Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Forum rules
Do not to post anything abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or sexually-orientated.
Do not post anything negative about any player.
No advertising other games.
The management reserves the right to delete or lock threads and messages at any time.
Read the complete SIM rules and legal information.
Post Reply
User avatar
Stormy Peak
Hall of Fame
Posts: 6742
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: Idaho

Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Stormy Peak »

My 12 year old, semi-feral dog, Jaya, has been having some issues with hips and back legs lately. So, before winter sets in and the ground freezes... I took her to the vet today to see how plausible it was to try to get her through the winter....or...if perhaps I should put her to sleep now.

I can't afford to cremate her if she takes a bad downward spiral in the middle of winter, can't bury her either as the ground will be frozen soon. I also get almost sick at the idea of her having to go to the animal pit up at the dump. Right now though, she's eating, drinking, alert and interested in everything around her...and moving about pretty much ok as her arthritic hip pain has been taken care of with meds. But on Monday and Tuesday, her back legs just collapsed.

With her being semi-feral, I can't even walk over to her to help her up, because she's terrified of being touched.
On Tuesday when she dropped just a few feet from me, I instinctively took a step forward and bent to try to help her but she dragged herself away from me...crying in pain as it hurt her hips...or maybe even her back? The sudden loss of strength in her back legs could be a disc issue???

Anyway...the vet and I decided to try to get her through winter...and keep treating any pain with meds. She hasn't lost control of her back legs since Monday and Tuesday so that was a determining factor in the decision.
That's a heavy weight off my chest.

While at the vets, my vet asked me if I would foster a cat, her clinic has run out of cages and they had to put this homeless cat into a rather small cage. My vet has done so much for me over the years, I said yes.

I must attract defective animals like a magnet...lol. This cat only has 3 legs.
The right back leg has been amputated.
The cat was homeless and brought in earlier this year with a mangled right back leg. My vet amputated the leg, spayed the cat, and has been caring for her for some time now. But, she just got overwhelmed with client's pets and ran out of cages, so the cat had to be moved from her fairly large cage to a pretty small one and has been like that for about a week, and there is no end in sight as far as her getting her large cage back.


~I've had an extremely abused cat, Kayla, with huge mental issues due to to violence she endured, I adopted her when she was 6 years old.

~I've had HaHa, my mentally handicapped Golden Retriever - he was 2 when I adopted him. No one wanted him due to his mental disability.

~I adopted a dog named Lacey when she was 8 years old, her owners gave her up because they didn't want to pay money to have the dog's ears operated on. Lacey had severe infections in both ears. After I got her and had the surgeries done, she could hear fine again and the repeat infections never came back again.

~And, my timid Jaya, who I mentioned, adopted her when she was 6 years old. She was very feral when I got her, and is now more or less semi-feral. I put a HUGE amount of 'trust' training in with her to gain her trust over the past 6 years and she really has progressed, even though she still doesn't like it when I approach her.

This cat doesn't have a name really. According to the vet, different assistance have named her different names. :P
But if I have her... I need a name for her.
Trip came to mind, but I think it might be too obvious...short for Tripod or Triptych

She's a black and white tuxedo...with really gold eyes.

I'll try to get a photo of her in the next few days. But right now, she'll spend most of her time in my bathroom, and for a few hours tomorrow, she will be in her carrier in my living room so she can observe the dogs and Song...and they can see her too. Then, I'll start putting Song in the bedroom and put the dogs outside for a while and let 3-legged kitty wander around the house. I hope in a week or two I will have them more comfortable with each other...then the 3 legged kitty can wander around the house at will. I'll bring her bed into the living room and try to get her to sleep there. Song usually likes to sleep on me at night.

Name suggestions welcomed.

Stormy
SIRES: Turf Routers - Each multiple G1 winners

Tuck Everlasting
Fee $30,500

Wolfman Jack
Fee $18,000
User avatar
Kelly Haggerty
Eclipse Champion
Posts: 1512
Joined: 3 years ago

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Kelly Haggerty »

I am glad your dog is hanging in there. Maybe Trinity would go with the theme of three, but offer the girl a bit more dignity?
Ricky Spanish
Two Year Old
Posts: 39
Joined: 7 years ago

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Ricky Spanish »

So sorry about your dog, it's very hard to watch when they start to deteriorate, hopefully the meds help her out enough to keep her happy through winter.

Love that you fostered a cat though, I fostered a pregnant cat from my local shelter in April after I lost my job, and ended up adopting her, then her kittens were all adopted out at 12 weeks. I was particularly attached to one little female kitten, we had a real bond and it broke my heart to let her go. About 2 weeks after she was adopted I had a weird feeling and couldn't get the kitten out of my head, I looked on the shelter's website and she had been returned by whoever adopted her, so I went in the next day the second they opened and adopted her too! I hope when I move to a bigger place I will be able to foster more animals and keep them in a dedicated 'foster room'. I'd like to suggest calling her 'Peggy' :)
User avatar
Stormy Peak
Hall of Fame
Posts: 6742
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: Idaho

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Stormy Peak »

Thanks for the replies on Jaya and her situation. It really is difficult to watch a beloved pet age. However, I've lost 2 pets befor they had their full years under the sun. My beloved Golden Retriever, HaHa died at age 5 of cancer, and I lost a cat named Shayle, when she was only 3 years old. I always felt they were so cheated, as was I -- they in not being able to live out their full life and I not being able to have them with me but for a few short years.


