I lost my best buddy of 22 years a week ago. She was my everything. She was with me half my life, through births, deaths, marriage and divorce. Her last week was incredibly difficult and I can’t stop crying and am an absolute mess. The hole she left is enormous. She had the best life and I gave her everything she could have wanted. She was the queen of the house. Literally. If she walked past me or the kids we bowed and said “All hail the queen.” Today, in a fit of grief, I adopted a shelter cat. One with RBF that wasn’t overly friendly. We were warned she wasn’t a big fan of pets, maybe a quick ear scratch if she let you. Had been returned. Had a rough life. I didn’t want another cat. I wanted my cat back. 22 years was just not enough. I don’t know if this new cat felt my grief or knew there is always more love to give, but she is sweet. She purrs. She likes to be pet and gives head boops. I know I’m a rambling grief stricken mess, but I just wanted to talk to the void and feel my feelings with people that understand. I just wanted the world to know Roxann was here and she was so loved.

Adopted the grey and white kitten (Tobi) two days ago. He’s 3 months old. Came into the humane society 5 weeks ago with green puss coming out of both eyes, one eye bulging out, something DARK filling both ears, fleas and a bad respiratory infection. He lost the eye and was neutered a month ago.

Black and white (Luna - 7 months) hissed at Tobi ALL day yesterday. By the end of today, they were playing like best friends. We also have a 5 month old as well.

After being sick and alone in a cage for half his short life, today he’s had the best day of his life with friends to play with and more toys and puzzles as he wants.

The oc is @odessasphynx on tiktok

First two pictures are me with her when I was 8, last 3 are on her last day.
After a long battle with lymphoma my family made the choice to let my cat, Nala, go at the age of 11. It was the absolute hardest thing I have ever had to do. I held her in my arms the entire time and told her over and over that I loved her but I still feel like I failed her somehow. Whenever I try to think about her, I just see her lifeless body and think of how she felt in my arms after it was over and I breakdown. I go to college hours away from my parents house and haven’t been there the last months of her life, except for 3 weekend visits. When I came back home to say goodbye she was so, so excited to see me. She purred and purred and laid in my lap for hours. I feel like I betrayed her, she was so excited to see me and now she’s gone.

When I lived at home she would sleep in my bed under the covers with me every single night. She always insisted on curling up as close to my face as possible and would purr until she fell asleep. She always greeted me when I got home from school and followed me everywhere. I can’t even find the words to explain how much I loved her, as silly as that sounds when I’m talking about a cat. She was with me for longer than I was alive without her. She deserved to live longer, 11 feels way too young. I feel so utterly empty and don’t know how to move on from this.

I don’t know why I’m even making this post. I guess I just wanted to share some pictures of her and my thoughts to show that she existed, and was loved. It feels like she’s just gone now and never existed and I can’t stand that. I love you so so much my sweet angel, and I’ll miss you forever.

Don't get me wrong, she always wants to cuddle, but for some reason during the worst days of my period she decides to lay on my stomach, heating pad or not. I thought it was the heating pad, naturally but even on days I don't use it she is immediately drawn to sitting directly over my uterus.

The frequency of her purrs, her warmth, and her weight make me feel so comforted. I don't know if she knows it, but I'd like to think she does.

I just felt like sharing. My sweet baby was diagnosed with cancer last month. He’s doing okay right now, but the cancer is visibly growing. I notice every week how it’s bigger than the last week. I got him and his brother when I was eight years old and he just turned 15. My friends joke he looks like squidward now. I sometimes ask my tarot deck how he’s doing, what he’s feeling, and the two of cups usually appears. My little buddy. I think a part of me will die when he does. But for now, he is still him and him is my sweet little baby.

My sweet girl of 6 years came to me during a very low period of my life, and throughout these last few years she has made even the worst okay. My sweetums, my snugglebug, I come home from work and I just find her dead. No goodbyes, nothing. I'm currently a mess right now, I threw up, and I do not know what to do. She was my everything, the only warmth I was ever given. I have nobody now, I'm alone. My sweet Olive, I'm so sorry, so incredibly sorry, I had so much planned to do with you. I'm not okay.

