I'll start. I have an 18-year-old tortoiseshell, smart, spoiled, and sweet. She rules the pillows at night, with a gentle but firm paw warning me to move my head or else.
My other cat, who was six months older, died a year ago of intestinal lymphoma and menangioma. His mother was a Siamese, his father a gray tabby. He had gray tabby markings and the totaly schizoid Siamese personality, voice included. He adored me, the tortie adores my husband.
I've got Chimichanga, age 1, from the Siamese Rescue (even wrote a story about him in the Tufts magazine, Catnip), Shadow, who's 19 and fragile but spunky and loving; and Masha, 13 and schizo. Chimi isn't schitzo at all; he's a very serious, large bluepoint snowshoe who will work for treats (hop through hoops, etc) and who sits down in the middle of a gathering of strangers and politely follows the conversation. And he's unbelievably QUIET!!
Dennis is my 15 yr. old red Maine Coon-sleeps on my pillow in top of my head. Couldn't be sweeter. Meeko is a 5 yr old red Turkish Van rescue cat. Both boys are very outgoing. They come to greet any one who comes to my door. Some of my neighbors stop by just to visit the guys and bring them treats. Meeko sleeps across my feet. I don't know what I would do without them. I brought Dennis up to visit my husband. DH didn't understand what the poor puss was. I felt worse about that than when DH stopped knowing who I was. bluedaze
We have our Teddy. He's an orange tabby. Adopted him from a shelter around the age of 8. Now he is at least 13 maybe older. We think his first person was an older man. He loves my husband, just follows him everywhere. I don't think I could bear it if my husband forgets who he is. OMG, I would know it is the disease but Teddy wouldn't; he's already been lost once. Hopefully my husband will remember our Teddy. I wonder if those with ALZ dx remember animal connections more than human?
Piper and Chessie are 10 year old litter mates. He (Piper) is sweet and affectionate, and prefers to spend most of his summer time outdoors. She (Chessie) is a bossy diva, but affectionate--well, she demands affection--and likes laps. Hazel is 8--a tiny calico, inclined to skin allergies, and always on the lookout for butter. They all enjoy the companionship of my AD husband.
When this journey is over I want another animal. I had a dog and I loved him, but I've got some minor disabilities, that used to be pretty major. I can't plan on being able to walk an animal in the snow and freezing rain and you can't just let them out around here.
So I was thinking about a cat. The problem is asthma and allergies, including allergies to cats. Are there cats that are easier on the alergies than others? I might as well do some research now while I can.
Starling=there is a hairless cat called a Sphinx. I know nothing about the breed but I can't see it being warm and cuddly. Actually I have held one. Since it has only very fine hair it is warm to touch and smooth. Good luck. bluedaze
Mine is Katrina, a solid white Maine Coon cat. She is very affectionate & recognizes her name when called. (Unlike other cats I have had.) Unlike bluedaze's cats, when "strangers" come to the house, she hides under the bed. She knows the ding dong of the door bell means strangers. She has actually made a hole in the bottom of the box spring & climbs up in it for a hiding place. I attribute this to being afraid of being taken away from her surroundings as a cat rescued from the hurricane, Katrina. She is very skittish about outside noises, if she hears a voice, she wants to go back inside. I never leave her outside unsupervised. I adopted her after her rescue from Mississipi. She is beautiful. My husband loves her too, and I swear, I think he would miss her more than me if we were to leave.
There are cats who are hypoallergenic. I think they are Syberians, a close cousin of Maine Coon cats. Also have dog like personalities.
Val, I cannot BELIEVE you talk about a cat having a dog-like personality. You're going to cause irreparable psychological damage to the cat.
My schizo cat dug a hole into the underside of the box springs, too, and loved to hide there. Never had a single bad thing happen to him in his life, spoiled rotten from the day I got him as a tiny kitten. But he was terrified of everyone but me, and yes, the doorbell had him running in a panic, either to the bed or the cabinet under the sink.
