I had to let Mr Mittens go January 31st, he was just a few months shy of 17 years old, and I am trying to come to peace with the fact he did live a good life.
Mittens along with his two sisters, Gremlin and Lucky (both have since passed), were the offspring of Spook, a cat that was dumped on my property either before or soon after I moved here. I fed Spook and she lived in the out buildings on the property until she was hit and killed on the road by a neighbor one rainy evening. Unknown to me at the time she had had a litter of kittens under my house, and a few days after she passed one of my other cats alerted me to meowing coming from under the floor. Once my husband got home he went under the house and rescued the kittens. After phoning around I got them into the vet for a check up, and they gave me some kitten formula along with some dewormer meds to take home and give once they were bigger and healthier.
They grew up under the watchful eye of my first rough collie and made friends with the other two cats I had a the time. Over the years Mittens welcomed more cats to the house and was overall a good boy, he wasn't the brightest cat but had a passive personality so he got along well with everyone. He loved the dogs and had a special bond with not only the first collie that raised him but also the second collie named Blaze that I got roughly a year after the first passed away. Sadly Gremlin passed away when she went in to get spayed, but Lucky and Mittens made it through without issue and would often hangout together. His best friend though was Tiger, they would almost always be found sleeping together.
Last year was a bad one though, in February his sister Lucky passed away, in July Blaze had to be put down, and then in August his best friend Tiger unexpectedly passed away suddenly (she was 15, but I have no idea what happened which is hard. I found her on a chair, it looked like she just went to sleep, and never woke up
). Especially after Tiger passed Mittens became more clingy, he seemed lost after losing basically his whole social circle. He seemed to adapt though, more cuddles with humans and shifting to spending more time with some of the other cats.
He seemed to be doing well for an old cat though, his body condition was good, his fur was still soft and although he was loosing some muscle he really didn't have that "old cat body" that some cats get as they age. He had his lunch on Monday and everything seemed normal, however when I came back from taking the dogs for a walk that afternoon I found him on the floor bleeding from his mouth (likely hit his face on the floor when he fell). Since I didn't see what happened the best guess is he had a stroke that caused him to off the counter. I tried to give him some time to rest and hoped maybe he had just slipped and he would recover but he didn't seem to know what was going on anymore. He kept laying to one side, had a head tilt, and couldn't seem to control his limbs properly so he would stumble and fall when he tried to walk, but mostly he just laid there, as well as he appeared to have gone blind in one eye. I made an appointment with vet (the soonest they could get me in was first thing in the morning) and by then he was barely responsive, he purred when I pet him, but he didn't even bother raising his head let alone try to move. There was no question it was time to let him go, and he just needed some help. I'm sad that it was so sudden, I had no warning my time with him was coming to an end, but I'm thinking it may have been for the best if he had to go, he didn't suffer for weeks or months as his body failed him.
We will be burying him on the property beside Tiger, and buying trees in the spring to plant on the graves.
Mittens along with his two sisters, Gremlin and Lucky (both have since passed), were the offspring of Spook, a cat that was dumped on my property either before or soon after I moved here. I fed Spook and she lived in the out buildings on the property until she was hit and killed on the road by a neighbor one rainy evening. Unknown to me at the time she had had a litter of kittens under my house, and a few days after she passed one of my other cats alerted me to meowing coming from under the floor. Once my husband got home he went under the house and rescued the kittens. After phoning around I got them into the vet for a check up, and they gave me some kitten formula along with some dewormer meds to take home and give once they were bigger and healthier.
They grew up under the watchful eye of my first rough collie and made friends with the other two cats I had a the time. Over the years Mittens welcomed more cats to the house and was overall a good boy, he wasn't the brightest cat but had a passive personality so he got along well with everyone. He loved the dogs and had a special bond with not only the first collie that raised him but also the second collie named Blaze that I got roughly a year after the first passed away. Sadly Gremlin passed away when she went in to get spayed, but Lucky and Mittens made it through without issue and would often hangout together. His best friend though was Tiger, they would almost always be found sleeping together.
Last year was a bad one though, in February his sister Lucky passed away, in July Blaze had to be put down, and then in August his best friend Tiger unexpectedly passed away suddenly (she was 15, but I have no idea what happened which is hard. I found her on a chair, it looked like she just went to sleep, and never woke up
). Especially after Tiger passed Mittens became more clingy, he seemed lost after losing basically his whole social circle. He seemed to adapt though, more cuddles with humans and shifting to spending more time with some of the other cats.He seemed to be doing well for an old cat though, his body condition was good, his fur was still soft and although he was loosing some muscle he really didn't have that "old cat body" that some cats get as they age. He had his lunch on Monday and everything seemed normal, however when I came back from taking the dogs for a walk that afternoon I found him on the floor bleeding from his mouth (likely hit his face on the floor when he fell). Since I didn't see what happened the best guess is he had a stroke that caused him to off the counter. I tried to give him some time to rest and hoped maybe he had just slipped and he would recover but he didn't seem to know what was going on anymore. He kept laying to one side, had a head tilt, and couldn't seem to control his limbs properly so he would stumble and fall when he tried to walk, but mostly he just laid there, as well as he appeared to have gone blind in one eye. I made an appointment with vet (the soonest they could get me in was first thing in the morning) and by then he was barely responsive, he purred when I pet him, but he didn't even bother raising his head let alone try to move. There was no question it was time to let him go, and he just needed some help. I'm sad that it was so sudden, I had no warning my time with him was coming to an end, but I'm thinking it may have been for the best if he had to go, he didn't suffer for weeks or months as his body failed him.
We will be burying him on the property beside Tiger, and buying trees in the spring to plant on the graves.
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