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Have you had pets that you lost? Either because they ran away, or passed due to illness or old age? How did you handle it?
Excuse me while I grieve, since we put down the cat I've grown up with for most of my life today. He was 18 years old. I loved him to absolute bits. I still remember how excited I was when my family and I went to go pick a cat out at the Humane Society. We turned the corner and he reached his paw out to us when he saw us. He was such a cutie, I had to beg my mom to take him home. She wanted an older cat instead, but I didn't give up. We took him home. He was the little brother I always wanted, and a really great and consistent presence throughout the rest of my life. I named him Marz, specifically with a Z because I thought that was really cool and unique (it is). He was a big inspiration in some of my grade school projects - I still remember delivering a presentation on him in the fourth grade. We had just got a polaroid camera and I brought in some photos I took of him. I also used his name as my online pseudonym for pretty much all my life, including here on PC. I first joined here in 2006 as user: marz. I use that name on Steam, battle.net, Reddit, and countless of other places I've since never logged onto.
My cat was taken away from me 10 years ago and I have had her for 12 years. My cat's name was Fluffy and she was the most beautiful, funniest, white cat I have ever seen. My grandma did not want Fluffy in the house anymore because she started urinating on the carpet instead of her litter box and my stepdad took Fluffy to the animal shelter and I never saw her again. I heard the animal shelter Fluffy got sent to the animals get killed if they stay in the shelter for a month or 2 months and don't get adopted. I always wonder what happened to Fluffy if she got adopted or killed because she was 12 when she got sent to the animal shelter.
2 years later I submitted Fluffy's photo for a contest, "The Cutest Cat." The cat who gets the most likes on Facebook wins $1,000. I don't have that many friends on facebook and I knew I was not going to win. Around 6 months later, the judges saw Fluffy's photo and they published Fluffy's photo for the cutest cat of the month.
I've had a few pets pass due to 1) parasites that the seller told me the pet didn't have (seller told me the chameleon was captive bred when it was actually a wild caught, I asked specifically about this and was lied to) and 2) my first ever chameleon, I purchased without knowing it had already developed metabolic bone disease. I gave it top of the line care until it passed away.
First of all, I am sorry to everyone here - losing a beloved pet is an awful, awful feeling and I really sympathize with you guys, especially if you have had them around for years.
My post got really long so I am splitting this into spoilered sections
Spoiler: the sad // Mocha's final days
Almost a year ago today, we lost our 17 year old yorkie, Mocha. She lived a really happy and healthy life and she had no illnesses up until her last couple months, where her health slowly started to deteriorate from old age, and then quite rapidly deteriorated in her final days. It really came out of nowhere (I mean she was 17, so it wasn't completely nowhere, but I really thought she may have had a couple years left in her because of how healthy and bouncy she still was at age 16-17), but in the last year of her life, during a routine checkup we were told she was suffering from heart problems that are common in old age, and she was on heart medication that last year, but still relatively fine. The medicine seemed pretty foul-tasting to her so I did find it kind of amusing and cute how adept she was at trying to pick it out of her food, but we always made sure she took it daily no matter how fussy she was being.
The heart issues really weren't too problematic all in all, and it was actually a stroke she had in her final days that took her life quite rapidly. I couldn't tell if she fell that day because of the stroke, or she had a stroke and then she fell, but she was no longer herself after that - she would still be her bouncy self for a while, but she would have several moments in a day where she would lie still, unable to move at all, erratic eye movements and her breath would get very short. She would make noises like she was in pain. And then she would be fine for a couple hours, and then it would happen again. It went on like that on and off for days even after taking her to the vet, they gave her more medication but told us it was time to consider putting her down. It was a really, really difficult decision to make, and I know typing this right now it sounds so selfish for the times she was in pain, but when you see your dog still able to run and jump for several hours in a day and appear totally healthy, it's just not so easy to make that decision because you still have the hope she will pull through and get better. In the end, we did not get to make that decision.
On the day that she died, my dad and I were out in the morning, and I really think she hung on until we were all together before she left us. She had another stroke shortly after we were all home, the worst one yet so we immediately took her to the vet. In the car, her eyes moved around like she was looking for all of us, looking at all three of us. We got to the clinic and in the few minutes we waited in the room for the vet, she passed away on the table while we surrounded her, minutes before the vet was able to see her. I still remember that moment so clearly, and we spent what felt like hours in there with her saying our goodbyes before arranging for her cremation with the vet and leaving without her.
