Do you own a cat?

[XByoot]

I'm sorry to hear the news about your cat mate. My old girl (dog that is) passed away 8 years ago and I think of her every day. She had cancer that eventually got into her chest cavity,no smoking near her..unless she hid it very well and had a pack of smokes in her kennel! My daugher now has a cat,it's a bloody character! Pretty hard not to love it,but,I'm probably more of a dog person but love all critters....hope all goes well with your cat mate and there's not too much discomfort.

[Adamz Ghia]

I've had a cat almost my entire life. My first cat was called Softie when I was barely able to talk, but that's the word that came out of my mouth so that's hat he was called. When he passed I got another cat and he too was called Softie because I missed my first cat and there was no arguing with a 3 year old.

Pus Pus came along next, he adopted us and we were more than happy to take him in. He was lazy as lazy can be, loved to nap and eat and nap some more. One day I came home and he was gone, no idea what happened to him, if he was taken or was hit or what ever.

Then there was a gap of a couple of years between cats before we found two kittens at our front door.

One was a girl who my sister called Simba and the other was a boy who I called Pumba. Pumba was something else. He certainly lacked the grace of a cat, always tripping over or missing his targets when jumping, but he knew how to open the front door and let himself in and out when he needed to pee or was hungry. Always ready for a pat and a play, and always without fail slept on my other pillow. And when I got home from school or work he was always waiting for me.

Then one day Pumba and Simba brought home a kitten themselves, we called him Smokie as he had black paws, a black nose and black and dark grey fur. He was a fun cat, very playful but damn it he could fart. Stunk out a room with ease.

There was a time where there were heaps of stray cats around mums place and unfortunately they passed on a severe strain of cat flu to Simba who in turn gave it to the other two. It killed all three of them, despite taking them to 3 different vets. Pumba dying shattered me the most, I openly cried when he passed and he suffered the most out of the three. I still have his collar and his mouse toy.

Cheeky was next, again he just arrived at our door step so again we just took him in. His name suited him perfectly, and he would gladly steal from your dinner plate if you took your eyes off it for even a second. And his favourite place to sleep was in the back of the ute.

My partner Katie decided we must have a cat when we moved in together so along came George. I'm not a spiritual person, I'm not a believer in reincarnation or anything like that but if there was such a thing it would be Pumba coming back as George. George is just a fluffier and fatter version. But personality wise they are identical and he even sleeps on the other half of my pillow and waits for me to get home from work. He and Ed (my Kelpie) eat from the same bowl sometimes.

But anyway, that's my story.

[Lunch]

Originally Posted by Adamz Ghia

Then one day Pumba and Simba brought home a kitten themselves, we called him Smokie .

I reckon everyone I know has had a smokie, our first was named that, unfortunately someone had it in for him, first he was beaten and lost an eye and then dad found him under the house, apparently poisoned. Some people need to be shot!

[OzJavelin]

Originally Posted by Lunch

I reckon everyone I know has had a smokie, our first was named that, unfortunately someone had it in for him, first he was beaten and lost an eye and then dad found him under the house, apparently poisoned. Some people need to be shot!

+1 for a Smokie .. feral cat that roamed around the garage my Dad worked at. Dad bought him home after someone tried their hand at neutering him. Smokie became my sisters close companion.

[2011G6E]

Sadly animals...humans included...can spontaneously develop lung cancer.
The risk of it is massively increased if you smoke of course, but there is a tiny percentage of lung cancer cases where the people have never smoked, nor has anyone around them. Just bad luck really. People who do develop this say they face a lot of stigma..."Oh well you deserve it, you must have smoked", etc.

Cats are amazing...we have two and a dog. A lot of people can't seem to stand the idea that cats are never really domesticated...they own you and your house, and let you know all about it.

And yes, we had two "Smokies" over the years...both dark grey cats.
A year ago we said goodbye to our old cat "Sox"...he was over 17 years old and finally had health problems that just caught up with him to the point where life wasn't nice for him anymore, so we had him put to sleep.
This was the "eulogy" for him I wrote on Facebook...

Goodbye Mr Sox.

