The cat, again

[nancylebov]

A while ago, I posted about a cat I'm having trouble with. I've given up to the point where I'm willing to put him on craigslist. The first thing I see when I look at listing pets is something from Peta about how incredibly careful you have to be giving an animal away. From what I can gather, their worries about animals being used for research are fairly silly--most research is done on standardized animals. Or is that just a self-serving claim from the labs? It still sounds plausible to me.

Anyway, have any of you guys given animals away outside your social circle? How much care did you take? On the one hand, I feel like he needs someone who'll care enough to give him bottled water (quixtar filtered water is ok, too), and on the other, this situation is driving me crazy. I won't put him in a shelter (there are no no-kill shelters in the area) and at age 14, his odds would be extremely bad. This seems like just giving him a few bad days before the end.

The thing is, I'm feeling overwhelmed with convention prep, and in some ways, Ra's behavior is worse--I've been accomodating him so he won't piss in my room, and I think the result is that he's expecting faster service. He's also started waking me up when I sleep.

Is there any way I can tell the truth but make him sound like a cat someone might want? Taking him on would be something of a challenge, but he's still an attractive, affectionate cat, and it's quite possible that a skilled cat handler could have some good years with him.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

PETA is not worth listening to. Aside from everything else, not a lot of research is done on cats. Animals that don't fight back are much preferred. Your real worry is that the recipient will give the cat to a shelter, which will be a one-way ticket.

The only reasonable thing to do may be to give the order to "pull the plug" yourself. I know it's very hard, even with a misbehaving cat, but the only other hope I can see is to find someone who takes in lots of cats, regardless of their condition. If you find someone like that, check very carefully that this person actually takes care of the cats; there are periodic news stories of people who are found to have houses full of pets, in unsanitary condition, because they just want to give homes to the animals and keep doing it beyond their ability.

The choice is very hard. But it may be the right one. 14 years isn't too bad a lifespan for a cat, and you've done all you reasonably can for him.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

The problem is that he might well be an ok cat if he were an only cat--his behavior was ok until a third cat was added. On the other hand, he was ok in a two-cat household, so maybe it's just a specific personality conflict. On yet another hand at this point, his habits might be hopelessly bad, or it might be that a skilled cat handler could turn him around.

[landley.livejournal.com]

A co-workers wife is a veterinary technical assistant who takes care of lab test cats. They're all 6 months old and specially bred for testing (they're not just random cats) and are tested on for exactly six months before they're euthanized (because of crap like PETA there are now regulations dealing with their disposal, you can't adopt 'em out, they have to be killed to make sure nothing done to them will lead to some chronic condition years down the road, yes even the control cats. Way to go peta, that's a big improvement...)

So no, your cat would not be tested on by a university lab, no matter what happens.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the primary motivation at PETA is to punish people who have pets by cranking up the emotional/logistical cost.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I'd warn them upfront that he needs to be an only cat. He might be a good bet for an older person who's home a lot and doesn't want a young cat.

I gave up a pet a few days ago

[celticferret.livejournal.com]

I belong to a sugarglider list and posted to the list that I was giving up 2 ancient sugar gliders. They needed to go to an experienced home. I requested references I could check.

You might try a cat newsgroup or join a yahoo cat group.

KG

[daystreet.livejournal.com]

My vet (actually a smallish vet hospital) often has posters up of kitties (or doggies) looking for new homes. Might be worth a try, if you have a vet hospital nearby. I'd give a brief but honest & direct description of the situation, the kitty's good points, bad points, etc., with appropriately cute picture attached. I have no idea if any of those kitties or doggies get taken up from my vet hospital, but I do recall browsing them while waiting for my guy's appointment and thinking... "hmm, maybe..."

There's no guarantee of anything, of course, but it's at least a somewhat safe bet that if somebody is bringing their bird or lizard or gerbil into the vet hospital for proper care, they do feel some degree of responsibility for the well-being of Our Little Friends of one sort or another.

Yes, there could be Evil Agents haunting the waiting rooms of vet hospitals looking for victims. I'd say the chances are fairly low of that being the case, but that's just a sense I have of it.

[freyas-fire.livejournal.com]

http://www.petfinder.com/pet.cgi?action=4

Scroll down to Philadelphia - there's a ton of shelters in Philly! There's also P.A.L.S. in Springfield, which puts the kitties in the Broomal PetSmart. Most shelters charge a small fee to take in a new cat, though, and right now most shelters are so inundated with kittens that it's difficult at best to adopt out the adults. P.A.L.S. does have a special place for senior cats, so if you decide to go that route, let me know. If we still have the rental car, we can drop off the cat for you if you make all the arrangements beforehand over the phone.

http://www.petfinder.org/shelters/PA82.html

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I'm with your first commenter. If he's 14 years old and engaging in anti-social behaviour, the chances of him finding a good home, or any home, are slim. If you do manage to find a home for him, they may well decide they can't deal with the behaviour and take him to a shelter. In which case he'd be stuck in a strange, frightening environment with lots of other cats and no people he knows until the waiting period is up and he's euthanized.

