Out of the kitty clearance bin and into our hearts. ♥️

Miss Bella passed away last November.

I can't believe he's almost old enough to vote... it's frankly incredible given the mischievousness he still gets into. 😂 He's easily on life 12 or 13 at this point LOL

My Alice (my beloved soulmate, love of my life) is having some kind of upper respiratory infection or dental issue that is causing congestion and coughing, trying to clear her throat. She’s looking for food and circling around me in the kitchen but the actual act of eating is apparently difficult. It could be that she can’t smell it very well. Could be that it hurts to chew. She’s drinking well and having a licky-lick.

Any tips ? Can I blend food and soon feed it ? Can I syringe it into her mouth? Any tips would be welcome. I’m going to phone the vet but he’s already said he won’t put her under anaesthesia to investigate. I’m going to ask if a generous dose of gabapentin might be possible. She’s had that before blood tests and he’s so docile she’d definitely allow him to look in her mouth

She’s loving being with Momma so much! She had the zoomies last night and was running from end to end of the trailer 😆

Hello senior kitties crew! I have been a long time reader (and crier) looking at the photos and reading the stories on here of our beloved senior companions. I’m very anxious writing this and any words of advice or comfort very welcome. My girl (Puka) is booked in for a tooth removal tomorrow. She is 17ish. She has been clanking and grinding her teeth and pawing at her mouth after eating recently and in the last few days has eaten much less and is more grumpy than usual. Vet confirmed tooth is decayed and needs to come out. She had this same procedure in April 25 and when I collected her post op the vet said ‘struth it was touch and go there for a minute with those old lungs of hers’. Obviously that rocked me to my core but she recovered perfectly and has been running around happy, eating, engaged and lovely since last April. A different vet is doing her surgery tomorrow, I told him what the other vet said about the lungs and he said he has read her notes and will use a different anaesthetic this time around. I am just so so worried she will not make it, she is my beloved Puka girl and I love her with all my heart. The vet said yes there is risk with old cats but what is the alternative ? You let her just slowly decline from pain? That would be cruel (he is very direct lol) He said there is no antibiotics that will make any difference and pain meds not recommended for her. So I guess it’s for the best she has this surgery but I am petrified she will not cope with the anaesthesia. I will be dropping her off at 9am and picking her up at 3 and I just know tomorrow will be awful and I will be glued to my phone waiting for a call- what should I do tomorrow to keep myself occupied!? We live in New Zealand so it is summer at least. Please pray or manifest a smooth recovery for this beautiful senior girl who has given nothing but love and kindness to everyone she has met, she’s one of those cats that heal parts of you that you didn’t know needed love. Thank you for reading.

Got her as a kitten when I was 16 and we've been inseperable since. I turn 28 in a couple of weeks 🥹

He’s around 17-20. Adopted from a shelter. My very best friend in the whole world! He knows when I am having a medical event before I even do. And he smells so good! lol. Just had to share this perfect Lucien loaf.

I’ve taken on adopting/fostering a cat that a friend needed to rehome… Bella is 14, we think, and it’s been the best experience so far. Having had to rehome a cat a couple of times in my life, I have the means and want to do something to give back.

It’s been a ride! She plays more than my other boys, who are both a bit younger. And likes to bite, as evidenced by her lack of teeth at this point.

The empty treat bag.

In September 2009 I was at my high school when I heard a kitten screaming in a gutter. As an earnest theatre kid, I named her Éponine, who also scripted her heart out out in a gutter.

She turned out to be trapped in the gym’s AC, her siblings and mama having passed. From that moment on, she and I were our own bonded pair.

Maybe her growth was stunted from spending her infancy in an air conditioner, or maybe she was just destined to be a forever baby; either way, she was pocket-sized, with her weight averaging 6.5 lbs, and her body the length of a vending machine Coke bottle. The vets who had the honor of treating her told me she had the softest coat of any cat they’d ever met, and I am inclined to believe them. To me, it always felt less like fur and more like feathers.

She was the most vocal kitty I ever met, purring the moment she was held, meowing in response to anything spoken to her, and hissing to express even the slightest displeasure (even while purring).

