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Aargh! that's what happened to my cat!

Bought by a professional couple.. had him for 5 years.. then she gets knocked up... all of a sudden they stop grooming him, he gets ringworm, ear mites.. an ear infection that is SO BAD and left UNTREATED that he now has a permanent hole in his eardrum....

They gave him up so matted he had to be shaved and medicated for months....

The reason they gave him up 'my pregnancy' ....

So.. I know, I'll get pregnant and have a kid then I'll buy a cat and give up my kid for adoption... reason 'Bought a cat'... I'd be vilified and hated by most of the world... yet it's ok to dispose of a pet?

I adopted him and have currently spent �3000 on vets bills.. numerous ringworm treatments.. he had an eye ulcer... cystitus....

You neglect a kid like that.. you get done for child abuse.. you give up a cat in that state? oh it's fine...

I'm not a cruel person, but I have wished unspeakable things to happen to the woman whilst she was pregnant....

I know what you mean, Linux Lady. I know a similar story, but it is so negative, I don't see the point of repeating it.

In Texas, people have very little regard for animals. There isn't a sense of responsibility about them. They're allowed out to roam about, even though they almost always get hit since it's a highly-populated area. There are also a lot of diseases because of the climate.

People who actually do things to care for their pets are just thought to be snooty.

In Texas, I'm surprised they just don't use them for target practice...

I wouldn't be surprised...

Linux_Lady, it is so great that you adopted that cat! He is so much better off with you. I don't blame you for wishing that bad things happen to that person who treated him so terribly before giving him up. I do the same thing - at any instance of animal cruelty I see or hear about, I immediately wish for bad things to happen to those cruel people responsible.

We had a beautiful, big orange tabby male that we adopted in April of 2004, and unfortunately he is now at the Rainbow Bridge. He passed away Aug. 12, 2006 - sudden kidney failure. This cat was so special, though - we really don't know how old he was when we adopted him - the rescue group estimated that he was around 2.5-3 years old at that time, but the emergency vets who tried to save him thought that he might be around 7 years old, rather than the 4-5 years old we were thinking he was. Anyway, when the rescue group found him, he was on death's door, with a terrible respiratory infection and with ear mites that were so bad, they deformed his ears so that they were all crinkly. Anyway, after the rescue group took him in and got him healthy, he was happy and was just about the friendliest cat ever - in fact, we weren't even looking to adopt a cat at the time (we had 2 and thought we might adopt a couple more in the future, but not immediately), but that late March night in 2004 that we stopped at PetSmart to pick some food/litter/etc up for our kitties, our lives changed forever. As we often do when we visit PetSmart, we stopped to say hello to the cats in the Luv-A-Pet adoption center there. His name at the time was "Red Baron" because of his large size and the fact he was a red tabby, but we renamed him Leo when we took him home. That first night, he came right up to me as we stopped in and visited, and was talking to us, making the funniest sounds. He even got on my lap a few minutes after meeting me! We stopped in a few more times that week, and adopted him, just because we fell in love with him and knew he'd be snatched up by someone else before too long because of that awesome personality. He was such a sweetie, and he never knew a stranger - he was good with the 2 cats that we had from before him, as well as the little snowshoe girl we adopted 2 months later. Every one of our friends and family who met him just adored his friendly attitude. He would roll over and let us rub his belly for hours and he would sleep with us holding him like a stuffed animal without complaint! Leo was such a great kitty - there's no way he wasn't someone's cat at some time, because he was so social and friendly, even after all he went through while he was abandoned and sickly!

Making the decision to put him to sleep on Aug. 12, 2006, was just about the saddest thing that we have ever experienced, but we knew it was for the best, because his kidneys were failing, and his other organs were shutting down, and nothing the vets tried was working. He was not well at all, but still was sweet and behaved so well with the vets (our regular vet loved him because he was so nice) and kept looking at us with those kind eyes. Anyway, I don't think that DH & I have ever been so upset and people without pets probably do not understand it, but it truly is horrible to lose a pet suddenly. The vets think that Leo might've been sick for a while, but there was no way to really know because he didn't start having problems till that time and that's why we took him in. They think he might've gotten into something while he was out on his own and that it might've irreparably damaged his kidneys. We'll never know, but we sure do miss him to this day. We ended up adopting 3 more kitties to add to the remaining 3, and I'll say that we have a full house now, and it's wonderful, but there is such an emptiness without him.

