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Diary of a Caregiver's Kitten, Day 44. Lol.

Mom pooped herself and threw the dirty clothes (AND the incontinence pad) straight into the washer. I didn't realize it and ran the machine. I am still up - I've been so busy, I have no clean underwear for tomorrow. But I couldn't run the washer, because first I had to re-rinse mom's clothes, run a "clean wash," and then re-wash mom's clothes! Then it was safe to wash mine, lol. I still can't go to bed till I get my dang underpants in the dryer, at least.

So basically I'm awake on "cat time." "Crazy hour," as my dad used to call it. I used it to teach Bruce how to play fetch! And he actually figured it out pretty well....once he realized I'd keep throwing the toy, he came scampering back like a dog with a stick! Now he's busy killing the mouse over and over again, at my feet.

He should sleep well and not at all try to gnaw on my nose tonight. 

And I just heard the wash finish! Yay! Good night everyone!
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It will be okay Henrick, I have not forgotten you!  Daniel too!

I think Cwillie has to go to the town square to see Willus, the town mascot.  Best kind of pet to have---from a distance. (joking).
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Feeling like a bad squirrel parent-feeding Ratatouille rice crispy treats. It makes him hyper from the sugar. As if he could get anymore hyper. His chest and underside is not beige, nor tan, but a pure camel/caramel color.
Luckyku, do you think I should put out a bowl of water, maybe with liquid pet vitamins in it? And I must treat for fleas, already, on the porch. Getting itchy already.

If I die of the bubonic plague, lol, I have asked hubs to login to tell you all g o o d b y e !
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I'm sure there are MANY I didn't list with all the great people on Agingcare.
I sure don't want any of the other's to be jealous! Thanks Gershun for reminding me about Henrick.Sorry if I upset him.
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I have Henrick too.........mustn't forget about him. I'll post a pic of him so he doesn't get jealous.
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It's so wonderful that so many on Agingcare have animals and many have new babies.
Pamzimmrrt has a new Chug puppy named Karma,Gladimhere has Ming anew Siamese kitten,
SharonMarie has Buster-a boy puppy,Dorianne has a new all black kitten named Bruce,along with her older Carmella,and Send has a new squirrel named Ratatoulle along with her Nutjob and then there's cwillie who has beautiful Willis,while Gershun has Daniel,and doodlinmama1 has Spike and Zelda has 4 cats,and I have the 3 kittens along with the MaMa-Bootsie and old Odom and Precious,my little chiweenie...They bring us all so much joy and comfort and Love.We are all so blessed!
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Walker....not wallet! Lol
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We have four cats. They all on occasion ride on his wallet
seat. We trade that it's their uber ride. My his wasn't really
a cat person but he enjoys them. A couple sit on his lap
for pats and scratches. One sleeps half the night on his bed. Our last two dogs were Jack Russell terriers. So hyper!
But for right now the cats are less in your face and quicker
to get out from underfoot. Someday I'd love to get another
dog. Maybe another cocker spaniel. 🐕 🐈
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So.....wee Bruce turned into full-on attack mode on my forearm this morning! He was relentless, no matter how much I pushed him away, put him on the floor, put him out of the room. He has learned the "NO" command when it comes to biting and scratching, but he was NOT obeying it this morning. All because I hadn't played with him yet! The little poop. HOW do young ones have so much ENERGY!? Sheesh!

And I mean....really, it's my fault because I should have brought out the toys after the first "attack," lol. He's just a kitten!
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@Lonelysolonely - is she deaf by any chance? My elder tabby (13) started meowing really loudly at me a couple of years ago. Gradually I came to realize she cannot hear very well anymore! I can call her and call her and she won't come, but if she sees me and I wave at her, she is right there with me. Her voice is super loud since losing her hearing!
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I got my cat when I realised my ex husband and I would never reconcile. He hated cats - I had two when I met him and was planning a third so go figure? Anyway, there was no one to stop me so I got her. She was a lifesaver, the smallest ugliest little white kitten that squeezed herself under my chin every night. She's not as ugly now and still squishes herself into any little space she can find that includes a part of me. She loves me so passionately I sometimes get surprised by her intensity. And she yells at me loudly all the time, only I know she can't help having a big voice, but other people think she sounds cranky. Sorry it's off topic a bit. I'm a bit lonely tonight and this topic took my attention.
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Bwahahaha! I needed that laugh, Countrymouse!

