cats

My 15 year old cat had a stroke. He couldn't stand up on his own, kept falling over to one side.

We set him up with some towels in a storage bucket and I told my wife "I have to go to work, if he's not any better, we'll take him to the vet and have him put down."

When I got home from work, I looked in the bucket and said his name. He raised his head, put his paws on the edge and stood completely up, like "Goddamn it, I HEARD what you said."

He lived another 7 months.

At the end, all he wanted was to be warm so I made him a fire.

Healthcare professionals, whether for humans or animals, are universally delighted to be wrong in such circumstances. I know I tend to get wrapped up in people's odds of recovery and how quickly I expect to see changes because it helps me plan their care, but when somebody recovers in a way I wasn't expecting or much quicker than expected I get HYPED.

Happy to hear the little guy is OK. Here's sending more good vibes from the internet.

I had to put down my 16 yo heart, warmth, and joy 2 Saturdays ago. Something in me is broken and gone with him.

I got a little runt that needed a lot of help and is helping me heal . I tell him a lot about Katsu.

It's been a rollercoaster.

All my best wishes go to you and your 2 little gremlins and their will to live 🐈

Photo. Need photo.

Oh, I'm so glad! I've been thinking about your last post and hoping for the best. It can be such a tough call, because you don't want them to suffer, but sometimes they do pull through. Damn adorable little drama kings and queens!

I've been fostering kittens for a few years now, but had my first bottle babies and my first loss last year. In fact, 4/5 of the bottle babies I had last year tried to die at one point or another. The only one that didn't was accepted by a nursing queen that I was fostering at the same time. The most dramatic kitten was actually the last one:

I had a litter of 3 orphaned kittens. First one refused to eat, so she got tube feeding & antibiotics. A week or so later, her brother's appetite went from 200% to 5%, so he also got tube feeding & antibiotics. Both of them spent a few days on a downslide before eventually turning around. When they were about 3 weeks old, and I was finally starting to relax a bit, the third one decided it was her turn.

I was feeding them every 3 hours around the clock, but occasionally skipping one feeding per night so I could sleep for more than 2.5 hours at a time. At 6p, she threw up, but was otherwise fine, and at 9p, she didn't want to eat, but was still alert and active. I couldn't fall asleep that night, so I figured there was no point in skipping the midnight feeding. When I went to feed them, I found her completely limp and barely responsive, so I rushed her to the ER, and I was scared she'd die before we even made it there. The vet immediately took her and it was probably 20-30 minutes later when they came back to me and said she wasn't responding and it would probably be best to put her down, but they'd keep trying a little longer. It was probably 15 minutes later that the vet came back again and had me follow them to the back where the little kitten was suddenly alert & responsive again.

On the vet's advice, I went back to feeding them every 2 hours for a bit. Everything was smooth sailing from there, and I got to send them off to their forever homes when they were about 10 weeks old. I hope they don't give you any more scares!

You're a good person and the kitty was lucky to have found you.

Take that vet out of your contact list