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Worried and sad about my elderly cat.


Lisa O`Brien

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Blackie is back home ! We left the garden gate open for her, and she just wandered up the garden path. She's not one bit hungry; which makes me suspect she has been fed by someone else. But everyone in the area knows she is our cat. I might be completely wrong but I suspect my weirdo neighbour, who I told you all about and who has moved houses, could have deliberately kept her indoors all day today. Told you all about the male leaving a message saying they had her, but not leaving their contact number, and giving the wrong name. Maybe i'm just being paranoid.

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Glad she's home safe again! As the others have suggested, definitely consider getting her chipped please, just in case she turns up at a rescue / vet they'll be able to contact you.

 

Just a thought - Have you considered / is it possible to securing your garden so she can only stay in your garden? So she can have some outside time but not actually leave your property?

 

S

 

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Lisa, have only just seen this. I volunteer for a cat charity and I'm afraid your story is all too familiar.  I suspect she did get shut in somewhere. Cats are so good at getting into the smallest spaces and going to sleep, then getting locked in. I really would recommend chipping, it doesn't cause the cat any distress and can help to find her. Might also be worth the vet checking her over. Sometimes elderly cats get memory problems ( like us!) and get a bit confused.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Blackie died tonight while me and Sean were cuddling her. She was barely eating anything the last few days, and just seemed to want to be outside all the time. But I had been keeping her in at night, whether she wanted to be or not. I let her out this morning and when she came back in her balance was all over the place. Her back legs were crossing over each other as she walked. But she seemed fine sitting in the front garden in the sun. She came in this evening and barely ate anything. Didn't drink anything either. Five minutes later she wanted to go out again. Biscuit and Pumpkin wanted to go out too so I left them all out. Called them all in for their dinner about two hours later and Blackie was lying in the front garden, almost over the exact spot where Biscuit's all black kitten Midnight is buried. She was completely motionless but alive.  Brought her in and gave her a few drops of water with a small medicine syringe but she couldn't seem to swallow it. She kept trying to get up but she could barely walk. She kept crossing one leg in front of the other. Her legs were shaking a little bit and me and Sean were just stroking her and speaking quietly to her, just trying to reassure her, really. She almost bent backwards on herself a few times, as she arched her head and back right back. Then she let out the strangest moan I have ever heard, and then just lay quietly on the floor. We had tried picking her up but every time she cried out, so she was lay on the living room floor on a soft blanket. Wasn't even sure if she had died at first. She's lay here on my lap now, and she's still warm and soft. Me and Sean have had a good cry, but she had a good innings, considering on the day she was born, on Margot Fonteyn's birthday in 2001, her mother effectively abandoned her and we left her in the kitchen cupboard for hours, thinking she was dead. I'm going to bed now. We'll bury her in the front garden in the morning. Both me and Sean have said how pleased we are she came home to us. It would have been horrible if she hadn't returned when she was away for 10 nights and we never saw her again.

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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3 minutes ago, Lehcar28 said:

Lisa ,

Sorry to read this, it is so hard when we lose a pet we love. I'm glad she came home though so you had the last moments together. X 

Thank you Lehcar. Keeping things in perspective with regard to what some people have had to go through in Manchester, London and now the Kensington fire.

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I wonder if she wanted to be outside to be with Midnight?

 

I am so sad for you Lisa but so glad that you were able to be there for her right at the end rather than that horrible feeling when she disappeared for days.

 

You have lost a member of the family so you have every right to cry whilst also remembering all the good times. Big hugs.

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Thank you everyone. She used to understand most things we said to her. If she was wet I used to say to her, "Shall we get you all dry with Blackie's special towel?" At which point she would jump up to the back of the sofa so I could reach her, and I would dry off the excess wet with her towel. She used to sleep on my bed every night, until the last few weeks when she wasn't the same, really. I used to say to her, "Is Blackie going to sleep on the bed, with the nice warm blankies and the nice soft dressing gown?" [ If it was cold]. But she always sat upstairs in the spare bedroom and waited for me getting in bed first and sorting out the bedding,etc. Then she would come in and sleep on my right shoulder, right up against my face, until I got fed up of having to lie on my back and I would turn over ! She would try and follow me to the little shop around the corner. I would have to tell her to "go home". At which point she always did and would wait in a nearby garden a little nearer the shop, I think listening out for my footsteps. When she heard me coming along she would miaow like a mad thing, incessantly, and I would say "Lisa's home". She even had her own special song. To the tune of Glory Glory Halleluiah [ Or Man United in my case] I would say to her, "Shall I sing Blackie's special song"?, at which she would purr and nudge me with her head. Then I would sing to her, "There's a Blackie wacky wacky. There's a Blackie wacky wacky. There's a Blackie wacky wacky, Blackie wacky wacky wack wack wack." On the last three notes I gave her a little tap on the top of her head every time. She knew what cheese, chicken, ice cream, fish, and milk meant. When the ice cream van used to come round I would tell her i'm going to buy an ice cream. She would wait at the garden gate, looking over the road, some distance away to where I was with the ice cream man and would miaow her head off none stop until I came in with "her" ice cream. She understood what "more " meant, and if she was sitting on my knee and wanted me to continue cuddling her she would look at me and put her paw on my face. In the front garden she would roll around and I would say "Is Blackie being a cute girl, rolling around, showing her big fat tummy?" It used to make her do it all the more. The more I said to her how cute she was, the more she would roll around for me. If I asked her if she wanted to go out and she didn't want to she would flick her tail a few times. Never had a cat like her. And to think when she was born we thought she was dead as she was lay cold and lifeless, and only thanks to a young friend of Sean's asking to see the dead kitten and me eventually relenting, and him saying he just saw her breathing, we wouldn't have had the lovely memories we will keep of her forever.  

Edited by Lisa O`Brien
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  • 3 weeks later...

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