I don't know why I spent so long reliving her death, I remember the good parts too. 17 years, that's a pretty huge chunk of my life. I would walk to school with her and my mom when I was a kid, and everyone at school knew and loved her and always wanted to pet her, even though she actually HATED kids, lol. Even me! She was super annoyed with me when I was a kid but grew to be a lot nicer to me when I started taking over some of the responsibilities of caring for her and not just solely annoying her, she loved to race with specifically me for some reason, my mom used to say she must think I'm a dog too haha. If I walk alongside her she NEEDS to push on to be a little ahead of me, so as she got older and I didn't want her to strain herself I just let "win" when we were out on walks. She was really good at fetch, and I swear as she got older she started trying to train people how to "fetch" - she would bring the ball back when you throw it but always leave it just out of your reach, and if you're sitting and you strain to reach for the ball, just as you are about to touch it she will move it a little further out of your reach. She was such a little shit sometimes, lmao.
I just remembered I actually wrote this back in 2012 and I am so, so glad I did. I wrote a 'biography' for her when she was 11 years old because that was when she started maturing - she played with me a little less, took more naps, and while it was perfectly normal for her to slow down at that age, 17 year old me was terrified that was the beginning of the end and I wanted to start writing down things so I will never forget what she was like when she was young lol. Here it is:
Spoiler: the happy // Mocha's "biography"
Written Oct 7, 2012
just the basics:
11 years old
yorkshire terrier
female
7 pounds
appearance
blue-black coat (slightly greying now, very slightly)
the hair on her head is golden-brown
distinctive black stripe from her forehead down her nose :)
a shiny black nose!
bio:
Mocha has been a valued member of our family for around 10 years now - time really flies, I've known her for more than half my life! :aww: Over the years, she's been a loving and faithful companion, not to mention such a clever and amusing girl - we really couldn't ask for more in a dog.
much more to come - it's almost 2am and I'm brain-dead, but I really wanted to get this started.
the little things:
she loves getting her belly scratched. LOVES IT. She will chase you around giving you her paw until you scratch her tummy. She never asks for anything else; not food, not treats. Just belly rubs.
she understands the phrase "you stay home" and protests loudly if anyone says it. It's usually a joke because we rarely leave her at home, so if we teasingly say, "Mocha! You stay home!" she will bark and follow my mother very closely (because she never jokes about leaving her at home). If my mother does say it, she will know it's true and sit on the couch sadly.
Sometimes when I come home from school, or if my dad comes home from work, she will howl the most adorable greeting ever.
When she hears the garage door open, she will stand at the top of the stairs and wait for my dad to come in.
If I'm working at a table/desk, she will sit under my chair. And if I accidentally step on her, hell breaks loose.
Having said that, though, she never seriously bites people. It's more of a warning nip. Though when I was younger she would bite my hair and not let go if I did something that displeased her, which hurt. She stopped doing that years ago, though (I think she finally loves me! :heart: Jokes, she always loved me).
She never sleeps alone. She mostly sleeps in my mom's bed, but my mom wakes up earliest, and when she does, she will go into the room of whoever else is still sleeping, and so on, and so on, until everyone is awake.
I don't know how she knows, but when it's breakfast time or dinner time, she will stand in the kitchen until someone feeds her.
Mocha prefers humans to dogs; she has very few dog friends she approves of. Since we moved to our latest home, which is a townhouse unit, she met a lot of dogs that live nearby and now has two best friends: Lucas, a 5 year old Maltese and Bugs, a Scottish Terrier. Recently, we've been taking her to the local park to socialize with more dogs and she isn't too fond of it yet, but hopefully she'll like playing with them too in the future!
She cuddles stuffed animals instead of chewing them.
She had a lot of squeaky toys and balls that she loved when she was younger, but as she grew older, she stopped playing with them. :( I asked around, and some people think it might be because her teeth hurts when she picks them up because she's older now, because she still chases them when I throw them, but she doesn't chew them anymore, so we must get that checked out.