OK - that was way off-topic, but I thought you guys, of all people, would probably understand.

Hi again

Yes, the old battle to secure funding! Amazing to do Egyptology though. I think that as long as you remain optimistic, other doors open (e.g. jobs in your field). This involves getting to know other likeminded people as contacts are everything. What you are doing is a risk, but sometimes I think that there is no life path without sacrifice and effort - so you might as well make sacrifices for something you believe in, cos it makes your life meaningful. Rather than making sacrifices for something you don't believe in.

If you do applied psychology you can get into teaching and research. But if you are an academic you can only do that. Nevertheless it's what I'm leaning towards. But today I feel optimistic about it all. I think that as one door closes another door opens, so basically if you are doing something that's right for you then you won't have too many regrets even if there are some mistakes along the way. Damn, why can't I be this positive when I'm lying awake at 3am?!?

Actually re: being CF - after my initial post on the board about my god-children's horrendous mother I sent a really big e-mail to another friend who has a six-month old baby where I let rip and was completely honest and upset about it all. And I just got a reply back from her and she(despite being consumed with the baby) is still absolutely great and supportive of my life choices. At one point in my e-mail to her I wrote this:

"My life - you could call it immature, you could call it selfish, you could call it unconventional."

To which she replied:
God it's hardly unusual, you're just like loads of 30somethings across the country. You make it sound like you spend your days walking around up and down Stokey High St in a gimp outfit or something.

So basically it turns out she's a really great friend who has a child!!!!! Hurrah! 'cos I thought I might lose her. And actually, most of my friends with kids are absolutely great people who see no need to impose their worldview on me. It is just the evil Mother Of Godchildren (aka Fiona). I am seeing them this weekend for god-daughter's birthday. Wish me luck. I am dreading it. If F is horrible to me I could consider resigning from my post, but I can't help thinking those kids might need me when they're teenagers and she's left them completely emotionally screwed up.

Anyway, I'm gonna go now but I leave you with a lyric from a band who are too embarrassing to name but who I like:

You can sneer,
Or disappear
Behind a veneer
Of self-control

But for all of those who don't fit in
Who follow their instincts and are told that they sin
This is a prayer for a different way

Can you tell I'm a little tipsy on red wine?

See you all later
Ogriv
x

Tipsy posts are always fun. Just be careful not to spill on your computer!

Someday those of us who imbibe could have a MNK online cocktail hour. That would be interesting.

The Pet Shop Boys aren't that unnameable, are they? (Yes, Google is my friend.) I was expecting something like Take That, at least!

By the way, which part of the UK are you from?

LSUTiger, i could have written the above. not sure if you read my post on another thread about my sweet kitty who we had to put to sleep just 3 weeks ago today. she had chronic renal failure, but we didn't know until it was too late (often the case, as animals are good at "hiding" it for a long time). we came home from a weekend away and she was almost gone. we spent the next 5 days taking her from the vet to the overnight vet hospital and back and forth. she was on an iv and extremely weak. that was the hardest period i've ever been through. it was totally out of the blue and she was only 6 1/2--very young for this kind of thing. vet told us she would probably not get better and that we needed to start thinking about "next steps." she ended up "recovering" for about 2 1/2 glorious months. this time was a gift and i cherished every moment. we thought she'd have days, or a week at most and she had almost 3 months of happy, affectionate, active time. when she declined, we had to go through the painful decision making process that we knew was inevitable.

horrible. i miss zoe so much.

That happened to my cat too.

We found her in our garden, almost dead, because she was sooooo weak.
Her owners left her alone, because she had the cat flu, fleas, ear mites and a really hard eye infection...

We took her into our house to nurse her.
I don't know how often the vet came to us.... (a lot of money but I don't care - never mind )

Thank god, she is very fit now. We really love her and we can feel her thankfulness every day.

She is outdoors most of the time, because she is to afraid to stay in our house...
I also think that they beat her, because she was so anxious and shy for a long time...