bad luck!! the world is a horible place!

[Carla]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am full of bad luck! i got a kitten end of last june and she was my best friend even though that sounds so silly! but she was! her name was choo choo n i loved her so much!! We moved in september to a house with land but RIGHT ON A BUSY ROAD! about to months later she got ran over and i was devastated! i had lost my best friend, n she really didnt deserve it. i still havnt recovered but two weeks after she died we decided to get another cat to cheer us up! Mr Jingles...i thought i would never get another cat like choo choo, but Mr Jingles is sooo special to me. he means the same to me as choo choo did. but he is more affectionate. but last night we came home and let him out in the garden for a wee etc...10 minutes after we let him out he came back n he was lying on the patio as if he was sunbathing..but it was in the dark!! i went over to him n i noticed mud! i picked him up and put him down in the concervatory n he just fell on the floor he couldnt use his back leg... it turned out that he has broken in lots of places on the left side of his pelvis and broken the top of his right leg.. Today we had to decide if we should put him to sleep or go through with a operation to put a pin in his leg and let his pelvis recover on its own. We couldnt let the vets put him to sleep without knowing what if he is fine after the operation so we decided to go with the op.. i just hope he is going to be ok after it all and recovers i dont want him to suffer but what if he pulls through well. i love him soo much...his operation cost£150 plus £50 xray n medication on top its at least £300 spent and he might not even recover.. what would oother people have done??? and does anyone know th chance of him recovering well/? also his nerves in his back end might be damaged but it is not known yet...i think its worth a try if there is a chance. can u get pelvis replacement???

[NewRagdoll]

Glad you went through with the operation and hope he recovers well. Sorry for the grief you are experiencing.

However,

I can't accept your title of your post. This was not bad luck. It wasn't luck at all. These events occurred as a result of your decisions to let your cats roam free and to expose them to the inevitable dangers. This is the danger of letting a cat outdoors. Those are the facts. The statistics are overwhelming. You are correct....he didn't deserve it. He deserved a cat parent who would responsibly protect him against such dangers. I hope this has taught you and maybe others to keep your cat indoors. Right now I am in tears....over the sad and preventable tragedy that has befallen your cats.

[Carla]

i do care i love my jingles like a brother i think of my pets like my family what kind of a life is it though to be in a house all day not been able to roam outdoors climb trees catch mice play with leaves and to just be outdoors in the fresh air. if u keep ur cat indoors its depriving your cat of a real enjoyable life at least i know jingles has enjoyed his life so far to the full.. jingles was let out about 3 times a day he was allways in at nighttime n he allways snuggled up to us... we are ANIMAL LOVERS and our lives revolve around them n if anyone is cruel as such it is the people who deprive their cats of a natural enjoyable life!!!!!!

[spacemonkey]

For the average American cat, outside is a very dangerous place. And it certainly isn't natural. Automobiles are not natural predators, are they? And look how many cats they kill a year... Roaming dogs are not natural. Neighbors who will poison or shoot your pet are not "natural". And cats themselves are not a part of the ecosystem and can do some serious damage to local wildlife populations. I can't help but when someone says that being outdoors is always more "natural" for a cat...

[Celeste_Eden]

the best way to keep your cats safe ESPECIALLY if you live on a busy road, is to keep them indoors at all times (unless you can train him to a harness and leash) my cat lilly is an indoor/outdoor cat because my parents live in a rural area with no busy streets around. she never leaves their property. however, my cat Squee is strictly indoors because i DO live near several busy streets in the middle of downtown. i suggest that if you don't want this to happen again, to keep your cats indoors.

also, cat's can live indoors and be PERFECTLY happy. in fact, they can live in a single room in a house and be happy. all they need is good food, clean water, clean litter box, and toys to hunt and chase and a person to love them. they don't need to go outside. if you really want to let your cat outside, i suggest training him to go out on a harness and leash and supervise him well while he's out.

as Spacemonkey said, cars, stray dogs, antifreeze, puddles of oil, and broken glass are NOT "natural" cats are domestic animals. being domestic means they are perfectly happy living indoors if the situation outdoors is unfriendly. if you lived in a rural area with no busy streets and you know your neigbors, go ahead and let them outside. but in the city, it's a very deadly place for a cat.

[RarePuss]

Originally Posted by Carla

i do care i love my jingles like a brother i think of my pets like my family what kind of a life is it though to be in a house all day not been able to roam outdoors climb trees catch mice play with leaves and to just be outdoors in the fresh air. if u keep ur cat indoors its depriving your cat of a real enjoyable life at least i know jingles has enjoyed his life so far to the full.. jingles was let out about 3 times a day he was allways in at nighttime n he allways snuggled up to us... we are ANIMAL LOVERS and our lives revolve around them n if anyone is cruel as such it is the people who deprive their cats of a natural enjoyable life!!!!!!