When she was younger, she picked up a tennis ball while we walked through a tennis court, and she carried it all the way home. She was very excited and proud of that - it was a long journey, and she frequently had to pause and put it down for a few seconds, but she managed to take it home. :P
That armchair in the living room is HER CHAIR.
She feels shame and knows when she is being laughed at. If she goes up the stairs and she stumbles a bit, she will quickly look around to see if anyone saw her slip. I remember this time, she wanted to jump onto the top part of the sofa, but she slipped and slid back down onto the cushion; she turned around and saw that I was staring at her, so she just pretended she was exactly where she wanted to be and lay her head down.
oh alex, i'm so sorry. i loved marz. :( he was such a great cat and to have had him 18 years is amazing...
when i was 11, i lost my dog lee. he was a black cocker spaniel w a lil white spot on his chest. we lived on a busy bypass at this time and he got hit by a car while i was at school. i was at a new school that year too and everyone was really awful to me. i looked forward to seeing lee everyday bc i mean. that was my best friend. he was my first pet that was MY pet and i unfortunately didn't have him very long. i got him for my 8th birthday. but i came home and found out, my step dad at that time had already buried him for me and put his food bowl over where he was. i went to my room and hugged my cat tightly and cried all over him. oddly enough, he didn't like me doing that normally, but that day, he let me without even squirming. i think he was upset, too. they were besties. i also had on the tv and it was apparently national hug your cat day so. that was...a thing.
i've lost a few other pets too and not that they're unimportant or anything, but i think losing lee was the most impactful. i had two cats, casper and fuzzy (the one who i hugged to bits when lee died), at separate times that both ended up running away. i'll never get a cat from petsmart again after my 6 month old fray died. we were leaving to go eat with family and he was napping in his favorite spot, an empty laundry basket we didn't use, and when we came back, he was still there, but no longer breathing. it probably wasn't petsmart's fault, it's just like. bad vibes bc of that now. my very first dog, punky (who my mom has glamor shot pics with???), died when i was about 6 or 7? she was one of those cases where the dog runs away to die. she disappeared and i thought it would be like the time someone let her and our other dog out of our yard and they ran away and the person that found them reached out to us, but...we went looking for her in our neighborhood and the woods nearby and found her. even at a young age, i was convinced she didn't want us to be upset which is why she left to die peacefully. i still believe that and it's apparently a real thing.
i have three cats now, one of them is more MINE than anything bc i'm the one that adopted him and had him with me before moving to georgia. his name is matt and i am overwhelmed with love every time i look at him. i dread the day i will have to say goodbye to him, but he's only 4 years old so i don't imagine that to be soon, but instead of thinking about that, i just enjoy him every chance i get. he's soft and black and sweet.
I've lost many a pet in my day, but the four that stick with me the most are my Jack Russel Jesse, my Sheltie Jake, and my twin kitties Tiger and Boots.
Jesse was just an old pup, almost 19 when she finally passed. She lived a great life and old age just caught up with her. It was sad, watching her get weaker and weaker. I'm fairly certain she had passed already on the way to the vet. Jake, on the other hand, had run away for nearly a month when my mom decided to bring him up to her bitch of a boyfriend's house and let him roam free. Naturally Jake chanced after a deer and wasn't seen again until much later. Thankfully, I got my sweet boy back, though he was very ill and had over 100 ticks pulled from him. He was also.. never the same after that experience and I can only guess what could have happened to him. :( He eventually passed some 9 years later while sleeping in his crate on Easter day. First time I never had to put a pet down.
Tiger was my buddy. He, sadly, developed bone cancer and there was very little we could do. The disease spread so rapidly and he was constantly in pain and just.. wasn't a cat anymore. He had no quality of life and decided that the most merciful thing to do was put him down. His twin, Boots, had a much harder go of it since his diseases took a much slower path. He had kidney problems with caused crystals to form in his bladder, making it both painful and a bloody mess whenever he used the litter box. After exhausting all veterinary options, we decided to give him intravenous fluids at home to help flush his kidneys. It worked for about a month or two, of daily medicine taking, annoying drops, painful injections, and a profoundly unhappy cat. He wasn't able to live a normal cat life and, at nearly 18, it wasn't fair to him for us to string him along with painful procedures. I like to think when we had to put him down it was a combination of old age and kidney disease.
