The Hardest Part of Owning a Cat

I love cats and enjoy living with them. They are my favorite.

And then the hard part comes.

Their fur begins to not look so good. They lose weight.

Their appetite changes. They get a medical diagnosis. 

In the picture, I’m trying to hide Elwood’s weight loss. 

Unaware for Many Years

We experienced the joy of living with cats for 15 years before facing the loss of a cat. 

By that time, we had 12 cats: nine indoor and three outdoor cats that came to the yard regularly for food, water, and shelter. 

I had no idea what it would feel like to lose a cat. 

Losing the First Cat

The first cat we lost was sudden. Chloe was a feral mom cat that had kittens in the yard. She changed my life forever.  

I took her kittens in to socialize them after they were old enough to eat on their own.

Chloe eventually moved on to another feeder down the road. She was that kind of community cat. 

It’s a long story, but she died after having surgery for a prolapsed rectum in my garage on Christmas Day in 2018. 

It was tough finding her passed that morning. We loved her but did not have a close relationship as she had chosen to move on from my yard. I was asked to help trap her when the feeder noticed something wasn’t right. 

Losing a cat on Christmas day sucked. I cried a lot. 

More Hard Times

Our first indoor cat to pass was Kilala. She had a very slow decline. 

I remember crying for hours when my vet phoned to inform me that Kilala had thyroid disease. 

She was 12 at the time of her diagnosis. How could this be happening?

I was not aware of all the things that cats can have problems with. I learned then that many cats do not die from old age!

The disease was managed well with pills for over 3 years. She was mostly a great pill taker. She even swallowed the medication on her last day.

Of course, I didn’t know it was her last day. She passed at home while my husband and I were both at our jobs.

We’ve also since lost two of the outdoor cats, Charcoal and Midnight. And indoor cats Lina and Buster. 

So far, Lina has been our only cat to die from old age. She had no issues in her bloodwork 3 weeks before she passed. 

Watching Cats Decline

We’ve been living with terminally ill cats for over a year now. It’s hard to watch. Buster had a slow decline from the summer of 2023 until he passed in February 2024. 

Not even a month later, we learned that Elwood has kidney disease at a checkup. He likely had it for a long time before it was noticed. If we had stuck with Pretty Litter, we would have been able to help him sooner. 

There isn’t much we can do about it. B12 injections are helping the most.

Elwood doesn’t eat enough. We’ve switched to the kidney diet food. The appetite stimulant didn’t help.

We see him eat more cat treats than food. At least he is eating something.

He looks too skinny. When I take pictures of him I try to hide his weight lost. No one wants to look at pictures of severely underweight cats.

We know he is “on the way out” as my husband says. All we can do is our best to help him have the best quality of life until the final day comes. 

It’s hard. He is only 10 years old. 

Sadly, Elwood died from the kidney disease only a few days after I wrote this article. 

The Years of Joy With Cats Are Amazing

Cats are my favorite. The end of their life is the hardest.

As a they decline we hope they have more good days than bad days, knowing that the time will come.

No one told me before having cats how hard it would be. And I am glad they didn’t. 

I enjoy living with cats very much. I like watching them, petting them, interacting with them, and holding them. 

Cats have been a blessing in my life. I am thankful for the joy of the many good, healthy years of each cat.

It’s Become Easier  For Me to Handle The Passing of a Cat

I learned that writing about their passing helped me to process my grief. 

People grieve differently and that’s okay. Some people decide the end is too hard, and never have another cat or other pet again. And that’s okay too.  

Having lost many cats, the pain of watching them decline has become easier for me to handle.

I’ve also been wrecked twice when taking a community cats from other feeders to the vet, thinking they could be helped, only to find out that best thing for the cat was euthanasia. 

It’s not easy. It’s sad and very difficult.

However, past experience has helped me know what the expect, which has made their decline and passing easier for me to handle. It still sucks.

A friend told me once that the hard things we experience help us get through hard things in the future. I have also grown in my faith in trusting God with all things.

Cats are beautiful animals and living with cats is one of my favorite parts of life, even when it’s hard.