you cat lovers, just visited my SIL who has two gorgeous older cats, one in particular is huge solid white and named angel and male.:)he has wings of an angel in black marking on his back and quite a novelty. thing is hes been sinking in health and not eating and dr has him on daily prednisone for asthma, hard breathingand 'depression'?. i think the animal is dying due to loss of her husband 10mo ago and he was supr attached to my brother inlaw. when we visited this weekend the cat noticeably improved and began purring and eating alot more when he could sit next to y DH husband who resembles his dear brother in appearance and probably smell? we were amazed at the difference in the cats improvement while my husband was in the house and the cat insisted sitting close to him. now the thing is, my DH is super allergic to cats, but it was just too heartbreaking to see this animal in need of his 'daddy' again...anyone know about 'grieving' in cats?? i dont know much about cats-always had chihuahuas! thanks for any input my SIL is beside herself with grief losing her husband now her beloved cat of 10yrs..divvi
Sunshyne-Don't blame Val (well-maybe a little). If you look up the Maine Coon profile two things always come up-dog like personalities and raised under foot. Good breeders never cage their breeders-not even the males. The result is personality plus pusses bluedaze
This conversation is hilarious. LOL. Thanks for the break in all the seriousness all around. I see I have misspelled Mississippi a few times. Well with no spell check you just have to go with the flow.
The non allergic cats were either Syberians or Himalains (Know I misspelled the last!)
divvi, some people will try to tell you that cats don't really care all that much about their owners, but don't you believe it. Yes, I think it is entirely possible your SIL's cat is grieving for the loss of her husband.
I used to have a great, big orange tiger who positively worshipped my first husband. He liked me okay (probably because I was the one who fed him), but trailed my husband everywhere. When my husband died, that cat would spend all night, every night, sitting at the front door waiting for him to come home.
Many weeks later, I awoke in the middle of the night from a purely awful nightmare that involved someone breaking into the house. I was scared to death. I checked the entire upstairs, where everything was okay, but nothing on this earth could have gotten me down the stairs to check the first floor. From the top of the stairs, I could see the cat in his usual pose at the front door. I called to him: Theo, come here, I need you. He promptly came up the stairs, walked past me into the bedroom, climbed into the bed and nestled into the pillow. After that, he spent every night on the pillow beside me, until the day he died.
awww...lovely story, Sunshyne. we do know for sure all animals have ESP and definately pickup on our emotions so its very feasible they can grieve losses as well. divvi
They definitel;y do grieve. When we lost Dusty (grey tabby) at 15, Angela (white) was lost. When we could tell that Angela was going to be leaving us, we didn't want Luna, (7 1/2 yr, Siamese mix) to go through that so bad, so we decided to adopt 2 kittens (since they'd be so much younger, I didn' want to go through this again anytime soon). Pepper and Ashley were either sisters or aunt/niece, but 10 weeks after adopting, Pepper(she'd been having problems) got really sick--feline leukemia. Everbody had to be tested and inoculated. Hubby demanded we adopt little black & white kitten from niece. She had one other left, so took both. Johnny Cash and Nora(little tortoiseshell) fit right in. And now we had 5, along with 2 dogs. And then we lost Angela, and the Basset hound, Babe. Then we got Candy, Beagle Pup--OT< Boston Terrier knew all about cats and kittens and big dogs, but this little pup had him puzzled--"your not a cat, but your not any kind of dog, I know". Then VaD moved in , and we had to make changes. We placed Nora and Ashley. A recue was dropped at our door on a Saturday. I figured we'd nursery her through until Mondauy, and have a rescue piuck her up, but by Monday she was one of the gang. A couple months later we placed the Beagle-- and now we are OT, Luna, Johnny Cash, Sweetie, and 3 aquariums of freshwater tropical fish. Hubby helps with feeding cats, spends small swaches of time watching the fish. Sweetie races him to the bedroiom when he heads in for a nap, and keeps tabs on him during the day.
They entertain us, will cuddle with us, and help by lightening our days.
We have a gray DSH who is the light of our lives. He adopted us about 8 years ago and now has the run of the house. I think I could leave the door open all day and he would not leave. . . but I am not going to tempt him. We just lost our 17 year old orange tabby to cancer. I still get a tear in my eye when I think of him.
If you want to start your day off with a smile, log onto catoftheday.com
We have 4 cats. Our first cat was given to us by my sister when my husband spent 7 weeks in a row on various business trips. I got lonely, my sister took care of me. Three years later, we decided that our first cat was lonely during the day so we went looking for a second cat. We found a beautiful gray calico.