@Roxas: I can't believe someone sold a wild caught Chameleon to you. That's so cruel. There's so many wonderful reptiles that need good homes and I feel like so little of their plight gets any attention. :/
I've also lost several pets for various reasons, but the one that upsets me the most was my cat, Max. He runs away often, and then he would come back a day or two later. One time when he came back he wasn't feeling good and his stomach got big. Some days later I checked up on him and he was in bad shape. Was in my room for a while, and when I came back my dad told me he passed and already buried in our backyard. We didn't take him to the vet because we didn't have any money for that. My family and I only had him for three years, but still left a big impact on us.
A month later my family got another cat and she's been with us over 6 years now. Going to be very sad when she too will be gone.
When I was young I had a cat who disappeared and never came back (found out years later that someone in the neighborhood was known to shoot at cats...yikes), I've also had several other cats I've grown up with who had to be put down due to quality of life going down to nothing (even when they weren't that old), but the one that gets me the most...
I was given a cat in 2014, as a kitten. Ended up losing him in August 2017 due to heart failure, and it ended up wrecking me for a while. Not so much because he passed, though I definitely missed him and still miss him even now. But because it was something that seemed to pop up suddenly, no vet had ever said anything about heart problems before in any checkup, and when the very obvious symptom appeared we didn't do much because we thought maybe he was just being overexcited about something (he was an excitable cat, and we had just moved into a new house), and said if he got worse we'd take him to the vet.
The problem was that once he obviously got worse, he went downhill really, really fast and ended up passing that same afternoon. Only three years old, and we lost him to heart failure. That was a nasty mix of feeling grief and feeling like a monster ("if I had taken him to the vet earlier, this could have been avoided or he could have been put to sleep peacefully"), alongside some nasty anxiety spike because I was sure I would get blindsided with another bad thing happening. I also remember getting angry at seeing people with their dogs outside because "why do they get to keep their pets while my buddy dies". Just a bad time all around for quite a while.
My first dog died when I was about 5 years old. My parents had had him for about five years before I was born and from the video tapes and pictures I've seen, he was like an older brother to me. Rocked my crib, very protective of me, let me walk him without pulling or yanking, and just overall extremely gentle. He was a great dog from what I've seen and remember. Unfortunately, he passed away from bone cancer sometime around when he turned ten. My parents put him on an experimental medicine at the time in order to let veterinarians test to see if whatever the medication was might work to combat bone cancer. It gave us a few more months with him.
Christmas after he died, we got another dog. Had her up until last year. She wasn't nearly as gentle as my previous dog, but she was very playful and affectionate. I didn't get to play and love her as much in her later years due to being in college, which is a huge regret of mine. But I skipped class to be with her in her final moments. Poor girl developed a tumor in her stomach and she was too old for surgery to give her more than a few months at most. I got a tuft of her fur to remember her by, but her death has hit me a lot harder. She still pops up in my Facebook memories a lot. My parents refuse to get another dog, or any new pets for that matter, so I'm hoping when I move out I'll be able to get a new companion.
I've only lost gerbils, but, mom never let me play with them, so, I wasn't too bent up about it. Also, one time I let one out of the cage, or something, and they ran off, but I don't ever remember one getting loose and running away around the house?
My oldest cat, who was a primarily outdoor kitty, never came back home one night. It was normal for him to go days before returning but he ended up disappearing for three days, then a week, two, a month, and just...didn't end up coming back. /: We assume he went somewhere to quietly pass since he was pretty old at the time (11-12 years or so estimated, adopted as stray). It's still really sad for me to think about.
I have, and it's never easy. I just go day by day, remembering what good they brought to my life. My oldest cat, died some time ago, from lung cancer. She was a very good kitty, but it was best that I got her put down, so she wouldn't have to suffer. Before I took her in, I spent as much time as I could with her, snuggling and cuddling with her, petting her and talking to her. She was a good friend and I still miss her every day.
![[PokeCommunity.com] Lost Pets](https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/227022092846104576/603103199951323137/Screenshot_2019-07-22-22-56-34.png "[PokeCommunity.com] Lost Pets")
