cat. She let me touch her paws with no problem, she greeted people at the door instead of running to hide. She learned to sit and lay down for a treat. (She doesn't do this anymore though!)

When I first took her home to my parents' house after I graduated from college (and learned I inherited a cat) I woke up almost every morning with her perched on my chest. I almost had her trained to come when she was called. I tried to teach her to roll over, but she never did master that.

I know I will miss this furry face one day soon.

First Cool Zebras Scheduled Chat Tonight!

I've had a good time chatting with people the two times that Damselfly has set up a chat room so I thought I'd see how it might work to set up a chat room for my blog readers and Twitter followers.

So, I've set up a chat room. It will be open all the time, but I will have occasional scheduled chats so that we might get more people involved. Tonight at 8:30 Central time will be the first scheduled chat! Hope you can stop by!

Here's the link to the room.

Anyone is welcome to join us at this point. If we get some party poopers I will reassess then.

I think it will be fun to chat. I'd love to have more of a dialogue than always talking at people!