My Cat

[TomCat88]

Being a Bobcat I'm very sad to say that my Cat, Coco, has passed away. She was an 18-year-old Siamese with beautiful blue eyes. When my wife and I moved into our first house the owners asked us if we'd keep the cat, because Coco loved the home she was in and had run back to it after her original owners moved. We declined citing my brother-in-laws allergies.

Eight months later Coco showed up on our doorstep. Turns out she really loved that house. We never knew where she had gone, but the previous owners had moved to Oregon. We doubted that they took her with them, but we put an ad in the paper just in case she had moved to some other home in town and found her way back.

Needless to say her courage and desire endeared us to Coco and we adopted her. She was our faithful companion for nine years. We moved twice and she stole our hearts even more as she stayed with us instead of high-tailing it back to her favorite home.

Coco's funeral will occur in about a half hour when my wife and two girls return home. I'm 46 and Coco was my first pet, so I'm a little attached.

I thought I'd start this thread thinking that if anyone else has a story about their cat they can share it here. Because, hey, we're all Cat lovers!

[GOKATS]

It''s always tough to lose a pet and I'm sorry to hear the sad news. I like cats but haven't had one for about ten years, always have a dog though and for now my 4 yeard old Malamute is all the pet I need. You can never replace the one you lost, but I've always found the best thing to do is get another- to me it helps ease the loss.

[TomCat88]

Thanks GoKats. Yes, my oldest daughter (5) just wiped away her tears and announced she wants another Siamese cat just like Coco.....and a hamster!

[GrizinWashington]

Tom,

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. Anyone who has had a pet can understand the pain you're feeling. In fact, I think anyone who has had a beloved pet feels a tiny bit of your pain just hearing your story.

I've been fortuante to have had a number of great pets in my life. We currently have a large (18 pound) male cat named Seymore, that like Coco, addopted us. We also have a terrific yellow Lab named Bella who we rescued from a shelter. But about 6 months ago we had to put down a cat named Lolo. From a Montanan, one would think that the cat was named after Lolo, Montana or the national forest at least. But no, the name was actually an acronym for Little Obnoxious Loud One. Lolo showed up on our deck one night sick as could be (she ultimately had a bad thyroid that needed radiation therapy: Don't ask what it cost!). She was ugly, mean, obnoxious and as loud as hell. That cat would yell at you for anything. Feed her? She would yell at you. Pet her? She would yell at you. But she was our little obnoxious girl, and during the two years we had her, we loved her. It was difficult putting her down, and my wife and I cried real tears. But we were comforted that we saved her life and that we gave her two great final years of her life. I hope, Tom, that knowing that you gave Coco a loving home helps temper your pain as well.

I'll be anxious to hear about your new household addition when you get one!

And for those of you do not have a pet, please go to a shelter and adopt one. They add more love and happiness to your life than you can imagine. And rescue animals ROCK!

[Old Skool Cat]

Sorry for your loss Tom. While I haven't owned a cat, last summer I had to put down the family dog, a 17 year old Beagle X named Bridger (after Bridger Bowl ski area). You build a pretty strong bond with an animal after 17 years, and letting him go may have been the hardest damn thing I've ever had to do. We haven't replaced him, and my girls keep asking for another dog. We might get another one this summer.

[HelenaCat95]

Old Skool,
We had a similar story last summer. Our old Chesapeake Bay Retriever (named Cooper....after Roger Cooper) died in our backyard. The girls found him just laying there, and it traumatized them - but in the long run was a good teaching moment.
He was a good dog, and really looked after our other little dog (Boston Terrier) while she was a puppy.
We miss him........the loss of a pet can be a tough thing.

[JDoub]

pets are like kids it feels like, sorry for the loss

our first "baby" just passed away yesterday on Memorial Day -- "Gallatin" or Gallie. we got her right before our wedding almost 11 years ago, chocolate lab, we were living in the LA area and named her for obvious reasons to remind me of home. she was getting old, and her last hunting jaunt outside Bozeman a few years ago she locked up gun shy and retired from chasing birds. (thanks anyway Northface!)

fortunately, she passed away in Bozeman as we were visiting for Memorial Day (we live in Utah), and we got to bury her in the Gallatin National Forest. I think she wanted it that way -- she loved her namesake.

my wife and kids are still crying ..... my 7-yr old son prayed at her grave that we should be as good of people as she was to us .....

don't know if or when we look for another, but like kids, seems you can't just replace them.

and hope I can live up to my son's prayer!

