Elderly cats get stuck in their ways, and find it hard to make a transition. When a cat has been in the same home for all of its life, any change can be downright traumatic. MacKenzie was an elderly cat whose owners died, and suddenly she was homeless. She growled and hissed and was altogether socially unacceptable, so her chances of being adopted from a shelter were quite small. Angela Rafuse took a chance on MacKenzie, and with lots of love and patience, discovered that her grumpy ways are just a habit and don't accurately reflect her personality. Her experience led Angela to found an organization called My Grandfather's Cat to help elderly cats in Canada find new loving homes in their golden years. You can see some of their cats at Instagram. MacKenzie's story might also cause you to think about what would happen to your pets if you were suddenly gone. There's no better time to make plans than right now.
Oh, golly gosh !
ReplyDeleteNow I am all upset.
About 18 months ago I found an older calico that was living under an empty house, seems the owner had either died or gone into a rest home.
I caught her in a trap and brought her to my place, quickly built a catio for her.
After about 3 weeks I let her have free rein of the place and she disappeared back to her old place, a good 2 kilometres away.
Went and saw her but she just ran from me, so I had to decide to leave her there.
3 days later she is back at my place, meowing at the cat door, head half in.
I gave her some food and she now lives here full time, in her own room, and dominating the front side garden, which means the other cats no longer go there.
She is an older cat, hard to know how old, but the vet reckons easily 10 years old, maybe 13 ... so one day she will break my heart.
Just last week I had to put down my Trip Factor, a black immigrant that came over the fence some 8 years ago and , literally, fought his way into the house.
He was a lovely boy, darkness personified and with those little fangs always hanging down on view.
Came home to find him all quiet and not coming to my call, took him to the vet first thing in the morning and turned out he had a urinary tract infection, the vet put a catheter in and drained his bladder, but next day it was full again.
Had him in bed with me to give him comfort and his blockage passed and he wet the bed at about 5 am, good times !
Cleaned him up and, come 730 we were back at the vets 2 hours early for his prescribed check up.
Tests showed he was too far gone and so she, the vet, put him to sleep ... the big long sleep.
I wonder how long I will keep on thinking I see him up on the bench.
> She growled and hissed and was altogether socially unacceptable
ReplyDeleteSo, a regular cat then.