Posted on 10/29/2016 7:54:41 AM PDT by heterosupremacist
National Cat Day is observed each year on October 29th.
National Cat Day was founded to help the public recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued. The day also encourages cat lovers to celebrate the cats in their lives for the unconditional love and companionship that they bestow upon them.
HOW TO OBSERVE
Pay particular attention to your cat today. Adopt a new cat. Use #NationalCatDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
This day is sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation and was created by Pet Lifestyle Expert and Animal Welfare Advocate, Colleen Paige, in 2005. Since its inception, it has helped save the lives of more than one million cats.
I’m heading for a nap. Bob is waiting until I’m just drifting off and then, if he’s inside, he’ll hop on top of me and start purring or if he’s outside, he’ll started meowing to be let in. The only solution is to leave the deck door open.
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Thank-you to my team, Boo-Boo,Cristopher,Ello,Jasper,Cookie,Jewell,July, and in memory of Sarah who passed on one week ago today.
Everyday is National Cat Day both at home and at the local no-kill shelter.
Correction, Jullie.
A-meow.
I got a lot of pussy on my hands, so to speak. Every day is cat day around here.
National Cat Day ? My eldest, Orangie, who was 14 1/2 years old, died early this morning from complications of kidney failure. :-(
I’m sorry!
Thank you. He fought valiantly to the end. The vet wanted to euthanize him 3 weeks ago, but he was brought home and he improved slightly and was walking outside every day in our unusually warm October temps, even just 8 hours before he passed.
I’ll bet he was a beauty.
Like his name indicates, he was an Orange tabby shorthair. He was lucky to have survived kittenhood. For his year-old mama, this was her first and only litter, 4 boys, 2 tans and 2 oranges. Unfortunately, she was not producing enough milk and within a few days, 1 orange and 1 tan died leaving just Orangie and his tan brother. Several weeks later, the mama vanished on July 4th evening (’02) when the neighbors were setting off fireworks. Never did find her. Another older mama cat/cousin took over duties of teaching Orangie and his brother how to hunt and the like.
Since I was a little kid in the ‘70s when the strays started coming around, we kept our cats outdoors (this was semi-rural at the time with a lot of property and area for them to run around in before it became suburban), also because of my allergies. Orangie was descended from those early strays and was the last known member of that family, so I was looking with dread to the day he’d pass ending 40 years of relatives with their similar quirks and habits.
Unfortunately, by the ‘90s and early ‘00s, we were hit with an epidemic of cat illnesses that killed most of the kittens before they reached adulthood, with feline leukemia being the worst. By 2009, they had decimated all but 2 of our cats, Orangie (then 7) and his grandmother Puddy (10) and we brought them inside after they were both almost killed by stray wild dogs (which broke Puddy’s leg in two places). It was a miracle both had survived all those years without contracting leukemia (which killed most of Puddy’s daughters who could’ve carried on the line).
Puddy contracted oral cancer around 2012 and died in the spring of 2013 just short of 14. We had no idea how old Orangie might live to be, other than perhaps as long as his grandmother, since most had died so young (as it was, he lived to be our oldest ever). Other than for arthritis in his hips and a dental problem corrected several months ago, he was in good health up until this year, although he tended to prefer to sleep. I was giving him heart meds for lowering his blood pressure since February, which I should’ve ceased after his dental surgery (one of the side effects was low appetite, and he started losing weight when he was already fairly slim). The vet gave us meds for his appetite, though to only modest effect, perhaps even negligible.
He’d go in every so often for a shot for his arthritis and they also would hydrate him for his kidneys. This month was when he started going downhill. When he was taken to the vet 3 weeks ago, they gave him a shot and hydrated him, but instead of getting better, he got worse. A few days later he was hydrated again and 2 days after that, they said he had fluid in his lungs (from the hydrating liquid) and a temperature almost 10 degrees colder than normal and so they wanted to euthanize him on the spot. My parents brought him back home instead, and for a week, he began to recover to a degree, was going outside for supervised walks which he enjoyed immensely.
He stayed stable for another week but began to deteriorate this week and ate less and less and effectively stopped on Thursday morning. He was frequently crying if not outside in the yard or resting in his usual spots (though the crying may have been more from dementia than actual pain).
He was crying late last night and early this morning walking around the house as he often would overnight and it suddenly ceased. I thought he had gone back to his heating pad and mat where he slept, but upon getting up, found him collapsed and unresponsive in the litter box. Thoughtful to the end and not wanting to make a mess, he had gone to the box to urinate when he must’ve had a seizure and that was that. I feel badly I didn’t get to him in time, as he likely died just minutes before I discovered him.
The vet didn’t think he’d last a day during his last visit, but he managed 3 weeks of his own accord, fairly lucid and content and enjoying our unusually warm (mid 80s) temps outdoors. I’m at least glad we didn’t go with the vet’s recommendation and cut short that time. I was not looking forward to when he might have to be euthanized, as I suspected was days away, which we ended up having to do with his grandmother when she was likely a day away from going on her own and I wanted to spare her any more suffering.
We have 2 other younger cats rescued as stray ferals from the yard (one having been in a feral colony as he had his ear tipped when he was fixed as a kitten), both about 3 and 4 years old each. They’re otherwise in excellent health.
Thank you.
Sorry to hear it DJ...
Pets are like family. And it hurts the heart when you lose them.
Thanks for sharing that. Orangie was clearly from a long proud line!
My Charlie is an orange tabby (rescue) and sassy as all get out! But he’s such a mama’s boy and follows me up to bed, snuggles in on my pillow, and “nose bumps” me until I finally put an end to it so I can get some sleep! My husband just shakes his head... (he’s not really what you’d call a cat person LOL).
I’ve had cats since I can remember, and losing them is just so hard. I just try to remember how much we both give each other, and think they know, somewhere in their feline hearts, how much they’re loved.
For me, it’s like losing a child. :-(
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