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Who are all these people dumping aged cats at shelters?!

The Menagerie
#61

[QUOTE=Lazy Palomino Hunter;8136325]
I have an 8 year old cat who has developed a lot of “standard” older cat issues in the last year.

He’s always had some litterbox issues. Each of places I’ve lived, he’s picked one piece of furniture to consistently pee on. With each move I’ve thrown away “his” furniture, and he’s promptly picked a new item. Eventually I realized I could just put a plastic bag down, cover it with a blanket, and just change the bag/wash the blanket a few times a week.

But now he consistently pees on not just “his” furniture (currently our futon, which thankfully is never used and is out of the way)… but has graduated to absolutely any bunched up fabric (folded shirt? safe. crumpled up shirt? definitely not safe), as well as absolutely anything of any size that is roughly box shaped (toy bin for the dogs, key and wallet holder on the entrance way table, my agility gear bag I left unzipped when I briefly stepped out of the room…)

He also walks around caterwauling… near constantly. If you call him, he’ll happily come to you. He never seems distressed and never appears to have any particular emotion when walking around wailing (he never looks confused, he’ll come and happily snuggle if you call him). It honestly seems like he just does it “just because.” My SO and I had to get a white noise machine and start shutting him out of the bedroom at night so we can sleep.

He’s had bloodwork. He’s had urinalyses. He’s had several “just in case” rounds of antibiotics. He had a dental. He eats prescription Urinary Tract Health canned food. We have litterboxes everywhere, all of which I scoop daily. He wears a pheromone collar. On paper and based on physical exam he is the picture of health. I’ve talked to three vets and have basically been told that some cats just get kinda weird when they get older.

I love this cat and he is SO sweet, but quite honestly I feel a little panicky if I think too hard about how he may live another 12 years wailing incessantly and peeing on anything fabric isn’t perfectly folded.

I firmly believe pets are for life, and he has a forever home with me. I will sleep with my white noise machine. I will continue to buy Nature’s Miracle and $$ food and pheromone products in bulk. I’ll continue to scoop our inordinate number of litterboxes daily and change out the stupid plastic bag that lines our futon.

[B]It is not hard for me to see how someone less committed to the notion of “pets are for life” might respond differently.

What I cannot reconcile, though, is how anyone can believe that an animal who has been a house pet for a decade will have ANY quality of life if dumped at a shelter.

People must know the animal will never be adopted (no pet’s behavioral problems have improved in a shelter, I’m sure), and I do not know how they sleep at night knowing the living hell they have doomed their pet for what is most likely the rest of its life.

This is one of main reasons I am opposed to no-kill shelters.

Convenience euthanasia is upsetting to me, but I would HANDS DOWN rather see someone pull that card for an older animal than to dump it in a shelter. Dumping them is, in my opinion, shamefully selfish and cowardly.[/QUOTE]
[/B]

Bold mine. This is an outstanding viewpoint. Very much agree, as probably most of us on this thread.
Thank you for this post!

#62

[QUOTE=FineAlready;8134774]
So, we recently adopted two cats from an area shelter. Since then, I’ve been looking at various shelter pages frequently to check in on cats that I either met in person or that caught my attention for some reason. I have a pretty good handle on the cat adoption rates and the cats that come in at this point.

I cannot BELIEVE how many people are dumping their 10+ year old cats at shelters! I mean, W.T.F.?!?!?

Who ARE these people? I really don’t think I have ever met someone who would dump ANY pet at an animal shelter, much less a senior pet. So the question is…what kind of people do this? Like, what is the profile of a person who takes an animal to the shelter and leaves it there after having had it for the majority of its life? I just truly don’t understand it.

One shelter worker told me that a lot of people take their older pets to the shelter because they can’t stand to watch them get old. How cruel! Having just lost my cat at just shy of 12 years old (he had cancer), I just can’t imagine doing this. It was an honor to have had him in my life, and there is literally nothing that he could have done, and no condition he could have been in that would have caused me to abandon him.

