Tabitha

diplomaticandtactful

diplomaticandtactful

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2003
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Think we have reached the end of the road with Tabitha. she is almost 20, renal failure, she is bright, eating, moves perfectly well can run and jump but is skin and bone and very incontinent. Have had pads down, then tried nappies - kept getting them off. She lives in the bedroom as she doesn't like other cats and I am changing the bed almost daily, I had hoped the nappies might work but no. Last night the top blanket, duvet, sheet and the matress cover all needing laundered again.

I hate to have her pts when she is still not ready to go as she has quality of life, but the endless laundering virtually daily or twice a day is getting too much. The only other thing to do is bring in one of the big dog crates and make her a den in there. will try that over the weekend and if she is ok keep going but otherwise get the vet out on monday.
 
Bless her, I’m not sure how good a quality of life being locked in a room/crate is, and it’s an awful lot for you to manage, sadly it sounds like the decision isn’t far away. I’m sorry.
 
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We have her in the crate and see how she tolerates it, just delivered her some dinner. Will bring her down to the sitting room in the evening so she has company
 
She seems to be coping in the crate eating ok, i bring her downstairs when I can but if you have her sitting on the sofa watching tv, she tends to have a mishap. Thank goodness we have lots of towels.
 
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Tabitha left us this morning, found her dead in the crate, still warm. We managed to keep her going by putting a waterproof sheet on the bed and stripping all the covers off and covering it with towels which are easier to launder than duvets etc. At night she went into the dog crate. She was bright and purring yesterday, running around, still eating. Slept away peacefully if i had got up earlier I might have been able to hold her but was just too late. She was 20-21 ish so ancient but still bright as a button. Very sad.
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diplomaticandtactful said:
Tabitha left us this morning, found her dead in the crate, still warm. We managed to keep her going by putting a waterproof sheet on the bed and stripping all the covers off and covering it with towels which are easier to launder than duvets etc. At night she went into the dog crate. She was bright and purring yesterday, running around, still eating. Slept away peacefully if i had got up earlier I might have been able to hold her but was just too late. She was 20-21 ish so ancient but still bright as a button. Very sad.
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Aw, run free now Tabitha. How lucky she was to have you taking care of her. xxxxx
 
She had a good life, born to a feral mum, who we trapped and neutered and released, rehomed all the kittens. We didnt manage to catch Tabitha with the others but got her a year later, pregnant and with a gangrenous tail which had to be amputated. I refused to send her back as she was clearly tameable so kept her. People who were feeding her complained to Cats Protection as I was their homing officer locally, went legal, decided that she wasn't owned as they never paid her and the rest of the litter and the mum's vets bills or let them indoors or wormed or vaccinated them. When we moved to scotland I was driving up with the cats in the car towing the horse trailer and my OH rang to say the police had been on the phone asking where the cat was and he said somewhere on the M1. We legally adopted her, and personally paid all her vets costs, so she stayed with us till she died. She didn't like other cats so she lived in the bedroom all her life but had two big windows to look out and she was content. She had one kittie who visited her and they were friends. Sweet little girl, will be much missed.
 
diplomaticandtactful said:
She had a good life, born to a feral mum, who we trapped and neutered and released, rehomed all the kittens. We didnt manage to catch Tabitha with the others but got her a year later, pregnant and with a gangrenous tail which had to be amputated. I refused to send her back as she was clearly tameable so kept her. People who were feeding her complained to Cats Protection as I was their homing officer locally, went legal, decided that she wasn't owned as they never paid her and the rest of the litter and the mum's vets bills or let them indoors or wormed or vaccinated them. When we moved to scotland I was driving up with the cats in the car towing the horse trailer and my OH rang to say the police had been on the phone asking where the cat was and he said somewhere on the M1. We legally adopted her, and personally paid all her vets costs, so she stayed with us till she died. She didn't like other cats so she lived in the bedroom all her life but had two big windows to look out and she was content. She had one kittie who visited her and they were friends. Sweet little girl, will be much missed.
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Wow what a story she had then. They had a cheek trying to get you into trouble for homing her! People can be weird about cats and kittens though can't they. When Mrs Mack (who we thought was a feral boy!!!) turned up one day with a litter of 6 in our barn, we trapped and neutered them all and decided we were keeping all of them. However, one neighbour had other ideas and "fancied" Rosy as she was the prettiest. I am so glad I was firm about us keeping them all because that neighbour has since left and how they kept their other animals was not how I would have kept mine. I make sure our cat gang are wormed, de-fleaed and fed like Kings ! They want for nothing and are free to come and go as they please. I remember though when they were kittens how folk almost treated them like they were just disposable items. I would have moved heaven and earth to keep them - but as it was our local cat charity were lovely and helpful and we got them neutered and trapped (they loaned me their traps) and I got vouchers from Cats Protection for the neutering.
 
Sorry to read of your mum's passing @diplomaticandtactful especially just before Christmas. Sending you my thoughts and prayers. I know you had many difficulties with your mum and she had been frail for sometime. So not totally unexpected. Its still never easy to deal with the loss of a lived one. Hope you can take some time for yourself.
Seeing your post reminded me. I just had to go and find my uncles death certificate because I couldn't remember whether he was the 11th or 12th. I can only remember the date of his funeral being 22nd Dec. But he died on this day back in 2011. Having seen him only 6 hours before in the hospital. I got up at 2am to answer the phone to be told he'd been found dead on the bathroom floor. We shall never know how long he was there before he was discovered. We all suspected quite a while given the hospitals awful reputation.
 
chunky monkey said:
Sorry to read of your mum's passing @diplomaticandtactful especially just before Christmas. Sending you my thoughts and prayers. I know you had many difficulties with your mum and she had been frail for sometime. So not totally unexpected. Its still never easy to deal with the loss of a lived one. Hope you can take some time for yourself.
Seeing your post reminded me. I just had to go and find my uncles death certificate because I couldn't remember whether he was the 11th or 12th. I can only remember the date of his funeral being 22nd Dec. But he died on this day back in 2011. Having seen him only 6 hours before in the hospital. I got up at 2am to answer the phone to be told he'd been found dead on the bathroom floor. We shall never know how long he was there before he was discovered. We all suspected quite a while given the hospitals awful reputation.
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It was awful watching her being starved to death we do better for our animals. Asked my vet to slip me some ketamine and we both agreed that if she had fore legs we could have made it easier for her. We have been there since Tuesday afternoon in shifts and were there all yesterday from 9 to 7pm when I was going to go back after doing the hens horses and dogs but the staff sent OH home saying she was stable and we were knackered. They checked her during the night every hour and then found on the next check that she had slept away. I refused to let her go to hospital as the nursing home could do everything they could do. Chest infection again, this time antibiotics didn't work and that was that. She was awake yesterday and able to hear but couldn't speak, I just rabitted on about stuff and read poetry to her. Then she dozed off in the afternoon before I went home to sort out the gang. So that was the last time I saw her alive. She looked peaceful unlike my dad. Dad died 2 days after my birthday and mum did it 2 days before my wedding anniversary. We are booked to go away over the weekend and have managed to clear her stuff out of the home so that hopefully someone else can be admitted in time for xmas instead of being stuck on a hospital ward. Bought a big tree for their garden and delivered that with a home made xmas cake for the staff. Just field totally out of it, off to have a poodle cuddle. Harrison poodle played a blinder, licking her hands and nudging her.
 
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