If you had cats as a child, how were your cats taken care of?

crazy4strays

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If you had cats while growing up, what was the standard of care for the cats in your household?

We always had cats while I was growing up. We lived on a farm and my mom was allergic to all animal hair, so they were pretty much 100% outside cats that were there almost solely for the control of the rats and mice on our farm. For awhile we didn't spay or neuter. I recall us having kittens on the farm.

The cats ate cheap dry food. Canned food was considered a "feline dessert" and was doled out very rarely.

The cats rarely ever saw the inside of a vet's office. They certainly had no vaccinations of any kind, not even rabies, despite the fact that they were outside cats in an area that has bats.

We lost 3-4 cats to antifreeze poisoning, one to a roaming stray dog, and others to various other causes. The outdoors was incredibly hazardous for them. 

I adopted an elderly cat with some health issues this year and it occurred to me that I had no experience treating elderly cat problems, because our barn cats never lived long enough to develop any health problems! 
 

When my first cat adopted me, I honestly had no clue that the outdoors was so hazardous for cats and it didn't dawn on me that free roaming 24/7 was why we lost so many cats on the farm . It was only after reading up on statistics, that I made the connection between letting cats free roam and having them die horrific violent deaths. 

I really didn't have very strong opinions on cat nutrition when my first cat adopted me. Ironically, the reason why I first started grain free food was because I am gluten free, due to severe medical issues and didn't want to handle wheat based cat food! I also had a feeling that cats didn't need grains in their food.

Later on, was when I did more research, especially after I inherited the unhealthy elderly cat.
 
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donutte

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Before I was born, and most of my time as a kid, only the boys were fixed. Everyone figured as long as one sex was neutered, it was fine. And boys were cheaper to fix than girls. I think after several pyo-spays, that way of thinking changed.

We didn't have the internet when I was a kid. It was an unspoken rule that kibble was better, and canned food was meant to be a treat.

They didn't go to the vet very often. If they were obviously sick they did, otherwise no. All the cats we had in my lifetime were indoor only cats. 
 

Willowy

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We only got kittens when I was 10, we didn't have any mammal pets before that (only birds and fish) because my dad was in the Navy and my parents didn't want to deal with pet complications. I think they were reasonably well-cared-for. Since we lived on base, they were required to have a rabies vaccine annually, and it was enforced. They also got distemper and leukemia vaccinations every year. I don't think all that vaccination was good for them though :/. But at least they saw the vet every year. They were pretty healthy and only needed to see the vet once for non-vaccine reasons (bladder infection) until they got old.

They only got dry food, canned food was a treat, but that was because that was the prevailing wisdom at the time. All the cat books, magazines, even vets, always said that dry was best. If someone had said that canned was best I'm sure we would have switched to that.

The litterbox wasn't always scooped on time, but it never got awful either. The kitties did go into heat before being spayed (because the military vet had a waiting list a mile long), but they were not allowed out so they didn't get pregnant. And my mom didn't believe in de-clawing, even in the '80s :tongue2:.

We kids were allowed to manhandle them more than we probably should have been, but we were never mean, just young and we didn't know. My mom figured that if a cat didn't like something, they'd scratch us and then we'd know :lol3:.

And we brought them on the airplane when we moved from Japan back to the US. There was never a question about that, no way we would have given them away.

So, altogether, we did the best we knew how. No regrets. They both lived to be 21 so I guess we did something right!
 

kittymomma1122

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I also lived on a farm. My cat was Buttons. A small black cat that I begged my dad for when my neighbors cat had kittens. Barn/Garage cat only. No animals were allowed in the house. The vet came out for the cattle and horses, but never the cat. She never had any kind of vaccines. She ate a semi-moist cat food called Tender Vittles. Amazingly she lived to be 19. My cats are indoor only, go to vet twice a year need it or not. I treat my cats as family. Total opposite of how I was raised to look at cats.
 

misterwhiskers

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We had an indoor/outdoor cat my brother brought home when I was 4. My mother refused to give her a litterbox for regular use, though we kept one in the cellar.