Boundaries, shmoundaries though. Little guy comes to me with massage therapy. He curls up between my shoulder blades and falls asleep while the therapist is working on my lower back and hip flexors. It's extra relaxing.  :-P
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I was visiting a friend and her 5 month old kitten yesterday, it was fun to see him pouncing on things and grabbing for the fringe of my scarf, stopping for a little pat and then off again to play.
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Boxes boxes string boxes AND...

The Forbidden Room.

Bliss!

Boundaries, Dorianne. That's all I'm saying. Boundaries.
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What's awesome about kittens....everything new is this HUGE experience. Mom has this box room, and I really need some personal space besides my tiny little bedroom. So I started cleaning it out yesterday.  I want to set it up as a kind of private den. I think it's supposed to BE a den! Anyway, I had been forbidding wee Bruce from going in there, but now all of a sudden he's allowed....and IT'S THE MOST EXCITING THING ON EARTH! Boxes! Bits of paper and string! More boxes!! Lol. Kittens are hilarious.
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CountryMouse...That's exactly what my Mother cat of tte kittens does.She licks 'em and bite's them and they bite her and lick her and Bootsie will take so much and then she splats 'em and walks off.
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Ha ha! He thought I "splatted" him! ;-)
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Dorianne, if you watch footage of tigresses with their cubs you will notice that the tigress indulges them despite bitten ears, pulled whiskers, pounced-on tail and general scrambling about all over her - until she has had enough. Then she splats the little devils, gets up and walks off.

Bruce was subdued because he thought you'd had enough. No harm done!
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(((((freqflyer)))))

Last night I accidentally whacked wee Bruce on the head, and I was soooo freaked out! He became subdued and I started to panic that I caused him a brain injury. I actually don't think the whack was hard enough for that, and he seems fine today. But I was in tears! And holding him so close and apologizing, wetting his fur with tears. And then he was pawing at my face (clawless) because he's 3 months old and he's never seen tears before. It would have been adorable if I hadn't been so freaked out.

Man, have I gotten so attached to this little guy already! I'm like a child sometimes.  I think I was attached before I even brought him home (picked him out when he was 2 weeks, but had to wait till he was old enough). He has kind of become my little fluffball of happiness since I started staying with mom, the thing that brings me joy and makes not being in my own home a little bearable.  Right now I am sitting on the bed with my laptop, and he is laying beside me with his head on corner of the keyboard.  Hope I don't need any F keys.
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I want to thank everyone with their kind words regarding the passing of my cat "Sara". She will be missed.

I still have my wild child "Charlie" who was a good little caregiver for his sister, I believe he understood what was happening to her. He is 17 years old going on 2. Hopefully he will be around for awhile.
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Boy! Has my little kitten,"Toots" been behaving badly today....
After my shower,I came out to the kitchen and thhe box I keep the cats and dog food and treats in was on the floor and when I went in the den,in their boxes they play in with leaves and stuff from outside,was an unopened can of tuna,all the dogs chicken treats,1 of my sponges I keep by the sink and a little can I keep crunchies in for them.She was having a hayday while the other 2 kittens just watched.I just wonder how she thought she was gonna open that can of tuna.Something else!
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So sorry FF. I am lucky in that my hubby is always on board when the time comes to send an animal to that green pasture in the sky. He will take the small animals to the vet himself or come with me. I find it much more difficult when it is a horse. They are such huge creatures and to see them fall to the ground is incredibly final.
One good friend has the same problem with her hubby, he absolutely will not euthanize a pet big or small till long after they should be gone then like your SO he is very upset.
Will you get another kitty FF? Hubby did not want to replace the last one we lost but I was so upset he finally relented so we went to the SPCA and picked out a sweet tabby called Carley. She is now getting old so i don't know what we will do when she is gone.
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Oh FF I am so sorry,, I do know the pain. I am always the one that has to take the cats to vet for the long sleep home,, and I hold them while they go, and I cry. My hubs and daughter are no good at that. We once had a cat with a huge spinal tumor,, he was getting around fine,, the vet said it was a fatty tumor around his spinal cord,, but could be ok. It got the size of a baseball,, freaked everyone out so I caved and it removed. Two months later hubs found him dead in the rec room looking out at the yard he could no longer run around in. Now one of our ferals we have had for 15 years is getting to end.. we just had her hair shaved ( it was all mats) and she is getting only wet food.. looks healthier.. but I know the end is coming.. and my heart breaks again.
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FF, I'm sorry. I know you've posted that your cat has been ill for some time. The different approaches between you and SigO reminds me of Hospice thread here on AC. You knew "what time it was" and sig other didn't. If one doesn't understand that the death is imminent and inevitable, it can seem like we should do more to sustain life, to heal them. 

