How can I cope with the loss of my cat?

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I've said it many times on here before: I had to leave my old apartment for a bizarre reason. It's a long story about a noisy door. I didn't have the heart to return my adopted cat to the adoption agency, so I left him with the sheriff which didn't assure me anything about my cat, I assumed she would let him free outside like I had planned but he (cat) didn't like.

In the end, nobody in my extended family would take care of him despite their large amount of empty space. I called back some time later to inquire about this cat, and the authorities told me he was found in bad condition. This has shocked me since I left him in healthy condition. So did they just let him starve? What the hell?

It is truly excruciating every day I wake up and go to bed at night, knowing I'll never know what happened to this cat. Knowing I'll never see him again. Knowing I'll never hear him again. You get the point. He was everything to me. And he was treated like he meant nothing to me by myself, although I didn't mean to leave him alone, by also by the people (family) who said they would help me whenever I needed it.

I mean sure, leave me out dry, but an innocent and helpless animal with no control over his destiny? Are you kidding me? I am so angry right now. I don't want anything to do with my extended family. They are truly confused as to why I see them as human excrement. They lied to me and then let my best friend, the only thing besides my body, which meant the world to me - starve and potentially and quite literslly - die.

As someone with two cats I do not understand your situation or why you chose to leave him with the sheriff. Sorry, I can't be more helpful than that. Why didn't you take him back to the adoption agency? Embarassment?

What does you having two cats have to do with my situation? I said I didn't have the heart which means I couldn't stomache putting him back in a cage when I could just let him try and make it on his own and maybe somebody would have taken him in as a stray. I didn't want him to go back to the shelter. Is it that hard to understand? I'm poor and I continue to be so, so I had no money to move into a new place right away and nobody would let me stay with them for even a little while.

You felt you did the best you could. If you don't have a place to live or a suitable environment for the animal you did the right thing. Shelters do actually take pretty good care of your pet and make every effort to find it a good home.. well, depending on where you live. The humane society of utah is considered a no kill shelter, I'm sure it's one of few though.

I know what it's like to lose a pet, and this is horrible. It's not your fault, though. I understand because I'm very poor myself. I want to help a sick feral cat but can't because I can't afford it, and the free vet the city provides was no help...

Your family was wrong and uncaring. They should've just taken the cat home for a while. The sherrif is a bastard. If there was something wrong with the cat, she should've called you and let you handle it.

I can see why you didnt want to put your cat in the shelter because they put them in cages, and this is torture for an animal that doesnt know when and if it'll be let out ever again.

What does it mean he was found in bad condition? What is bad condition? What has caused it? Did they put him to sleep because 'he was found in bad condition?' They should've asked your permission first, and you could've taken him to the vet maybe.

If he was found in 'bad condition' in the sherrif's care, that means that he either had an accident, which isn't the sherrif's faul, or that the sherrif starved him or not take him to the vet when he was sick.

I was a mess after losing my cat. Could barely eat or sleep and lost lots of weight, and dreamt about her at night. But in time the pain lessens. Just give it time.

I feel very sorry for you. My cat disappeared from home and then my mum phoned the local vets and put out online ads and it eventually turned out that she was found to be in an ill condition in someones garden (she was 16 I think, so she was fairly old). She was taken to the vets by the lady who found her, but she had been put to sleep. It is quite hard as we didn't really have closure, or get to fully understand what happened to her. I sometimes momentarily forget that she has gone, and I have dreams where she is still around.

I think perhaps you made the wrong decision with letting your cat roam free. While homeless cats do sometimes get taken in by kind owners, in the vast majority people are not very nice to cats. There is a lovely friendly cat around where I live belonging to my neighbour across the road, and people are nasty to it, they will hiss at it or tell it to go away, or let their dogs chase it. Also cats can be very shy, so even if they do find a nice owner they might be too afraid to approach them. There is also a cat with three legs that I see around here a lot, I always wonder if it has a home, however it is too shy for me to approach it.

I really like cats. I like how you have to earn their trust and affection, and they like their own space like me. Also they're very routine based. I think they're rather like aspies!

I've never "gotten over" any of my pets. In a way that's good, they were all special differently. I will have more.
I say this to let you know that I feel your feelings too. No, not through ESP, through Life.

If you wonder what happened to the cat read this poem: A Cat in an Empty Apartment (careful, the poem always makes me cry).

Not only humans miss other beings. It's not uncommon for a cat to get sick and even die just because its owner changed. New caregivers didn't necessarily make it starve. A cat that gets left behind often refuses to eat due to depression.

It sounds to me like the cops did put him outside and maybe he hung around near the station or showed back up there and just couldn't hack it on his own out in the world. Not all cats do just fine once you put them out. Lots of times they can't just find or catch food, depending on where it is, and there are dogs and other animals that can get them, not to mention cars. Having an outside cat or an inside outside cat is different than just putting one out to fend for itself, which is what it sounds like the cops probably did and what you planned to do yourself. Saying it was found in a bad condition was a euphemism for it was either hurt by a dog or a car and they put it down or it was starving and they put it down.

I think that if they knew it was going to be such a big deal to you, your family should have taken him to the pound or a cat lady if they knew of one, but I can understand them not taking the cat themselves. I don't think you should hold that against them, nor the cops because the cops because thats not their job.

Since you are still upset over it, I would suggest finding a pet bereavement support group and talking to them. I found one for my younger son when he lost his dog recently but he never went to them. There are people who specialize in grief over pets and even counselors you can talk to so I'd really suggest talking to one of them. They might can help you get past this and even put it in some perspective. It can be devestating when you lose a pet, and there are counselors who specialize in that. Vets and the pound can usually give you the number for one.

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I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
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I don't understand why you left your cat. This makes me very angry as people are careless and thoughtless and do this all the time to their cats. I have four cats and I would never leave them, ever.

My sister was in the same situation last week. She had no money, and gave me her cats for few weeks..

Sometimes people drop their cats off in the countryside. Many cats find a new home in a barn. They keep mice from the barn and provide a service to the farmer. They return back to becoming wild. Sometimes they find another mate and produce a litter of kittens. Sometimes the farmer will adopt the kittens and then try to find them homes.