My gf’s rabbit in high school made a super jump to its death. It hopped on top of its cage, then over the patio railing to plummet 15 feet to its death.
My neighbor called me and said my cat was in her yard and not moving. I came and apparently my cat tried to run under a low table, hit a stone brick at full speed, hit the brick at the top of its head (between the ears) and shattered its skull. What makes this really weird is that I’ve had two cats die this way.
One dog had several suicide attempts. She would turn in a circle so that her chain would twist higher and higher until her feet couldn’t touch the ground. She was almost successful the time she wrapped the chain around her neck first. This dog (maybe 8 pounds, 7 inches tall) also was picked up by a doberman and shaken, and survived that too. She also lost all her teeth so we had to feed her catfood. She survived until like 17 years old and was still active and healthy until my mother put her in the shelter.
My sister had two kittens. They were playing in the bathroom, and both fell into the toilet. One kitten stood on the head of the 2nd kitten and managed to jump out, but the 2nd one was trapped. My sister came home like 5 hours later and managed to rescue the kitten but it was nearly dead from exhaustion.
My sister went to visit our neighbors to keep an eye on their kids, aged maybe 3-6 at the time (back in the days when leaving young kids at home was pretty normal.) She found the older sister laughing like crazy, and some weird noises coming from the washing machine. She looked inside and found their cat. It had a broken leg but it survived.
When we were kids, my sister’s grade school class had a hamster. The kids would take turns bringing “Herbie” home for the weekend.
The weekend that my sister had custody of Herbie, we woke up on Sunday morning, and he wasn’t in his cage. We searched the house for hours, no sign of him. I finally found him, floating in the sump water for the sump pump. The little thing had managed to climb down two entire flights of stairs in order to get there.
We theorized that he was looking for water, but it did seem like he had a death wish.
When I was but a lad, I caught a Blue-tailed Skink. It was a real escape artist, managing to get out of a glass aquarium with a tight-fitting screen lid twice. The first time, I found it on the stairs. The second time, I wasn’t able to find it.
…Until a decade later, when my parents had the living room rug cleaned. There, under the rug, was the skink - pressed as flat and as perfectly preserved as a leaf in a Cub Scout’s collection.
Why would your mom put the poor thing in a shelter? Why not just have her put down? Seems it would have been kinder, but maybe I’m missing something…
One of my first experiences with death was when Daisy, our little collie mixed-breed dog, died. We had just made a six-hour drive to visit family, and we let her out in my Aunt’s backyard to run around while we visited. Turns out this was a mistake, as it was nighttime, and Daisy was very old and therefore almost completely blind. Did I mention my Aunt had a pool?
I will never get that vision of her floating around, lifeless, out of my brain.
My niece heard a thud and went to the kitchen where Rambo had fallen off the counter and was shuddering with paralyzed legs for a few seconds before dying, apparently after a heart attack at the age of six.
My ferret died of horniness. Seriously, if female ferrets aren’t neutered or bred, and they spend too much time in heat, they get anemia. Mine was supposed to be neutered, but they messed it up, and by the time we realized she was in heat and did the surgery, it was too late for her to recover.
My mom had a cat that climbed into an unattended clothes dryer, and not survive the subsequent ride with the next load. Ironically, its name was “Fluffy”.
I agree with you, that is a very cruel thing to do to an elderly pet. Most likely the animal spent some time being terrified in a cage before getting put down anyway. Very few shelters would spend resources trying to adopt out a 17 year old animal.
Not gonna lie: I kind of hope that the mom who did that spent her golden years in a really shitty nursing home as karma.
We had a cat that developed unequal pupil dilation. We took it to the vet, and he said it was most likely a brain tumor. (not the sort of thing that could be fixed)
The cat lived another 6 weeks, and was comfortable till nearly the end. I was so amazed my parents let it stay in the house till it died. That’s how I knew they loved that cat as much as I did.
I think nearly everybody who’s ever worked at a service station has a story or second hand story of cleaning a pet out of an engine.
Meh. I grew up in an area were pets weren’t worshipped, before PETA. People treated animals like property. You could usually see a box of unwanted kittens on the street for free pickup at least once a month or so.
Yes, and I have spoken of this before, but bears repeating if only to inform.
Our Belgian Tervuren, Yorick died when his heart burst one afternoon.
He had been diagnosed with heartworms and we immediately started treating him for this.
After repeated visits to the vet and faithful administrations of his meds, we thought we’d cured him.
Wrong.
Apparently, he still had some in his heart and one afternoon, as I reached for his leash to take him for his evening walk, he jumped up in happiness (as he always did when his Dad was going to take him for his walk) and when he hit the floor, he was dead.
One could hear mine and D’s cries of anguish down our whole block.
Please. Protect your pet against heartworms. Those mosquitoes are some tenacious little bastards and they will kill.
Why would your mom put the poor thing in a shelter? Why not just have her put down? Seems it would have been kinder, but maybe I’m missing something…