I can't imagine being in great pain and suffering, with death looming, and just wanting to be released but no release coming.  Seems like the definition of inhumane to force that amount of suffering to continue for as long as someone's body will continue on functioning, just for some people's personal moral position of "all human life is sacred, every last moment you can eek out, no matter how torturous."  

I think Bruce is a great name for a cat! I love it, very cute.
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Oh....I actually came in here to mention my avatar, which is new.....this is my new kitten, Bruce. Just got him at the beginning of October. :-)
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@freqflyer - I'm sooooo sorry for your loss. It's so hard to make these decisions for our pets when they can't tell us what they truly want.

I had to put down my boy cat George at the end of January and it was one of the hardest things I've done. He was definitely the animal "love of my life." He had cancer, a tumor in his jaw. Fortunately it was just me making the decision. I kept him at home (with vet support) for a month after the diagnosis, and he was content enough, hopped up on liquid tramadol and fentanyl patches. But I made a decision that when he could no longer eat, I wouldn't let him suffer or starve to death. And that's what happened. I think I might have kept him going longer if I had not already been there through stepmother's decline and death from cancer - what she wanted more than anything was assisted suicide when the pain got bad, but it wasn't legal in Canada then.

When I think about it from the perspective of all the people begging for assisted suicide in this world, it really brings home the responsibility of being the trustees of our pets' lives.
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FF,
Yes. I made the decision to “say good bye “ to our 15 yr old Choc Lab in June.

I fed him, took care of him during his 6 month decline.

The Vet came to the house. Hubby was here. Hubby was so mad, upset, pouting that I had called the vet that it was “time”.

When the Vet got here Hubby tried to stay with us but kept having to walk away because he was sobbing. Hubby was very upset with me and the whole situation for a couple days.

And no, this was not Hubby’s dog. And no, Hubby was not unusually bonded with this dog.

Technically it was my sons dog given to him on his 14th bday. Son grew up and moved but dog stayed. The dog and I were always together, I took care of him, etc, etc, so I made the decision when to let him go.

I guess that’s what the problem was. Think Hubby thought in his mind I was out of line, had a heart of ice, I don’t know.

When the Vet got to our house she agreed it was “time”. That didn’t make it any easier for Hubby.

He settled down in a couple days. This was the first time this decision has had to be made in our household.

I too grieved as our Lab went downhill those last 6 months.

Glad you posted your story.
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Yesterday afternoon we had to say "goodbye" to our 17 year old cat who we had since she was 5 weeks old. What a sweetie she was, never had to say "no" to her, she was a Maine Coon tortie color. Lot of wonderful memories of her :)

Has anyone here ever run into a situation where you knew it was time to say good-bye but someone in your family didn't? That they weren't seeing the same suffering that you were seeing. Where if the pet ate a teaspoon of food, that means the pet was going to recover, even though the Vet said the pet was seriously ill?

My sig other had me so angry over this situation. He didn't want to let her go, he thought she would improve. Yes, she still did some things out of routine, but those were just moments out of the day, the rest of the day was heartbreaking. I finally had to tell sig other that he was being selfish with what he was doing. He eventually agreed. He's a basket-case right now, can't stop crying, his grieving is so different from mine. I did my grieving during the past couple of months when I saw that she was failing. The Vet recently spotted stomach cancer.

It's tough when the household has elderly pets. Just this past June we said good-bye to another cat, who was 18, she had a second stroke that did too much damage. She was in the Animal ER ICU, hooked up to breathing tubes, etc. which did make it a bit easier to say "now is the time".
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Get dog a square of fake grass, place by the front door and steal a fire hydrant. You will need a big wrench and some WD40 to loosen the nuts. better take the wheelbarrow as they look pretty heavy. Also take dog (on a fine day) to act as a decoy. Oh and a feather duster so you can tell the nice officer that you were just dusting it as a public service.
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Okay. Our options are:

1. Stay home
2. Wear a coat
3. Get wet

Dog wishes it to be understood that none of the above is acceptable. Dog demands further and better options. Why can the control-freak human who is always saying "do this do that come here stop down idiot dog" not bring a halt to this incessant rain, then? Hm? Yah. Not so big and clever then, eh?
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