Lousy week

[suzyvermoesen]

ok, i feel really bad today. The past week has been really lousy. My father-in-law passed away last
thursday morning. He died of cancer of the colon which had spread throughout his abdomen.
He was diagnosed last july , operated and sent home withing a week. Beginning of november he was
in pain again and was committed to the hospital for more tests. Two weeks ago they opened him up
to see what could cause the obstructions and to give him a stoma, but after one look they decided there was nothing more
that they could do. Fortunately for him, his suffering did not last too long and all his children had enough time to
say their goodbyes.His memorial service was held yesterday. Considering he had turned 89 last october, there were
a lot of people who attended the service, which was heartwarming to all of us.
The 5 children with their resp.partners all went to dinner in the evening, and spent hours talking about their jouth
and even laughing at some memories they shared.
We got home around 11 in the evening and when entering our flat , i picked up my nail file which our youngest cat
Jalla always steals from me to play with. The nail file was soaked, and upon closer inspection i saw that a cat had been
spraying against the living room door. For more than a year now, there is a black and white cat hanging around
our building and very often he sneaks in during the night , goes to the kitchen and eats all the catfood he can find.
At first he came in through the bedroom window, like our own 2 cats, but last may we had a catflap installed
in the wall of the study and he soon discovered this and started using it.
I never really did mind that much because it's only a bit of catfood. But the past months, we have been waking up
in the middle of the night because the black and white - i'll call him Felix - and our 2 cats had an encounter and were
screaming at each other like mad. What is worse is that Felix has started spraying all over the place. Last week he sprayed
on our computer twice.Not only is it hard to get rid of the smell, but the risk of damage to the computer is not
inconsiderable. We have tried to take away the cat food at night , hoping Felix might give up. He did not.
We tried scaring him off, throwing water at him, but he was too fast.
The lack of continuous sleep i would have coped with, and the catfood we can still afford. But new furniture or
a new computer we cannot, so last evening was the last straw for us.
We fixed the cat flap to "in only" and at 3 in the morning i woke up and heard a cat trying to get out.
I got up and it was Felix, so Otto and me put him in our kitty cage, gave him some food and put him in the
kitchen with the door closed. I had read on the website of the city animal shelter that they take care of lost pets
untill they get adopted and go to their new home. They never euthanize unless the animal is very sick or really wild.
Felix is a big beautiful tomcat but he has no home, and even though some people in our building like to call him and
pet him, no one wants to let him inside or give him a home.So i thought the best thing to do was take him to the
shelter and he would get adopted and everybody would be happy.
So this morning we got up at 7. We were both still groggy from lack of sleep, cause after catching Felix we were
wide awake ofcourse. We got into the car and drove to the shelter. Felix was very quiet, and probably scared poor thing.
At the shelter we were told that there is an abundance of abandoned cats, especially black and white ones, so the chances
of Felix getting adopted were slim. The fact that he was a tomcat with all the trimmings still attached made his
chances even slimmer, because no one would want to spend money to have him neutered when there were plenty of
other cats that had already been fixed.We were also told that some cats had been at the shelter for more than 1 year now, and
they were completely full. In other words; Felix will almost certainly be euthanized sometime in the near future because
no one will want him. I left the shelter crying and feeling like a monster. All day i've been thinking about him,crying, and
racking my brains if there is no other solution. Dropping him someplace else, in an unknown place for him is really not that much better.
Taking him in ourselves is no option either.
He absolutely does not get along with our 2 cats who both have somewhat of a history themselves (Floyd ran away from home
because he was harrassed and is very nervous and jumpy, and Jalla who was dumped on the highway when he was 4 months old)
So i do not want to risk losing Floyd or Jalla by taking in Felix. Floyd has adapted enough already when Jalla joined us.
I also do not want to risk our own cats starting to spray all over the place, or if i would have Felix neutered that he would continue
spraying. I really love cats and i hate myself for what i've done, but i don't see any other way.
Sorry for raving, but i just needed to get this off my chest (not that it helps much )

[SuzeQuze]

Sorry to hear about your father in law. Regarding the stray, you did what you had to do to protect your kitties, your property, and ultimately yourself. It is sad that they might euthanize him. If it helps just imagine he finds a home. You don't know for sure what's going to happen to him. I'm so sorry you had to be the one to bring him in. That sucks.