Carla, reading your thoughts, you are an irresponsible cat owner. There's nothing 'beautiful' about letting a cat roam free, in fact, you have one dead cat, and one severely injured cat, they both disprove your theory!

I'm about to cry now too .... this is so sad

[NewRagdoll]

Originally Posted by Carla

i do care i love my jingles like a brother i think of my pets like my family what kind of a life is it though to be in a house all day not been able to roam outdoors climb trees catch mice play with leaves and to just be outdoors in the fresh air. if u keep ur cat indoors its depriving your cat of a real enjoyable life at least i know jingles has enjoyed his life so far to the full.. jingles was let out about 3 times a day he was allways in at nighttime n he allways snuggled up to us... we are ANIMAL LOVERS and our lives revolve around them n if anyone is cruel as such it is the people who deprive their cats of a natural enjoyable life!!!!!!

It sure as h.... beats the life your cats have now. Cats can be perfectly happy indoors. In fact, I could be happy indoors. If you are going to continue to be irresponsible and let your cats take the path to early injury, illness, and early death, just don't become too attached. You say you love jingles like a brother. Would you let a three year old brother go out and roam around the yard, maybe down the road, maybe into the street. Would you expose your little brother to all those dangers and just turn him lose to what may come. You analogy just doesn't work. You can claim all you want to be an Animal Lover, but the facts are your parenting has led one cat to a very early death only months after you adopted it and another to very serious injury and potential death only weeks after you adopted her. The average life expectancy of a cat adopted by you is between 3 and 4 months.

[Celeste_Eden]

newragdoll, i agree with you, and i understand your scare tactic, but sometimes what a person needs to get them to understand is tact. explaining to them in a non-judgemental way that what they are doing is not in the best intrest of their animal. the best way to get someone to not listen to you is to tell them they're wrong. i think you should go with a more tactful method first, and if the person doesn't listen, THEN go with the scare tactic. i've had to talk several friends away from suicide (they wouldn't really do it, but i still take it seriously) and first i try to cheer them up and let them know that i care about them and that things will get better, but if they don't listen to me, i agree with them. i tell them "Your right. nobody likes you. goahead and kill yourself. the world is against you. etc." i don't really mean it, but it shocks them long enough for them to go "wait a minute....this isn't working. i'm not getting the attention i wanted..." and we go from there.

i believe that Carla really does love her animals, but for whatever reason, she doesn't realize that outside is an incredibly dangerous place for a domestic cat and the average lifespan for a stray or ferral cat is only 1-2 years old and that she needs to rethink her pet-owning choices.

[NewRagdoll]

[quote="Celeste_Eden"]newragdoll, i agree with you, and i understand your scare tactic, but sometimes what a person needs to get them to understand is tact. explaining to them in a non-judgemental way that what they are doing is not in the best intrest of their animal. the best way to get someone to not listen to you is to tell them they're wrong. quote]This isn't a scare tactic....it is a statement of fact. Two cats to tragedy in less than eight months of total ownerhsip. The very fact that she doesn't even question her actions appalls me. I would feel such guilt. I felt guilt when my first cat died from kidney failure and my second died from Cancer. Parenting a cat is a responsibility. These are live and loving beings. While my first post was direct and blunt it was also somewhat restrained. However, after reading her responses and justification and knowing she would and will probably do the same thing again, I feel no need for restraint in my statements. I mourn the loss of her cat and the injury to her second cat. I also pray that she will not subject a future cat to the same risks and dangers.

I don't doubt she loves her animals. However, that is just not enough. With love, comes responsibility. My kitten hates the eye drops she's getting three times every day. But, you know what, we still give them. As she struggles to avoid them, it hurts my wife and me each time to be putting her through that. However, we know we must for her own good. Parenting of a cat or dog doesn't come with just the pleasure and joy....it can be a hard job.

[Celeste_Eden]

all i meant is you need to use a little more tact when dealing with people who just don't understand what they're doing is putting their cats in danger. i agree with nearly everything you have said on the forums, i just think you need to say it a different way. your not going to help these people at all if they feel you are attacking them (whether you mean to or not) and they get mad and leave the forums and don't listen to a word you said because they think your just being mean.

first use tact, because that won't offend people and most of the time, it will get the message through just fine. in the few instances where tact does not work, THEN you can use your standard method and be blunt and flat out tell people they're killing their animal and it's their own fault, not an accident.

now, it's another thing all together when someone knows what they're doing is dangerous, and they do it anyway. in a situation like that, tactfullness be hanged!

your blunt method of telling people how wrong they are is just going to make them defensive, and defend themselves. that's why carla defended herself, because she felt you were attacking her. a persons natural reaction to being attacked, is to defend. if it was me in her situation and someone told me what you did, the way you did, i'd tell them to p*ss off! that's NOT what you want, because they're likely to not learn anything.