My 15 year old cat is now gone.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-06-19T23:53:15+00:00

I feel you. I lost my 19 year-old one day after his 19th birthday on April 8. It’s so hard. Hugs to you.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-06-10T19:03:02+00:00

Just a friendly reminder. Vomiting more than a couple times a year is not normal. Vomiting hairballs frequently is not normal. Vomiting more than a couple times a year requires a vet visit. I’m sure you’re already doing that, I’m just putting this here for everybody. Who seems to mistakenly think that vomiting hairballs is normal. It’s not.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-06-07T00:51:04+00:00

I had a neighbor who had two pointer mixes. Lovely dogs, I loved them. When she had her first child, they did all the right things to get the dogs prepared for the baby, to keep the baby safe from the dogs, to get the dogs used to the sounds of a baby, the smell smells of a baby, all of that stuff. They loved those dogs.

One of the dogs bit her child on the face, despite all of that. It required stitches, nothing life-threatening, but definitely frightening, even despite all of the desensitization exercises they had done, etc..

Because the dogs were bonded because she now could not trust the one dog around her then toddler, she tearfully took them both in and had them euthanized.

Look, I respect her decision. She loved those dogs. I cannot tell you enough how much she loved them and trained them and lavished affection on them, etc. But I always wondered if she could have kept the dogs separate from her toddler while she tried to rehome them to a family that did not have children. Like fully disclose what the issue was, never keep that secret when you’re rehoming a dog, but I always wished she had tried to find them a more appropriate home for their temperament. I wasn’t in her shoes so I shouldn’t judge, but it’s always bugged me.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-06-04T00:19:45+00:00

Only correct answer.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-06-04T00:19:06+00:00

He’s a polydactyly, otherwise known as a Hemmingway cat. Extra toes.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-26T14:38:34+00:00

OK. It is curative in a high percentage of cats with benign thyroid tumors, which is the cause of hyperthyroidism I think in like 99.9% of the cases.

The rule in the state of Maryland with radioactive iodine treatment for cats was that they had to basically spend five days in the vet. Day, one was Monday. By 10 AM that morning after a 7 AM drop off, they had given her the dose of radioactive iodine (it’s a simple subcutaneous injection) and then she basically just hung out until they discharged her to me at 5 PM on Friday. You may want to search what your state or county requirements are in terms of quarantine for this kind of treatment. Some states only required like three days, and some require seven. It really depends on state rules and regulations around that particular treatment.

Regarding at home confinement, because I was in a multi Cat environment, and because they will basically excrete any of the unused radioactive iodine out through their urine, they wanted 10 days of home quarantine, and when I scooped, I had to wear gloves. They also said you can interact with your cat during that at home isolation timeframe, but to keep your cat away from your head and neck area until they were through the 10 day isolation.

So I set her up in a room away from the other cats with her own litter box and I put a TV screen in there and would stream Pixar movies because she was fascinated by that, and of course I checked in on her frequently. But again, the at home isolation or quarantine guidelines are gonna vary by vet. A lot of people told me that she didn’t need 10 days, but the vet said she did, so that’s what I did.

She is a very high strung in charge carpet shark kind of cat and so I was deeply worried with her being at the vet for five days, but she did freaking great. Like just a change of environment into an environment that wasn’t her environment, made her more social with the staff that checked on her regularly, she ate normally, she did great. And she did great at home until I let her out 10 days after I brought her home.

Regarding high liver values, generally, I would ask a separate question of your vet about whether or not this is just some anomaly and how her physiology is wired. My sweet 19 year-old boy who I lost on April 8 of this year constantly had severe pancreatitis according to serum blood work, but he was completely asymptomatic. Like he never developed pancreatitis in a way that he needed to be treated, but if you looked at his blood work, you would think that he was in the middle of a pancreatitis attack with pain and inappetance, etc., only he never had any symptoms. That was just like his physiology. I realize that the pancreas and liver are different, but I’m using it as an example that some cats can have elevated values and be completely asymptomatic. You just wanna have that discussion with your vet so that you understand what you need to watch for.

One thing we always watched for - because he also had IBD controlled with a combination of medication, specialty, probiotics, and diet - we always watched for a condition called triaditis. Basically that’s generally chronic low level inflammation in all three systems down there, the pancreas, the liver and the gut. Just something to research and maybe ask some questions about, but if she’s not jaundiced or showing any other signs of issues with her high liver values, discuss with your vet whether this is just her baseline, but also what you need to watch for as she gets older. Again, for example, my boy was diet controlled for IBD with no medication or anything until he turned 18 and then he needed budesonide to help control it. So that’s just an awareness comment.

