Passports, buckets and spades - the Excellent Cats go on their holidays

[TheShellBeach]

The last thread filled up very quickly, mainly thanks to Gizmo's adventures. He is now a fully-fledged Excellent Cat.

And it's allegedly summertime so Ho for the Hols!

Loving all these pictures of Excellent cats as well as the birdie pictures 😍
(And shamelessly placemarking).

Raven swears that she isn't trying to kill me.

Louie danced in the hall tonight - DP was faffing on his laptop in the spare room he hoped to distract him into feeding snacks. He gave up in the end and is snoozing with me in the living room instead.

Louie is so clever and deserves all the treats for his dancing skills.

Not My Sheep

( also - not dancing )

There's actually a genuine Not My Cat in a house here, nearer the beach, but he runs away while I'm getting my phone out.

So the sheep will have to do.

This may be far from the most elegant picture of Sybil but...
every day the dozy cat goes outside and comes back in with her fluffy arse covered in vegetation and various bits of outside detritus, which she then spreads everywhere she goes.

Leroy's arse looks similar to that Grumpy. Following him round trying to pull that stuff off is a nightmare - I think he thinks I've got a thermometer 😂

Poor DH was having a 'mare earlier - he thought Leroy had lost a claw and needed a vet asap. 'Twas just an outer blunt one discarded to reveal a new deadly weapon. DH had never seen one before, bless him 😁

Louie inadvertently recreated this photo tonight, which made me have a little cry 🤍🧡

Oh Louie, that's a true Oliver Twist look.

Oh no! Is there a backstory to do with the white cat (if you feel you could talk about it)?

He really is a groover! I thought you had a foxy companion for a moment on the second pic!

That’s our lovely girl who we had pts in April. She had had spells of vomiting on and off and been back and forth to the vet but they never anything untoward found. In March at her boosters I said to the vet I was concerned it was becoming more frequent and pushed for more tests. £3k later and it turned out she actually had a massive aggressive intestinal lymphoma. We were offered chemo but the prognosis was very poor (12ish months, treating to prolong life rather than cure) and we opted to let her go the week later rather than have her go downhill and go through distressing treatment. Right to the last day she was eating well, racing around the garden, had never lost any weight - you would never have guessed there was anything up. I miss her so much! She was only ten and it was all such a terrible shock after repeatedly being told it was “just hairballs”.

We adopted Louie indecently quickly after as I was so heartbroken. Initially DP wasn’t keen to get another cat (partly because I was such a mess) but he’s come round and loves him now.

That is heartbreaking @Judystilldreamsofhorses , but lovely to hear she was lively and enjoying life to the end 💐
I hope Louie helps you heal a little and carves his own niche in your hearts- or should I say dances into your hearts?!😻

It was so awful. I still wonder if we let her down by not doing treatment. But the reality was she found going to the vet so incredibly distressing that it would have been terrible for her, and essentially rearranging furniture in a burning house anyway given the prognosis. My sweetest little heart. 🤍

Louie appeared on the CP website two days after she left us, and I think she sent him. 🧡

You did exactly the right thing. IMO it would be cruel to make her have an extra 12 months of misery, which from what you say it would have been.

I really don't get this thing people have about prolonging life as much as possible, even if the quality of that life is dreadful. You did the best and kindest thing for your girl, ensuring she had a peaceful end without pain or distress.

I went through it myself about 18 months ago, poor Boycat was only about 8-9 but had CKD that came on so fast his weight went from 6.5kg to about 4kg in 6 months. He was a bit of a special needs cat, incredibly thick and easily confused, and the very sight of him clearly knowing that SOMETHING wasn't right but not understanding was agonising for me. Yes there were treatments he could have had to prolong the time he had, but it would have been existence rather than life.

Remember, better a week too soon than a day too late.

@Allergictoironing i know you’re right and we did the right thing by her. Lymphoma apparently usually presents with rapid weight loss and the cat being very poorly/pretty much immediate euthanasia, so it’s hard to reconcile the fact she had gained weight between Christmas and March (the vet called her a chonky girl!) and caught a mouse the day before she was pts. I think we were very unusual - which is why the vets were never concerned.

Louie was sick this morning and I had to be practically scraped off the ceiling!

I’m so sorry to hear about your boy. They break your hearts, don’t they?

Just to second Allergic's comments.
Cats live for the present, they can't rationalise pain, and I'm confident you did the right thing for her.
Glad that you now have the very entertaining Louie to distract you.

Judystilldreamsofhorses
Some cats do take a piece of your heart with them when they go. Louie has brought it back to you 🤍🧡

I think we all have "soul cats" who have left their paw prints on our hearts. It's horrible but the cat distribution service tends to work its magic.

Toad is being...well, I would say weird but he's always a bit of an oddball! (Excuse the badly painted wall, it's in slow progress.)

I've been awol yet again. I'm sorry!

This week has been difficult. I live in Southport, and I'm sure the news hasn't escaped any of you 😢

I think I'm going to have to get Walter checked out at the vets. He looks like he's lost weight. I'm very scared!

Hard times, Coaster. You can count on the ladies (and Grumpy) of the litter tray for solidarity 🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛🐈‍⬛

Hope you and Walter are both ok, @coastergirl
Absolutely shocking, heartbreaking events up there. That workshop was just the sort of thing I’d have booked my girls into a few years back.
And as for the idiots rioting…words fail
me.

One of my work colleagues lives in Southport and he sounded really shocked talking about it. Not the kind of place you'd ever expect this to happen.
Hope Walter's ok @coastergirl and hope life gets back to normal in Southport for you soon too.

Yes, @coastergirl !