Most days we read from fellow slaves how their cats are not well or they are deciding wether they should be pts. It would be nice if we shared inspirational stories. Like when no hope was given but we´re glad we held on or simply about our 18+ year olds. I love those against all odds tales 8especially when people ask me all the time how long cats live)

OOooooooo, I've got one!

This is my old tortie girl Trix.

March 1987 - Trix.jpg

She was found living in the chicken house when she was about 7 weeks old and I was about 7 years old. She was eating the chicken feed and any eggs that cracked. I fetched her out and suffered many, many scratches down my arms from this feral kitten. Anyway, I brought her into the house and my mum and I fell in love with her and kept her. She actually settled very well, we just let her be and she slept on my bed from day 1. After about 3 months a farmer knocked on our door and asked for her back!!! He got short thrift! She was always a little shy, and was never around when we had visitors.

When she was about 15 she started going a bit do-lally and my old meanie of a Dad kept threatening to have her put down as she started inappropriate toileting (I think mainly cos she couldn't hold on as long and they refused to have a litter tray in the house and weren't always around to let her out. - poor thing!)

Anyway, one day she went out and didn't come back for nearly 36 hours. We thought she'd taken herself off to die peacefully under a bush. But no, we heard a plaintive meow and she turned up. Someone had shot her! She had a hole in her head that you could look down and see her brain. She had another bullet lodged in her spine and couldn't walk. She was leaking brain fluid from her mouth, nose and ears. We popped her in a bed and went to ring the vets.

Whilst on the phone to the vets my dad tried to euthanise her! Being a science teacher he had access to chloroform (have wondered since why it was at home!) and he was attempting to give some to the cat. Luckily my sister went hysterical and hit him and shouted at him and refused to have him anywhere near Trix. He was finally forced to back down when me, my, mum, my, sister and my two brothers all refused to give him access to the cat. But we still didn't trust him, so my sister slept with the cat.

The vet had said she was unlikely to make it through the night but if she did to bring her in, he said if we took her in straight away he would just put her down. But we wanted to give her a chance.

The next morning we took her to the vets (cos she was still alive) and she had Xrays.. The bullet was still in her brain and another lodged against her spine - it was possible she would be severely brain damaged and never walk again. SO AB's and painkillers later we took her home again.

The bloke that did it was caught - he lived 5 miles away - he shot cats that came on his property. She had dragged herself back 5 miles to come to see us and get help! He had shot and killed many cats (he dumped them down a disused well in his garden), he was arrested and sent to jail.

But. . . Trix recovered COMPLETELY. Within two weeks we caught her scaling the chicken wire to get in the hen house again (she never lost the taste for chicken feed) and she became the most affectionate, lap cat ever. We used to joke that she had had a frontal lobotomy. And she stopped the inappropriate toileting too.

She died aged nearly 18 in her sleep on her favourite chair (the one in the photo) by the Rayburn. Came down one morning and she was gone. She's why I love torties SO much.

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please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

My Nannas cat Whiskey, I think is an inspiration. Although both my Nanna and Whiskey are now at Rainbow bridge.

Her neighbours cat had had kittens, and the neighbours husband had drowned the mum and then was drowning the kittens in a bucket

My Nanna rescued the last kitten, and named her whiskey. She spoke to a vet and got some feed and syringed it into her and raised her.

Whiskey was a fabulous cat, loving and caring and lived until a ripe old age of 23. Even aged 20 she would still chase a piece of tin foil.

She was such a part of my growing up, I was born when she was 2, so I was 21 when she passed away. I loved her so much, and I loved my Nan for rescuing her, although she was very much my Bampas cat.... She would walk to the main road to wait for his bus when he came home from work, would walk him home, wait for him to change into scruffy clothes, then would sit on his lap for as long as he'd let her.... And he loved her.... So usually all night, every night

In fact my earliest childhood memory was pretending to be a cat and I chipped a tooth on her bowl!

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Debs

Lives with a wonderful husband, 2 adorable rescue kitties Harry and Sabrina, and a flock of pampered pet chickens.