In 2000 the day before my husband's knee replacement surgery we had to put the first cat down due to congestive heart failure. We did a lot of crying that night but still managed to crawl out of bed and get him to the hospital for his surgery at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. He had his surgery and when he woke up he immedicately told the nurse about the cat we lost. When she called me she said "your husband is doing well and I am so sorry to hear about your cat."
My DH spent the next week in a nursing home being rehabilitated. After he was home a couple of days we went to the shelter as our calico missed her buddy. We looked all over the shelter and my DH's eyes met the eyes of a beautiful black and white tuxedo cat named Bismarck. DH said that he had a German name so he belonged with a German so we brought him home. I swear that part of the reason that my DH recovered so well from the knee replacement surgery is because Bismark used to like to hide in interesting places so we were always searching for him.
The last two cats joined us a couple of years ago. I was in the pet shop and fell in love with the face on one of the kittens. I convinced DH that that was what I wanted for our anniversary. We went to check the kitten out and there was the one I liked and another cute little gray and white female in the cage. DH looked at me and said "two kittens are better than one" so we gave each other kittens for our anniversary. My husband loved them all. The antics of the cats always made him laugh even as he progressed in the disease. I could always count on them to do something cute and fun just when I needed to distract him. Today, the girls rule the household - when a stranger comes in the boys hide and the girls check out the person.
It made me so sad when I brought our 15 yr old Maine Coon to visit DH and he didn't pet or even understand what the poor cat was. It was worse than when I realized DH no longer knew who I was
We have three, Maggie, Rosie & Rizzo. DH can never remember any of their names and refers to them by color -- the orange girl, the black girl and the white & orange girl! I wonder what he will call me when he forgets my name!
We have 2 cats. We also have had dogs & birds in the past. My DH loves animals. The cats are great company for him. Since the cats do not get along, it occupies his time playing interference between the two. When my BIL got AD, he told DH he would have to get a dog to keep him company. DH said he was fine with the two cats. The cats would hate a dog anyway. I think DH likes the cats better than me. :)
My Brother in law had a cat that was his constant companion, we called him stuart little cause the dang cat was identical to that mouses face in the movie! just beautiful and was all white. my BIL was a dentist and had that cats teeth so beautiful even in old age.he would WORK on that cat-dont ask me how-.ha. dear BIL was so good with my DH before he got so sick with congestive heart failure 2yrs ago =BIL passed away last yr and stuart little was beside himself with grief. my BIL went into ER with heart attack and never went home. the cat died within 6mos =we were convinced he died of grieving. believe it, all animals grieve their masters. i am so afraid for my 12yr old male chihuahua. he is his daddys boy..divvi
You all know about Noche`. He's 9 months old now--weighs in at 11 lbs +/-. If he was a person he'd be really tall. I think he's 30 inches long from tip of his nose to the tip of his tail. Big guy. He is so affectionate!. Tells me when he wants to be held. If DH is taking a nap, he just hope right up onto that lap curls up and sleeps until DH wakes up. That is sometimes 3-4 hours. Noche` just seems to now he should be there. DH just loves him being there. He says he thinks the cat loves him. I tell DH that I know he does.
This has been a fun thread. I'm so happy that we have this little black furry friend and that I was apple to participate!
Meeko goes to the vet tomorrow. Little guy has been urinating outside his litter box. Actually peed on my shoes while I watched. (I wasn't wearing them at the time). He is not acting any different-looks just fine. I haven't changed anything like food or litter. Not taking any chances with him. Dennis has been acting just like his usual wonderful self.
We have two cats that are extrememly beneficial companions to my LOW. Bubba is 4 yrs and very large - A typical "Bubba" cassie is about 14 yrs but still gets around like a young cat. They are great to have. Even like me a little.
We have a wonderful, mellow kitty named Sahara that was the queen of the mansion (uh, I mean our modest home) until we acquired Charlie the Pom-Chi. Now she hides out in the finished basement, but goes berserk when any humans go down there to do laundry......rolling all over, rubbing legs, and nuzzling. She used to always spend the nights out, but now that she's older she doesn't care to go out much. She is about 9 years old. Our beloved Abby-doo was hit by a car and a lady who pulled over to take her out of the road saw me pulling over when I spotted her. The lady was cat lover and very sympathetic. She said when and if our family was ready to have another kitty she knew of lots of kittens needing homes. A couple months later we got Sahara from her. Don't know what life would have been like without our Sahara.
