Poisoning, death of my beloved cat Leonine Options

[corinnajane]

It is almost a year now since my boy cat died. He was poisoned. I am very, very upset about it.

The hospital tried to save him but it was no use. And the staff were amazed at how gentle and friendly he was. Even though he was in agony, and dying, he still kept trying to make friends and cuddle people.

I got a lovely lady vet to come and help put him down at home. And I know I did the right thing.

But it really hurts.

Attached image(s)

 

[corinnajane]

Hello Moonbeam and everyone,

It has been a very long time, but I thought I would let you know how things are going.

I did take Tepper to see the animal behaviouralist, who basically recommended that it would be best to let her 'withdraw' from the rest of the family for a while. Being around the other cats was causing her considerable stress. I did not realize that my desire for all the cats to socialize together at meal-times and so forth was actually making things worse. I set up her own space in the house where she could choose to be alone as much as she liked, put her on medicine for separation anxiety and took at few other steps, such as ignoring her clingy behaviour when I needed to leave the house. I had tried so many other things, but nothing worked.

It has taken months and months, but I am finally able to report that it is working and Tepper has turned a corner. She is much more relaxed and less stressed. She has not been attacking me or the others, as she was doing regularly at that time. She now comes down from her hidey-hole quite often and sits near me, just being companionable. Lamington has also become more accepting of her presence, and is being really mature about her silly behaviour. We have had several talks about him being gentle and looking after all of his sisters. Best of all, Tepper now instigates play sessions, in which she and the kittens take turn chasing the Fabulous Mouse-Bird On A Stick together in the hallway. I have now been able to reduce her medication, and the vet has kindly given me instructions about the process of gradually weaning her off it altogether.

She is starting to regain her old bounce and demeanour. I am so happy to see her like this; I could cry.

I know she still misses her brother, Leonine, and I miss him too.

His ashes are in a box, in a special space in my bedroom. He is with me again, as he always was, and he will stay with me as long as I live. I thought it would be deeply upsetting to have his ashes returned to me, but in fact, it was a huge relief. I feel that he is back home, where he belongs. He may not be alive, but his remains are precious to me.

I wanted to thank all of you for your responses and kind words. It was really hard for me to have him sicken and die so suddenly. It was hard on everyone here.

It meant a great deal to me to have support like that.

Kind regards,
CJ