Ah what a lovely story!
Ok so you all know of Oscars accident....
On the 12th June 2011 at around 9pm I saw my son get into his car outside my house and set off out, 2 mins later he came running in saying he had knocked Oscar over
I ran outside to find him on next doors drive covered in blood coming from his ears, mouth and nose and obviously in severe pain and shock, gargling on his blood
My hubby ran out, scooped him up ( I was in shock crying next to him) and covered him in a towel as I pulled myself together and rang the Emergancy vet! We took him in and on the way there he stopped breathing I had him cradled in my arms willing him to hold on! As I said he stopped breathing for what seemed like forever so I said to hubby to turn round as he was dead! Oscar then started breathing again
We got to the vet and she immediately gave him a strong painkiller and assessed his injuries. Straight away she said he had broken his jaw in what looked like a few places and his bottom palate was broken, she thought possible brain damage and that he had paralysed his front paw
We left him over night and told us she would ring with any updates or we could ring her! All night I wondered how he was and afraid to ring incase I was told he had died!!
Eventually after what seemed like the longest night ever, the morning came, I rang nervously. The vet said she hadn't expected him to make it through the night but he had and this was a good sign and told me they would ring after he had been aneathasised for X-rays and scans! We were going on holiday that day and hadn't packed a thing as yet and we really didn't want to go now
Again after what seemed like a lifetime the vet rang and told us Oscar had multiple fractures to his jaw, his lower palate was broken from back to front and was very tricky to repair and also he had nerve damage to his paw and may have to be amputated if it didn't start to work again. I asked what they thought I should do and they said ge couldn't be operated on there we needed to transfer him to another vets that specialised in his type of injuries. I asked what his chances were and they said that had he not got insurance they would deffo recommend he was PTS but because he was insured it was worth a chance!
Soo still not packed we decided to give him a chance and went to pick him up and take him to the other vet hospital. Once there they said it was very tricky surgery he needed and would be with them for at least a week so I left with instructions for my sister to have him till I returned from my hols!
We went home and packed and I've got to say I have never not wanted to go on holiday as much in my whole life, I love my holidays but not this one! We had to drop the insurance papers off do on the way to the airport I called to see Oscar to tell him I loved him and would see him when he was mended!
Every day on holiday I would ring the vet and everyday I got bad news, that he wasn't very good and that he wasn't tollorating the feeding tube etc , he was being sick and looked depressed on the 7th day after being told again he wasn't very good I asked if they thought it was fair to keep putting him through so much, he had had around 5 ops by this time!! They told me that was what they were thinking and that if he was no better by the end of the weekend they would suggest he be PTS I was beside myself and asked my sons to go see him to let him know he hadn't been abandoned and to take his little cat toy he liked just for the smell of home it was a teddy thing!
They went and they sent me some pics which at the moment I can't upload cos of sky shutting my Internet off but he looked do thin and weak bless him! I was convinced he was going to die!
The following day I rang the vet and they said they thought by some miracle he had turned a corner but not to get my hopes up too much and to ring back the following day as usual!
The next day came, I rang up and was told he was keeping his syringe food down for the first time and was even using his paw now!
After that he improved more and more every day and on my way to the airport the day if coming home I was told he could come home!!! I couldn't wait for the plane to touch down and go get my baby!
Here's a pic of his first day home

I had to syringe his pain killer into him which was no easy task with wires and implants in his mouth and sometimes id just burst into tears looking at my little boy all shaved and soooo skinny and to try and get him to eat was very hard he was so weak all he did was sleep but as the weeks passed he just got better and better!
I really believe my sons going to see him spurred him on to try and fight to live bless him and I'm do glad I gave him the chance to survive! Even more I'm so glad he had insurance, his bill was £5000
Here's my handsome man now This was in the late summer

Sorry if there's loads of spelling mistakes I'm on my phone

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This are truly lovely stories. I really like reading about how specual they are to us. Sometimes we need to focus on how much they give us. Whenever I read about a cat more than 20...I really hope my Merlin makes it.

Oscar's story brought tears to my eyes. Glad you gave him a chance.

My black and white tux Panda was one of 2 kittens we kept from my cat's litter when I was 10. His brother was Tabby, a beautiful tabby and white longhair who was always kissing and hugging me!! I had built a very close bond with Tabby, so Panda often got a bit jealous of his brother for getting so much attention! Tabby sadly passed away at the age of 14, but Panda soldiered on for another 5 years!! At 15 he was diagnosed with Kidney Disease, but was put on special food and regular vet checkups and he did really well. He really thrived on being an only cat and became really close to my Dad, regularly sitting on his lap. He was much more cuddly and friendly towards us all when he was on his own, and certainly made up for the years he spent feeling jealous of Tabby!

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RIP Charcoal my shy girl 1987-2000, Patch the wanderer 1987-?, Tabby my darling fluffball 1988-2002 & Panda the rascal 1988-2008

Aweww, you know, I honestly cannot tell Oscars story without getting tears and a lump in my throat! The pics I have that I haven't put on here are so so sad xx

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He evidently didn't want to go. It's amazing just how much fight they have in those little bodies.

My girl Tig isn't a golden oldie yet, but she is very special, I think

We adopted her in 2009 when she was 18 months old, she had not long had kittens who had all been rehomed and she was left behind. She had been a stray and I think she had been clipped by a car as one of her kittens died before it was born and she had very bad bruising to her hips for months after we got her.

When I met her in person- the same day we took her home- she reached through the cage and pawed at my shoulder- when they took her out and we had our first cuddle she was purring away.

When she came home though, she was terrible! She was an evil little thing! She would growl, hiss, bite, scratch, attack for seemingly no reason- if she decided to bite, she would bite! If you hid your hand she would watch and wait until she had the chance to carry out her planned bite!

Oohhh she was awful- she hated my OH, she would attack as you walked by- she didn't play, she didn't come for strokes- she was a terror.

And then- slowly- it took her 7 months!- she settled in, she realised we weren't making her come for strokes, that we didn't disturb her when she wanted to be alone. She started sitting on our laps, and we learnt what her minute body language was, and she became more comfortable with us. First thing in the morning she would come and headbutt me in bed. She started allowing me to pick her up for a cuddle. She would purr on my lap and fall asleep- she became the wonderful, loving, settled and happy cat she is today

So I think she's an inspiration because we were asked again and again by my family about how we 'put up' with her and why we didn't 'get rid' of her- and I won't lie- it was very, very tough at one stage- but I remembered that first meeting when she purred in my arms- and so we stuck with her, and she stuck with us, and she rewards us every day with her love

She's my Little Princess

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