Sendhelp Posted March 2017
Caregiver's cats behaving badly.
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Does your Cat (or any pet) misbehave since caregiving your loved one?
Have you been required to take care of your loved one's pet after they have passed? Does your pet have cute antics that entertain your loved one?
And finally, has the cat or dog transferred their loyalty to your Mother?
Your story has really touched my heart. Those are just the memories of our pets that we need. If ever I can get those last days of my dog's days out of my mind, I am sure all the memories of her will be good. So thank you for telling us about your pets.
Wetting the dog food! Amazing!
He'll be buried in the yard as soon as it's possible (maybe this week with the warm-up and rain that's coming, we'll see if the ground thaws far enough down for a deep enough hole). The bags I bought to store his body until the thaw were purchased from a livestock supply company and are intended for calves or very young cattle that have died and need to be stored until they can be buried, and are biodegradable. I'll make a place for him between the two large trees in the yard, which is where he spent a lot of time outside. Once spring comes, I'll have a small patio put over his resting place and put my outdoor swing there.
As far as weight loss for dogs, I had a Corgi that was *very* overweight when I got her from a rescue. She should have been no more than 28 lbs and she was close to 40 lbs, which was dangerous for her back (they have long spines like a Dachsund). Her previous owners were elderly and fed her lots of treats, and couldn't walk her for exercise, so she gained weight. When they died, their daughter took the dog in but disliked her (I have no idea why - she was the sweetest dog...) so she ended up in a rescue. They put her on a diet of 1 part dry diet dog food, 1 part wet diet dog food and 1 part canned (low salt) green beans - that, coupled with lots of walks, got her back down to a good, healthy weight over the span of several months. Sadly, I only had her 18 months before we lost her to an aggressive, fast moving form of leukemia.
Funniest thing that dog ever did: she was *really* picky about her food consistency, and if it wasn't "wet" enough, she would scoop water out of her water dish (right next to her food dish) with her nose and throw it over on the dry food!
Lucky Lu, this kind is for kidney function, but the vet also had some for diabetes management and weight management:)...(Purina Brands also).
Through the years,Iv'e had 2 diabetic dogs.One of them lost both it's eyes.I never want to go through anything like that again.
This afternoon i walked into my home office to find my wastebasket toppled over with everything pulled out. I knew it was Rosey, as she always leaves a tiny tuff of her fur, like a mark of Zorro. She's a Norwegian Forest Cat so she can spare the fur !!
Daily she goes into my bathroom, opens up the curtain [they are on ring loops], and knocks the hand soap container into the sink. And there on the sink was the mark of Zorro. Thus, one tuff of fur at numerous crime scenes throughout the house :)
But I cannot explain why Rosie is attacking this one pink flowering plant. It's in a small light weight plastic container. She knocks it over, grabs it, and kicks with her hind feet. Today I placed the container into a heavy china flower pot.
I think she is testing me, to see if I would yell at her. She would need to resort to setting the house on fire before I would raise my voice, as I find what she does so comical :)
FreqFlyer, after trying 5 different prescription K/D wet canned food in the last 2 days, we have a winner I think...Purina makes a prescription K/D canned food and both our cats have been coming back for more all day. It is kind of like a pate---our cats didn't like any of the ones with chunks in them. I see Purina also makes a kidney function dry food, so we are going to try that tomorrow. Both are prescription and we get them at the vets. Both cats just walked away from the other brands.
All of our babies are buried in the backyard with stones on their graves that say the years we had them and their names.One is buried in a child's casket,my parents bought.Most are in sealed tubs,buried with their clothes and favorite toys.We have lost pets when the ground was frozen too and they were kept in a freezer until the ground was soft enough to bury them.We always have a funeral,say special prayers and our goodbye's....It gives me a lot of comfort that they are buried in the backyard,so I understand why you want to bury yours in the yard also.Again,I'm sorry you lost your boy.
I get her in the car for dialysis and tell her to put on her seatbelt. She starts playing with the window.
"What are you doing mom?"
"I'm...trying to open the door."
"Why are you opening the window then?"
"I don't know."
"Ok," I say, activating the window child lock. "Use the black handle on the door."
She pushes the window switch a few more times, then eventually finds her way along the door to the handle, pulls at her coat (which wasn't actually stuck), and tries to use the door opener to close the door.
Of course it doesn't close that way.
"Mom, use the other handle. No, the other handle. No, the other handle. Not the window. Go down. No, down. Now to your right. Your other right. Further. No, not that handle, the other one. The other one. The other handle, mom. Look below that one. See that handle? It's the same colour as the door, can you see it now? See how it indents?"
She pulls on the door. It doesn't click all the way shut. I tell her. She opens it and tries again. It doesn't click shut. Finally I lean over and open/close it properly.
"Ok, now put on your seatbelt."
Mom starts playing with the window button.
Ok, well you can imagine how it all went from there.
After that and about a half dozen other scenarios of things going off the rails, I finally leave her in the hands of the hospital porter for dialysis. I get in the car. Start it up.
The radio starts playing Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train."
"I'm going off the rails on a crazy train......."
I rest my head on the steering wheel.
Sorry for changing tense, here, but....I have to. I can't live like that's the present anymore! Lol.
I gave up on my errands halfway through this afternoon. I sat in the parking lot at Safeway and, instead of going in, I said, "Screw this, I'm going to start my day again and go hug my kitten."
And then I got in the door, and Bruce was already coming towards me. I put on my excited voice and said "Hello Bruce! Hello my boy!" And he was all fluffy and happy. He lifted his front paws to be picked up. We cuddled hard and then I ruffled his fur a few times. I could hear the deep rumble in his chest.
I just had to post this because.....aren't animals awesome? Aren't they really just the best thing on earth? I think so, anyway.
(Note: if anyone else finds themselves in this position, there are Ebay sellers that offer bags just for this purpose.)
My year has already gone to the dogs.
Year of the dog
I plan to check Chewy.com and see what regular off the shelf wet cat food has lower protein. Has to be 5% or 6% compared to 12% or whatever. Dry food is like, yikes, 30% protein compared to 20% diet. Much easier using Chewy as the website shows the ingredients, then standing in PetSmart for two hours trying to read the tiny print on all the cat food cans :P
There is a variety of new cat soups that is out that I noticed has low protein. My cat just slurps up the juice and leave the fish or chicken behind for the other cat to eat.
I guess I subconsciously knew more than I'd like to admit, because 2 weeks before he died, he had a strange episode that had me ready to run him to the vet, but he recovered, other than being a little lethargic for a couple of days. I thought maybe he just had a bug. But something was telling me to get ready, so I ordered what was needed to take care of him until I can make a place for him in the yard. (I can't afford to cremate him and can't bury him - ground is frozen.) I guess my intuition was right.
I think he had a series of strokes in a very short span of time. It was terrible to watch. I had someone coming to help me get him to the vet, because he's a large dog and weighed about 100lbs - no way could I carry him out to the van - but they didn't make it in time and he died at home. I knew the vet couldn't help him, but I wanted them to end his suffering. He just went too fast. I guess that was a hard lesson learned - if I have another dog, it needs to be one that I can carry myself. :-(
I think I've had enough loss and death for a while. I'm glad he didn't pass away any sooner - like right after Mom passed. At least he was here with me for a while and was a comfort during that process.
So nice to see you posting today.
I am very sorry about your losing the old guy.
It is never easy to lose our pets, when they have become our family.
Condolences.