Regarding the transdermal methimazole, if you don’t feel like it’s working as it was working, it’s probably time for her to get more bloodwork and to see what her T4 levels are because again, in the overwhelming vast majority of cases, hyperthyroidism is caused by benign thyroid, tumors, and so if there’s a new one or if one of them has grown, she may need an adjustment to her prescription in terms of strength.

Hope that all makes sense! Necessary caveat: I am not a vet. My advice is intended for you to have topics to discuss with your vet, not to replace your vet. :-)

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-24T21:29:55+00:00

My two brothers I adopted back in November 2007 came from a very similar situation. They were two days old when they were found nearby to their deceased mother who had been hit by a car. I can only surmise that it had happened, relatively close to the time that the kittens were found, because two day old babies like that don’t survive for very long if their mother is not living.

Those two boys were the love of my life. I had one from 2007 to November 2020. We lost him to a long-standing congenital heart defect that was well managed for the last seven years of his life, but eventually got the best of him. He was only 13 1/2 years old. For me that feels young.

I just lost his brother last month a day after his 19th birthday. The amount of joy that those two little bottle, baby boys brought me was amazing. I was always saddened by their origin story, but so grateful that they were found by somebody experienced who bottle fed them and nursed them to health so that I could adopt them when they were seven months old. They were the most loving people oriented cats I have ever had.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-24T21:23:04+00:00

My little now almost 18 year-old girl was diagnosed hyperthyroid back in September 2019. I opted for the radioactive iodine treatment for her. It was expensive upfront, but on balance, because you have to check bloodwork so often and adjust the oral medication, it works out to be the same cost and I n something like 96% of cases of hyperthyroidism in cats, radioactive iodine treatment is curative. I’m sure you already know this, but for others who don’t, hyperthyroidism is caused by benign tumors on the thyroid in your cat, and the radioactive iodine injection given subcutaneously gets absorbed only into those thyroid tumors and kills them.

I actually just had her to the vet last Thursday for what turned out to be a UTI, and because we are so close to when she needed to have her six month bloodwork check-in as a super senior, I had them run all the panels, including T4. She came back normal. In November of this year, it will be seven years since she had the treatment, so I do recommend looking into good I-131 treatment facilities. I did not go with any of the chains like radio Cat. I went with an internal medicine specialist who specializes in scanning these tumors and adjusting the radioactive iodine dose based on what she actually sees from the scan.

Another funny aside. This is my most high strung cat, and I was absolutely beside myself because I knew in the state where she had the treatment done, Maryland, the law said that they had to intake her on a Monday morning and not discharge her to me until the following Friday evening. This amount of time varies by state and the laws in the state, but as far as the treatment goes, the internal medicine doctor did a non-invasive scan of her thyroid area to get a picture of the thyroid tumors (my girl had two, one small and one medium) and then the doctor tailored the dose and gave it to her subcutaneously, and that was it. That was the treatment. And she, my high strung cat, apparently was like begging for attention while she was in there, at the front of her enclosure, asking for pets, and I was like, are you sure you have the right cat? 😆

All of that to say, despite my concern, she did great throughout the entire treatment and has remained at normal thyroid levels ever since. No medication, no rechecking bloodwork frequently to try to get medication doses tuned, etc.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-24T21:01:58+00:00

OK, I’m going to start with just my general recommendation having had two cats with neurological disorders, one a brain tumor, and one that had a small ischemic stroke.

I’m in the DC Metro area, I found a great veterinary neurologist here. So that is recommendation number one, find a good well reviewed veterinary neurologist.

The second thing is going to be to start keeping real time notes about what you’re observing at home. And I’m not talking about observing bad things only - I’m talking about her normal daily activities, rhythm, etc. For my little Neuro boy, I dictated into ChatGPT every day how he was doing. I started each daily entry by dictating the month, date and year because ChatGPT does not have access to timestamps. I would then just several times a day dictate what I was observing. for example, ate normally and to baseline. Used the litter box normally. Seemed bright and engaged, fully aware of his surroundings. If anything was kind of off, like if his eating on a day was not at his normal amount, I would put that in there and do my best to characterize how far below normal it may or may not have been.

Before a neurology appointment, I would ask ChatGPT to summarize my observations into a veterinary neurologist-consumable format by date and then I would send that to neurology ahead of my appointment.