Today we said a very sad farewell to the best cat ever.
He was the grand old age of 17, and will be missed by everyone he touched (rubbed against solidly actually) in his long productive life (as long as you include endless hours sleeping as "productive").
He started out as a little ball of fluff purchased from a pet store at Sugarland down in Bundaberg way back in 1998. He spent the first part of his life as an outdoors cat at our house in Bundy, prowling the gardens, sleeping under bushes, ignoring the birds, and asserting his dominance over the large boxer-cross dog we had at the time, Jess.
Somewhere around this time he had a fight with a dog, the injuries sustained resulting in a trip to the vet for many stitches, and led to him carrying a large notch in his right ear from then on. I still think though that he looked at us when we brought him home from the vet as if to say "Yes I get the need for the stitches and other treatment for the dog fight injuries, but that doesn't explain why my nuts seem to be gone as well..."
He then came along with us in the move to Bluff where he happily took to the leisurely life of an indoors cat for many years, making a firm friend with our second cat, Boots.
Then with the move to Gracemere he was "indoors" for several months and then again happily became an outdoors cat for the last couple of months of his life as an old retired gentleman of leisure, making the yard his domain. But he was starting to show his age and the inevitable was fast approaching.

On that last trip to the vet he was so well behaved...I think he knew it was his last trip, his last big adventure.

We'll miss the way he refused to meow like an ordinary cat, but would instead "talk" to you and "reply" if you played along.
We'll miss the way he would tolerate all sorts of things from the grandkids like sitting on him or picking him up around the neck without even scratching them once.
We'll miss his love of peanuts, chips, and any sorts of snacks & lollies someone happened to be eating which he would demand to have shared with him, by either simply standing and staring or, if you were silly enough to ignore him long enough, by climbing up and gently digging his claws into your knee (but he always stopped before hitting bone) until you gave up and shared the goodies.

We'll all miss you Sox.
Goodbye old fella.

And then bugger me if shortly after that we lost our second cat as well, only five years old...

After losing Mr Sox not long ago, this morning we had to say goodbye to our other cat, Boots.
He didn't turn up as usual at the front door to loudly berate us for not getting his breakfast promptly, and we found him hiding under the car out the front with a terribly injured back leg and hip from being hit by a car during the night. We could see where he'd obviously made it up to the porch first to hide under his favourite chair for a while, probably thinking "This is my home, I'll be safe here", before going back downstairs again to hide.

He was a great character, used to love sitting on your lap and gently clawing the hell out of you as he kindly massaged you, and loved to carry a stuffed mouse around proudly while howling at you to come and appreciate him.

He'll be sadly missed.
Bye little guy.

Amazing how just an animal can affect you so much.

[Mechan1k]

Still have one cat ... Tigger ... Ginger Male ... he'd be about 12yo now.
My boys love him to bits .... quietest most gentlest cat ever.
He's not an indoor cat ... and never has been. We had him out on acreage for a while and he kept the brown snakes and mice under control. Used to sleep on our border collie too (they were best mates).

We moved back to civilisation and could keep the border collie (but found her a new home on a farm before we moved) and kept the cat.

He'd love to be an inside cat though ... but allergies in the family don't allow it though unfortunately. We are always outside anyway and he's always with us doing stuff. Most affectionate cat that purrs as loud as I snore (not quite) ... drools as well when being paid attention ... LOL. He doesn't wait to meet a pat ... he'll be up on his hind legs to meet your hand as you bend down.

Hands down best cat that anyone could ask to have in their family.

[Nikked]

A cat owns us...

[GasoLane]

Cats?... Meh, we used to grow our own

[DJM83]

Love my cat, id be devastated if something happened to her.

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

I have two of the fur balls. However one of them was yesterday diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. WTF? How does a cat get lung cancer?

The male cat is no more as of this morning. I waited too long to do the necessary and watched him die in front of me. The last couple of minutes of his life very not pretty as he went through convulsions and gasped for air. Previous cats I had euthanised when they were near the end and it is a much better option.

[XR6WGN]

Not a nice thing to have to go through - sorry for the loss.

[MercurySilver]

Cats are trippers
Ours is about 15 or 16 the mrs reckons
Seems to be travelling well
Goes out of a morn for a little bit on the acre, has a crap somewhere, hell bolts down the hill ears back doing a silly meow and sits at the sliding door waiting to come in for milk
Weirdo
Other than that he:
Knows when chickens out getting defrosted
Eats chips
Loves popcorn
Goes a bit skits if i give him any pork product like a piece of bacon...gets on the powder room b3nch and meows and growls at himself in the mirror, goes behind the hallway door and faces the hinges looking up meowing
Cracks the ***** if you let him in and then go for a crap and forget when u come out to give him his milk
You can stick a finger in his ear and he won't even move or flinch
You can turn his ears inside out and he will just sit there and take it
As soon as I sit in front of the combustion fire tearing up bits of paper and shoving kindle in he is straight off the couch sitting beside me...loves the fire
Will literally walk straight up the mrs front and softly headbutt her on the chin to get a pat if the mrs is sitting in the recliner
Does not like the brush
Does not like the clippers cutting off dreadlocks because he has rolled in ******* grass seeds
Will only eat Felix wet food