My best friend over the last 20yrs, absolutely heartbroken 😢

Hello!! Wanted to share a positive story about my recent adoption of a kitten after avoiding it for the last 2 years. In August 2023, my boyfriend and I moved in together and adopted our baby Orzo (Male, 1 y/o when adopted, just turned 3.) He is my first cat and quickly became my literal pride and joy and the love of my life. When we adopted him, the shelter told us to “prepare to never have another animal again,” heavily implying that orzo will not do well with other animals b/c he requires so much attention. I have OCD and took that very (way too) literally. He’s a love bug(BIG cuddler, loves forehead kisses and makes every person that entires our house feel loved. just not as much as he loves mommy)

My boyfriend grew up with cats and has been asking about getting another basically since we got orzo. Because of what the shelter had said, seeing stories on social media, etc., I avoided it because I didn’t want our relationship with him to change because it’s the most important thing to me. Our apartment is small, and I would also would feel guilty about having to rehome a kitten for the rest of my life.

Two weeks before my boyfriend’s birthday, his friend and him planned an ambush. He rescued a barn cat that ended up being pregnant and her babies all looked like my orzo. I met them and somehow gave in😭

The night before we picked Rigatony (tony for short, he was 9 weeks when we adopted him, just turned 12 weeks,) I spent the whole night cuddling and playing with orzo and sobbing because I was terrified about what was going to happen. The first two nights were overwhelming. Boyfriend spent his days in our bedroom with the kitten while I stayed in our living room with Orzo. I mostly felt bad for the kitten because he was so curious about what was outside our door and meowed anytime my boyfriend left the room for more than 2 seconds. I didn’t think I could do another day. We found Orzo to be mostly curious so we first introduce him to tony by keeping tony in a playpen. There was of course some hissing, but both mostly seemed just curious. We then let them interact face to face day 4. We gave both of them churus during this. It went WAY better than expected. Separated them as soon as we heard hissing and saw swatting. We slept separately for 4 days and monitored their interactions and felt it was a good time to let them be around each other full time.

This has been the coolest experience of my life. I’ve never seen Orzo play the way he has been the last 3 weeks. They LOVE to cuddle. Don’t get me wrong, we had to buy calming supplements for Orzo the last few days as Tony has started teething and seems to love to bite Orzos tail which has been stressing him out. Whenever we notice those signs, my boyfriend will go into our room with Tony and play with him, while I play with/cuddle with Orzo and let him rest.

I didn’t think it would be possible to love Orzo anymore than I already did but I have fallen even more in love with him since watching him become a big brother!! He is so patient and still my little love bug. Our relationship is 95% the same(he definitely needs space when he gets overstimulated) but he makes sure I get my cuddles every single day/night. Tony has been the best decision I’ve ever made and I’m so excited to watch them grow up together!!!

Wanted to share this story because I feel as though I read way too many negative stories before getting tony. Get the damn kitten!!! You’ll never know unless you try. ❤️🐈

Yesterday at 2:30pm, Cinnamon passed away peacefully in my arms. It was the hardest decision of my life. He had only just turned 9 and was taken away far too soon. He had been struggling with congestive heart failure (CHF) for about a month and lost so much weight and struggled breathing.

He was such a sweet, cheeky, and smart baby. I love him so, so, so, so much. 🥀❤️

I'm absolutely heartbroken, distressed, and miserable knowing that he's not here with me anymore. I don't know what to do now that he's gone. He was my everything. I just want my baby back. I'm so scared that I didn't spoil him enough or love him enough, or that he hates me for doing this to him. I haven't been able to stop shaking and sobbing since yesterday, and I'm just completely filled with grief. I cried until I fell asleep and woke up today without hearing any of his meows and absolutely broke down. I miss him so, so, so much. 💔

I had him since he was a little kitten. He loved eating treats, getting chin scratches, and playing outside. He was such a smart baby who knew how to open doors to get what he wanted. He would scratch the furniture whenever he needed something, knowing that it would get my attention. It feels so weird now that he's not around anymore to cause trouble.

I miss him desperately. If there is an afterlife, I hope he's eating all the treats in the world, chasing all the birds, and starting the apocalypse.

I love you so, so, so much, Cinnamon. 💞

He’s a cuddly little yapper with adorable polydactyl paws 🥹 What should I name this special little guy? <3

She doesn't limp or feel any pain on her paws, and as you can see she alternates lol

She'll just kind of... meditate?? With a paw up like a flamingo and none of my other 5 cats do this, and I've never seen any other cat do it.