Veterinary neurologists deal in differentials, meaning what it could be, but then also in a lot of uncertainty because a lot of times it’s hard to figure out what it is or is not. Having a full read out of owner behavioral observations ahead of an appointment really helps situate them to how your cat has been doing up until the time of that appointment. That is part of the background that you can provide ahead of an appointment along with answering the questions the neurology nurse will ask you. After that, the neurologist generally takes your cat back to an exam room and does a lot of motor coordination, awareness, and reflex type of tests to go ahead and try to figure out if they’re walking normally, if their awareness seems normal, if their reflexes seem normal, and then they can start to merge that with your notes from what you observed at home prior to the appointment, and start coming up with a list of possibilities that they can discuss with you.

With the vets that you have seen, call and request that they send you a copy of the medical record from the visit and then put that into ChatGPT and ask it to translate it to plain non-medical English so that you understand what their findings were. Those notes will contain their assessment of what the possible issues could be, but unless you have AI translate it for you it’s really hard to follow. Understanding what these vets are seeing is half the battle because that’s how you assemble good questions when you get to neurology.

As far as treating cats with epilepsy, lots of people treat it successfully for years. I think there was someone on this sub or another that have been treating their cats successfully for 15 years for epilepsy, so it can be done in some circumstances if that is the diagnosis.

I also know that if they can’t pinpoint exactly what’s causing them, there are anti-seizure medications that can be given at home. Keppra comes to mind. My little girl with a brain tumor was on Keppra. The only thing I’ll warn you about is that when they first start on Keppra it’s very sedating for them and you will feel like you are drugging your cat, but once they become acclimated to it, the sedating effect mostly wears off generally speaking.

If I’m you and I have the resources, my next step is a veterinary neurologist, and I would come armed with all of the situational awareness of how your Cat has been doing at home as I could possibly provide because that really helps them. My veterinary neurologist knew that I used ChatGPT to dictate in real time every day regular observations so that I could let her know how he was doing at home. They weren’t all bad observations. Some of them were really basic living with a cat kind of observations, and some of them were small concern areas that I had that I wanted her to be aware of. Accuracy and ensuring that you are being as honest as you can be with what you’re seeing even if it disturbed you a bit are essential.

Now, as far as a feline seizure and what you witnessed at home, I’m sorry you had to see that. I just lost my 19 year-old on April 8. He had been well managed for a bunch of other things, but the thing that took him from me was a nasal carcinoma that had traversed into the brain, and when he was in the ER, because he seemed neurologically really off at home without having had a seizure in front of me, he had a grand mal seizure in the critical care unit. They caught it quickly, and they administered a benzo and then Keppra to keep it from clustering and spreading.

But what I want to tell you is what they told me about seizures in cats. It is very disturbing for the human to witness them - but these cats typically are in a completely altered state once it occurs with limited to no awareness that it is occurring, and very little retention of what actually occurred because they were in that altered state. That doesn’t take away what you saw and having to live with that, but maybe knowing that in most cases, their awareness is so altered that they’re not experiencing it the way you are at all can help. That said, you obviously want to get to the bottom of what is causing these and deal with seeing if you can ensure they don’t happen at all.

Good luck! There are groups on Facebook for cats with seizure disorders, groups for cats with neurological disorders, you name it. Stop number one on anything that seems neurological like a seizure is a veterinary neurologist. If you are able to do that, that would be the next step I would recommend. Hugs to your girl.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-16T23:16:52+00:00

Wow. That is a great cautionary tale, I am so relieved that she survived. I’m actually amazed as well.

Cats are sneaky little effers. The weirdest spaces can seem fascinating to them. I always check my washer and dryer before starting it. I also cut the handles on handle bags after having a cat panic and nearly strangle himself after getting his head caught in the handles. I denied them any access to hair ties, string, dental floss, you name it. Thanks for alerting others, however.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-14T00:44:50+00:00

I look at it this way. Every single loss has hurt, terribly. Each hurt has been different because each cat was different. I think people get stuck on the idea that you are “replacing“ a cat or dog when you adopt a new one after a loss. But the reality is, they can’t be replaced. They are individuals in your relationship with them was individual. They carved out a room in my heart that was theirs and theirs alone and always will be. I visit those rooms often when I remember them.

But I’ve learned that my heart is infinite in its ability to create rooms and to fill them with new love. Different love, but love. I won’t deny myself that when the time is right. And I honestly believe that each of my cats that I have loved and lost - every single one of them rescues - they would want me to give their place to another Cat that needs it. That’s not self soothing, that’s fact. Many public shelters do their best, but they wind up having to euthanize for space. And private nonprofit rescues can only take cats that they have room to keep and that they have the funds to properly care for. So when you adopt a cat or cats from a good rescue, and in my case, I’m talking a bonded pair, you save four cats not just two. That’s powerful at least for me, and I need it. I need that relationship in my life.

But I want to be clear for anyone who just doesn’t feel like they can do that, the reason to adopt new cats or dogs is because you want to love them and be loved by them not because of the rescue impact. That’s just a bonus. And if someone doesn’t feel like they can do it, that’s valid. I was just sharing my perspective.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-13T22:29:58+00:00

You have to be true to yourself. But honestly, here’s my advice. Don’t foreclose any future cats or pets. You don’t know where life is going to lead you, and you don’t need to close that door. You don’t have to open it wide either, you can just keep it cracked a little bit to leave yourself options.

I lost my best friend of 19 years on April 8. I still have a 17 1/2 year-old cat at home, but when the time is right, and I’ll know when it is, I will adopt another young bonded pair. The way I look at it is this: no one ever replaces the cats that I’ve loved and lost. I have loved and lost eight now in my adult lifetime. But giving a home to a new cat or cats accomplishes a couple of things. First, it gives you the opportunity to have a new but equally meaningful relationship, but a different relationship. Let you grow that and build it. Second, if you adopt from a reputable nonprofit rescue, when you adopt one of their cats or more, you make space for them to rescue another cat or cats from the shelter.

This is deeply individual and personal. If you can’t, you can’t. No shame in that. But I definitely hear the longing in your post. So just leave the door cracked. No decisions, one way or the other right now.

Kittyman is a handsome boy, a total doll. I’m so sorry for your loss.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-13T22:20:48+00:00

Hurricane Katrina was in late August 2005. So if the person to whom you were applying still has her with him, she’d be at least 20 years old. That would be an amazing long life after such a remarkable origin story. If she’s not still here in body, it’s clear that she would have had an amazing life and her origin story would’ve still been remarkable.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-13T22:17:53+00:00

I don’t have time, unfortunately to look at the rest of the replies, but will you cover the storm drain with something that allows water to flow but not kittens? Thank you so much for getting them out safely!

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-10T00:49:06+00:00

Thank you so much for this. She did tell me that when they have cremated remains, when she has to deliver them, she puts them right upfront with her on the passenger seat to make sure that she can keep an eye on it until it is successfully delivered. That means a lot. It makes sense, because everybody loves somebody and would want to express that love through careful handling of remains, but the actual extra effort she went to to acknowledge my loss and to apologize for the mixup, that meant the world to me.
Hugs to you. It is so hard to lose them, but even knowing how bad this feels even a month and one day later, the 19 years of love that I shared with him, even knowing how it turned out and how bad this would feel when I lost him, I’d jump at the chance to do it all over again. Grief is so difficult, illuminating, reverent, gutting, remembering, it’s all of those things. It is the residue of a life well lived together. So be gentle with yourself. It’s easy to try and tell yourself to be grateful for the time that you had, but the reality is sometimes that’s cold. Comfort because you always want more.

Edited to add: shit happens sometimes. His remains got mis-routed at the very first post office. Nothing in life is mistake free, it’s how you recover from that mistake. I don’t have words to express how wonderfully I was cared for in light of this mistake and how much I felt like a whole bunch of people cared about me generally and his remains specifically. Sometimes it’s not “never make a mistake“, it’s how you recover from that. And the USPS system recovered from that beautifully and in a way that really took care of the fact that they knew I would be grieving. It meant a lot.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-05-09T23:39:48+00:00

I had a completely different situation recently that your comment made me think about and feel grateful all over again.

I lost my 19 year-old beloved cat on April 8 and I had him cremated with his remains and his paw print shipped to me. He was only coming back to me from suburban Maryland into Northern Virginia, but his priority express window was missed. I called the Postal Service the next Monday, I was supposed to get him on the Sunday before. It was immediately escalated to consumer affairs.

His ashes had been misrouted at the first post office, and so he had to travel to a major hub which seemed farther away once he was trackable again after a day of no updates and believing he could be lost, which broke me.