And for the ******* life of him he cannot manage to pee in a litter tray, he could not hit a barn door with a handful of marbles and we have to put a newspaper spread out under the tray in the laundry....thank **** he only uses it maybe once a month

Other than that he is pretty much just an ordinary pudd pudd

Wont get another one, simply because another one would never be like him

[Turboconvert]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

The male cat is no more as of this morning. I waited too long to do the necessary and watched him die in front of me. The last couple of minutes of his life very not pretty as he went through convulsions and gasped for air. Previous cats I had euthanised when they were near the end and it is a much better option.

Sorry to hear.

I have had my oddities towards cats. The only family cat (named Blackie, black with a white spot on his neck) we had when growing up died at the age of 17 (was the same age as me). He was the only cat I ever liked. The family came close to calling him my cat. All other cats were considered the spawns of hell.

It would be many years later, (early 2015), that my partner wanted a cat. We got a black rag doll cross at the young age of about 3/4 months, affectionately named Phantom. He was irritating at first but is now very cute. Has bonded very well to my partner. He headbutts when he wants pats, will talk to you and hates been picked up. The most passive aggressive cat around, will moan and groan when you torment him but never swipes, claws or bites.

Our other cat that we have we got from the RSPCA at the start of the year and is a dead ringer for Blackie. We named him Zacky, a mix of Blackie and Zooty ( a previous cat of hers). He is just on 1 year old and is a domestic short hair cross. Very affectionate, always wanting cuddles and pats. They say your pets chose you and that was definitely true here. Wouldn't leave us alone at the shelter. We found out when he was desexed through the RSPCA, that he has a grade 1 heart murmur. No medication needed for such a low grade. He can be whinny, but he is very adorable when he drools.

They are strictly indoor cats unless we have them on a harness and leash. Both of our cats are very good around our nieces and nephews, and we wouldn't trade them in for the world.

Funny how we get attached to our pets,

[Lunch]

Really crappy news Syndrome. Sorry for your loss

Originally Posted by uteaddict

They say your pets chose you and that was definitely true here. Wouldn't leave us alone at the shelter.

Same with our boy, missus wanted a shy cat, I wanted a terror, the first one they told us to look at was the most shy kitten they had and that he didn't like being out of his box, as soon as we sat down with him he climbed up on my shoulder, sat down and started rattling.
18 months on, not much has changed

At least 1ce per week I think about how we nearly didn't take him, we were walking out the door, talking about waiting a while longer, so glad we decided to become his slaves!

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

The male cat is no more as of this morning. I waited too long to do the necessary and watched him die in front of me. The last couple of minutes of his life very not pretty as he went through convulsions and gasped for air. Previous cats I had euthanised when they were near the end and it is a much better option.

Ahh **** that breaks my heart and brings a tear to my eye mate so sorry for the loss of a good friend. They are part of the family i think. As i said if something happened to my cat id be devastated. Our family cat when i was growing up lost her marbles and just went downhill it broke my heart, i still think about he.

Thought id show a pic of mine. 10 year old Manx cross named missy. She moved with me from Albury to Brisbane where i moved numerous times and then the moved back home with me. They say cats arent loyal, my *** my cat is at the door everyday when ii get home from work. Had some rough times in QLD living by myself, she has been the best company and then some. Love her to bits.

[devilcv8]

Originally Posted by danzvtil

Humans don't own cats. Cats own humans.

My wife's ragdoll owns 2 humans. Luckily the other humans took him to the vet for an abscess on his lower jaw.

Cat went walkabout on monday morning and arrived back monday night with part of his jaw shaved and stitches in place, and no abscess.

[MethodX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lie7VYtf33Q

Amazing...

[Nu66et]

Ive got 4 in the family, 17yo female, 13yo female, 6yo male and 5yo male. Theyve all got their quirks, together with my 4yo staffy the 5yo will inadvertently try and trip you over. The 6yo is the smallest and noisiest, likes to roam around alot. The 13yo cant walk very well anymore but otherwise still looks good and the 17yo has no issues getting around but looks like crap at times.

[ebxr8240]

Two on my cars.

[Spudz27]

So we decided a new cat was in order and rescued a kitten today. Barely 8wks old, still has blue tinge to eyes. Hopefully him and Jasper will get along, Jasper has no issue but Lenny spits like crazy if Jasper comes near.