I'm not saying don't try. You mentioned that some of this behaviour is new, and may be because of a personality conflict with another cat in the house. But if you're looking for a new home for him through a vet's office or Craigslist, I'd give yourself a set number of weeks and if nobody suitable has presented themselves by the end of that time, have him put down. And if you do find an adoptive home for him, maybe say that if they can't deal with him, to give him back to you rather than take him to a shelter.

I know it's really difficult to have a pet put down for reasons which aren't related to a life-threatening illness. I had to do it a few months ago, with a cat who had spent most of his eleven years vomiting up his food as soon as he ate it (and no, there was absolutely no medical reason for it, as established by a battery of expensive tests. He just did it, and didn't ever seem to be in any pain about it). And it drove me nuts,a nd I knew there was no way I'd be able to find a good alternate home for him because what animal lover in their right mind wants a bulimic supermodel they have to constantly clean up after? I was able to salve my conscience a little because the vomiting was getting more frequent and he was keeping a smaller proportion of his food down, and he had started sneezing all over the place, but I didn't have him put down because it was the only medical option, I did it because I couldn't deal with him any more, and knew I'd never be able to find a decent home for him. And it seemed kinder to just get it over with than to have him stressed out and feeling abandoned.

And yeah, it sucked, and the vibe was totally different than when I had to put a pet down because they were suffering so much with a fatal illness (which I've also had to do). But yeah, it'd be very difficult to find a good home for an incontinent cat who will only drink bottled water. I mean, presumably the only reason you're putting up with it is because you've had him for fourteen years and you've got accumulated goodwill from the days when he wasn't peeing all over the furniture (which is the same reason my cat made it to eleven years of age, because for a long time cleaning up cat puke on a regular basis seemed like an okay trade-off for an animal I loved). But everybody reaches a point where they can't deal with the behaviour anymore. And a new owner who doesn't have the memory of the good times is probably going to have a much lower tolerance level than someone who does. So yeah, it may be possible to find him a good home, but even if you do, they may decide they can't deal with it longterm (assuming his behaviour doesn't improve in a new setting, which may or may not happen, given his age). So I'd ask to have them return him to you if they decide he's too much, and then take him to the vet and have him put down. It's probably the kindest thing you can do for him.

[daystreet.livejournal.com]

I think this advice makes a lot of sense.

[madfilkentist]

Your cat reminds me of my Johann (in the picture), only a worse case from the sound of it. Johann always threw up his food occasionally, and by the end of his life it was getting close to a daily occurrence, including a spectacular desecration of the bathroom just a week before he died (of unrelated causes, AFAICT). It got to the point where cleaning up cat barf was just a routine part of housecleaning. I miss him.

[raincitygirl.livejournal.com]

I miss my Bulimic Supermodel too, but it just got to the point where I couldn't deal with it anymore. I was cleaning up vomit two or three times every day, and sooner or later your tolerance level just disappears. He had been my mom's cat, and she had intended to have him put down three years ago, because she couldn't cope any more, but I took him in instead. The chances of her having been able to find a non-family member who'd be willing to take him (because I had a pre-existing relationship with the little brat) were slim to none. As my mom said, he got three more years than he would've otherwise. But yeah, it was a hard decision to make. Harder than when I had to put my other cat down, because that was a case of sudden, catastrophic illness where both the vet and I were clear that the only possible solution was to put him out of his pain as soon as possible. Losing a pet to a fatal illness sucks, but at least you don't have to feel guilty about it. I did feel guilty about Bulimic Supermodel, but looking back, I don't know what I could've done differently. I mean, it was getting worse rather than better, and it was getting to the point where it was him or me. And given that he didn't have an income with which to pay the mortgage....

I think every pet owner probably has a different tolerance level in terms of what they're willing and/or able to put up with. I have always said that if I had a pet who became incontinent, I'd have it put down. But we've only had two family pets who became incontinent, and both times the incontinence was part of a raft of other problems (i.e. it was a symptom of the animal's physical deterioration, rather than the main problem). Given that for many years I cleaned up noxious substances which happened to come out the front end, maybe I'd feel differently if I had a pet who was incontinent but had no other health problems. I mean, there's a guy who lives near me who has a German Shepherd that wears a diaper. Personally I think if it were my dog, it would've been put down a long time ago, but if the dog's only problem is that it needs to wear a diaper, and the owner is willing to deal with the mess (which obviously he is), then sure. But I also wouldn't blame the guy if he had the dog put down because he'd been diapering it for a long time and had finally decided he couldn't do it anymore. It's easy to be judgmental about somebody else's choices. I sometimes hear fellow pet owners saying they would never have an animal put down "for convenience", but they also aren't running around opening their homes to unadoptable pets whose current owners can't cope with them any longer, so it's a little more complicated than that.

Filtered water

[(Anonymous)]

Have you tried one of the water fountains for pets that have a filter included? or a hampster-drip-bottle over the sink, w/ bottled water in it. If he's otherwise civil, one of these may work (or it may be his bid for more attention, in which case attention is the only thing that will work)

Re: Filtered water

[daystreet.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that he didn't require the water directly out of the bottle, but that he required (for medical reasons?) bottled water, presumably taken out of a bowl or whatever. But maybe I got it wrong.