Stop and buy supplies of course! Even most grocery stores carry disposable litter pans, or just a plastic bin, along with food. Even a paper bowl will work for water.

One of our cats had a serious medical issue (we think a tick bit her, but we don’t know for sure), and after she recovered, she attacked her own tail one night. Woke up the next morning to find blood all over the house. Poor kitty ended up having part of her tail docked. :(

We have two that are getting up there in age. They’re both active, but the signs are there. One has irritable bowel syndrome and asthma is on medication for both. His black fur has faded in some spots, too - not much, but there are definitely spots that are a bit more brown in his legs.

The other seems healthy, but his urine had some protein and there is a slightly elevated number in his bloodwork for his liver (I think). The vet isn’t sure what those mean yet, and they want him to get an ultrasound (they just told us yesterday, and we haven’t had the chance to schedule it yet).

It’s possible he also has IBS, which would at least mean we’re used to dealing with it. He’s already eating the right food.

Odds are good we have years with them yet, but it’s a sign they’re getting older, and a reminder that some day they’ll be gone. :(

Mine managed to hit the power button on the top of the case a few times. I like that location for the power button, but it’s not so great with cats. I now have something over the button so he doesn’t press it.

I’m not sure I have just one.

First there was Snowball. Adopted him as an adult from a rescue, and apparently he’d been returned a few times. Food allergies, likely irritable bowel syndrome. Over the next 12 years I cleaned up a lot of cat vomit. Seriously - we have three cats now and it’s still far less than he produced. Eventually cancer got him.

But he was my best bud for those years. When my girlfriend (now wife) moved in, she knew we came as a package. One time she said, “I don’t think your cat likes me.” And I was like, “Are you serious? He loves you!” She just didn’t get cat language.

Late in Snowball’s life (we didn’t realize how ill he was at the time), we adopted a female tabby we named Minnie. She was so cuddly. She’d come up to me at night, and I would lift up the covers, and she’d curl up under the covers with me for a while. She was spicy, as one vet tech put it. But she was so fun too.

She had multiple medical issues that tended to interfere with each other, and she spent quite a bit of time in the animal hospital in her later years. We put her to sleep when she was 7 because she just wasn’t getting better, and even if she had survived that incident, there was no guarantee she wouldn’t be back in a few months with the same problems. I miss her so much. At least Snowball got a long life, he was at least 13 but could have been as much as 18.

These days two of the three are pretty cuddly with me. Stitch tends to curl up on my feet at night, though my wife has spotted him in my arms while we sleep too. Nibbler usually curls up on my lap and arm when I’m in the comfy chair in the living room. I’ll miss them both so much someday.

And lately Stitch has been showing signs of old age, he has a few medical issues of his own, and his black tuxedo fur is fading some, so I fear he’s older than we thought. (We’ve had him since 2016, and they thought he was about a year old then, but they really can’t tell - he could be 5 or 6 years older than that.) I’m not ready…

Cats are great examples of adaptation.

One of our cats ended up having a few inches of her tail docked. She was the same cat though, as active as ever, didn’t care about the tail. It made me think about us humans and our reactions to disabilities.

The tunnel beast is adorable!

I want to pet the kitty!

Yeah I’ve heard the same thing. Wet food is better for them.

Not quite that. But one of our cats would show up at night and demand to be let under the cover. I’d lift it up, and she’d curl up against me for 20-30 minutes, then leave. I miss her!

Another one we have now likes to curl up on or next to my feet, but on top of the covers, not under them. Sometimes he’ll come up to my head to get scratches, but he generally only does that when I’m already awake.

Thanks. We really miss her - small cat, 7 lbs, but a HUGE personality. We have two other cats, a dog, and a third cat we adopted after she passed, and the house STILL seems super quiet without her, 4.5 years later.

We always knew where she was because she would enter a room and announce herself. Her meow meant, “The Queen is here!” The dog barks louder, but doesn’t bark often, so the cat somehow felt louder.

I miss that cat so much.

We had one that did that. Apparently it can happen after they’ve had a trauma, which she had (some sort of infection that put her in the hospital for a few days). We woke up one morning to blood all over the house. All. Over. The. House. My wife took her to the animal hospital while I cleaned the mess.

The vets weren’t able to get the wound to heal, and she ended up losing part of her tail.

Contrary to what I’d always heard, it didn’t affect her ability to jump, or anything else that I could see.

(When I told this story on reddit, someone claimed, “That never happened!” So I posted a picture of her tail bandaged up. No apology, of course. I have no idea what someone would think I would have to gain by making up such a story.)

She passed away four years later from a long list of medical issues. To this day, when we see pictures of her before her tail was docked, we say, “It’s the long-tailed tabby!”

Pretty much! He even survived being in a car crash later in his life. Just went back to sleep.

Depends on the cat. One cat we had was very noisy, but he eventually settled down into a good traveler.

One we have now usually throws up in the car, but he’s generally okay after that. In his younger days he was pretty vocal and would try to escape his carrier, but he has mellowed some as he’s gotten older. I doubt he’ll ever be truly comfortable with it, but he can at least tolerate it.

The other three we’ve had or currently have all travel pretty well. One is difficult to get into the carrier, but after that he’s fine.

We have one of those and got pretty good at using it with our tabby. But when our tuxedo needed medicine, it did not go very well.

For him, fortunately, his medicine can be compounded into a paste that we rub inside his ear. He doesn’t enjoy it, but he tolerates it. Definitely a stress saver for us.

That is amazing.

He really was. My best friend. We had so many adventures together.

When my wife and I were getting serious, she said something like, “I’m not sure what to do about Snowball. I don’t think he likes me.” I said, “Are you serious? He loves you! Why do you think he curls up on you when you’re laying on the couch? That cat might like you more than me.” She had grown up with dogs and just didn’t know cat language.

Snowball is gone, and a kitten we adopted late in Snowball’s life has also passed away from medical issues (and that one hurts so much, too - poor thing was only 7 years old - at least Snowball got a normal cat lifespan). But we have three cats now, and a dog.

I had a cat that was a total food fiend. Eating pizza was hard because he’d try to get some for himself.

When I would make burgers on the grill, the food I prepped in the kitchen - bun, lettuce, tomato, etc. - had to go in the microwave or he’d grab them while I was working at the grill. He was relentless.

One time I had some friends over and warned them to watch the food. They didn’t believe me when I said how quick he could be. Later, I found part of a burger in my bed.

Another time, he and I were staying at my parents place, and I got up one morning after they had left for work and noticed a red spot on his white fur. I asked my mom about it - turns out he had pushed a cake in a container off the counter to get some icing that was on the outside edge, and the spot was icing.

He had a lot of food allergies, so he could only eat one specific variety of prescription cat food, which he didn’t like very much. That’s what drove a lot of his actions. I couldn’t blame him. Unfortunately, the food allergies were IBS that eventually evolved into cancer.

I miss him. He’s been gone 10 years now, and I still think of him a lot.

Aren’t we all?

We have an RV and usually bring them with us, which generates its own set of issues, but at least we’re not missing them!

Of course that doesn’t work for trips abroad, so we hired a company to come in daily and take care of them while we were gone. They sent us pictures and updates!