| Topic: |
Sociology > Depression |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
19 Nov 2007 04:56:33 PM |
| Object: |
This is a bad time of year. |
My cat in my lap is the oldest, 17 or so. Big chest tumor, and his
abdomen has to be drained more frequently....
Here we go again.
Some days I'm just not up to the task of anticipating death. And I
don't hear much of SAD anymore. I guess they gave up and said rush
hour is all day long now.
Frettianadriftversionthoughtdat2amthinkinbrssbrim
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| User: "Noon Cat Nick" |
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| Title: Re: This is a bad time of year. |
19 Nov 2007 05:49:09 PM |
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wrote:
My cat in my lap is the oldest, 17 or so. Big chest tumor, and his
abdomen has to be drained more frequently....
Losing a companion animal of any age is terribly hard...harder than
society is willing to accommodate or acknowledge. So appreciate these
waning days with him as much as you can. It'll be a comfort for both of you.
What's his prognosis, BTW?
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: This is a bad time of year. |
19 Nov 2007 07:08:21 PM |
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On Nov 19, 6:49 pm, Noon Cat Nick <chatdemidiSPAMBEG...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
playfr...@gmail.com wrote:
My cat in my lap is the oldest, 17 or so. Big chest tumor, and his
abdomen has to be drained more frequently....
Losing a companion animal of any age is terribly hard...harder than
society is willing to accommodate or acknowledge. So appreciate these
waning days with him as much as you can. It'll be a comfort for both of you.
What's his prognosis, BTW?
Thanks for the reply nick.
He has a cancer, I already paid a couple grand in the last 3 months,
to nail it down and chemo him would be 1.) brutal, and 2.) costly.
So they drain him here at the house once a month, getting more F'ed
up, she has to come this week. She was here 2 weeks ago.
But he has this presence, it's freakin maltie (I didn't name him) and
he was there 17 years ago when I used to visit 'the boys', and he's
been in my care for 6 years. This egyptian maine coon mix. His guts
are popping out, he can't breath good, the drainings drain him....
He sleeps in Mollies bed. And he watches me cook. I have had 10
cats, and Bob had an exponential amount or so, not one ever watched
me cook. Dogs watch me cook, not cats.
So yeah, I make the best of it, but it's strange, I am feeling/seeing
this thing where I feel like rejecting him/cutting him off from the
love cause he's so needy. WtF is wrong with me?
just hurts a lot, I'll do it right...
frett
*****
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| User: "Noon Cat Nick" |
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| Title: Re: This is a bad time of year. |
19 Nov 2007 08:11:54 PM |
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wrote:
On Nov 19, 6:49 pm, Noon Cat Nick <chatdemidiSPAMBEG...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
playfr...@gmail.com wrote:
My cat in my lap is the oldest, 17 or so. Big chest tumor, and his
abdomen has to be drained more frequently....
Losing a companion animal of any age is terribly hard...harder than
society is willing to accommodate or acknowledge. So appreciate these
waning days with him as much as you can. It'll be a comfort for both of you.
What's his prognosis, BTW?
Thanks for the reply nick.
He has a cancer, I already paid a couple grand in the last 3 months,
to nail it down and chemo him would be 1.) brutal, and 2.) costly.
So they drain him here at the house once a month, getting more F'ed
up, she has to come this week. She was here 2 weeks ago.
But he has this presence, it's freakin maltie (I didn't name him) and
he was there 17 years ago when I used to visit 'the boys', and he's
been in my care for 6 years. This egyptian maine coon mix. His guts
are popping out, he can't breath good, the drainings drain him....
He sleeps in Mollies bed. And he watches me cook. I have had 10
cats, and Bob had an exponential amount or so, not one ever watched
me cook. Dogs watch me cook, not cats.
So yeah, I make the best of it, but it's strange, I am feeling/seeing
this thing where I feel like rejecting him/cutting him off from the
love cause he's so needy. WtF is wrong with me?
It's not you, it's Maltie. Cats regard companion humans as surrogate
mothers, because we give them the same things mother cats provide for
their kits. This is demonstrated by the various regression behaviors
adult cats perform around their companion humans. Over time, more of
these behaviors manifest themselves. One of those is increased
dependency on the person for attention, affection and companionship.
With a chronically ill and declining feline, the neediness increases.
Knowing there's nothing it can do for itself, and that the person seems
to be the one who can do anything for it, the cat becomes heavily
dependent on the human's presence.
Another idea is that cats in declining health somewhat sense death
impending. The usual feline reaction is to go somewhere and hide from
it. It's a fight-or-flight response--they can't fight it off because
they can't see it, so they can only choose flight. With a housecat,
neither is really an option. So they stick to the companion human for
comfort and protection.
This can be annoying to the person involved, being a new situation and
one not expected of felines. While cats do enjoy attention, affection
and companionship, particularly in a home setting, they still maintain a
certain independence endemic to their species. This, in fact, is part of
why many prefer cats as companions: their innate self-sufficiency makes
them low-maintenance pets. But now, Maltie has much less independence
left, significantly decreased ability to tend to himself. The obvious
choice for him is to be around you, his surrogate mother, as much as
possible. His condition has caused major regression; in a way, he's
become very much a helpless kitten again, and needs to be with his mom
as much as possible.
just hurts a lot, I'll do it right...
It can't help but hurt. How could it not?
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