When she went into heat she was kept in the cellar. She wasn't fixed til age finally had a litter.

I doubt on the vaccinations. Maybe she was brought to the vet 4 times her whole life. [emoji]128532[/emoji]

We fed her 9 lives tuna, and it's all she ate except for what she hunted, but thoigh she brought down birds, I don't remember that she ate any. I know a couple neighbors fed her. Her limited diet caused her to go blind and possibly deaf by the time she was 14. Today I think my parents were benignly neglectful. It wasn't deliberate. She lived to be 15, I bet she would have made it to 20 with better care and food, even as a semi outdoor cat.
 
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NewYork1303

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When I was very young, our family adopted two older adult cats. Not sure what happened with their care as I was like four when they passed away. After that we got a kitten. She had regular vet care. We tried feeding her a mix of wet and dry food. She never ate the canned. She ate grocery store cat food her whole life and lived to be 17. She passed away at home while we were debating whether to take her it to have her PTS. 

All of our cats were indoor outdoor cats their entire lives. We had two kittens that we adopted at one point, but they both disappeared without a trace when they were around a year old. Both kittens were spayed at under six months. 

We did what we could caring for them. They all got to go to the vet. Food wasn't the best but they survived on it.
 

MoochNNoodles

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Mom adopted our first cat when I was 2.  We got our 2nd (my soul-kitty) when I was in the 4th grade.  Both ate dry food.  I rarely remember serving canned. That was a treat.  Mom was single back then.  They were indoor only and I don't remember if they had yearly vet visits; but I do remember being at the vet with them.  The same went for our 3rd; who was my step-dad's cat when they married when i was 12.  She was indoor outdoor though.  She had awful breath and rotten teeth; but I don't know if they ever considered a dental for her.  When Mom remarried I became the oldest of 5 kids; so spending had its priorities and the cats weren't before the needs of us kids or the house/cars.  The first cat passed at age 11; I never heard why, but she was very sick and PTS.  My soul-kitty had a heart attack when I was in college.  I think she was 9-10 years old.  We knew she had a murmur and we tried to save her; but she passed very quickly.  The third had thyroid problems and kidney failure.  She spent her last 4 months medicated receiving fluids at home.  She passed away 3 weeks after I got married. I think she lived the longest; only to about 12 at the most.  

The third cat had a litter of kittens before my Mom and Step-dad had met.  Our others were spayed before their first heats.  
 

donutte

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You know, I can imagine, maybe 20 years down the line, when people who never knew a world without internet are in their 30s and 40s, they will look back and think we were barbaric in how our animals were treated! I've occasionally had conversations with some younger folks that are horrified that we didn't spay our girls, but neutered our boys. Or that we fed them exclusively kibble, and probably something crappy. I know Science Diet is considered bad now, but it was considered top of the line when we started using it! 

Although, it does make me wonder sometimes since our cats lived pretty good long lives for the most part. Must have done something right along the way.
 
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crazy4strays

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I think, from something that my sister said, that my parents initially didn't spay the cats partially because they wanted us to see "the miracle of birth."

We didn't screen adopters or charge adoption fees. I recall us sitting by a grocery store with a box of kittens labeled "Free Kittens" and giving them out to whoever.
 

Winchester

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Our cats, for the most part as we were growing up, were indoor-outdoor. And they got hit by cars, got into fights, etc. It's why the cats we have now are strictly indoor cats. Mom took care of the cats; she fed them, etc. I highly doubt any of the cats ever saw a vet, other than to be spayed. And while they did eat canned food, I would think it was whatever was on sale at the time.

After we all got married and left the house, Mom did get a kitten from one of my Aunt's cats; her name was Cuddles and she was also indoor-outdoor. Until one chilly winter's night, Mom came home from work and Cuddles was sleeping on the couch with my dad, all cuddled up in his arms. Dad said it was so cold outside that he didn't have the heart to make her stay out in her house in the garage. Later on after winter passed, Dad mentioned to Mom that it was time for Cuddles to go back outside. Mom told him that Cuddles was an indoor cat and she was staying an indoor cat. And that ended that!
 

donutte

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Funny, we never ever (in my lifetime anyway) had cats that went out. Almost everyone else I knew that had cats did. And I remember asking, "Why can't we let our cats out too?" 
 
