Cats dying of old age - what to expect

[Dolphinnoises]

Hi all,

Our lovely cat is 16 and has visibly aged in the last few weeks. I am thinking more and more about how to help the DC through the inevitable.

Assuming he’s not PTS, can I ask (and sorry it’s such a depressing topic!) how other people’s cats died, how you dealt with the practicalities (we rent so wouldn’t bury him), did the kids go to school that day (my head says yes of course, people don’t miss school because a cat has died, but for my youngest especially I cannot imagine her being in a fit state to learn, she and the cat have such a bond)

Thank you in advance x

Maybe I'm flying in the face of MN here with regards to letting a child miss school, but my 15 yo son was absolutely devoted to our lovely cat - he was his cat's main person and his cat was his close companion. We had to make the decision to have him PTS last week after a short but pretty brutal illness, and that was 100% the best thing for him.

I asked DS if he'd like to be at home when it happened/for his last day (we got the vet to come out which was a pricy extra but I couldn't face putting him through yet another uncomfortable car trip, which he always hated even when he was hale and hearty!) and he really wanted to spend that last time with his beloved cat. So that's what happened. Yes, he missed a day of school (in Mocks week!! bite me - he's an extremely strong and assiduous student and I wrote an honest letter to school the night before - the school were extremely understanding and FINE about it) but he knew this was a one-off. He wouldn't have been able to concentrate at school anyway, his cat really was his all to him.

I absolutely agree with anyone who says it's better to put an animal down a few days too early than too late, although that's obviously a very hard call to make.

My childhood cat was pts when it became the kindest thing for her. I was 20 and utterly devastated, despite no longer living at home.

More recently I had a street cat we took in so didn't know her age. One day we realised we hadn't seen her all day despite knowing she was in the house (she wasn't exactly a lap cat!) so I went looking and found she had curled up under DS2's bed and died peacefully there. She was a complete bloody nightmare of a cat but the stress she'd given me was made worth it by her having that opportunity to go peacefully. Everything carried on as normal in family life.
Then earlier this year DS2's cat, who was only 6 but had a heart murmur all his life, threw several blood clots and had to be pts although he barely made it to the vets for that to happen. We were all completely heartbroken and had time off school/work.
DS1's cat is now 12. He's away at uni and has said that he doesn't think he wants me to tell him if something happens to her, until he's coming home. I'm not sure I'll be able to do that but I sort of get it, he will be upset and doesn't want to be away when he's processing that. We will all need time when she goes.

I don't think it's fair to let a beloved pet wither and die. We have the ability to give our pets a peaceful end in the face of a long and painful decline. My dc were devoted to our cat. Having planned it in advance it meant we could all spend a couple of weeks of quality time with our cat before he got pts quietly at home. We could probably have eked him out for a few more weeks or months but that would have involved veterinary procedures. We could spend time preparing the children (then 4 and 6). We read some age appropriate books about loss to prepare them and on the day they went to school as normal after saying goodbye to the cat. They ended up taking it better than i expected, and it was as positive as possible. Far less traumatic then watching the cat decline then coming across his body one morning. We had him cremated.

We recently had our cat put down. He got progressively iller very fast. Lost weight and condition.
We possibly should have made the choice sooner, we didn't release how poorly he was or how skinny he'd gotten.

We all said goodbye at home, then left the kids with grandma while we took him to the vet.

My eldest (5). Asked lots of questions. Only several weeks after. We answered honestly, but age appropriate. She was sad but unfazed.