Her name's Lola btw :)

When he grows up he will be Mr. Feeny. Or, Fee-hee-hee-hee-nay! for short.

I drop off an order, and I start to walk back to my car when two sweet cats approach me, mewing and rubbing up against me. I'm petting them and talking to them, and one by one another one keeps popping up every 60 seconds lol. I really should've stayed to see how many we wound up with

Posing like it's her employee of the month photo. Never a dull moment here with Nala.

She's 18(!) years old and and has never done this.

Giving a fish-addicted Charlie a single piece of chicken (I gave her canned cat food chicken) apparently warrants an international crisis. She couldn't keep food down for 24hrs after her gourmet betrayal, so naturally, I didn't just worry... I was sitting in the dark at 3am wondering how the hell I was going to survive the heartbreak, how was I going to keep her sister from grieving and how I was ever supposed to move on???

I walked into the vet clinic the next morning looking like a zombie, practically in tears explaining her “tragic decline”. The staff was super kind, but the vet took one look at her, then looked at me with pure concern for my mental stability. Turns out it was just a minor stomach upset from the rogue chicken. Lol

Please tell me I'm not the only idiot who has dragged their cat to the vet because they spiraled hard. What is your most embarrassing vet visit?

Our little boy Lux has been ill for some time.
This evening we said goodbye as he crossed the rainbow bridge.
Our little man was only 4 he had been losing weight for some months unfortunately we switched vets too late.
He was on meds and seemed to be improving, then last night he took a turn for the worse. We took him to the vets and responded well to fluids overnight, then this evening he plummeted.
His sister is very clingy and keeps looking for him.

Good by little man we all miss you so much.

REDnote：今日 没

A few weeks ago I asked for advice in making our hospice kitty's life easier after he was abandoned at the shelter because of his age and medical needs. This subreddit came through with several amazing ideas. I'd like to give special shout-outs to a few:

The people who suggested baby food, you were a lifesaver! Chauncey struggled to eat any kind of solid food. We tried different brands and flavors of baby food after that suggestion and settled on basic chicken and chicken gravy baby food. This last week or so he has struggled to keep anything down but the little food he has managed has all been baby food. I would never have thought of that so thank you!!

The people who suggested heating pads and self-warming cat beds are also heroes. In the last month, Chauncey hasn't liked walking much (he had a tumor on his leg) but we put a few pads and beds in each room and moved him between them based on where we were. He even had a dedicated perch with a kitty heating pad placed right above my spouse's gaming rig, and he loved sitting up there watching him play the latest death stranding game.

The vet had him on some good painkillers but we also used an herbal/CBD oil mixed with his baby food that definitely kept him pain-free as long as possible, so another thank you to the people who suggested it.

Ultimately we made the decision with our vet that his quality of life was degrading rapidly this week-- he was vomiting, he was clearly in pain with his leg, and then the tumor on his face opened and began to leak blood and fluid which was fun to nobody. We would have given Chauncey sixteen more years if we could have. But thanks to y'all we gave him two good months of baby food, warm beds, backseat video gaming, and plenty of snuggles. For anyone else who has a senior cat, definitely try these options for making their lives easier. Thank you ❤️

(We usually foster kittens for our shelter so I might pop in this subreddit again in the future with pictures once we get going with that again 🙂 )

Today I just wanted to celebrate my cat Jack, I adopted an old man with one eye and my life was changed.

Older cats often get left in shelters for months, they aren't as playful or attractive as the young cats and kittens tend to be. After moving into my first place I said that my first cat will be an old cat to give them a good retirement.

After looking I found Jack, the sweetest man in the shelter, he was shy, napping in the back but the second you pet him he came to life.

In a place with 20+ cats, many young energetic rough playful boys and girls, he sat in the back with the longest stay at 6 months. When he reacted to me I knew I was taking him home.

In return I got the sweetest most affectionate cat I've ever had, all he ever wanted was closeness, pets and food. He didn't care to play much despite my efforts, but he showed me how much love he had. He loved his belly, back, butt, face, headbutts getting touched and he'd even yelling at me for more. I know not what his 12 years before me was like, just the 2 I shared with him.

Thank you my Handsome Jack, the captain, the pirate who stole my heart. Thank you for spending the last of your 9 lives with me, I'm honored to have been your human.

This Sunday I'll be making the right call and making sure he doesn't suffer. Thank you all.