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Message: [QUOTE="Scrutineer, post: 5285664, member: 8240"] About 20 years ago we had a Maine Coon female that was my girl from when we got her from the shelter when she was about 8 weeks old. She always would join me in the kitchen when I was making a sandwich because she knew there was some ham or roast beef or turkey in it for her. One day she was sitting patiently by my side, loudly purring as I was putting meat on the bread, so I gave her a piece and she dropped it from her mouth to the floor. It was odd that she did that so I picked it up and gave it to her again and again it fell from her mouth as if she didn't like it. But she stayed there purring loudly. My wife told me she noticed that the day before and then we noticed that night that she didn't eat the canned food we gave the cats every evening. I told our veterinarian at our Rotary meeting the next day and she asked me to bring her in for a checkup. She found a growth in her mouth and biopsied it and sent it to Tufts Veterinary School for evaluation. Turned out to be an inoperable oral cancer (can't remember if we ever knew the exact kind) and our veterinarian told us to make her as comfortable as possible and when she's too weak to care for herself it would be time to put her down. That was really tough. We had her nine years and our favorite photo was her at about 10 weeks sitting on my knee on a Sunday morning as I was reading the paper spread out on our coffee table. Looked like part of me. When I asked the veterinarian why the cat was purring if she was in pain from the oral cancer she told us that purring is not just a sign of content but can indicate stress. We lost our 19 (almost 20) year old tuxedo a year ago. He was the best cat ever. He had a hyperactive thyroid we opted to treat with radiation when he was about 10. He had a great almost 10 more years after the treatment but we really missed having a cat around so, after a few months, we went to our local shelter and adopted a 10 and 1/2 year old stray that was very shy but you should see him now. People want kittens but this guy is a piece of work. Took him a couple months to relax but now owns the house and is a real treat to have around. I do a lot of volunteer work at the shelter and know it's not the time to suggest adopting to your Mom but, if and when the time comes, there's lots of great older cats out there waiting to be adopted. [/QUOTE]

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