I just…I am having trouble grasping how this is even a “thing.” Any shelter workers care to chime in? This has really not done good things for my faith in humanity![/QUOTE]

Many people have animals for as long as it is easy to care for them. Once they get older or have " needs" they are disposable. I don’t understand it myself. I am not a cat lover but we have always had one or two around.

I guess you should be glad they don’t just drive them out into the country to live free, but at least take them somewhere they will be fed.

#63

[QUOTE=vxf111;8136367]
LPH has yours ALWAYS acted this way and now it’s more intense? Or the wailing is brand new? I half wonder if there isn’t either senility or even some sort of mental problem? Very tough. You might try an animal behaviorist (they have them at Penn’s Ryan Vet Hospital and maybe would phone consult).[/QUOTE]

He’s done the peeing-on-furniture thing since I adopted him at 11 months. He lived with a foster from 7 weeks-11 months and she had WAY TOO MANY animals, so I suspect the peeing was a habit picked up there.

The caterwauling started coming on gradually about a year and a half ago and appears unrelated to hunger/thirst/litterbox use. He’s strictly an indoor cat, so I don’t think he’s asking to go out. If you interrupt him by calling there’s a 50/50 shot he’ll come snuggle, but if you interrupt him by grabbing him he’s always pleased as punch to cuddle up.

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that he probably has mild brain damage. He came down with an URI at 8 weeks that had him lingering at death’s door and hospitalized for weeks. When I got him at 11 months he came with a cough that kept getting worse and worse… I spent about $2k on diagnostics and inhalers and xrays and specialists before a radiologist finally recognized his pattern of lung and heart damage as lungworm (and after all those diagnostics? the treatment: a $15, 10-day round of Panacur).

Other than a slight chronic cough from the lung damage, he (naturally) seems healthy as a horse in his advancing age, but I wouldn’t be surprised if his already slightly feeble mind was deteriorating a bit. My vet seemed doubtful about senility setting in at age 6, but since one of my dogs is already a regular at the behaviorist I’ll probably end up asking her about it the next time I see her. Never a dull moment!!

On the plus side, being forced to neatly fold all laundry/blankets and keep every bed nicely made has made my house a much more orderly place. :lol: :winkgrin:

#64

[QUOTE=candyappy;8136407]
Many people have animals for as long as it is easy to care for them. Once they get older or have " needs" they are disposable. I don’t understand it myself. I am not a cat lover but we have always had one or two around.

I guess you should be glad they don’t just drive them out into the country to live free, but at least take them somewhere they will be fed.[/QUOTE]

Or dumped at the end of my driveway.

#65

I had to give up a cat during my second pregnancy. He was a beautiful boy with no issues. Fixed and up to date with shots etc. He was only in the shelter for a week. I still miss him 14 yes later.

#66

[QUOTE=candyappy;8136407]
Many people have animals for as long as it is easy to care for them. Once they get older or have " needs" they are disposable. I don’t understand it myself. I am not a cat lover but we have always had one or two around.

I guess you should be glad they don’t just drive them out into the country to live free, but at least take them somewhere they will be fed.[/QUOTE]

People are just naturally selfish. Go to a nursing home any day of the week, and you’ll find people who haven’t had a visitor in years despite extensive family.

Sadly, animals aren’t the only ones being dumped for being older or needy.

… this is one of the reasons I like my dog more than most people.

#67

While I do think this is true in most cases, I will say that the shelter where we got our two cats from does a super good job of trying to cater to their longer term residents. There is a really nice 10 year old cat there right now that lives in his own “playroom,” which is a room maybe the size of a large bathroom. It has cat trees, toys, beds, etc. and is a normal room with a door that people can go in and out of. Much, much, much better than living in a cage for all that time (he will have been there a year in June). While I obviously think it would be WAY better for him to be in a home with people to snuggle him (he’s very social) and more room to move around, I think this is much better than most shelter cats probably get.

Unfortunately, his issue is that he doesn’t get along with other cats, so he has to be the only cat in the home. While I think most cat people would be happy to take him, most cat people also have more than one cat. So it’s kind of an issue. If he got along with other cats, he would be hanging out on my living room couch right this minute.