I'm really sad. Last night DH let Noche` out after dark. I spent 1/2 hour looking for him and calling him. He finally came in. I explained, I begged, etc. telling DH it isn't safe for him to be out. Coyotes have been spotte. And he is so black that if he got into the street, a driver would never see him. DH agreed that I was right.
Tonight about 7 o'clock, same thing. It is now 1:45 am and Noche` still isn't back. I'm really worried about him. I do hope he is ok.
He's suppose to be a stress reducer. But this is increasing my stress level. Thanks for listening.
YES! I pray Noche' gets back safely, and then that you DO get the deadbolts on. That alone will take much of the stress off of you. Keeping good thoughts for Noche'.
Mawzy, so hoping this has a happy ending. I know the anguish you must be experiencing.
For all cat lovers. Please read Dewey, the library cat. Bluedaze recommended it. I think it is among my favorite all time books. It is such an easy read. It is a New York Times bestseller, & I can see why. Please purchase it from Amazon through Joan. Anyone who loves cats (or animals, for that matter) should read it! I read it cover to cover on my last day off while my cat sat on my lap the entire time. I actually (embarrassing to admit) told her a little bit about the book as I was reading it. It is not just about a cat, it is a story of life & coping.
Mawzy, I feel sure Noche will return so just keep watching for him and also check your local Humane Society and put up a poster in your area. Cats are curious and sometimes they just go on a hunt and get themselves temporarily lost.
Did you check your basement and closets to make sure he didnt' accidently get shut up there? That happens here occasionally.
Hi Everyone, Mawzy hoping your kitty finds his way back. We've always had cats. But after 18yrs both of our kitties died and we just couldn't go through that again. After 15yrs and AD, my granddaughter persuaded me to go to a pet store just to look. It was pet adoption weekend. There he was, 6yrs old, neutered, declawed and perfect image of our little Snowball that we lost. His name is Kiwi and I know God led me to this little guy during this difficult time. He is gentle,quiet and very affectionate. Pure white and sweetest personality. I spend so much of my day talking to him and loving on him. He loved my DH too, even though he calls him "Snowball". I've found comfort and stress relief when he sits my lap and sleeps. I know God gave me this little gift during this trying time.
DH and I have two 8 month old kittens. They are brothers and are hysterical. They don't care how blue or busy, angry, crazed , or forgetfull you are, they want love! Peanut Butter and Jelly bring much joy to our whole family. We are blessed to have them.
Well, all is well. I was up every hour or so--at the front door and then the back. No Noche`. He disappeared about 7 o'clock last night. At 9 am., I was so sad. I missed him hopping up on the bathroom counter to check out my morning ablutions, I missed him rubbing my leg so I would give him some canned cat food. I was just plain sad.
I heard DH talking away. He does that every once in a while. Then I heard him coming up stairs and saying "Mom is going to be very happy to see you." He had Noche` i his arms. Noche was warm and dry. He was very happy to see us. He meowed, rubbed our legs, purred, looked cute at us. etc. all that good stuff.
He disappeared so fast last night I figure he got into our neighbors garage and spent the night over there. They have an odd shift and I think when they opened their garage this morning, he just came on home. Boy, was he hungry!!!
Dead bolt coming right up.
Thanks for all your prayers. Both Noche` and DH are sound asleep now. Have been sleeping for over 2 hours. I shold do that,too.
So happy that Noche is back home. Meeko spent the whole day at the vet. They needed a urine speciment to see why he was urinating all over the house. Little guy just kept holding it in. I spent the day chewing my nails and he spent his day napping in his crate. The vet finally got a needle aspiration urine and diagnosed bladder stones-but the type special diet won't help. She also gave him an injection of a long acting antibiotic. Tomorrow I take him back for an x-ray and then back in another month for a follow-up x ray. As soon as I got him home he made a bee line for his litter box-go figure. So happy to have him home again.
Oh, my yes! He was VERY happy to be home. He really wanted to buddy up to me purring all the way. After Noche` and I had a little 'heart-to-heart' about him just taking off like that, we kind of settled down and relaxed. He's been sleeping almost all day now. He's very tired after his big adventure.
Just got Meeko home from the vet again. No bladder stones-just crystals and a UTI. Now put on Hill's Prescription diet which is expensive and I can't get it cheaper on line. Petco and the like claim they can't get it. Anyone know where I can get it other than the vet? Wonder if we can put divvi's husband on it.