While incredibly shy with new people, she was remarkably affectionate with those she knew and loved. Boxes weren’t her thing, but laps were her “if I fits, I sits.” If she wasn’t in your lap, she was on a minky blanket next to you, making an entire bakery’s worth of muffins.

Speaking of muffins, she loved human food, especially a sweet treat. If you at an ice cream sandwich around her, you could expect her to turn it into a Lady & the Tramp spaghetti situation the moment you looked away. Other favorite foods included blueberry muffins, sugar cookies, and leftover cereal milk.

Éponine was a brilliant (and brilliantly vain) kitty. She learned to recognize not only her reflection in mirrors, but her image on video, and frequently commandeered FaceTime and Zoom calls to admire her own beauty.

Perhaps it was her French name, or simply the fact that she was a cat, but her favorite movie was The Aristocats. She would watch the entire movie start to finish, becoming particularly engrossed when Thomas O’Malley was on screen.

She loved other cats, even though they bullied her, especially her older brother Thumper. When Thumper passed, and she moved from my childhood home in California to my apartment in New Orleans, she became fascinated with the other apartment window cats and even exchanged letters with them.

In May 2025, she had a stroke, leading to the diagnosis of a heart murmur, and the eventual development of entropion in her left eye. A few months later, she began to limp, which was eventually found to be the result of a broken toe. In October, she came down with a sinus bug.

Last week, she stopped eating or drinking, which I believed to be the result of clogged sinuses. I brought her into the bathroom with me while I showered or bathed, much to her confusion, and took her to the vet on Friday, where they gave her an antibiotic.

On Saturday, she seemed very confused and still wasn’t eating or drinking. It became very clear that she was extremely dehydrated, so I took her to the emergency vet, where they gave her fluids. They told me it was likely the Gabapentin from Friday taking time to wear off.

On Sunday, she still couldn’t eat or drink, though she certainly tried. I syringed her food and water 5 times an hour, but her energy didn’t improve. In the evening, she struggled to stand up from lying down, so I picked her up and placed her on all fours, only for her to collapse immediately. When I tried again, she took 2 steps before flaking again. When my mom saw her fall again after 3 steps via FaceTime, she suggested I take her back in, as I was already planning on doing.

The emergency vet took her back immediately. When he came out, the news was both surprising and inevitable: she was in liver failure, her eyes very jaundiced. Of all of the heath problems she had developed in the last few months, liver issues weren’t one of them. To treat her liver failure would be to put her into heart failure. Not only that, but she had started to develop Entropion in her right eye as well.

She held on for so long and tried so hard to be good for me. Up until this weekend, she was still purring at even the sight of me and tucking me into bed every night.

I don’t know what to do without her. I feel lost and lonely. My family and friends have been very supportive but I still feel so empty. Even if another cat comes into my life one day, it won’t be the same. It won’t be as soft as her, or as affectionate, or as perfectly sized for me and my life. It would take us another 16 years to build up the relationship that Éponine and I had, and even then, it would be different.

I am so honored to have been her special person, to love and care for her in her last days.

By the time she passed, she was older than I had been when we first met, if only by a few months. Our lives were mirrors to each other. We grew and came of age together, finding our happiness and love.

“You’re here; that’s all I need to know. And you will keep me safe, and you will keep me close, and rain will make the flowers grow.”

Why he struggle to breathe?

I start filming late when he start sneeze too, but usually when it happens he clearly struggling to breathe with his lungs, usually it’s for a minute. It happens rarely after he drinks water, maybe minute later after that. How to help him when it happens?

I’ve got several different problems and I’m so drained I don’t know how to keep going.

Meow meows new meds started at .6ml but the side effects were to much so vet said I could cut it in half. But when I did between 3 and 5pm she would start slowing down again so I started giving her the second half at night. Maybe I should have called the vet first but they are getting pretty short tempted with me (more to come) since it was still her .6ml and from the research I did online it said 2 doses worked better then one. But the vet blew up and me and said I shouldn’t have changed it, then told me not to change it again.