#68

Fine, are you from NJ by any chance? I think I know this cat… The situation sounds familiar.

#69

[QUOTE=Manahmanah;8136652]
Fine, are you from NJ by any chance? I think I know this cat… The situation sounds familiar.[/QUOTE]

Nope, I’m in Wisconsin. Sadly, I think this is a situation that is probably common in a lot of places.

#70

A few months ago, I found an injured cat and called Animal Control. The cat was taken to the local shelter - which is pretty much no kill - and spent time healing in a foster home. While she was on the shelter website, I looked at the cats from time to time to check up on her. I was shocked at the number of senior cats at the shelter. Most are not strays as cats have to be taken to the shelter if they’re not injured - animal control doesn’t just come and get them like dogs.
I do think there are a lot of reasons - some good, some very bad. There was just a woman that surrendered a couple of dogs, and it was a sad story about an older woman losing her home and being forced to give them up. There are plenty of stories about people that just decide they don’t want to deal with pets anymore and give them up. I knew someone that had a couple of dogs, got new carpet, and there went the dogs. The family wasn’t having them tear up the new carpet and didn’t want to deal with them anymore. One was a pit bull they bought as a puppy. I’m sure her options were limited as pit bulls are a dime a dozen here. It made me sad to think about it - and they just did not take the dogs out often enough or create a situation where the dogs could be successful (like a dog door into a fenced yard) for a household with dogs alone for long periods. If they’d wanted to keep them, they could have.
People underestimate the difficulty of finding adult animals new homes. Puppies and kittens are much easier to find homes for.

#71

LazyPH, that’s weird b/c my cat that needs the soft pee spot has some sort of brain damage too. Nobody knows what happened to him but he has a permanent head tilt. If he runs he goes in a big circle! :lol:

Maybe try some feliway or cat nip-my cats all chill and stop fighting if I put cat nip in their beds…

#72

LazyPH - Have you tried Cosequin or Trixsyn? There was also some behavior modification stuff that my vet gave me to try on my cat with the incessant voice. Didn’t work in her case, but the vet said it worked with a cat of hers that started yowling randomly in the middle of the night. Can’t remember what it was called. Zylkene (?) or something like that.

#73

[QUOTE=Dajuliz;8135052]
I have a 16 year old cat with an unknown illness that is going to take many hundreds of dollars to effectively diagnose. I have already spend over $500 bucks on him with x-rays, bloodwork, antibiotics, doctor visits. The cat’s teeth are falling out and the doc wants to do a complete cleaning and remove broken teeth on top of all the other medical testing recommended. This was my daughter’s cat and we got it for her when she was 5. This cat was free as a kitten. So this free cat has wrecked about $4000 in furniture and other household items. It ate the beak off of my carved wooden shorebird and tried to eat the beak off of the carved duck. So I am at the point where I am going to need to make a decision with the cat. He is a nice cat but he was a free cat. Vet care is costly. It is hard to justify the expense of medical care over the longevity of the animal. I would rather spend this money on my daughter’s college. This is why old cats wind up at the shelter.[/QUOTE]

So make the decision and humanely euthanize if the cat is destructive and ill and old and expensive.

#74

[QUOTE=Dajuliz;8135052]
I have a 16 year old cat with an unknown illness that is going to take many hundreds of dollars to effectively diagnose. I have already spend over $500 bucks on him with x-rays, bloodwork, antibiotics, doctor visits. The cat’s teeth are falling out and the doc wants to do a complete cleaning and remove broken teeth on top of all the other medical testing recommended. This was my daughter’s cat and we got it for her when she was 5. This cat was free as a kitten. So this free cat has wrecked about $4000 in furniture and other household items. It ate the beak off of my carved wooden shorebird and tried to eat the beak off of the carved duck. So I am at the point where I am going to need to make a decision with the cat. He is a nice cat but he was a free cat. Vet care is costly. It is hard to justify the expense of medical care over the longevity of the animal. I would rather spend this money on my daughter’s college. This is why old cats wind up at the shelter.[/QUOTE]

At 16 the cat is old, the cat has serious problems that may or may not treatable, the cat has had a good run at 16. At that point, the needle is completely reasonable.

