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Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 5:56 pm
by Ruth B
It seems to be the time for it at the moment, another one over the bridge.

We took Stroppy tonight for a follow up and in the month she had gone from 2.5kg to 2.1kg the vet also picked up a heart murmur as well so the decision was made. Stroppy was herself right to the end and refused to make it easy for us, when the vet left us to think it over for a few minutes Stroppy promptly tried to get back in the carrier. We almost gave in and brought her home, but i doubt we would have been doing her any favours if we had I learnt at a young age we don't need to let our pets suffer, I'm not sure she would have gone on not suffering for long, what ever was wrong with her would have started to eat away at the rest of her body once any fat and muscle was gone. As has frequently been said here, better a day too early than a day too late, a sentiment I had to keep telling myself tonight.

While we never intend to play favourites, it often seems that cats do get more attached to one family member than another, Stroppy was always my Dad's cat, when he died Mum wasn't sure if she would follow him, as it was she out lived them all.

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:04 pm
by booktigger
I'm so sorry to hear this, so hard when they still have fight, but losing that amount of weight meant something underlying, so you are right, you wouldn't have been doing her any favours, just prolonging the inevitable. RIP little one

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 6:50 pm
by alanc
Very sad to read this. Sure you made the right decision. RIP Stroppy.

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 7:48 pm
by Lilith
So sorry to hear - knowing beforehand doesn't make it any easier. Sleep tight, Stroppy x

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2018 8:48 pm
by Mayday21
Hi Ruth sympathies on Stroppy’s passing. She’s now with your dad & mum. Her last months were with you & your mum knows she was well looked after. RIP little Stroppy. Vivian

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 7:51 am
by bobbys girl
Sorry to hear about Stroppy. RIP little one.

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 8:38 am
by Ruth B
I came across this photo from back in April, about two weeks before Mum died, when Stroppy decided to help me with my leather working. When I look at that and think what she had been like the last month it makes me realise how much she had declined, she may still have been plodding around but she had lost her inquisitiveness.
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We had been doing more house clearing on Monday and my sentimentality overcame my common sense, my Dad, in his younger days, had bought one of the railway way notice signs when the were shutting the lines down, he was very proud of that sign particularly as he had the receipt to say he had bought it not half inched it, I for some reason decided to keep it. When we got back my OH rang a friend who lives down the road as it really is a two man job to lift it from the car to the shed. Afterwards we sat down to have a cuppa. Stroppy tried to jump onto the sofa where our friend was sat but couldn't make the jump onto the sofa edge and then onto his knee and fell off, not quite into the water bowl.

She had also missed her litter tray for the second time sometime during the day which, while it wasn't a deciding factor accidents do happen, did make me wonder if something was starting to go wrong in her head as well as her body. It was certainly the best thing to let her go now peacefully than let her hang on and waste away to nothing.

The other three are all very attentive this morning, while they have been looking for her the house already feels a bit more relaxed, four cats two of which were alpha females, was definitely too many for a house this size.

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:06 am
by Lilith
She was thin even then, wasn't she?

I'm glad the others are settling - it's desolate here, especially waking in the night, it's awful, empty, and little Molly's going around wailing and clinging, despite a scar still on her nose from where Emily whopped her regularly (with good cause!) but Emmy was here for 16 years and all of Molly's 7 of course.

Your mother will be glad you could care for Stroppy until the time came for them to be reunited x

Re: Good night little Stroppy

Posted: Wed Aug 29, 2018 11:22 am
by Ruth B
She was always a small cat, but I seem to remember her being just over 3kg when we took Mum to get Stroppy her boosters last year, so she had been slowly losing weight for a bit, the last month was just far more dramatic. I am certain that something was very wrong inside, but putting her through tests wasn't worth it. In a way i was glad when the vet said she was down to 2.1kg, a 0.4kg drop was reason enough to end it there, if she had been 2.4kg I might have been tempted to prolong it.

When my Mum needed to go into a home, we had discussed what would happen to Stroppy and I had said i would look after her if there was any way i could get her to settle in, if not she would have been pts as putting her in a rescue wouldn't have been fair either to the rescue or to Stroppy. She had as good a final eight months as was possible.

i went to the bathroom in the early hours this morning only to find Saturn on the landing crunching on a mouse, he looked at me as if to say 'I brought you a pressie, but you were asleep so i eated it' There was little more than a tail left. He always looks so happy and proud when he gets something like that. They all know that something is wrong and try to help in their own way.