How did your fur-baby die?

I hope this doesn't seem like a rude question.  I am not judgemental, I am curious. I realize that this is a person decision each of us has to make for ourselves... but I want to know...

How did your last fur-baby die? please feel free to say more than one if  you want to tell me about all your cats...

Natural Death, Terrible Accident, Euthanasia

Natural Death being illness or old age, but not medically induced.

Terrible Accident being like getting run over, attacked, caught in a trap, accidentally ingesting something toxic...

My first cat Poppy died at home of an unknown illness before I could get her to the vet.  She had a seizure and was just gone, though she was old - about 17.

Her son Joel came down with an infection and while I was treating it, he got out by mistake and went away.  We never saw him again.

Lucy moved from my place to my daughter's where she died at home of thyroid disease at age 16. She went to sleep and never woke up.

Whisper was about 8 months old when he got out on Christmas Day and was hit by a car.

Milo had oral cancer and I took him to the vet at age 14 and had him euthanized when he could no longer eat and had trouble walking.  He had shown no symptoms and so was not diagnosed until 11 days earlier but he went down hill quickly and it was clear this was the most humane thing to do.

Wesley had kidney disease but had a stroke at age 19 and could no longer walk or use his box.  Because he was so terrified of going to the vet, I had a mobile vet come to the house and euthanize him.  Again, his quality of life was such that it would have been cruel to prolong his suffering.

These are the cats I've lost over the last 30 years.   Their deaths run the full gamut of ways cats pass away.   I regret very much not getting Poppy to the vet in time as she had lost a lot of weight and I hate to think of her suffering.  To me, it is the right thing to do when our babies begin to suffer, although the loss is just devastating.

That is a lot of love that has passed through your home!  Thank you for sharing your stories...

Negrito had a renal illness, and had to be putbto sleep. He was 9 years old.

Figaro died this february of heart problems. He died a week after he was diagnose, and also was euthanized, he went down really quickly. He was 11.

Dante died a month ago. He was the 9 lives cat. Deaf since birth, dumped in our street when he was a couple of months old. He had several accidents, but died of skin cancer. He had a tumor on his back, he had already surgery, but he was getting weaker and weaker. He was also euthanized.

Although having to euthanize your cat is not something pleasant, I am relieved for two things. One, that we gave them the best lives they could have got (especially in the case of Dante, that was disabled). And secondly, because we knew what happened to them. They didn't disappear.

Thank you for sharing your stories.

They all were put to sleep.

Max was twelve years old. He developed sudden kidney failure, no known cause. He spent the weekend in emergency care and left us on Monday. I held him in my arms until the end.

Speedboat was fourteen years old. He stopped eating and a blood test showed all sorts of things. The vet thought he had cancer. His blood count was so bad the vet was concerned about him starting to bleed through his skin. There was a short time, but he went down quickly.

Muffin was fourteen. He had liver cancer. He had surgery and the tumor was removed. It came back a year later.

Mattie was our last cat. She fought nasal cancer from last August until June of this year.

We are now without a cat for the first time in over thirty years. :kitty2::creamper: