Cat Love -NOT!

[kransden]

This is a total petty B----.

I have 2 16 yr old cats and one 2 yr old. I love my elderly girls, but they barf on a not-quite-weekly basis. They will miss their clean, not dirty, litter box a couple of times a month. One is toothless and has to be fed only wet food. She can only be left alone overnight using the special cat feeder. I tried a pet sitter but it caused so much anxiety, they had gastro-intestinal distress all over the house. So I am trapped at my house.
To sum it up, they are a PITA, not enough put them to sleep, but enough to annoy the heck out of me. The vet says there is nothing I can do they are just old. We have special food.

Well I am not going to be trapped by the cat this summer like last summer! I have a friend that is dying, and I would like to spend some time with him. My dd would like to see her relatives too.

So I have 2 choices send the toothless one to her demise or send her to be kenneled. She is a Siamese and wouldn't like that choice for most of the summer. She also has only 30% kidney function. So techincally the end is near, but knowing her, she could live like this until 20. So no matter what I do it is a bad choice. :(
Thanks for listening.

[love_a_latte]

We were just in that same boat, only with one cat instead of two. We dealt with it as long as we could, which meant lots and lots of carpet soaking and scrubbing when she didn't make it to the litter box...mostly in our bedroom. One day I came home to find that she had jumped onto our bed, the one with a new mattress, and went to the bathroom all over a pile of clean, unfolded laundry. I know that she didn't mean to be causing so much trouble, but it was just too much. So feeling like the worst person in the world I took her to the vet the next day and, as you put it, sent her to her demise. I held her the entire time, told her that it was OK, and kept the crying to a minimum till she was gone. Then the floodgates opened. It was an awful day, the next day was pretty bad, but it got better faster then I thought it would.
We don't go through the house with one eye open for wet spots anymore, which has been such a relief.
There are no easy choices in that situation. They become such a part of the family that it is really hard to make the call. I hope you can figure out something that will work for your family, and that you will have peace with your decision.

ETA~ That is so not a petty b****. Cats are hard when they are old, but at that point they have been around so long that they are really, really loved.

[specialp]

I so feel for you. You won't be failing her if you decide it's best (for all involved) to let her go. Really and truly.

We have the same problem with an elderly cat (18 yr) that DH is uber attached to. He is mainly confined to an easy to clean area unless we are home to watch him, but still . . . I had the talk with DH about putting the cat to sleep last Friday. I love this cat (he was mine before I met DH), but in these moments I just get angry with him for something that isn't his fault. Then, inevitably, I get angry at myself for getting angry at the cat. Just a bad cycle for all involved. DH isn't ready, but I've come to peace with it.

[jal]

...Cats are hard when they are old, but at that point they... are really, really loved.

I just hope my children will one day be able to say that about me.

[Ceepa]

I grew up with pets who always seemed to live forever, consequently there were a lot of failing health issues to deal with. But as pp said, they were family members and we just did the best we could for them. It's a dificult situation. :hug:

[shawnandangel]

I'm having the same issue, except with my dog who is lying next to me. She is 10 years old and pees and poops all over the house. She's been to the vet so many times about this and every time "its a bladder infection" . . .how does that explain the poop?

DH is sick of it. He wants to put her to sleep, but other than her overactive peeing and pooping she is a healthy dog. She still plays and gets around fine. It is causing a lot of grief in our household.

So off we go next week - to the vet - AGAIN. I think a big problem is she is allergic to a lot of medicines so it is hard to find something to treat her.

I think if we didn't have hardwood floors and had carpet we would have had to put her down a few months ago. I've had to get rid of all my area rugs. ugh, but I love her so.

[lovin2shop]

Big hugs, we went through this very recently. Our 16 year old cat was puking almost daily and missing the litter box almost as frequently. He also had a lot of anxiety and was just not living a good life anymore. We finally had to make the decision to put him down. It was very hard at first, but I think that we all have peace now.

[Momof3Labs]

Agreed that this is so hard. We have a 13ish year old dog who we just started diapering as she will leak urine while laying down. We've only had her a year but she fits in nicely with our family and DS2 adores her. Part of me wants to let her go, but part of me feels selfish for not wanting to deal with another living being in diapers. For now, the weather is getting nicer so she's spending more time outside (which she prefers to wearing diapers), so I guess that helps us defer the decision for a while.

[fivi2]

We have a similar issue. I had two elderly cats. Last year one of them started vomiting and missing the litterbox frequently. She ended getting very ill, then her kidneys failed, so we put her to sleep. We were upset, but honestly I don't know if I could have taken it much longer. We had to completely gut the room she spent much of her time in (new flooring, new baseboards, even patch the wall in places).

Now our other cat (they were siblings) is starting to show the same issues. It is not healthy for any of us to be in a urine soaked house. I am not sure what I am going to do with this one!