One of my cats passed away last weekend. She was 19 years old. So please give me a bit of time to get back into the swing of things.
Her passing was expected given her age as cats don't typically live that long. She was also pretty inbred and had a lot of Norwegian forest cat (average life expectancy according to google is 15 years) in her. I don't really know how she kept going on as long as she did.
She hated to be handled, but if she took a liking to you, she'd sit and sleep on your lap for hours on end, which resulted in half of her being brushed (she had that forest cat undercoat and hated to be brushed) and the other half being matted.
Towards the end she needed a lot of extra care, including with washing. Turns out you can get dry cat shampoo and she loved that. I also bought her licky treats when she couldn't really chew any more.
The night before she passed she ate loads, including Gourmet cat mousse. She did have breakfast the morning she passed. When people started questioning why I wouldn't put her down because she looked rough, she was still eating and purring and happy. A 19 year old cat is going to look rough. My response was when she no longer had any quality of life, I would have her put down.
Me and my son think she had a stroke after breakfast that morning and that was the call. I made the appointment to take her, but she passed in the taxi on the way.
Her passing was expected given her age as cats don't typically live that long. She was also pretty inbred and had a lot of Norwegian forest cat (average life expectancy according to google is 15 years) in her. I don't really know how she kept going on as long as she did.
She hated to be handled, but if she took a liking to you, she'd sit and sleep on your lap for hours on end, which resulted in half of her being brushed (she had that forest cat undercoat and hated to be brushed) and the other half being matted.
Towards the end she needed a lot of extra care, including with washing. Turns out you can get dry cat shampoo and she loved that. I also bought her licky treats when she couldn't really chew any more.
The night before she passed she ate loads, including Gourmet cat mousse. She did have breakfast the morning she passed. When people started questioning why I wouldn't put her down because she looked rough, she was still eating and purring and happy. A 19 year old cat is going to look rough. My response was when she no longer had any quality of life, I would have her put down.
Me and my son think she had a stroke after breakfast that morning and that was the call. I made the appointment to take her, but she passed in the taxi on the way.
Towards the end, when she stopped going up the stairs, I made her a giant plate of spaghetti because that was her favourite. I also moved her bed and blanket to the room of shame and put it right near her food dish because she loved to eat so much.
And yes, just as I had trolls telling me off for washing my geriatric cat, people did tell me off for giving her a plate of spaghetti when it was obvious she didn't have much longer to live. For these people, go fuck yourself. I even stated in the spaghetti post on social media that she wasn't going to live much longer and always enjoyed stealing spaghetti most of all. It was given to her for her own happiness at the end. I have to report each and every one of you to my solicitor, it is a pain in the arse and you might end up with a criminal record so think before you comment.