Happy Birthday to Peaches who is celebrating her 20th birthday on May 1. Way to go Peaches!! To honor Peaches, Bernadette Kazmarski is offering a beautiful cat print. You can bid on the Peaches and Peonies print through midnight May 1 by leaving a comment on her blog. The auction proceeds will benefit FosterCat. For more information visit here.
Bloggers are also sharing stories and tips about living and caring for older cats to help Peaches celebrate. My cat that lived the longest was Katarina who was almost seventeen-years-old. The last year of her life she was in renal failure. Tatianna lived to be almost sixteen-years-old. She was also in renal failure, but lived with the disease for three years.
One of the things I recall about having two geriatric cats was how my household furnishings were arranged to accommodate their varying physical and medical needs. As the cats aged, they were no longer able to jump high. In the last months of their lives, I built a stair case of cardboard boxes, so they could easily crawl into the master bed—where they had slept their entire lives.
Tatianna adopted a flat cardboard box that a large checkbook cover was shipped in. The twelve-by-sixteen-inch box was big enough for her to stretch out, and she could exercise her front paws by rubbing on its well-defined edges. She could sleep for hours on that box. The box became part of the décor and occupied a spot under my coffee table for over a year.
For almost three years, I decorated the archway of my kitchen with a suspended lactated ringers solution drip bag. Every day I pulled the small, round breakfast table, which normally lived in the middle of the kitchen, over a couple feet toward the entryway so that it was within the reach of the drip bag. That was where Tatianna was given her fluids.
Rooms accented with cardboard boxes and drip bags—well not exactly Better Homes and Gardens material! But my dear fur friends were comfortable and could enjoy life up until the end. And that was what counted.
Bountiful Blessings!
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April 29, 2010 at 9:03 pm
animalartist
Linda, Peaches and I thank you so much! I had the same story with the fluid bag for years as my Stanley was in renal failure for four years, but every time I took the bag down someone else needed fluids. I had a number of senior cats, then one with FIP. After all that, I left a bag hanging in the kitchen because I felt it would ward off the evil spirits.
I wondered where your blog was–now I know, and I can link your article to the rest of the articles about Peaches and senior cats.
April 30, 2010 at 6:50 am
lindamohr
Thanks so much for stopping by. I am glad to learn more about you and your blogs and Facebook page. I look forward to reading all your blogs about Peaches and looking at your photo of the day that I saw mentioned.
May 1, 2010 at 7:10 am
Marg
Oh my your house sounds just like mine. All the comforts for the cats. I am not allowed to sit anywhere and sometimes feel like I should just sit on the floor. And pills all over the table in the kitchen.
Liked your story about your older cats. I had several cats that had renal failure.
Nice to meet you and will come back and visit your blog more often.
Have a great week end.
May 1, 2010 at 1:29 pm
lindamohr
It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. I enjoyed reading Squeaky’s blog. I have always been interested in having an animal that was a therapy pet. I just signed up to follow your blog and look forward to learning more about the good work you do.
May 1, 2010 at 7:24 am
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