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My partner and I foster a lot of cats. Some of the sweetest cats take forever to get adopted just because they aren’t kittens anymore. One of our fosters has been with us for almost three years now - just because he isn’t a kitten and needs some inexpensive meds sprinkled on his food once a day.
We adopted a male cat who was a couple years old, he had no teeth and has stomach problems so he needs special food. He had already been adopted once and returned because of the issues and he got bullied out of his foster home by some other cats. Felt so sorry for him, he’s the sweetest boy and our other cat tolerates him ok (they have an older sister/younger brother dynamic), and she doesn’t usually like other cats.
The shelter staff made it sound like he was special needs but it’s literally just a slightly more expensive hard food. I guess after he was returned they wanted to make sure whoever adopted him knew what they were getting into. Love that little guy!
66% of our resident cats are on prescription diets. Total non-issue. I think people just worry about other unanticipated costs.
Looks like a Bengal. I’m surprised he wasn’t snapped up.
BTW as an elder cat caretaker, if he stops eating hit meds willingly (which can easily happen if his condition flares up), we have had amazing success with cutting the tip off a syringe, loading it with canned food and front loading the tip with their pills.
When cutting the tip, leave a tiny bit of material so the plunger still stops, but not so much that the pill gets jammed.
3/4 of our cats actually open their mouths willingly to be pilled because they only taste the food, the pill is swallowed without them noticing.
I LOVE that idea! One of our resident cats is a pain to give meds to so I’ll give it a try!And yes, Bo is half (or so) Bengal. He came to us completely feral but needed those meds so he didn’t go the TNR route. He’s turned into a super friendly guy who craves getting pets - just took a bit to get there. He’s also basically vocal chords on four legs - sings all day long.
If anyone is interested in adopting, he’s listed with MEOW in Calgary, Canada!
Sounds like a Bengal to me!
When modding the syringe, I find it easiest to remove the plunger, and using a drill bit from the inside that is slightly smaller than this inside diameter of the syringe. 1/32" leaves enough of a lip to still stop the plunger in my experience, but YMMV depending on the plunger style.
We had a 5ml syringe with a fully plastic plunger (no rubber) that was amazing. Eventually lost it and haven’t been able to find a replacement yet, but rubber tipped plunger are fine too, just wear out faster.
What a handsome spotted guy!
I won’t adopt kittens, personally. Those little shits are cute, sure, but they eat everything and claw everything and try to kill themselves on everything. Just like a toddler.
Even if an older cat wasn’t trained at all, they still get some sort of common sense level up after they pass kitten age.
SQUEEZIES! I know scruffing is wrong, but God dang, do they love sqeezies and butt spanks.
Scruffing is not wrong.
It mostly depends on weight. I can lift my Yorkie by his butt skin and neck skin, and he loves it. If I did that to a heavier animal without loose skin, it would hurt them. Cats tend to lose that extra skin pretty fast. They just like getting squeezed there. (Mostly if they’re hand raised).
Of course everything is context sensitive. You can “scruff” a healthy adult cat without ever hurting them if you do it right. You don’t lift them up by that skin.
And the non kitten fellows! We wanted a third cat after adopting two kittens years ago. We were so over the erratic nature combined with the roll the dice luck of whether they were floor pissers, plant eaters, etc, so we decided to look for adult cats. The only one the shelter had was this mongy manky stray who was estimated to be 5 years old. When we went in the adoption room with her, she looked at us and did a massive wet shit that made us all evacuate the room. Her adoption photos make her look mangy, aloof, old, dirty, and distant, not to mention smelly.
Later, when the poo particles had settled, we went back in and picked her up. She sank into my arms and I just knew… I cried and couldn’t bear to let her go.
Four years on, her shaggy fur has became soft, her distant eyes started slow blinking and showing emotion, her little frame filled out and she became an absolute hellhound for dinner time. When you walk in the door, no matter who you are (literally, you could be a burglar), she will run up to you and do this silent meow asking to be picked up. When you hold her, she purrs so much her body shakes and she drools until her face is dripping. She will climb into bed and play little spoon at night, and she loves laps all times of the day.
