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By Chris, on May 20, 2005, at 2:42 pm After we posted that farewell to Lilly — which was all we could bring ourselves to say at the time — a few people asked what had happened, thinking we’d had some sudden tragedy… Actually, we’d been struggling for some time with the decision of when it was “time” for Lilly. She was 15 years old, ancient for a dog her size and breed, and had never adjusted to losing her sight, refused to slow down and take it easy on her feeble frame. She would march off the back porch and ‘estimate’ where the steps were — not always correctly. She climbed up onto the sofa and loveseat and didn’t always make it. She ran into things, fell and hurt herself at times… got lost in a far corner of the yard on more than one occasion.
We kept telling ourselves that she didn’t seem to be in any acute pain, and still had a healthy appetite, but in the past few months she started losing an alarming amount of weight, in spite of eating four times as much food as Lindsy. She was confused, frail and covered in little growths that kept infecting and bleeding, mostly deaf and blind… Truthfully we’d hoped she would just pass quietly in her sleep someday, but it finally reached the point where we felt her failing body and mind were just a prison for her spirit and it was time to set her free.
Somehow we found the courage to make the appointment, and Lilly passed away peacefully May 9, with Joy cradling her head and me petting her as she drifted off. We hadn’t thought we would be able to stay, not again, not so soon after going through this with Mojo (and Nipsy before that) but I felt I owed it to her and I am glad we managed to do that one last thing for her. We got some tranquillizers from the vet — Joy’s idea — to ease Lilly’s nervousness, and gave them an hour before. She had a huge breakfast, her various favorite forbidden snacks throughout the day, and for once the temperamental Texas weather, which had been overcast for most of the day, obliged us by clearing long enough for Lilly to have one last sunbeam to snooze in. The drugs hit her while she was there in the sun, and she was pretty zonked by the time we left. I rode in the back seat with her and she put her head in my lap.
At the vet’s, we carried her in and she lay peacefully on her side on the table, with Joy holding her head, and we both petted her and talked to her quietly and spent about 20 minutes saying our goodbyes while waiting for the vet. She was totally relaxed for the first time in a very long time, which I think meant she really had been in some sort of pain that she was bearing stoically, and the medication took that away. She never even felt the needle go in, slipped away quietly… and we held back our grief until she was gone. We are still sort of numb and sad now, we can’t really believe she is gone… But she went the ‘right’ way, and her suffering is over. Maybe we will meet her again someday.
By Chris, on May 19, 2005, at 9:24 am We are still kind of numb from finally making the decision to release Lilly’s spirit from her failing body, and there is so much else going on now I don’t know where to begin… hopefully I will catch up a bit soon but in the meantime here is something our friends Anne and Pat sent us — we’ll be using it on the Critterweb whenever I finally get a chance to update it, which will be some time after we move at the end of the month…
Fostering Cats
by Anne & Pat
When our cat died, we decided not to replace her. After a year, the urge for snuggly cat fur, purry rumbles in the ear and bossy voices over the food bowl was too much for us and so we thought we’d try fostering cats for the Toronto Humane Society. In the past two years, we’ve nurtured 15 cats. There have been broken bones, urinary tract infections, spay/neuter recoveries, drooly eyes, stuffed-up noses, litter-box assessments, wounds, and sociability issues. Three sad terminal cases were a feral cat with a crushed head, an older cat with multiple health problems, and a young male with feline aids.
 Goku came to us with a broken pelvis. You can see in his portrait that he is still wearing his analgesic patch. He spent the first month in a cage and then the last month gradually regaining muscle strength. In my notes for his adoption papers, I wrote, "He is absolutely beautiful. His eyes are green with gold rims. His shape is well proportioned. He has silver-tipped grey fur that glows; it is satiny to the touch. His face is extremely expressive – we can tell exactly what’s on his mind. And he talks to us."
The Humane Society receives many cats whose owners complain that they don’t use their litter boxes. Most of these complaints are excuses to be free of the cat; however, the cats must be assessed, and that is how we got Noel. I wrote about her, "She’s never hissed, scratched or bitten. Her fur is luxurious to stroke and she craves a good long love-up. She needs a scratching pad – we introduced her to one – see photo – with some cat mint rubbed into it and she used it daily from then on – we highly recommend it." And, like all others with us for litter box assessment, she was clean in the house.
 While the cats are with us, we can tell the day when they’ve decided we’re okay, the day when they give their hearts – and then we go and do what the last owner did – abandon them. It has never been easy returning a cat, always a tearful ache when we stroke the lovely head for the last time. And it gets no easier with the numbers of cats we’ve had – it’s just plain hard to do. Another foster parent put our task thus,"We learn how to love and let go."
By Chris, on May 9, 2005, at 9:39 pm
1990- 2005
We’ll miss you.
By Chris, on May 3, 2005, at 9:12 am This came in as a comment on one of my other posts, and I am moving it here to a new post and replying that way instead to give others a chance to comment. Thanks to Sandra of TroopingtheColour for allowing me to use the wonderful picture of Charity and Kitty below, in this post.
Hello!
Sorry for the off topic post but.. you do own a Bull Terrier and cats, right? I am thinking about owning a female miniature bull terrier and a female cat and I am unsure as to whether that is a good combination since I have heard from a few that the bulls might get aggressive towards the cat.
Have you ever had problems with your cats and dog? Or is it really all about their upbringing together?
Thanks a lot, have a great day!
Olivia
[email protected]
Hi Olivia,
Actually, we don’t have a Bull Terrier at this time, we had to put Mojo down because of his neurological issues (he was a compulsive tailchaser and had seizures, among other things) on December 13 and I just haven’t had the heart to take that picture down on the main page.
As far as aggression towards other animals goes, my personal opinion is that if you get the dog as a puppy and raise the two together, and spend time properly socializing and training the dog, you should be OK. Having said that, though, I have been told that minis can be a little ‘feistier’ with other animals than standards. Talk to the breeder you chose about this issue, see if they can provide examples of their dogs living in a multi-pet household.
Adult dogs not raised around cats and other animals are a bit trickier. It can often be done, but I wouldn’t count on it.
I’ve had three Bull Terriers and two Pit Bulls that were all raised with cats and were fine with them –actually the second Pit Bull, our Lilly, was NOT raised with cats and is a high prey-drive dog, and still adapted with careful introduction.
I hope this information helps a bit, I’ve also asked a few bully friends if they would like to comment here on this subject, so you might check back on this page later. One last thing, if you are interested in a Miniature Bull Terrier, you should make sure you are well aware of the health issues that can afflict the breed (there are some that affect both Standards and Miniatures, and at least one additional disease that minis specifically are prone to), and the testing that should be done on the parents prior to breeding. Ask for hard-copy proof (an ethical breeder should not take offense at this) and make sure that it is current. Information on health testing can be found on the MBTCA site’s breeder code of ethics page:
http://www.healthydogs.com/mbtca/codeofethics.htm
Good luck with your future MiniBull!
Simon and Mojo, spring 2004
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