The only statement I take exception to is “it’s hard to justify the expensive of medical care over the longevity of the animal”- no, that’s what we sign up for when we take in a pet. We sign up for the fact that we will probably outlive them, and that in their old age they may have inconvenient and costly needs.

I have no problem with people choosing to put elderly, failing pets to sleep if they can’t afford or don’t want to deal with treating their issues. I take big exception to people dumping cats at shelters because they don’t want to pay for euth. That really makes my blood boil. I know of people who have taken elderly, failing cats to the shelter because they won’t pay for vet care, and don’t want to pay $200 for euth. Not that they can’t AFFORD the $200 euth bill, not that they can’t bear the thought of it… just plain old they don’t want to spend the money and know the shelter will take care of it for them.

They never see it as taking money away from a needy animal with no other options. They just see it as passing the buck.

#75

[QUOTE=arapaloosa_lady;8136563]
People are just naturally selfish. Go to a nursing home any day of the week, and you’ll find people who haven’t had a visitor in years despite extensive family.

Sadly, animals aren’t the only ones being dumped for being older or needy. [/QUOTE]

Which is one of the many reasons people should be ripped new ones when they treat older animals like Dixie cups. You think an insane, incontinent cat is an expensive PITA……

It takes either practice tolerating and loving aging- and end of life beings…. or a far more enlightened view about euthanasia for us to treat members of our aging population with decency. Which is it going to be?

The “easier, softer way” is to practice accepting and caring for aging animals as just part of what one does.

#76

I have six cats. I just adopted two more a couple of weeks ago. Three are seniors. Great cats, just dumped. There are a ton of cats and dogs who are dumped as seniors.

#77

The same people dump older cats, that get rid of older dogs, and then immediately get a new kitten or puppy. When an animal is too much work, or costs too much, then some people dump it. It’s also the people that may dump the new kitten or puppy when it’s time for the second round of shots, and spay or neuter time because the animal isn’t cute, little, and fun any longer.

#78

the only reason i would give up a cat is if it was peeing in the house. will not have that. cat pee smell never comes out. ever. That said, i don’t have a cat b/c of this, and bc hubby is allergic. and i would probably not send cat to a shelter, where there are so many already. would try to rehome cat by myself, first.

#79

we have made the decision that we wont look at kittens as they are easier to adopt
our newest boys are 3 and 7
the 7yo spent time on the streets and then a couple YEARSin the shelter - don’t know why except he does not like to be held

the 3yo came from a city kill shelter and was moved to our local nokill
He is merciless on rugs - and jumps UP on everything tall
we have to get clear plastic runners to protect the DR rug
amazingly after that he started using the scratchy pad (and a different rug

our older cat came to us as an over 10yo
her first family died so she moved to their friends (now 12 cats) and that family also died - so she went to a shelter where she was doing VERY POORLY
we took her in - don’t know her actual age but am guessing it might be 15yo
she was aggressive to our even older cat - who just died at 18 1/2 yo
and now she is the one the 3yo is aggressive towards
so basically she lives in half the house
cant use the cat gate to protect her - she cant jump it but the 3yo is like an open jumper and sails over - EVERYTHING

IF I had to give up my cats I would try to find good homes
and might put down the oldest as she has some maintenance issues “I” can live with but might not be able to pass along

The youngest (rug-scratcher) is a beautiful cat and would probably go easily to a good home

#80

One of mine is starting to slow down - she is 18 this year, and no major issues other than getting a bit senile.

I got her one day at the feed store. I happened to be standing at the counter when a woman and her snotty teenage son came in, dumped the cat (she was only a couple months old) on the counter and said “she’s mean, she scratched my son”.

So they put her in one of the cages in the back of the store - the feed store had an area where they had a few cages for animals up for adoption.
I went back to the cage, where she was cowering and shaking, huddling in the corner.
I reached in to pet her, thinking , well I’ll take her and find her a home.
Well, 18 years later.:slight_smile:
And. One of the sweetest, most docile cats I’ve ever known.

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