Awww, I have one (well, he has a little smokey dark grey/brown mixed in on his tummy, but I think he counts). One of my pandemic shelter kittens!
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Mine is a tortie! She was completely black when she was a tiny kitten. Now she has some orange āburnsā in her fur. Most affectionate kitty weāve ever had. 
! She did get some extra Fancy Feast today.
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Iāve never figured out how to successfully attach photos to this forum! And now my D (my consultant on all things electronic) is away on her pre-orientation camping trip. Oy, what will I do without her!
Iāve been longing for another cat for some time. I do have a granddog at the moment, but itās not the same. Then my DDs two cats came to stay for a couple of months and Iām over it. Theyāre back with her now, but boy were those girls nuts. And not in a good way.
LOL I could have written this post (except no granddog). I love cats, but my beautiful black ladyās final months were so traumatic and heart wrenching that I decided to wait a year before getting another. Itās been over a year, but between that ordeal and my Dās two catsā prior visits, I just havenāt had the overwhelming desire yet to take that on again. Since we spent almost a year remodeling a new house and have a lot of new, pristine furniture, not dealing with cat hair and litter boxes has been nice.
Yup, same here. My last cat was the best cat who ever lived, and we cared for him through diabetes and kidney failure for five years. Iām only recently feeling ready to risk my heart.
DDās cat would demand pets until it was one too many and she would go all cujo on me. The other one hid most of the time, although she did warm up to me before they went back to their mother.
Any suggestions on how to find a ālong termā cat sitter ( long term = about 4-6 months)? Our two very senior (15 & 17) urchins are so far still healthy. But weād love to travel more for longer than the usual 2 weeks. When we lose these two, Iād love to get another, but again donāt want to be tied down or have to bring them everywhere. I thought it would be great to find others who enjoy cats, and co-parent them, giving both parties time to foster, and time away.
No family nearby, and donāt have a clue how to find such an arrangement. Thoughts?
I found a wonderful cat sitter for my diabetic cat at my vetās office. There always seem to be some young vet techs working there who might have a side business.
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I am struggling with the same issue. We have a diabetic cat and she requires shots every 12 hours, and she has to have wet food twice a day too. (At least thatās how weāve kept her relatively stable so far). Iām afraid to guess how much we will have to pay if every my son isnāt available to help when we need him.
Others with diabetic cats - did you feed wet and/or dry, and did you let them graze or eat only twice a day?
Thanks
I agree that vet techs can be a great resource. Weāve found various sitters that way in the past as well. But they were for much shorter terms ( 7-14 days max). 4-6 months is a totally different need. I once wrote ALL my contacts looking for someone who might want to co-parent without any success.
Iām not comfortable posting on Facebook or Craigslist. I was hoping there might be adoption agencies out there who match seniors or others who would be interested in sharing a pet, but not all the time. Plus we would pay all expenses.
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New kittens finally in! In time for school to start be lockdowns and quarantines to loom. Havenāt had them meet the old cat lady yet.
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In grad school some of my professors who did summer sabbaticals had luck with grad students and undergrad research assistants house/pet-sitting. The benefit was usually that the students got to stay in a roomy air-conditioned house away from any roommates (and they usually paid them a little too). In Brooklyn, a colleague of mine has a network of friends who hate their roommates and are willing to petsit in exchange for their own temporary space. If you have anyone in your network who might be able to recommend a trustworthy young adult in a roommate-having phase of their life, maybe that could be an option?
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My son in vet school just told me that the cardiologist he is working with is taking him for a weekend trip to work a cat show and do screenings on cats. He is excited about doing this! He has done a good bit with dogs but this will be the first extensive cardiology work he has done on cats!
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My Bengal cat with diabetes is driving us CRAZY.
I feel bad for her. She is ALWAYS hungry, but apparently if we donāt keep her on a twice a day when we give her insulin feeding regimen, sheās likely to get very sick again. She is maintaining a good weight.
Well, if any of you have experience with Bengals, you know they can be LOUD and insistent. They are also jumpers. She has always jumped up to high places, until she got really sick and couldnāt (I have the scratches in my wood cabinets to prove it).
Now she is doing fairly well, and sheās taken to jumping on our counters, trying to get into the sink, and hopping on our chairs/table in search of food.
I am looking at my counter along the wall that has the sink and on the stove, and we have multiple cookie sheets, cutting boards, etc. to TRY and keep her off of them. Sheās taken to using the trash can to help jump to the stove, so even it has plastic containers on top of it. Itās a disasterā¦
We try to remember to keep our chairs tucked in and not leave food on the table, but forget fairy regularly.
Anyone have any idea how to deal with this?
Itās going to become worse as we have more people here around the holidays.
She loves water, so squirting her would likely be ineffective.
Sheās 12 YO, and weāve had her since she was a baby, and getting rid of her is not an option either.
I guess mostly this is just a rant, but if anyone has dealt with this before Iād love to hear ideas.
No ideas. Just hugs. We had a diabetic cat, but she was not a jumper. The shots were a pita!
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Any cat owner who tried to wash her cat can relateā¦ 
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āWe didnāt get to do conditioner.ā 
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D1 had a terrible year when Covid first hit re: her two cats, about 10 years old. She lost them in a period of about 3 months. Each had an aggressive cancer that hit and required euthanasia within a day or two of diagnosis. She was really heartbroken.
Pretty soon, though, they rescued two siblings-boys-that they picked up as soon as they were weaned. They are like her kids (she and her husband do not plan to have children). One of them is so beautiful-a very large Siamese that looks like he is part mountain lion, but who is really sweet and even lets strangers pick him up (if they have the strength lol).
The morning after she and DH returned from their Thanksgiving Texas visit, she saw blood in the litter box. Long story short, the Siamese has what the vet diagnosed as a chronic UTI and the vet told her she needs to put him on a prescription low ash diet to avoid urine crystallization.
I vaguely remember having a cat with this problem when I was a kid. He died young. My hairstylist had a cat with this problem also, and he too died young (though I donāt think my hairstylist stuck to the low ash diet).
Any experience with this? Can this sweet boy still live a long life with this issue?
I had a male neutered cat that UTI twice- lived to almost 20 years old. So, yes, they can live long lives.
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Not a male cat with UTI but a female cat with bladder stones. Yup, she eats a special diet and is still here almost ten years after her diagnosis.
In addition to feeding that prescription diet, they also need to have several water dishes positioned throughout the house so that the cat has easy access to water whenever he wants to drink. Cats do not like to drink from a water dish next to their food; they prefer to have their āwatering holeā to be located elsewhere.
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