• DarkCloud@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Reddit jokes about crying are the equivalent of a couple doing cutsy baby talk with each other in public.

  • haulyard@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Reminds me of the time my wife and her friend when to an adoption event. She said she might come back with one. I told her to pick out the dog least likely to get adopted. She came back home with a 20 pound mutt that’s blind and deaf. He was rescued from a hoarder and had a bunch of open sores. Real pitiful. The before and after pics are crazy. He looks great now. Total asshole and fits right in with the family.

      • haulyard@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        My bad, you’re totally right. Here’s a before/after. He isn’t a pitty though. So I’ve also included a pic of our pitty for you too.

  • Lenny@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    And the non kitten fellows! We wanted a third cat after adopting two kittens years ago. We were so over the erratic nature combined with the roll the dice luck of whether they were floor pissers, plant eaters, etc, so we decided to look for adult cats. The only one the shelter had was this mongy manky stray who was estimated to be 5 years old. When we went in the adoption room with her, she looked at us and did a massive wet shit that made us all evacuate the room. Her adoption photos make her look mangy, aloof, old, dirty, and distant, not to mention smelly.

    Later, when the poo particles had settled, we went back in and picked her up. She sank into my arms and I just knew… I cried and couldn’t bear to let her go.

    Four years on, her shaggy fur has became soft, her distant eyes started slow blinking and showing emotion, her little frame filled out and she became an absolute hellhound for dinner time. When you walk in the door, no matter who you are (literally, you could be a burglar), she will run up to you and do this silent meow asking to be picked up. When you hold her, she purrs so much her body shakes and she drools until her face is dripping. She will climb into bed and play little spoon at night, and she loves laps all times of the day.

    We’ve had her 4 years and she no longer does wet shits, but is the same loving cat that melted when someone held her and showed her love. She converted me to older cats.

    • cheesymoonshadow@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      Gawd, between your story and the OP I’m just an emotional wreck right now. 😭😭 I have a 20yo cat and it breaks my heart so much to think of him in a shelter with nobody to hold him. Thank you for giving love to these old kitties.

    • Ænima@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      When we went in the adoption room with her, she looked at us and did a massive wet shit that made us all evacuate the room.

      I laughed so hard at this single sentence that I couldn’t stop even while writing this. Bravo!

    • Monzcarro@feddit.uk
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      4 months ago

      She sounds wonderful, I’m so happy she found a home with you!

      I would always adopt an adult rather than a kitten. We’ve had a kitten and he was hard work!

      Our orange cat was 2 when we had him from the shelter. He was found on the street with cat flu. They treated this, but he was still very skinny when we adopted him, with rough fur and cracked paw pads.

      We’ve had him just over a year and he gained a lot of weight at first, but now he trusts that there’s always going to be dinner for him. His fur is glossy and bright, and his paws are healthy. He’s incredibly loving, even with children, and loves sitting near us when we’re working.

      I’m glad we got him. Even our other cat (also adopted, but from a friend) is slowly warming to him!

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Oof. Much feels.

    Also, old cats yaoll like a mfer and develop incontinence. Give them the best last days you can, but when its time to let them go, let them go.

    • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Why not both? We rescued an abandoned Scottish fold, and now we spend plenty of money on her. She’s a sweetie!

      • VinnyDaCat@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Sure, if they’re abandoned.

        The issue is that we have so, so many stray cats. So, so many cats left in shelters. We do not need people to breed more cats just so people can have their very expensive and very specifically bred designer furbaby. We need people to take care of the ones that already exist and are already struggling.

        • 4lan@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          breeding should be outlawed until all cats have a home. same with human children

      • Barzaria@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        Creating designer pets is immoral. Creating a side channel market for abandoned designer pets is immoral because it increases demand for designer pets (people can abandon their pets knowing they will be cared for).

  • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Dumb question, but is it common for cats to end up in shelters? As I understand, they tend to fare not too badly as stray cats.

    Do they get put in shelters when they’re too old/sickly to hunt? Or are cats raised as housecats not good enough at it? Or do we generally put cats into shelters, because we don’t want them to hunt and obliterate the local wildlife?

    • RBWells@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Where I am, strays are usually catch, sterilize, release. But if you caught a cat who was sick they’d treat it, and lots of cats end up at the shelter because people don’t fix their pet cat in time, and they get pregnant (even if you are responsible - we had a brother sister pair and I asked the vet what she would he fix them, he said “6 months”, I asked but when can they get pregnant? “4 months”. Thankfully it didn’t happen, they were fixed and lived long kitten free lives).

      And pets, if someone gets sick and can’t care for them they get surrendered.

    • frosch@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Totally not a dumb question tbh - the answer probably also highly depends on where you’re from.

      In Germany (also highly depends on county/city) yes, they do normally fare pretty well and shelters often operate multiple feeding stations where there are a lot of strays. So they get to know the „local strays“ and can keep an eye on them via volunteers and cams.

      When a cat is visibly sick, they catch them at this station, treat them and if the cat is alright, oftentimes release them again - shelters are notoriously full and money ist scarce for these organisations unfortunately…

      However, if there are conditions that make life for this cat (or others - e.g. FIV) dangerous, they are normally kept in the shelter and then opened for adoption as a „only indoors cat“.

      Also, older cats often end up in shelters because they often belonged to older people - and when they can’t care for the cats anymore, have to move or die one day, the cats have to go somewhere too.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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    4 months ago

    My aunt did the same thing. She said the cat she adopted never forgot about it, either - just super sweet every day, happy to have a home and a good friend in the world.

    • 4lan@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      my grandmothers cat lived into it’s mid 20s. it was so active until the end, you really couldnt tell it was that old

    • frosch@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      Yea, they can live pretty long. It’s mostly the dangers out there (cars, people, poison, other animals) that shorten the lifespan drastically.

      That’s why indoor cats have a longer lifespan on average.

      Also, the kidneys… keep an eye on them and your cat should do pretty well for a long time

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 months ago

      A lot of cats will make it to 20. Its the upper end of average, even. The oldest confirmed living cat is like 27.

      The real unbelievable one is that according to guineas records, the oldest cat ever was a whopping 38 years old, out of Austin Texas. 1967 to 2005.

      • SkyezOpen@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Good to hear. We have a pair of sisters pushing 14 and still going strong. They’re part Maine coin and fluffy as hell so we joke that they’re too majestic to ever die.