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crazy4strays

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Looking back, I find it amazing that we had the ability to keep on getting new cats when our cats were killed from various causes. That had to take a lot of emotional detachment. I remember when several cats at once all died from antifreeze poisoning. That was pretty horrible. 
 

donutte

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We always had a lot of cats. I forget how old I was when we got Buffy - 10 maybe? - but from that point on we never had less than three cats. And we had as many as 10 at one point. To accentuate that, the tenth one was actually named Tenny. The number has fluctuated between 3 and ten over the years. When we lost Ali Cat back in... 2008? we were down to three cats, and stayed at that number till July of this year.

I don't think I ever had emotional detachment. I sometimes wished I did; still do. I think it's more a matter of we are just closer to some than others. I don't have the bond with every cat that I had with Lucky. And part of that bond I think is time. I had Lucky the longest of all the ones I bonded with.
 
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crazy4strays

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Being that our cats were barn cats and we were poor, declawing was never considered or discussed. To me, leaving claws on cats has always been the norm and I've never even considered having mine done. 
 

NewYork1303

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Perhaps not related to care, my mother grew up with a long string of  cats that all died in different horrible ways. There was a cat that was killed accidentally  by the neighbors dog (who it was actually friends with) when they were playing together. A cat that vanished into thin air (not surprising as indoor outdoor cats). A cat that ended up being killed in the dryer (snuck in when no one was watching, ironically the cat's name was calcetines ). One that smothered in her brother's waterbed. One that died during a spay operation due to a deformed heart (they waited to spay her until she was a year old since they'd been having such trouble with cats dying). The cat after that one was given to them by the vet as consolation for their cat's death. It was a ragamuffin kitten so they called it Rat. It later turned out to be a beautiful flame point Siamese. This one broke the curse that seemed to hang over the house and survived all through my mom's years at high school and through college. I doubt my mother would have had us have cats when we were growing up if she hadn't had Rat for many years, since her prior experience with cats was mostly heartbreak.

All the cats were indoor outdoor cats that were fed dry kibble, but I don't think better care would have saved most of them.
 

paiger8

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I feel horrible about my cat's food as a child. At the time, I thought she was the most pampered cat ever. We always bought her food at the vet, Science Diet or Iams, since it was so "high quality." 
 

It was only sold at the vet. And it was EXPENSIVE back then too! Sadly, our Himalayan, my Soul Mate Kitty 
, kept getting reoccurring UTI's that no amount of antibiotics would permanently get rid of. I have no doubt now, that it was due to being fed 100% dry food. It's why I'm such a crazy person about cat food today, and only give dry as a bedtime snack, plus lots of wet food, plus water fountain...

But we didn't know any differently back then, and we were buying her what was toted as "the best food." The only good thing is we never free fed, so she never got fat. She always got 1/8 cup in the morning and 1/8 of a cup at night.

We only ever had 1 cat at a time, and they were all indoor only. My grandma has farm cats, but we lived in the suburbs and I never even thought about the cats going outside. We did vaccinations yearly for awhile, but my mom decided "What's the point?" since the cat never went outside anyway.

I still feel guilty about what we fed them, especially Soul Mate Kitty, with her bad UTI's... 
 
 

Mamanyt1953

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I got my first "real" cat when I was in second grade.  I say that because we had a cat when I was very small and we lived in Alaska, but when we came back to the States (Alaska was a territory then), we left her with our neighbor, who adored her.  I don't remember Skeeky at all  Gray was a registered Russian Blue, with a set of papers as long as your arm, just chock-full of Champions, and Grand Champions, and who knows what-all.  At our house, that killed no mouse.  He was "the cat."  He was treated with a combination of excellent care and neglect, which was really a function of the era in which my father was reared, and the times as they were when we  had him.  He got all his annual shots, religiously, but was not neutered.  He went in and out as suited him.  We fed him when he was home, and didn't worry much when he was on a hunting expedition.