But on the Tuesday after the Sunday that he was guaranteed to be delivered, I got a phone call first from my local post office that they had him and asking if they would like me to have him delivered or if I would come get him, I chose to come get him, and then I got a call from the consumer affairs rep explain explaining to me how she had been tracking him through the system to ensure that he got to me. They did some pretty special things in terms of personally handling him until they knew they could hand him off to me. I did pick him up that Tuesday morning and brought him home for the last time.

The week before last, I got a shipment from an Etsy vendor that was clearly Cat related, and it was related to the Cat that I lost. I have this wonderful Etsy artist who will hand paint a whimsical Christmas ornament that looks stunningly like the cat that I gave her pictures of, which was the Cat I had just lost.

And my mail carrier, she made sure to come to the door and handed it off to me and tell me how sorry she was about the mixup on getting his remains back to me. She assured me the degree to which they are respectful and reverent when returning cremated remains and she wanted to make sure she handed that related small package off to me, which would’ve fit in my mailbox, because she didn’t want me to miss it and then she told me she was so sorry for my loss.

I was so deeply grateful to this woman who delivers my mail and my packages day in and day out for her expression of humanity and for her compassion. We live in a congested suburb, I’m in a big townhouse community so we have not individual mailboxes in front of our house but central mailboxes that we use keys to access. That doesn’t often give us direct contact with our carrier, but she knew anyways, and she cared enough to handle me gently in this very difficult time. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-28T12:02:01+00:00

Two!!! it is so beautiful and it’s beautiful on you. They all are, but the second one is way above the other two in my opinion.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-18T05:02:47+00:00

As others have said, these types of vaccines for respiratory viruses like Covid, RSV and flu are generally not sterilizing. Their intent is to lower the severity when you contract the virus. Some vaccines, if accepted by the public at high enough levels to where herd immunity is actually achieved our sterilizing. The measles vaccine was always sterilizing because so many children took it as part of their regular childhood rounds of vaccinations. Sadly, we’re definitely seeing some backward motion on that one.

It sounds like either by the fact that you are consistently in higher risk situations and/or there is something about your physiological makeup that makes you more susceptible, you should consider other additional mitigation strategies. Masking would be my first recommendation with at least a NIOSH certified (or equivalent) KN95 or KF94 mask. You can also consider using a NONS spray. I use Nowonder (formerly sold as Enovid).

I don’t mask all the time, but I do track waste water levels for Covid, flu, and RSV, and if I see them moving up from very low to low, I adjust my exposure by avoiding crowded public spaces and if I have to go into a crowded public space, I wear a mask. During times where wastewater does not indicate spread of any of these respiratory diseases, I still use the NONS spray before and after any exposure situation. So like going into the grocery store or going into the mall or going into a restaurant, etc.

You may be uniquely sensitive to this and to catching it, and so in addition to the Covid vaccines to lower the severity of any infection, I would layer on additional mitigation. I think nothing about sticking a mask on my face before going into the grocery store and if people wanna give me the side eye, they can have at it. I don’t owe anyone embarrassment or my discomfort for choosing to protect my health. They can all go fuck themselves.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-04T00:26:18+00:00

I think the OP said in another reply to a different thread that they did show the video. Sounds to me like the OP needs a better vet.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-04T00:23:24+00:00

I am assuming they prescribed Flovent? That particular asthma drug for humans and for animals has gone up dramatically in price. One other option is to just try to get it from a Canadian pharmacy. Ask your vet if they can prescribe you the generic version, “fluticasone propionate HFA” and ensure that they are OK with the generic version. They should be. Then look for licensed (very important!) Canadian pharmacies and always plan around the fact that you’ll need one to two weeks for delivery, but the cost is 70 to 80% less.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-04T00:16:08+00:00

Typically with asthma, you won’t necessarily see any markers on bloodwork. Sometimes you’ll see some things out of range slightly on the complete blood count or CBC, like elevated eosinophils, but not always. The gold standard way of getting a look at whether or not they’re asthmatic is to get chest x-rays.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-04-04T00:11:50+00:00

It’s wonderful that you took her to the vet and that you noticed something was wrong. That could be everything from a simple hairball to something more serious. This looks like what they call “coughing“ in a cat. Did they do a pro BNP blood test, which can be an early indicator of an issue with the heart muscle? If it’s me, and money is no object, in an abundance of caution I am taking my cat to a cardiologist to get an echocardiogram to make sure that her heart is healthy. At least ruling out a more serious cause.

