Robb's Boggit posts on the front page are heartwrenching.

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And for me it's because, I've had cats around forever. Even since I've been with Kathy, we've had I think, 8, or 9 cats.

I don't know the real number, and I say "I think", because we are the types that will get a cat in need, and love him/her and take care of it and do what needs to be done, but if a cat wants to go outside, we'll let it. And generally cats stick around.

But sometimes they get into trouble, and sometimes (though we have no proof of this) your wife runs over them backing out of the garage.

We lost one while we were in China picking up Mina, in fact. And the housesitter sent this tearful letter to us describing the facts.

And we were sad. And we were sad about all of the ones we lost. But I think for us it was like, "welp, they're cats", and not in the sense of, they don't matter as much, but in the sense of, they like to get out, get into shit, and get fucked up. That's what they do. Comes with the territory.

I don't think that makes us bad cat parents, but I dunno. All I know is, I've never had the connection with an animal that Robb is describing with his cat, and it makes me question all of our cat choices. I mean, how we related to them, not which ones we picked.

Well, also which ones we picked.

[pinback]

Oh, and now I get the really bad news. TIMING, Pinback. Christ.

I am sorry for your loss.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You're not bad cat parents, your timing didn't suck and I appreciate hearing your thoughts, your stories and your perspective. :)

For over 10 years, one piece of my identity has been that I own three cats. The pet factor went higher when I started living with Melissa. However, I feel that having Boggit, Frobozz and Reggie helped me meet her. I had a lot of dates through Match before Mel and I found each other where a date's head would spin when the number of pets came up. And that's fine, it's not for everybody and I was trying to find someone I could connect with.

I think ten and a half is young for a cat and because he never did anything bad, no "pet stress" has been eliminated from the house. Every other time I've had a bad day or a bad event it's been fixable. I don't have a big family and I have never gone through cancer with anyone before. I have an enormous amount of respect and love for my friends that have done it. It's just so, so brutal.

Please feel welcome here to talk about your pets, my friend.

[Flack]

I didn't own a cat I gave two shits about until I was 35. The cat's name was Don Piano, named after a goofy America's Funniest Home Video clip. At first, Don Piano was a 100% indoor cat. On the rare occasion he went outside, he would make it as far as the front porch, where he would immediately flop over onto his back and lay on the warm concrete until someone would pick him up and carry him back inside.

Over time, we began to let Don Piano out in the evenings. Sometimes he would lie on the porch. Other times he would chase squirrels and birds around the backyard. When he was done he would come back and stand in front of the glass patio door and someone would let him back in.

If the cat belonged to anyone, it was Mason. Don Piano routinely slept in Mason's room, and Mason used to carry the cat all over the place. They were buddies.

One day Don Piano ran out and didn't come back. We waited a day, then two. We put food and water out on the porch. We checked the garage, and under the cars, and under the shed, and everywhere else. Eventually we made missing cat signs, and went to the pound to go look at hundreds of cats in hopes that one would be Don Piano. At night, I drove around the neighborhood in my golf cart with the kids. While I called the cat's name, Mason shook a sack of cat food in hopes that the sound would bring Don Piano home. It didn't. After a month of visiting the pound and driving and walking around the neighborhood multiple times a day, we gave up.

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Oh, long Johnson.

[AArdvark]

Toonces is our current placeholder cat until we get our next one, Schrodinger. (I name the cats in advance!) The last one was Smokey Bacon, which the kids named after watching a Wendy's television commercial.

TV is really bad for you.

Toonces is the best cat we've had. Originally I didn't want another damn cat, but the family talked me into going to the adoption place and 'just look' at him.
Funny, when we got there the papers were already signed. Huh.


He got on with the dog just fine, which we were kind of worried about. he even puts up with my tape application and things.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I ended up watching the videos in reverse order. The dog/cat "fight" was adorable and ohhhhh headless guy on a turntable, hahaha!

[Tdarcos]

Toonces is our current placeholder cat until we get our next one... Toonces is the best cat we've had

As I said before, friend, do not allow him to drive.