[GrizinWashington]

Sorry for your loss, Jdoub.

And your son is wise beyond his years.

[Old Skool Cat]

Sorry to hear about that JDoub. Losing a family pet is really hard. As the saying goes, "Lord, please help me to be the person my dog thinks I am."

[ChiOCat]

A good cat is hard to come by! So sorry for your loss

We are a cat family. We got the most awsome cat when we were room mates, his name was Batman and he was just a cool cat. Another cat we got at the time had issues (kept peeing inside) so we put them both outside. Batman disapeared but of course we still have Silly. He's moved to all 5 houses with us and I fear he'll never die. He still lives outside most the time. He's the dumbest cat, and aside from the peeing a very good cat. We have two other indoor/outdoor cats, Bouncin' Bingo is another cool cat, Tiki is a terror! He's over 2 years old now but still acts like a kitten. This spring he's taken to jumping out our second floor bedroom window during the night. It's quite a sound to wake up to!

We also have a dog. To me that's similar to having Griz friends. Yeah, I like him but he annoys the heck out of me We got him for the boys but he decided he's mine.

[John K]

My sympathies go out to both TomCat and JDoub, as I know very well how difficult it is to lose a pet. My (now ex) wife and I never had kids, so our pets WERE our kids. When we first met, she had a Border Collie-Cocker mix named Coby. At first we were sort of rivals for her affection, and therefore a bit jealous of each other, but in no time at all we became best buddies. In fact, he eventually became more my dog than hers really, so we soon adopted a full bred Cocker named Duchess for her. I took Coby for long walks every day up until he was almost 15 years old, when he became very sick with Renal disease. He was at the vet for almost a week, not eating at all, and showing no indications of getting better, so we decided to bring him home for the weekend to say goodbye, and then planned to have the vet put him down on Monday. But once he got home, he started perking up almost immediately, and then began eating again. He eventually regained enough strength that we were able to resume our daily walks. He lived for another 6 months, and was almost 15-1/2, when I took him for a 4-mile walk on a Sunday afternoon. I left on a business trip the next day, and by the time I returned home he had become sick again, but this time there would be no reprieve, and he died a couple of weeks after that last walk. It was incredibly painful to say goodbye to Coby, but I was so very thankful for that extra 6 months that God gave us with him. Duchess had died just six weeks before Coby, at age 13, and it was still really tough to lose both of them within such a short period of time.

Later we adopted a Yellow Lab/Irish Wolfhound puppy named Buddy from the Animal Shelter. Five years after adopting Buddy, a stray cat started hanging around in our backyard. We soon learned that she had three kittens under our garden shed. We both loved dogs, but didn't particularly care for cats, so we had no intention of keeping any of them, but did want to try to find good homes for them. By the time we discovered the kittens, they were already old enough to wean, and we found a home for their mother right away. So we then brought the kittens into the house, with the intent of "taming them up" so that we could find homes for them as well. But of course, after having them in the house for a few weeks, we became pretty attached to them. I mean, is there anything cuter than little kittens playing and wrestling with each other? So we found homes for two of them, but decided to keep the third one. You would think it would normally be the other way around, but my ex-wife gravitated more towards Buddy, and the cat bonded more with me. Last fall, when we separated, I moved into an apartment, and decided that I wanted to take "Kitty" (that is actually her name) with me, and she has been my best little friend during what has been a fairly difficult period in my life. Our divorce was final in March, and Kitty is about the ONLY thing that I came out with in the deal, but I wouldn't trade her for any of the money or material possessions that I lost.

[CelticCat]

Our cat poops and pees wherever it pleases, I keep waiting for that fat, lazy old-ass cat to kick the bucket but she just keeps ticking. She is a longhair white cat so wearing dark clothes is just asking for it.

In spite of that I love her to death, she is the laziest cat I have ever seen. You can spin her around on the kitchen floor and she won't even get up when you are done. She is the most laid back animal I have ever seen. Pick her up, toss her around, pile stuff on her - she doesn't care, she's just loving the attention. She lays with her haunches stretched straight, on her back, with her front paws curled up like a bunny. Freakin cute I say, too bad she is so lazy she actually thinks walking 30 feet to the litter box is way too much work.