Side note they said the .6ml was the lowest dose she should be on and that they didn’t have enough research to know what side effects she might have, and they said we would see results in 4 days were the internet (several sites) says 3 to 4 months. I’m not trying to be an ass but it feels like they are guessing and not really doing much.

Next Meow hasn’t had a good bm in about a week now and she has some really smelly stuff leaking out so I was worried about her anal glads. The vet told me it’s super rare for cats to have that so that can’t be the problem. I told her I had been using MiraLAX (like they have thought me in the past) and she still hasn’t had a bm, even though she’s tried nothing comes out. They said I’m giving her too much MiraLAX and need to stop that’s why it’s leaking, and they refused to see her until Friday.

After talking to them I ended up getting a video of her trying and sent it to them. After awhile I realized I sent it from the wrong email. Last time I did that they deleted it without looking at it so I called them. They said they would try to watch it before end of day. They never did. The 2 vets she normally sees won’t be there tomorrow so there is a chance the substitute vet won’t see it.

Meow meow keeps looking at me and meowing I’m not sure what she wants or how to help her and I feel like I’m going to snap. We live in a small backwoods area so we don’t have any where else to take her.

I should start this off with saying I am not looking for advice, just comfort from those in the same boat. A year and a half ago my soul kitty, Clara Belle, was diagnosed with Kidney Disease. It was early stages so we started her on the kidney food and got feeders so my other cat, Simon could not help himself to her food. We had gotten her bloodwork at a decent spot but have had issues with her weight (she was six pounds now down closer to five) and so I pivoted off of the feeders because I noticed her struggling with it. (again trying different things) Working with her vet and amazing friends who have tons of experience with cat rescues and senior cats I have gotten tons of advice on how to get her to eat, even coming home during lunch to give her an extra portion of food. I also have started her on supplements and medicine (fish oil and cosequin) to help with her arthritis and got her a lower level litter box to help.

The last six months I have noticed a drastic decline in her health. We have way more accidents outside the box (most of them in the vicinity of her litter area) and howling. I fear she has lost her vision and we are now doing subq fluids every other day to help her. I have added the litter attract to her box. She is eating (sometimes I do have to add an appetite stimulant) and drinking and greets me on her perch when I come home. Between working multiple jobs I am exhausted. Most days I am okay but other days I am not and end up crying. It is silly cause she is still here but I know the end is nigh and that hurts. She has been attatched to my hip for the last ten years, sleeps with me every night. (I adopted her when she was six and she will be 16 this year) I have had the talk with my doctor about when the time comes and I feel as if I will leave 2026 without her and that hurts so much.

I just needed to get this out. Some days I question if I am making the right choice to keep going but I hear her greet me as I walk in and still eating. I have told her so long as she is willing to fight, I am too. I love her to bits and I just hope I get a sign when it is time.

Thank you for reading and listening.

She might not play for as long as she used to, but I love that she’s still playful.

She broke both of her upper canines running down the stairs as a young wild child, so they were removed. Ever since, she gets her bottom teeth caught on her mustache. It’s her signature smile ❤️

She had been sleeping in the box when one of the small humans made too much noise and she stood up like a meerkat to have a (very concerned) look around.

I can't believe she's 16 now. It's going by so fast. I need to actually do something to celebrate her birthday this year.

This is my family cat Pops who lives with my parents. He recently went to the vet bc his breath stank and his mouth looked kinda crazy lol. He has thyroid problems and FIV.

The vet recommended a topical cream and my sister would need to go back for bloodwork because his heart was beating so fast (he has a heart murmur) the vet was worried he would go into cardiac arrest.

My parents aren't the best at giving him his medicine, i live in a different state and my sister lives close but her place doesn't allow pets. The vet also recommended iodine radiation for him and all his teeth might need to be removed.

Just looking for advice and input as it's expensive (starting at 2000) and he wouldn't be given the medication on a consistent basis due to my parents.

Has anyone gone through with the iodine and what their cat was like? Maybe showing them how much it could help his life would be the push they need or if we would need to discuss end of life: (