[Maryellen]

Sylvester is 15 years old.i just picked him up from the shelter saturday. His owner surrendered him a few weeks ago.
He has never been around dogs or luved with other cats. He is spending his time in my office with a gate up so he can get used to everyone. He went from a home he was in for 15 years to a shelter for a month to me.its a huge adjustment for any animal let alone a 15 year old one.
He will decompress for a month before I start introducing him to everyone else.
He is a big cat , weighs 20lbs. I moved my printer off my desk so he could look out the window( his cage at the shelter was in a window so he could look outside )

 

[robin416]

What a pretty boy. So, hubs does the dogs and you pick up the cats. That's pretty balanced.

 

[Maryellen]

Usually I pick up the older dogs too. Our last older dog was 10 when we got her last year.
Him getting duke was an exception to the rule of only getting older dogs lol

 

[robin416]

What happened to Sonny is why I won't be getting anymore dogs or cats.

 

[Maryellen]

That's why there are people like me lol,to help out the senior cats

 

[robin416]

Sad to say, there are not enough of you out there. And it's expensive for geriatric animals just like it is for humans so I understand why there are not more.

I've considered going in search of older dog but the cost is too prohibitive.

 

[Maryellen]

Settling in . He sees the vet Thursday for a full checkup.
He is very happy to not be in a cage anymore and out of the shelter.
He likes that I am home all the time too(I work from home so he is gated with me in my office for now)..
A picture of his paw cause its sooooo furry lol

He got a nice fluffy new bed tonight too.

 

[robin416]

I had one with paws like that. She hated for me to mess with them.

Has there been any interaction with the others? And how do you keep the cats from going over the gate?

 

[Sylie]

He's so pretty. I had a cat, years ago with furry paws like that, She passed away from breast cancer about 12 yrs ago, right now I have a Maine **** that has furry paws too. I think they are awesome. (the furry paws)

 

[Maryellen]

He won't interact outside the room for another few weeks. He meets my other cats thru the baby gate,he goes to the vet tonight for a checkup and antibiotics for his cold. It will be weeks before he gets free roam.depends how he does with the dogs so it might be longer..
I changed his name back to Sylvester, he had it his whole life and fits him better.

 

[Maryellen]

My other 2 cats are 15 and 12 and dont jump the tall gate. I doubt Sylvester can he is too chubby and has a hard time jumping on the bed

 

[robin416]

LOL I've got a ramp for one of my old cats to get on the spare bed.

I'm glad you changed his name back. Mine know theirs so I can't imagine what it would be like to try to get him used to a new name.

 

[Sylie]

I agree that Sylvester fits him better

 

[Maryellen]

Ooh maybe I'll try a ramp instead!
Yeah his original name fits him so much better.

 

[robin416]

It started with mine as they got older because I had concerns about joints and suffering injury. That all comes from seeing something about an older cat that dislocated a hip jumping down from something.

Couldn't even begin to tell you if that was a one off or something to think about as they get older.

 

[Maryellen]

I have padded stairs but he won't use them. A ramp might be more appealing. Cats are just weird lol

 

[robin416]

Yeah, they are but sometimes their weirdness is entertaining.

My one has decided he has to sleep with me at night. Has to be touching me and won't move! I'm not used to that and it keeps waking me up.

BTW, I remember that Freddie the one dog brother I had to have put down in 2018 had this really long hair on the bottom of his feet. I could not figure out why it didn't get worn off.

 

[Sylie]

Cats do seem to be attracted to ramps vs stairs. If you look at some of the bigger and more elaborate cat trees, they have ramps on them
https://www.chewy.com/frisco-72-in-...rm=4584757331516784&utm_content=Cat Furniture

 

[robin416]

Huh, I did not know that. I just happened to have a ramp from the dogs and it was laying around doing nothing so I gave it a whirl for the cat.

 

[Maryellen]

Sylvester today. He wants out of my office bad. But he needs to get used to everyone first and his bloodwork from the vet won't be back till this week. He has a heart murmur the vet found so I'm waiting for the bloodwork to see if anything else is wrong.