Lost a fur friend

[sceva]

After a long bout with bad arthritis in his front legs and re-occurring cancers my cat Charlie was ready to leave us. Charlie came to us as a young stray 16 years or so ago and decided to move in. He went thru two surgeries to remove skin lesions since last November and appeared to be doing well but lately began going downhill fast. He went outside and rested in his spot in the shrubs for the last lime mid week. That is where he rests now; in his favorite spot to watch the world go by. We already miss him.

 

[Spleenless Dave]

Sorry to hear about Charlie. He was a good looking cat.

 

[DWalt]

Tabbies are the best cats. We have a 12-YO orange tabby that is the most affectionate and personable cat we've had. It will be tough when he leaves us. He replaced another orange tabby who accidentally strangled himself. That was a traumatic day. See my picture. That is him.

 

[Rudi]

He was a good boy. He loved you, hard to do. Memories.

 

[AJ]

Sorry for your loss. Have three out of five left. Miss them very much!

 

[mchom]

Very sorry for your loss

From a fellow cat person

 

[Rustyt1953]

Sincere condolences on your loss.

This is 9 year old Moe. He is Charlie's dopplelgänger.

 

[LVSteve]

You can't beat a good striped tabby once it decides it likes you. We had a bunch of ferals like that when I lived with my dad in England. The mother cat would almost let you touch her, and on one occasion working under my car at night, I discovered her almost tucked up against my back. I felt privileged.

 

[Smoke]

I love dogs but there's something about cats. Especially stray cats

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[H Richard]

Sorry to hear your loss. Reminds me of our Daphne. Very shy around strangers, but is a lap warmer every morning or evening when I'm reading. She won't let you forget she has to have "lunch" (3 little pieces of chicken breast), every day in addition to her Science diet every morning. And, if she is left alone very long has to have a "treat" when you get home.

 

[mckenney99]

Sceva, So sorry for your loss of Charlie, he was a handsome cat. While I know you will miss him, I firmly believe you will see him again on the "other side". He will be waiting for you and once again he will be healthy and happy.

 

[Erich]

I'm so sorry for your loss, but glad you gave him such a good life and that you shared good times. He sure was a pretty boy.

 

[Greyman50]

Condolences to you. Loss of a pet is a tough situation, get another asap.

 

[DWalt]

An opportunity to save another cat's life. Visit your local shelter.
When our cat strangled himself, the following week we visited a local no kill shelter. They had three orange tabby kittens. We picked out the one who seemed to like us best. Even gave him the same name as the one who died. Cheddar II.

 

[snubbyfan]

Condolences on your loss.

 

[chuckie]

Sorry for your loss. It's always hard to lose a family member.

 

[TX-Dennis]

Sorry for your loss. Charlie was a good looking fellow.

 

[Model 19 6"]

Very sorry for your loss.

 

[oldbrownhat]

Condolences from another cat person.

That pic of Charlie reminds me of my old Joe, who "emigrated" fom my neighbour's many years ago and adopted me. He was diagnosed with renal failure and I had to have him put down in Jan. 2017. This is the last pic I have of him, sitting exactly where I am sitting now, just a few days before he crossed the rainbow bridge

He was just a good old tom, and it brings tears to my eyes to bring up this pic and post it. I've had (and lost) several cats over the last 25 years and I miss them all.

A year and a half before this, I had acquired a 3 month-old black kitten who was a rescue. He and his mother were living in another neighbour's barn when a rain storm and lightning struck. The mother disappeared and little Smudge, as I eventually called him, was stuck far up a tree for over two days until he jumped down (!!) and high-tailed it back to the barn. Now an orphan and quite skittery, I managed to befriend him and took him home. He, being full of beans drove poor old Joe nuts but they eventually tolerated each other.

He is curled up on the same couch next to me now and will be nine tomorrow (May 20). Still won't go anywhere near anyone but me.

Taken a month ago:

 

[STCM(SW)]

I have gone through this too many times....
My you see him on the rainbow bridge....

 

[TXBryan]

My condolences and my heart goes out to you. I've buried three in the last three months - all long-time residents of our household.

We're down to four, which turns out to be a good number. When we lived in Austin we fed as many as 14 at a time for a while. Nothing like living in a college town populated by students and lots of other irresponsible "pet owners" to add to your collection - especially at the end of the school year.

