My sweet, and camera shy old man, Mr. Stud hasn’t been well. I took him to the vet today, and the diagnosis was terminal, probably cancer. I didn’t want to put him through tests. He’s still eating and drinking, but there is a mass in his mouth, and well… sigh. He has maybe a couple of months, on the outside. He got antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection, and some pain meds for when it gets worse. We’re going to spoil him with fish and pats and hugs, for as long as we can.
Yeah, his quality of life is still pretty good, apart from no longer eating much kibble, I open as many cans for him as he wants. The trick there is to do that while not also making Iris even more fat, she’s a chonker who doesn’t really need to get above 15 pounds. Mr Stud’s top weight was 15 pounds, but he was 7.5 today. In his youth, there was no name for him besides Mr Stud, he walked around like he was flexing all the time!
He’s 14, which isn’t super old for a cat, but par for a cat who goes outside to hunt and stuff. He still likes to go out in the sun, but he stays close to the house these days.
He loves to be cradled, but he also loves to be held like you’re burping a baby, where he’s looking over your shoulder. That’s his favorite, but the holders’ arms get tired.
He’s like a mix of tabby and persian, but he was born to an auto shop mouser, sired by a feral cat, so he might be pretty but he ain’t fancy!
yeah, 14 is quite old, especially for an indoor/outdoor kitty – i think our Artemis lived to be 18, if i’m recalling correctly. i was rooting for her to reach 20, but it just didn’t happen. she and i had a deal, and i know she tried. since our new pair are only indoor, i’m hoping that extends their lives a lot. they put up with being cradled by me (and me only), but they prefer to be up with their paws over the shoulder, like Mr. Stud. i always felt that this was because it gives them some say in things (e.g., paws & claws position for safety, and a way they can signal that they want to get down).
The cat we got when I was 5, Miss Kitty, she lived to 21. It gave me an unreasonable expectation on feline lifespan, I think. Most of our guys have lived to be 14 or 15.
The shoulder position is great for him, but if he is startled, he tries to stay in place with claws. And, unfortunately, after a bad bout of labrynthitis he’s the most easily startled cat I’ve ever met. That was maybe 8 years ago, so in some ways all these years have been a bonus for the old man.
Krackle had been less active, less vocal, and was falling off his perches more than usual, so I had a feeling his time was coming, but… it still hurts. He’d been in the family for a good twenty, twenty-five years, and we gave him the best life we could.
It’s going to be awfully quiet around the house now, without his chattering.
I’ve never had a cat that got mats before - until Sugarplum adopted us. She has them on her lower haunches only, though. They look like unborn hairballs.
She gets ‘em everywhere—belly, side, legs, ruff (Cat Fanciers’ fancy name for mane, for some reason). I have to check my hair periodically just in case they’ve spread. I think her skin is extra oily, and she no longer grooms herself so much. We comb her, but she doesn’t like it exactly in those places she most needs it.
Occasionally, I need to cut out a mat from Iris, because past a certain point, they just won’t comb out. This mostly happens when I have to leave town, because I’m the one who brushes. Sometimes it is kind of funny looking, but one time she tore one off herself, and I imagine that must have hurt! It left like a one inch diameter bald patch on her ruff. I’m not a fancy cat person, but hers is just so regal, “ruff” just feels right for her. Manny just has a lot of hair. lol.
Speaking of fancy cat people, I used to work at a print shop where we printed certificates for some fancy cat organization. They were horrible people, rude and condescending to anyone who confessed to having a rescue or mutt-type cat. Screw them! All cats are fancy in their own way.
Is there any way to keep cats away from plants? They raided my Monstera for a second time and killed all the new leaves that were sprouting after their last attack.
if there is, i haven’t found it yet. we buy wheatgrass and give it to our kitties as a treat once in awhile. omg, they get SO EXCITED when they see it come out of the fridge, haha – their little faces and ears are so adorable. anyway, i think giving them something they know they CAN have is better than trying to teach them that they CAN’T have something else.
And in pretty good health – mostly just arthritis, which limits her movement somewhat.