We’ve had her 4 years and she no longer does wet shits, but is the same loving cat that melted when someone held her and showed her love. She converted me to older cats.
When we went in the adoption room with her, she looked at us and did a massive wet shit that made us all evacuate the room.
I laughed so hard at this single sentence that I couldn’t stop even while writing this. Bravo!
Oof. Much feels.
Also, old cats yaoll like a mfer and develop incontinence. Give them the best last days you can, but when its time to let them go, let them go.
Damn those onion ninjas again…
Not going to start crying in the middle of this restaurant. Nope.
If only more people adopted in general instead of spending money on designer pets.
Why not both? We rescued an abandoned Scottish fold, and now we spend plenty of money on her. She’s a sweetie!
Creating designer pets is immoral. Creating a side channel market for abandoned designer pets is immoral because it increases demand for designer pets (people can abandon their pets knowing they will be cared for).
Sure, if they’re abandoned.
The issue is that we have so, so many stray cats. So, so many cats left in shelters. We do not need people to breed more cats just so people can have their very expensive and very specifically bred designer furbaby. We need people to take care of the ones that already exist and are already struggling.
breeding should be outlawed until all cats have a home. same with human children
He is so cute either with those big ol’ paws. ❤️❤️❤️
I wish i had the capacity to adopt animals. I’ve always wanted to do this. Older animals being in shelters makes me sad.
the only reason I only have one dog is my tiny apartment. I am moving to TX so I can live in a house with a yard soon. when my boy passes I plan to get an elderly dog and spoil it until it dies, then rinse and repeat until I die
I see so much suffering in this world. I am exhausted from being depressed and anxious about it. I just want to help a tiny bit if I can, I can’t just wallow. that wont save any animals from dying alone on a cold floor. action will
These are the best people on earth.
Dumb question, but is it common for cats to end up in shelters? As I understand, they tend to fare not too badly as stray cats.
Do they get put in shelters when they’re too old/sickly to hunt? Or are cats raised as housecats not good enough at it? Or do we generally put cats into shelters, because we don’t want them to hunt and obliterate the local wildlife?
Totally not a dumb question tbh - the answer probably also highly depends on where you’re from.
In Germany (also highly depends on county/city) yes, they do normally fare pretty well and shelters often operate multiple feeding stations where there are a lot of strays. So they get to know the „local strays“ and can keep an eye on them via volunteers and cams.
When a cat is visibly sick, they catch them at this station, treat them and if the cat is alright, oftentimes release them again - shelters are notoriously full and money ist scarce for these organisations unfortunately…
However, if there are conditions that make life for this cat (or others - e.g. FIV) dangerous, they are normally kept in the shelter and then opened for adoption as a „only indoors cat“.
Also, older cats often end up in shelters because they often belonged to older people - and when they can’t care for the cats anymore, have to move or die one day, the cats have to go somewhere too.
Where I am, strays are usually catch, sterilize, release. But if you caught a cat who was sick they’d treat it, and lots of cats end up at the shelter because people don’t fix their pet cat in time, and they get pregnant (even if you are responsible - we had a brother sister pair and I asked the vet what she would he fix them, he said “6 months”, I asked but when can they get pregnant? “4 months”. Thankfully it didn’t happen, they were fixed and lived long kitten free lives).
And pets, if someone gets sick and can’t care for them they get surrendered.
Giving old cat a cuddle and loving the old cat.
Reminds me of the time my wife and her friend when to an adoption event. She said she might come back with one. I told her to pick out the dog least likely to get adopted. She came back home with a 20 pound mutt that’s blind and deaf. He was rescued from a hoarder and had a bunch of open sores. Real pitiful. The before and after pics are crazy. He looks great now. Total asshole and fits right in with the family.
bro how you gonna NOT share pics?? :)
I adore pits, lets see that PUP!
My bad, you’re totally right. Here’s a before/after. He isn’t a pitty though. So I’ve also included a pic of our pitty for you too.
I love them 😍
My boy also sticks his tongue out in his sleep😂
No cats are immortal you can’t convince me otherwise
Reddit jokes about crying are the equivalent of a couple doing cutsy baby talk with each other in public.
What’s Reddit?
go back to reddit, toxicity is not a feature in Lemmy
