Final Goodbye to My Cat "Baby Girl"

Well after a short 7 years I had to say my final goodbye to my cat, "Baby Girl." This all happened yesterday, but I suppose it began years ago. So maybe sharing my story might give some insight to another cat's situation.

We adopted Baby Girl from the local shelter when she was anywhere from 6 months to a year old. I believe that she was a feral cat. We brought her home and due to her mean temper, we struggled with the idea of taking her back. The idea that animals are not disposable and the hope that her disposition would change convinced me to hang on to her.

Slowly she came around, but only to me. She growled at visitors, attacked the other cats, in general we thought she was just a mean cat. Children were told that she was the "no, no, kitty." Visitors were warned that she was mean. She only attacked me a couple of times, and both times the attacks were provoked by stress. Once, was due to me smelling like the vet after bringing one of our other cats home from being neutered. She was a very high strung, stressed out, unhappy cat.

Since we adopted her she has always had a breathing problem. She would start a coughing type labored breathing when she was either being brushed or sometimes it would just happen out of the blue. Her breathing was always very deep, but I attributed it to her just being a "huffy" cat. Every time I took her to the vet I would mention her breathing issue. Nothing ever came of it until about two months ago. I took her in due to her urinating outside of her box. I knew there had to be a reason for it. All of the information online said it was either a medical problem or a behavioral problem. During this visit it was determined that she had crystals in her urine due to her food and that she probably had feline asthma.

So two months go by, she had steroids for her breathing and had finished her antibiotics for the crystals a couple weeks prior. Well she began to go outside of the box again! So I took her in on Friday and my usual vet was on vacation. Well the substitute vet listened to her lungs and said that it was most likely her breathing that was making her stressed and until we figured out what was going on in her lungs, she would continue to be stressed and urinate outside of the box as a stressed behavior. He x-rayed her lungs and discovered that her entire left lung was collapsed! I was devastated! She had a growth that had completely taken over her left lung so her breathing capacity was 1/2 of what it should be, messing up her bio system, stressing her out, causing her pain, contributing to her "mean" disposition. Looking back she was just being defensive due to being in pain all of the time and not being her physical best.

So the following morning we had to take her in to be euthanized. The vet said it was the kindest thing we could do for her at this point. I thought the stress of the x-ray visit the day before had almost depleted her. I was worried she wasn't going to make the commute to the vet's office. I won't go into the details of the visit itself, but it was the most painful experience for me, but seemed fairly peaceful for her. Afterwards, I was physically ill, nauseated, crying, trouble breathing, trouble standing.

Apart from helping with the grieving process, I guess this post is to let pet owners know that animals aren't usually "mean" for no reason, they do what they can behaviorally to get their owner's attention. If you sincerely believe there is something wrong with your animal pursue it. Ask for x-rays, blood work, follow your intuition.