[AArdvark]

Relax, the car is keyless entry but he don't know that and we're not telling.

RobB, sorry to hear about your loss. It's really hard to lose a loved one. Having others post about their pets helps. At least it did for me when we had to put the sheltie down a couple years ago. Ever since then I started taking photos and videos of my pets so I remember them. Smiling at their memory is better than being sad.


THE
EVERYONE IS
IN THE SAME BOAT
AARDVARK

[AArdvark]

[AArdvark]

Toonces fields cat treats

[Flack]

As a kid, we had a series of pets I didn't bond with. Some, we didn't own very long. Most of the ones we had for any length of time belonged to my sister. She had a series of cats and then a dog. I had a couple of fish for a month or do. They died.

After Don Piano left, I didn't want to get another pet. My wife wanted a dog but I didn't want to deal with it. Eventually we got a puppy that chewed up everything we owned and shit and pissed on everything. After a month or two of that, my niece took the dog.

About a year later, we got Dusty from the local pet shelter. I didn't pick the cat, but once we got her home, she picked me. The cat likes everybody, but at night after everyone else has gone to sleep, she'll come and sit behind me while I sit here at the computer. The cat likes "shoulder rides," and will ride around the house on your shoulder like a dumb parrot. At night, if she's not curled up on the couch, she'll come sleep at my feet. We call that winning the foot cat lottery.

My favorite thing is when we sit down to watch movies, the cat will come lay on one of our laps and watch the movie with us.

[Tdarcos]

When Mrs. Parks, our next-door neighbor got sick, my sister kind of adopted her, put her in a bed in our living room so she could watch her, we had a problem.

You can't leave an apartment vacant more than 30 days or the insurance won't cover it. So they stuck me over there.

As Flack said, I didn't pick her but one of Joann's cats picked me. I slept on the couch. and the cat slept on me. But only when I had my back to the couch, then the cat would jump up and sleep on my side. I guess the cat realized with my tummy toward the couch I could still roll forward and possibly roll onto her. Or the back against the couch made me a firmer mattress for her

[Erebor]

Sorry for your loss, Robb.

--Erebor

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Thank you, I appreciate that.

[Erebor]

I had a cat that I was attached to, recently. Over 3 years ago. He was a black male cat, barely full grown, named Rascal. He was also the most intelligent (empathetic, responsive), human cat I've ever seen. As it is with most male cats, I never learned his fate. He wandered off.

I don't have the heart to take away the one thing that I assume gives other male animals their will to live, so they eventually give in to wanderlust.

I wasn't going to share that, but I hope it helps.

--Robbie

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That is fucked up. Neuter your fucking cats. Don't project your shit onto them.

[Jizaboz]

Pretty sure if the cat could take a survey that he would tick the "keep my balls" box.

[pinback]

That's great. Meanwhile shelters are overflowing with unwanted, often sick kittens because of this shit. There is absolutely zero justification for not spaying/neutering.

[Paul Robinson]

There is absolutely zero justification for not spaying/neutering.

Oh, I can think of one. Princess, the extremely beautiful calico cat we brought with us from California, was a fairly large cat. Not fat, just well proportioned, and fast.

Anyway, over the years a running gag in our family was my mother claiming Princess was pregnant. For eight years running.

I have a story about our large cat collection but I can't find it so I'll post it later. Point was, Princess never got pregnant so I had a pretty good idea why. We later moved to Washington, D.C. and lived over on the Southwest quadrant, across the street from a shopping center that later became the Waterfront Station on Metrorail. One time I was walking along the path from our townhouse to the street when I hear a noise in the bushes. I go to look and I discover Princess being fucked by another cat.

This confirmed what I had suspected, and a couple years later when I was taking Princess to the vet for shots, he happens to ask if Princess had been spayed. I hadn't had it done (for the reason below) and I didn't think my sister had, but I said to him, "It doesn't matter, she's a freemartin." As this is a rare condition he didn't know what that word meant, and so I told him, "That's an animal that's born sterile."

So there I present a legitimate (although rare) justification for not spaying an animal. When you discover the animal was born a freemartin.