I was the youngest in our family and whenever our pets were given away to someone else or had to be euthanized, I was told they “ran away.” I never gave it a second thought.
The liquid form is nasty tasting - I gave it to my depressed kitty once and he promptly vomited it back up. Never tried it again, there went $40 down the drain. According to the compounding pharmacist, the underlying medicine is very bitter, and not even the liver flavoring they use will cover it up.
Kitty would not take the pill form, even in Pill Pockets - he’d eat the treat and avoid the pill. The pill was chewable, and it would dissolve in his mouth, there was no way to just shove it down his gullet.
I finally got a rub-in-the-ear form of Prozac that worked. This particular kitty was having urinary issues where he was peeing every five minutes, blood in his urine, etc. After many vet visits, as far as we could tell it was stress/depression induced or aggravated, there had been a lot of change and stress in our house. He finally got over it on his own. (And now he may have lymphoma, but that’s another story).
I also have a middle-aged cat that pees on everything. I just had to get rid of my old sofa and an old mattress in the guest room. I have to keep our bedroom door closed or he’ll pee on the bed. We have to put barriers on our living room chairs or he’ll pee on them. And his pee is super-stinky! I too am at my wit’s end. We have multiple litter boxes, we’ve tried Feliway, all to no avail. I may try the leftover kitty Prozac on him, to see if it helps. And when we get a new sofa, it will be covered in plastic as long at we have that cat. He’s so beautiful, we really love him, and he gets along well with our other cats. The whole thing is just so frustrating.
While I agree that house cats can be successful outdoor cats (in some climates), it’s not recommended in this case due to what the OP says about the neighborhood, unless he also plans to put up a fence.
We currently have an outdoor cat, simply because he was nearby when we moved in. He was clearly a housecat. In fact, he’s sick right now so he’s inside (in a separate room), and knows how to use the litter box. Has to be kept apart from our indoor cat, and I’m alergic, and other stuff, so when he’s better, back outside he goes. He seems to have turned the corner (earlier it looked like curtains for kitty.)
I wouldn’t recommend this. In our family, if a pet is lost, we go on an all-out full-frontal attack to do whatever is necessary to find the lost pet. I wouldn’t want to send the message “Oh, our family member disappeared … whatever.” Please don’t take this personally; I’m sure it didn’t scar you for life or anything.
I agree with those who advise not to make up a story. Stick with the facts, but spin them as softly as possible (e.g., “We had to take him to the vet, but he died. I sure do miss him, don’t you?”) Wait a month and then go looking for a new kitty.
We bought a Maine Coon kitty when my eldest girl was about three. The kitty was the most wonderful cat I’ve ever owned. Unfortunately when I took her to the vet to get neutered, the vet told us she had a serious heart ailment and would not survive more than a year.
Very reluctantly I returned her to the breeder. I had just lost a cat recently and could not bear the thought of losing another one so soon. We told our daughter that the cat was too sick to keep with us. She was fine with it.
Toxoplasma gondii lives in the poop, not pee. Not that that fact makes cat urine anymore pleasant of course.
What brand of cat litter are you using? Some brands hurt cats with sensitive paws.
… in an area the OP made very clear is deathly dangerous to a formerly-indoor cat. Disease + violent attacks from the local ferals for one, and - though not explicitly mentioned by the OP - nearly anywhere in the United States, violent attacks + being eaten alive by coyotes.
As far as the granddaughter, I think omitting certain truths is OK, but outright lying is not. “Kitty was very sick, and we took him to the kitty doctor, and he tried everything he could, but kitty died.” is OK. “Kitty was peeing everywhere so we took him to have him be killed.” is not OK.
Even though they’re describing the exact same scenario …
Yes, outdoors for any length of time is not an option. He would at the very least bring back fleas and diseases to infect our other cat.
I like very much the wording about he was sick, taken to the doctor, died anyway despite best efforts.
As far as litter, we have tried several different brands and styles, and nothing made any difference. Sometime he uses it, sometimes he doesn’t.
He was rescued not from a shelter, but from an organization. That’s a great idea to contact them and see if they want him back. Worth a try.
I’m guessing “Hey, watch this!” is probably not a good idea.
Regards,
Shodan
We had a cat that started peeing everywhere when he was about 9 years old. He was spraying from time to time, though, as a reaction to being picked on for his whole life by one of our older cats at the time. We tried everything. Had to replace the livingroom carpet with pergo, had to constantly deal with urine smell in odd places. Tried the meds to calm him down, tried different litter box strategies…nothing worked.
We eventually decided that one of the two had to go, since we thought splitting the two of them up might cure the peeing one. My wife’s aunt loves the peeing cat, and immediately volunteered to take him, and has had him ever since. Our other two cats have since died in the four years since, but Mr. pee lives on. He’s doing well. He still pees outside the litter box from time to time from what I hear, but not as much as he did with us. Glad she can put up with it. I loved him dearly, and could never have euthanized him over this, but we were glad to have the smell out of our house.
Handling it with your daughter…if you really feel that euthanasia is the only way, I honestly wouldn’t tell her that you’re doing that. It will seem horribly cruel to a child of that age (heck, it seems fairly cruel to me)…and it’s going to scare the crap out of her. I mean, she’s going to see that (in her mind) minor behavior issues = death if they happen enough.
I’ve always loved the matter-of-fact way that Sally Fields delivered the news to her son in “Forest Gump”. She just said "It’s just my time, Forest.
It was just his time. Let her see you just accepting this as part of the circle of life.
I just checked with the rescue organization we got him from. They said they would take him back, but would probably end up euthanizing him anyway.
Great advice on what to tell my granddaughter. Just his time, doctor couldn’t help him be well, etc. is better than the “went to a farm” story. Thanks.
Tell her the cat got called up to the Majors, then distract her with baseball stats. She’ll forget about that cat in 6 seconds.
“Cat Suicide”. Just tell the child that Lil Kitty was looking depressed for the last few weeks, and had been acting strangely…
You can’t build your alibi too early.
Plenty of kids remember stuff from when they’re three. That said, we had a rabbit who died when I was that age. I cried. I got over it. They didn’t tell me the details.
Ha.
I can tell you with certainty that the things you think are not instinctual are indeed at least present in every cat. You can call it what you want.
Your attitude makes me cringe. The cat is an animal, not a human object.
What makes you say that?
How to defend, how to fight, how to find shelter…I guess we can get into semantics if we like, but I’m pretty sure every cat can get by knowing how to do that.
Tell that to all the sick, injured, starving, abandoned house cats taken in by the rescues every year. I’m sure they’ll straighten right up and figure it out with some finger shaking and a good talking to. I’ve been a part of taking in thousands of cats that clearly can’t take care of themselves outside. How about you?