…survive for 35 days without food or water? According to Ripley’s Believe it or Not it can but I have my doubts.
http://www.comics.com/comics/ripleys/index.html
What say you masters of feline wisdom?
There was just a recent news article about a cat that survived 19 days with a jar stuck on it’s head, so 35 doesn’t seem completely out of the question.
That particular event is fairly well documented, so unless there’s some minor details you’re iffy on, I don’t see much to question.
(On preview, I mean the shipping container, not the cat-in-a-jar.)
I have a friend in New Orleans that was in bad shape for a long time. His best friend was his female cat. One day, his landlord had some minor construction done on his apartment while he was at work. He cam home to find his cat missing and was devastated. The bastards let her out. He put up flyers around the neighborhood over the next week and got no response. He became more and more disturbed by this. About 10 days later he was laying in bed and heard a sound. It was faint and hard to track. He started going through his apartment trying to see where it was coming from. He became fairly certain where it was coming from and grabbed a hammer to destroy part of a wall that the carpenters had worked on. After knocking a big hole in the wall, his cat came crawling out.
It sounds like an urban legend but that is 100% true. That story wasn’t 35 days but it was pushing two weeks which is much longer than a human could have lasted.
Two years ago, my then-17-year-old cat had gotten outside for the first time, and I didn’t find him for 18 days. He was too old to fend for himself or hunt for food, and there probably wasn’t much water, if any. When I got him home he weighed only 6 pounds, down from his normal 11; extremely malnourished and dehydrated, but otherwise healthy. I wouldn’t be surprised if a younger cat, in prime health, could survive twice as long.
That’s great! 2 good stories that fit right in to the holiday season!
I see cats can survive a lot longer than I thought. Which is good. Less mice. 
Two years ago, there was an orange kitten that showed up and I had been feeding him. He disappeared for at least a month or more. I looked everywhere but no cat. One day, he dragged himself in. Skin and bones doesn’t even begin to describe him. He was dragging both hind legs and covered with infected wounds. I took him to the vet, thinking the least I could do was have him put down humanely he was in such bad condition. They took him and with steroids and antibiotics he is today on my bed along with his “brothers” and weighs about 20 lbs. He walks just fine and is normal, except a little nutty. Best anyone could decide, he had been hit by a car and hid out.
Well, all cats are a little nutty, especially mine! Nefer, thats about the coolest story ever!!
Merry Christmas!
Despite this, it is worth noting that domestic cats are also prone to hepatic lipidosis if they stop eating for any appreciable length of time ( apparently sometimes in as little as a few days, though it usually takes longer ). It’s much more of an issue with previously obese cats, but it seems it is not exclusive to them. Cats are apparently rather poor at metabolizing body fats mobilized in periods of stress and as such can suffer liver failure from fatty accumulation, especially if the fat is being released in large doses ( as with obese cats ).
So fasting pet cats should never be treated lightly.
Somebody please tell me I’m not the only one who read more into this than necessary.
We’re pretty sure it’s just you.
That’s all there is to it.
Having treated or euthanised many cats with hepatic lipidosis, I wholeheartedly agree. Also, cats that are in the early stages of chronic renal failure can be made very ill by even a single day without water.
Shagnasty, said " After knocking a big hole in the wall, his cat came crawling out."
And I add: “With his tail stuck straight up in the air, looking around and meowing 'Where the Hell have you been!?” as he saunters off to the feed bowl like nothing had happened at all. 