I managed to get some photos of 3 legged kitty. She's in my itty bitty bathroom and wouldn't stand up for me...so this was the best I could do. I hope in a few days I can get some of her in the living room...standing up. She does have lovely gold eyes.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Stormy
SIRES: Turf Routers - Each multiple G1 winners

Tuck Everlasting
Fee $30,500

Wolfman Jack
Fee $18,000
Craig Mcgee
Listed Stakes Winner
Posts: 572
Joined: 6 years ago

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Craig Mcgee »

She looks like my son's tuxedo cat Felix. He is 20 now and recently has gone blind. My son is 31 and he has had Felix since he was a kitten. My son has autism so my wife and I know that he will have a hard time when Felix is no longer with us. PS both cat and son still live with us. 😀
I need supervision 24/7. :roll:
User avatar
Stormy Peak
Hall of Fame
Posts: 6742
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: Idaho

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Stormy Peak »

I had a cat named Ashley that I took in as she was a stray kitten who was born in the spring time near our family's store. Through out the summer I watched the momma cat, and her 5 kittens play outside our building, but sadly one by one the kittens started to disappear, until finally there was only 1 grey and white tuxedo left...and she kept sneaking into our store. And too, she would follow me when I walked 5 blocks down to the post office and also to a cafe a block down and then one turn to the right and up a block.

Out of all the people going in and out of those places she would wait for me and walk with me back to the store. So when fall came and it started to get cold at night, I finally just decided to take her home. It was a good thing I did, she had dysentery and the vet said she was so dehydrated from it that she probably would have died inside of 3 more days.

So I 'knew' of her since she was an itty bitty kitten, and owned her when she was around 7 months old. And she was with me for 21 years. : )

My brother had a cat who lived to be 23 years. So I hope your son will be able to have Felix for a few more years still. I had a dog who went blind, but I kept the pathways in the house clear...no shoes or books or anything next to my recliner or the sofa and the nothing in the halls...and the dog memorized the paths so well that she easily made it through the house. I hope your cat has learned something similar. Ashley was actually in very good physical shape, but she got a kind of episodic dementia...she would forget where she was and wander the house meowing and nothing could distract her from it. The episodes started out like once a week for 5 to 10 minutes...but gradually grew to sometime multiple times a day and she was walking and meowing for longer times. It finally got to a point where it could go on for over an hour, and that was really too much on her old bones. She did have some hip arthritis. I finally had her put to sleep when the episodes just became too much and she was wearing out from them.

Again, I hope your Felix can go a few more years. : )

This was Ashley btw, she was such a beautiful grey tuxedo...all my cats since her have been grey tuxedos. So this black and white one I have taken in, kind of breaks the chain : )

Image

Stormy
SIRES: Turf Routers - Each multiple G1 winners

Tuck Everlasting
Fee $30,500

Wolfman Jack
Fee $18,000
Craig Mcgee
Listed Stakes Winner
Posts: 572
Joined: 6 years ago

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Craig Mcgee »

She was a gorgeous cat. I hope as well for my son's sake that he at least has another year or so with him. Cats make the world a more interesting place lol.
I need supervision 24/7. :roll:
User avatar
Stormy Peak
Hall of Fame
Posts: 6742
Joined: 17 years ago
Location: Idaho

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Stormy Peak »

Well, I have decided upon a name for my 3 legged 'foster' cat. (which I am pretty sure will never be adopted out..lol).

Most cats walk silently...but a cat with a missing back leg has to hop on the remaining back leg....and makes a thump thump thump sound doing it.

So, I have named her Thump : )

I like unusual names for my pets...and I think Thump will be rather unique.
I still don't know of anyone who's had pet with names like HaHa, AU, Song or Jaya.

Plus back in the 1970s, I had a dog named Hey You...her mom was Sampson...lol.
No one thought to check the gender of Sampson, when I got her...we were told she was a boy puppy...but she was so hairy it wasn't obvious. It was about 2 days later before my parents actually noticed...by that time I had named her and wanted to keep the name, and no one ever really called her 'Sam' either...almost always, it was Sampson.

Stormy
SIRES: Turf Routers - Each multiple G1 winners

Tuck Everlasting
Fee $30,500

Wolfman Jack
Fee $18,000
Craig Mcgee
Listed Stakes Winner
Posts: 572
Joined: 6 years ago

Re: Took my dog to the vet today - ended up fostering a cat.

Post by Craig Mcgee »

Back when I lived in Wyoming I had a black lab named Ace and a springer spanial named Buck, you should of seen the looks I got when I called for my dogs. Come Buck N Ace. lol
I need supervision 24/7. :roll:
Post Reply