Gray (yeah, not an overly original name, but his registered name was "Smokey Mountain's Blue Mist, a rather "sissy" name for a tom, so...) was an odd cat.  He had a pituitary imbalance that kept him growing for quite awhile, and he eventually topped out at 19"-21" tall and about 40", nose to tail.  He weighed in at between 27 and 32 pounds, depending on whether he was out tomcatting the neighborhood, or lying around the house eating huge amounts of canned food (I'm trying to say Little Friskies, but that was well over 40 years ago, so who knows).  I can still hear my dad yelling out the door, "HEY GRAY!  LET"S EAT!" and seeing Gray bounding like a jungle cat across the sand dunes towards home.

He was truly "the cat who walked where he would," and he was so musclebound that he rolled like a bulldog when he walked.  When the neighborhood bully dogs were out loose, and the kids wanted to play, a phone call to our house had Gray set outside the door.  He then strolled down the street, and the dobie, German shepherd, and some big mix breed took off for their own backyards and safer pastures.  Then the kids could come out. 

He was one heck of a hunter.  He would bring home birds, rabbits, snakes, rats, mice, baby alligators, and once a baby fox (alive, O, alive, who went to the wildlife center immediately).  He'd take off and be gone for weeks, coming  home all torn to shreds, ears ripped, pads torn up, once his throat ripped opened...off the the vet, then weeks at home, lounging, then off again he would go.  Year later we got an answer to what he was doing to get so injured.  A strain of smoke-blue bobcats turned up in the area around our house.  Gray was fighting the male bobcats for breeding rights...and winning.  Our vet said he wasn't really surprised, and thanked dad for the new wing of the hospital! 

One hunting trip, he...just didn't come back.  He was over 12 years old then.  I don't know what happened to him, but being the cat that he was, I'm sure he would have preferred it to a slow decline. 

Now, of course, I'd never let a cat live that sort of a life.  But, oh man, he was a cat's cat.  And a man's cat, and the world will not see his like again!
 

stewball

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We didn't get a cat until I was about 9 because I was terrified of them and dogs and that's why we got a cat. I have no memory at all of what he ate or anything. He was a lovely boy. White with a black patch at the back of his neck and a black tail. He was an inside outside cat and he disappeared. My dad used to say he was taken to make a davey crocket hat! !!! I hope somebody took him and gave him a good home.
Then we got a puppy. A very sweet mix. He died because my dad didn't believe in vaccinations and he got ill. He had to be PTS when he was still a puppy.
Then we got stewball. She was a calico. I know she ate boiled fish. I don't know what else. She was spayed but I don't think declawing was even thought about. She was an inside outside cat but very spoilt. She died age 13 of old age the vet said, so I wasytold. I was here by then. She was buried in the garden with a rose bush planted on top of her. My parents got another cat needing a home. He'd belonged to a doctor. When he died his wife went to live with her sister who has a cat so my parents adopted him. I know mum bought him pates and dad shared tins of pilchards in tomato sauce with him.
That's it. I wasn't very observant.
 

kitty kisser

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When I was a kid we lived out in the boonies. Once we had 23 cats & kittens at once! Mom would buy them Friskies it was my job to feed them the dry kibble. She would put leftovers from supper on top of the cat food. I would take it outside with the little paws every where and meows wailing at me. We had 3 dogs also that ate gravy train dog food. I hated putting hot water on it and mixing it. Yuck! Anyways are cats where not fixed the dogs where. The cats where to keep the snakes away and mice out of the house. I remember my kittens getting pneumonia and there was nothing the vet could do but put Snowball to sleep. It was heart breaking but most of our cats didn't make it through the winter. Mom would take us to the pound for more in the spring time. I'm glad my husband lets me keep house cats so my children don't experience so much grief as I did as a child.
 

NewYork1303

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On declawing,  my family never even considered it since my mother had a declawed cat when she was young that was only front feet declawed. He would literally chase people down the hall, grab them around the leg and kick with his clawed feet to tear them open. My mom has scars from him still. She blamed the behavior on his being declawed. (may or may not be the case). 
 
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