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My wonderful, sweet, amazing Annie is slipping away.
She is now 15-1/2 years old -- I got her and her littermate Berkeley from the Monadnock Humane Society when they were 8-10 weeks old ...
Them as babies, 4/7/07 (shortly after I got them), then a couple of weeks later ...
On my messy desk at my previous house -- Hansel's in back but he's black so you can't really see him ...
Then Annie and Eini (Einstein), another heart kitty -- I lost him on 9/17/16 when he was only 8 years old ...
Annie with Hansel in 2012 ... I lost Hansel on 10/18/21 when he was not quite 17 years old ... he was the kitty love of my life ... ...
Annie with Hansel again, 2019 ... You can maybe tell in this ^^^ picture that Annie was now blind. Her cataracts got worse and worse. She's also pretty much deaf.
Those 2 things were totally manageable -- i.e., her world had become smaller, but she still seemed pretty happy and content almost all of the time. She mostly lives in the TV room, but it's pretty big and it has a cozy sofa and 2 litter boxes and scratching posts and a heater and big bowls of food and water just off the TV room in what used to be a closet.
But she seems to be declining cognitively. I'd noticed it a bit in the past few months, but in the past couple of weeks she's missed the litter box several times (including yesterday and the day before) and I often find her sitting in the middle of the TV room intermittently yowling -- which is not like her at all. I think she is just lost and therefore scared. I scoop her up and cuddle her and give her a treat and move her next to the heater (she has always been a heater hog), but I'm not always in that room and it is breaking my heart.
If anyone has any suggestions or words of wisdom, I'm open to them. She had a physical check-up just a few weeks ago -- no major issues except what I told the vet (blindness, deafness, what seemed to be minor and infrequent cognitive problems) but it feels like she's going downhill rapidly and the last thing I want to do is cause this amazing little creature any distress.
Find a veterinarian who does house calls asap.
Take control of the situation you'll feel better I promise.
Keep near her you as much as possible until "the day" comes (which you have chosen, because you have taken control of). Have her favorite things available on that day, even like some canned salmon as her last meal. Light candles and have a ceremony.
I am so sorry for the loss of your kitties and now with Annie going through this.
One thing you can do to help her is put carpeted floor mats on the floor that have the same feel/texture that way as a blind kitty she can feel her way to the litter pan just by what is on the floor. When she feels the different texture/floor she will know that she is heading towards the litter pan.
Also put down the Hartz gel pads they help with the smell and I swear they are like diapers that if you touch the surface you won't feel the wet from urine. I would recommend putting them around the litter pan for accidents. I did that with my little furgirl. She would squat then lift her little bottom up and urine went all outside the pan so I got huge jumbo highwall litter pan with the cover and taped the hertz pads all around the inside. No scratching and no litter tracking all over. That was when she was my last baby.
I would do what was suggested try another Veterinarian and see if anything can be done about her hearing and cataracts. Maybe surgery can help save her eyesight.
At her age though you don't know if this is normal aging for her or not. Has she had a full blood panel done? and as I did with my baby furgirl I had a cat scan done and found out she had Renal Disease. I was devestated when I couldn't get the Rx food she needed because of Covid. That horrible virus made it impossible to get what she needed and regular food made her do (projectile) vomit. Poor baby it was horrible seeing her go through that. My last few days with her she got some tuna but not to much I feared it would be painful for her. Her vet was hard to work with he wouldn't tell me what stage she was in and he didn't even find the renal disease. Another Vet discovered it when I took her in another hospital for an emergency bladder infection. So much blood coming out I knew how she felt. I took pictures of all the blood in the litter pan then the girl believed me that she had a bladder infection. The helped and she got better fast. You have to do the same always get another opinion, always. What one vet doesn't see or think of another will.
Please come back and let us know if she is in a stage of something that could lead to pain and suffering. I know as a cat mom, yes cat mom, how you feel and I know you won't want Annie to suffer, ever.
You've loved so many cats, given them all they could have wanted in life, and seen them on to the next world with love. Annie is a lucky girl, whether it's tomorrow or weeks from now that she, too, goes on. Whatever happens, you'll do what you need to do out of love and what's best for Annie.
You've loved so many cats, given them all they could have wanted in life, and seen them on to the next world with love. Annie is a lucky girl, whether it's tomorrow or weeks from now that she, too, goes on. Whatever happens, you'll do what you need to do out of love and what's best for Annie.
Yes. That's a gift that hoomin and kitty give each other, every day on this earth. It's a blessing. And then someone dies first. Better the kitty, so she doesn't end up a confused orfin in her old age because her hoomin died first.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NYC refugee
I'm so sorry, Karen. I know how much it hurts.
The agony and ecstasy of loving. Then we all die.
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Originally Posted by M3 Mitch
I'm sorry this is happening but that's how it is with cats, they really don't live all that long. There is another rescue cat out there who needs you.
Annie has had a good life, you took excellent care of her.
That's a gift for all concerned. Someone dies first, after a while.
Karen, how are you and the pride doing today? One day at a time! You are not alone and neither is Annie.
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