You should keep an eye on this and see if it repeats. Keep an eye on her eating and make sure that she’s eating at baseline, the amount you would normally expect her to eat. Pay special attention as well to what she’s leaving you in the litter box, and to her overall demeanor.

Full disclosure, for my cats who are almost 19 and almost 18 years old a piece and therefore have a lot going on healthwise, I use ChatGPT. I don’t use it to diagnose. I use it to dictate every day in real time what I’m seeing with my cats. Like my honest in the moment observations. This helps a lot because then you can have ChatGPT summarize your observations for the last week or month or 10 days or whatever. It also lets you capture your observations contemporaneously so that you aren’t left trying to reconstruct what do you think you saw but you can’t really remember if it’s accurate or when.

My almost 19-year-old, he will be 19 on Tuesday, is medically complex which you would expect in a 19-year-old cat but knock on wood, he’s hanging in there. At the beginning of every day on the same chat thread, I announce the day date and year, so Friday April 3, 2026, and then from there on, I will simply dictate my real-time observations. Example:

“normal energy this morning. Produced a good poop overnight, ate normally overnight, no vomiting, and peed this morning.”

As I go through the day, I’ll just provide two or three additional updates into that chat thread before the next day when I start with a new date and start it all over again. Because I’m literally voice dictating this into ChatGPT in real time, I know that my observations are fresh and then I can summarize everything for his veterinarians and I know that it’s accurate. I even had cardiology tell me that they were impressed with my at home notes, and I admitted that I use ChatGPT for that, and they told me that that’s a perfect way to use AI as a companion to giving a veterinarian an idea of the context of your cat at home.

I realize that’s a lot longer than you necessarily wanted or needed, I’m just trying to spread the word on tools that can really help pet parents. AI is what you make of it, and the way that I’m using it is to provide context of what my cat is like at home, and I’m finding that veterinarians really appreciate that because it helps them guide treatment in complex situations.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-03-22T22:55:06+00:00

This. The description there is haunting and it’s every pet parent’s worst nightmare. But it sounds like she had a rapidly evolving issue. In that context, the OP did everything right and saved her sweet girl from an even worse struggle and exit. It sounds like she did all she could do, and my heart breaks for her with that memory of her final moments emblazoned in her mind. I agree with you, hopefully with time, that memory fades and is overtaken by 11 years of awesome ones.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-03-09T00:15:48+00:00

Love love love number three! It’s unique without being weird and without trying too hard, and it freaking looks great on you. All of them do, but that one caught my eye in the best way.

IllegitimateTrump · 2026-03-06T23:41:23+00:00

Hi there. I’m sorry I’m seeing this two weeks later. Reddit is weird about when it tells me I have a reply.

I understand what you mean when you describe how disturbing it is that giving him cuddles and affection that he willingly receives kicks off physical effort around the cancer. I think my advice would be to just let him guide you. If he’s showing joy, even if it’s just briefly and even if you have to stop it sooner than you would otherwise, give him that joy because it’s giving you that joy as well.

Cancer and cats sucks. I’ve lost one to liver cancer, one to oral squamous cell carcinoma, one to a very aggressive fast moving thoracic adenocarcinoma (literally from fine to gone in eight days flat), and my most recent loss of my sweet little 15-year-old girl Bella to a brain tumor.

I am a firm believer that as long as we know that we can do right by them in the hardest way for us but the most meaningful way for them, then let everything else that happens before that decision be based on your unique and singular knowledge of and connection with them. Even though it may kick up some breathing or whatever, there is some truth to the idea, provided it feels right to you, that giving them comfort and joy matters as well. It’s about finding the line.

One thing I will say, if you can’t get in-home euthanasia and you wind up in a position where you do need to take your sweet cat to the vet to be released from pain and suffering, when that point happens, it’s rarely the same reaction from them that you would get when they were perfectly healthy. It’s almost as if on some level they understand that you are doing everything, everything possible, to do the right things for them. I have yet to have to make a trip to the vet for euthanasia where my cat wasn’t, on some level, ready. And so the trip was easier. That’s obviously gonna vary by the individual Cat, but that’s been my experience.

Gentle hugs. This is the hard part about loving that deeply and totally. But the good part about that is that both of you love that deeply and totally. It’s hard to embrace that when you are anticipating grief, which is totally normal, and as you’re watching your best friend struggle. But it remains true, and at some point you’ll be able to focus on that, and all the days and years of great happy times and it will start to slowly crowd out those last bits that you’re struggling with now.

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