My cat passed away

[AnnaMaria]

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post but I'm sure one of the lovely admins can let me know if I need to move the post... trigger warning for pet passing away...

Well, there's not an awful lot to say really, it kind of is just what it says in the topic title. My beautiful boy Thor died on Boxing Day evening (26th December 2023). I had him for around 8 years, we think he was about 11 years old but he was a rescue so it's hard to know for sure.  Myself, my partner and our 9yo daughter got up on Boxing Day morning and fed our two cats, got ourselves ready and headed out to my father in law's at around 11:30 for lunch.  We got home from father in law's house at around 20:30 and I could hear yowling upstairs.  I thought maybe someone had accidentally shut Thor in a room not realising he was in there...

I got upstairs and all the doors to the bedrooms and bathroom were open, but there was our boy doing a poo in the bedroom! Not like him at all - he was well house trained.  He then went out to the hallway and was incontinent of urine and just sat there in the puddle.  He got up and tried to walk around but he was stumbling and bumping into things.  I got a clean towel out of the cupboard and scooped him up and held him.  He started panting heavily and dribbling.  He was like that for maybe three minutes whilst my partner and I called all the vets trying to find somewhere we could take him.  Then he had a very brief seizure, maybe only 10 seconds or so, and that was it, his heart had stopped and he wasn't breathing.  I attempted CPR, having worked in human hospitals for some years, but of course it's different for cats and I don't know CPR procedure for cats so I was sort of "winging it". 

He wasn't unwell at all, not that we knew of.  The vet said it was likely a blood clot or an aneurism that led to the heart attack.  They reassured us all that we did everything right and that there was nothing more we could have done. 

He used to sit with me when a flashback or panic attack started coming on.  He'd come over and plonk himself down right on my chest and purr and purr and nuzzle me and ground me back to the moment.

The house feels really empty without him here.  Our other cat has been so sweet, she was there with us all when he died and I think she knows, in whatever way a cat can know, that he's passed.  After eating her meals she's been wandering about the house meowing, as if she's looking for him, for a few minutes, then she'll come and settle down for a cuddle with one of us.

Our daughter asked for a stuffed toy that looks like him so that when she misses him a lot she can cuddle the toy and feel like she's giving him a cuddle.  We managed to find one that should be delivered in the next few days.  We also found a book for her that's like a grief journal, it's personalised with his name and she can write all the things she loved about him etc.

I tried attaching a photo but it says the file is too large.  He was white and grey/brown tabby sort of colouring.  He was very fluffy.  We think he was part Maine coon and part ragdoll, he had whispy hairs coming out of his ears like an old man, ginormous paws and a beautiful heart shaped nose.  He was so loving and cuddly and spent almost every moment of the day cuddled up to one of us in the house. He was very clever and highly food motivated so he was trained to sit and offer his paw for treats.  I miss him terribly.

[NarcKiddo]

I am so very sorry. It is so very hard to lose a pet but the added shock when he was so young and there was no warning must make it worse.

Rest in peace, Thor.

 

[AnnaMaria]

 

[woodsgnome]

As a fellow cat person, I grieve with you; know that special bond and grief from when my previous cats died.

Albeit, I now have an elderly 20 year old cat who's shown signs of his age, but still gets around okay. Interestingly, he just came over to me and decided to sit and cuddle with me while I'm typing this. In that mysterious sense you noted, it's like he sensed my discomfort as I read your post, and sidled over to keep me company.

His name is Mystic and is pure white. He 'adopted' me shortly after his birth; although I'm not sure where exactly he came from, and no one in the area reported a missing cat. It's a very rural area, with no close neighbours to speak of. So I feel like he 'adopted' me, somehow.

Okay, enough for me -- I wish you and your family some commiseration the deep loss you're feeling.

 

[AnnaMaria]

 

[Kizzie]

So sorry to hear this Anna Maria, it's difficult at any time but at the holidays and when your pet is young, just that much sadder.   

[Merl]

Hi I lost my first adopted cat who was 11 years old.  He had only been with me a few months.  Despite the pain of losing a much loved cat I took a step of adopting another and this has helped me lessen the grief.  I remember my cat by having a photo of him on a stand and a plaque outside where he used to position himself before scaling the fence.