Is my cat dead? do cats go away to die?

petrina_678

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Its been 5 months since my lovely cat snowy has disappeared.
I miss her dearly. She was an active cat that was allowed to wander around anywhere (we dont even know where she goes) but she always came back, everyday. She did this from young and even visited neighbors.

she had a medical problem, she would cough and vomit. We brought her to the vet MANY times but no treatment worked. so they just told us to leave her as she was.She lived with the "unknown" condition (the vets just could not diagnose her) for 3 years or so.

last year she was missing for a week. after much searching we found her "hiding" in a house ( a nearby one). this was very unusual behavior. we didnt do anything that would cause her to runaway. we think she might have been suffering from a mental illness? or forgot how to get home ( she was 10 years old last year)

well than a few months later she just disappeared. NObody has seen her since. We think she has passed on. do animals go away to die?
or do you tink she is lost or hiding somewhere? or did she die suddenly of her illness? she looked fine the day before.or did someone "steal" her?

sorry for the long post. but thanks.
 

zoethor2

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Sometimes cats will go away to die, sadly. That happened with a cat that my family had when I was pretty young. She had an abscess on her paw that just refused to heal up and eventually she just left one day and we didn't see her again. It was really devastating, but for some cats that's just the way their instincts push them, is to run off and be by themselves at the end.

*hugs*

On the other hand, we also had cats that went missing for 6 months and then turned up one day looking like they'd had quite an adventure, but never told us about any of it, just wanted to start eating our food again. If Snowy was sick, this isn't as likely, but you never know. *hugs*
 

kittyl0ve4

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it is true that cats will sometimes go off & hide when they kno theyre about to die. but unfortunately when you have an indoor/outdoor cat, alot of things beyond your control can happen to them. it is possible she went off to pass. but it is also possible she was just exploring around the area, possibly got hit by a car, picked up by animal control, killed by a dog. there are alot of things that can happen. it is also possible someone found her & decided to keep her, not knowing she already had a family. even if your cat had a collar with a name tag, its possible someone found her, took her collar off & decided to make her their own cat. there are people out there who will do that, not caring how upset the cats original family will be. the thing is, you will never really know what happened to her, unless she returns. im sorry you lost your baby, & i really hope nothing bad happened to her, & that one day she will return. ive heard of someones cat that disappeared one day, & returned 7 years later, so she could still be alive.
 

gaylemg

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I once had an outside cat disappear and then reappear 3 months later. I still don't know where he was!
Now I only have inside cats, except for the occasional stray that I feed for awhile. I don't like to worry about what happened to them when they disappear. Outside cats almost always disappear eventually.
I'm sorry and I hope she comes back.
 

ibelonginthezoo

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Yes. Some cats do go away to die. My cat, JC, went away when he died. My other cat, Midnight (JC's twin sister), would have gone away to die too, but she was just too sick and too weak to leave.

Some dogs do this too. My mom had a dog, who NEVER ran away. But when he got really old, he excaped from the backyard so he could be away from the family when he died. I dont know why they do this though.
 

whitecat17

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Originally Posted by IBelongInTheZoo

Yes. Some cats do go away to die. My cat, JC, went away when he died. My other cat, Midnight (JC's twin sister), would have gone away to die too, but she was just too sick and too weak to leave.

Some dogs do this too. My mom had a dog, who NEVER ran away. But when he got really old, he excaped from the backyard so he could be away from the family when he died. I dont know why they do this though.
My first cat did the same thing also...
 

cc12

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Yes. They do go away to die.

One thing though is that I know a group of people who if they see a cat outdoors will trap the cats and take them to a no kill shelter or to foster homes. They try to find the owners. They are firm believers in indoor only and a bit radical about it.
It is not something I would do. If there was a collar I would look for the owners.
 

wendyr

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My husband had a cat go away to die. Devastating for him and his siblings. However, I also agree that it could be that someone saw her and took her in. Another one of my hubby's family cats - Rosie - was very old and one day while she was out (she was indoor/outdoor), a neighbor thought she looked so bad they took her in! We only discovered this a day or so later when Rosie escaped and came back to my father-in-law's house (smelling of perfume...). The little old lady stormed over to my father-in-law's house then and informed us that she felt Rosie was being improperly cared for and straight up told us that she had every intention of re-taking Rosie and keeping her! We tried to explain we had had her checked out by the vet and everything and he said she was fine, just old, but she wouldn't listen. So, Rosie had to spend some time indoors (which she HATED). We finally just let her back out, because she was so miserable. The neighbour lady was a problem until about 6 months later when she moved. It was exhausting.
 

naia

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I hope Snowy is safe and she'll return home soon!

On a side note, why do cats go away when they know they're going to pass away?
 
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