Meet Arthur, a rescue from a neighbor in our old Austin neighborhood, who now resides in the "country" with us and is adapting nicely. He's the first cat in our chow line that has potential to outlive me if all goes a natural route.

Every cat we've ever had was a stray or outright feral. Highpockets was a local feral that I began "whispering" to several years ago and before long he was coming around for pets as well as food. During the process my wife said Highpockets would never be a "good cat" and I told her he'd be on our bed in less than a month. It took three weeks.

Highpockets

Arthur

 

[DWalt]

Our second cat is one who adopted us, rather than vice versa. She just showed up one day and took to sleeping under our cars in the driveway. After some weeks, it seemed she had taken up permanent residence and my wife started setting out water and food for her. Then the fateful day when my wife invited her inside and she never left. We took her to the vet, who determined she had been fixed so she had once belonged to someone else but had probably been abandoned. She is very well mannered and quite talkative and has been a good companion to our orange tabby tomcat, even though they are not always best friends. Strange how things like that happen.

 

[16thVACav]

So sorry for your loss.

 

[llowry61]

Sorry for your loss. Charlie will be missed but will always be in your heart.

 

[Spurdann]

I told my dog about your loss, he told me that some people think their cats talk to them, we laughed and laughed.
Seriously my heart goes out to you.

 

[Smoke]

I've talked about Mutt before. She showed up while I was working at FedEx. If anybody's familiar with Colorado Springs the old FedEx was on North Nevada just a little bit south of Garden of the Gods. Where all the old crackhead motels are at. There's two or three motels in there that everybody that lives there, lives there. They're not overnight guests like they would be at Holiday Inn.

I'm absolutely positive that Mutt was somebody's cat and that they either got evicted or left on their own and left her and her brother Jeff behind.

Jeff sired a litter of kittens before the Humane Society got a hold of all of them and TNR'd them. Two of the kittens survived and all four of them became a colony. The kitten's mother wanted nothing to do with them.

I went to work one night in a blizzard warning. I took that blanket in the picture with me in case I got stuck at work. It was cold out that night the other three cats weren't around and Mutt showed up by herself so I let her sleep in my car. After that every night when I showed up for work she would show up and demand to be let in the car. She slept there until I was able to bring her home. I named her Mutt because she followed me like a dog.

If it had been up to me I would have brought all four cats home.



But we are only allowed 2 pets and if I brought 2 and anything happened to one of the 2 left behind the one would be alone. So I left Jeff as the head of the Colony to look out for the kittens.

I went back a couple of times and I know someone else was feeding them but I never saw them again

 

[prairieviper]

Sceva, So sorry for your loss of Charlie, he was a handsome cat. While I know you will miss him, I firmly believe you will see him again on the "other side". He will be waiting for you and once again he will be healthy and happy.

I believe this too.

 

[sceva]

Yes we miss him; Unfortunately we have been thru this too many times over the years. My Grandson's took it hard; this was the first loss where they were old enough to understand. We do have another cat, Biscuit. Biscuit is my daughters cat and came from a shelter; he's kind of lost at the moment looking around for Charlie. My wife is looking at shelters in the area; She believes she is looking for a senior cat.

 

[DWalt]

Yes we miss him; Unfortunately we have been thru this too many times over the years. My Grandson's took it hard; this was the first loss where they were old enough to understand. We do have another cat, Biscuit. Biscuit is my daughters cat and came from a shelter; he's kind of lost at the moment looking around for Charlie. My wife is looking at shelters in the area; She believes she is looking for a senior cat.

Many shelters have older cats and dogs. There is often a note on the cage about its former owner either dying or has gone to a nursing home, etc. It is sad because most looking for a pet want a puppy or kitten. Our only dog at present came from a shelter and was fully grown. We never knew his backstory. The vet guessed he was around five when we got him. He is showing his age and spends his days either sleeping or eating. He does like to eat.

My wife's brother died over four years ago. He had an older cat who was around 10 at the time. We took her in just out of compassion. Had we taken her to the city pound, she would probably have been dead before we left the parking lot. She lived for about three more years before she died, mainly asleep on our sun porch.