Have To Give Cat Away - Feeling Guilty

[Tigerflounder]

Okay a little background; we have 4 cats and 1 dog in our house.  Yes, I know that is a lot of animals.  Any way, the youngest cat, Merrick, came to live with us in February of 2006.  I found her at our church and she has been a handful ever since.    She has a great personality but she has cost us a lot of money in vet bills.  It turns out she is allergic to a lot of things so she has to be on steriod shots once a month.  Then last fall she started to pee in the house.  Once we discovered it she started to be an inside outside cat.  My husband made it very clear that if she pee'd in the house she would have to go and he is the big cat lover.  So  she would stay out most of the day and come in at night to sleep.  The vet said she was probably just marking territory since it was always high up on walls and usually near windows or doors.  Well we thought that had solved the problem and life seemed good.  Merrick would come in and out like a dog and sleep on our bed at night.  Then a few weeks ago I started to notice a few pee spots here and there.  I didn't tell my husband and figured I would just watch her.  Well today I went to cook dinner and found pee all over the stove.  I knew it was the last straw.  I went and told my husband she would have to go.  I feel so bad.  I am afraid we are going to have to take her to the animal shelter and I know there she will be put to sleep.  I am calling my vet in the morning to ask if she knows any other places we can take her, but in good faith I can't recommend that she be adopted into another house.  The worst part is what to tell my 5 year old son.  He loves this cat!  I guess I feel guilty since I am the one who brought her into our family.  My husband thinks I am being way to hard on myself and I know he is right but I feel so emotional about this.  Thanks for listening.

[charminggirl]

Jan. 29, 2007 at 8:05 PM Can you just make a little house for her outside and make har completely an outdoor cat?  Then you don't have to tell your son anything.

[3teensinmyhouse]

Jan. 29, 2007 at 8:10 PM

I am so sorry....I do know how you feel.  We just got rid of our cat a year ago, and I still feel guilty.  She was born in our garage, and we kept her.  Even though she was around people from day 1 she was very anti-social.  People would visit and not even know we had a cat!  Anyway, after awhile she started puking.....a lot.....everywhere....and nothing helped.  We have a dog, and she was fine with him, but when we would keep my moms dog, she would freak.....b/c moms dog chased her.  So we put up a gate to keep them separate.  Worked fine at first, then she started peeing in my daughters closet and under her bed.  Yuck! 

Well, then between my daughters allergies, and mine getting worse, and my hubbys allergies, and the puking, and the peeing....she had to go.  But I felt bad because I knew that it was going to he very traumatic on her....but what do you do?  She wasn't mean, so we found a shelter that wouldn't put her under....they said they would send her to a rescue if no one adopted her within a certain amount of time.  But, I still felt guilty for a long time.

[Tigerflounder]

Jan. 30, 2007 at 5:17 PM Alright so I called the vet this morning and then talked it over with my hubby.  We are going to try and let Merrick live outside.  It will be tough because she is constantly meowing very loudly at the door to come in but hopefully she will get the idea soon.  On really cold nights we will let her sleep in the garage.  Wish me luck!

(Original Poster)

[3kids_n_sc]

Feb. 27, 2007 at 12:53 AM

tiger,my cat has allergt issues also.please make sure you keep advantage on your cat or some flea stuff to keep from her having a bad reaction to fleas.that's what my lucy does.

we love our animals and it's hard sometimes.they do things wrong just like we do,it's just harder to tell them it's wrong...lol

i hope the transistion works well.lucy adapted to the outdoors after a week or so.i think your fur baby will do just fine.

 

i see you have lots of animal pics...do you go to the zoo often?maybe we could meet  there with ours kids sometime for fun.

angela