I was so lucky to share a life with her! I also went on autopilot with her demands and would be asleep within seconds of my adjustments so I barely noticed them.
Don’t be surprised if your little man picks up new needs! I think that’s common as they age, and it sounds like you and I agree that it’s worth giving them everything they demand. I hope you have many more good years being his arm pillow!
Similarly, in the last few of her 20 years of life, my kitty picked up a new ”requirements” on how we slept. It started with her wanting to be in my arms, and she’d paw at me during the night until I woke up and wrapped my arms around her. Given her inability to communicate her desires, it took a couple weeks of significantly disrupted sleep to learn that’s what she wanted!
That continued but she also began pawing for things such as: 1) lifting the blanket so she could go under it, 2) laying on my back so she could rest her head on my hip, and 3) rolling to face her. The last was the funniest as she developed it only in her final two years. She just couldn’t bear me facing away from her even while I slept!
I lost so much sleep meeting that cat’s needs, lol. And it was worth every second of it.
Personally, I didn’t find this to be true. But I think the lifetime spent before the goodbye was worth all of the pain, as awful as it is. The hello to a new kitten was sweet and helped me think less frequently about the pain, but it wasn’t nearly equal to the pain of losing the old one.
That said, the girl I lost was without a doubt my soul pet. We spent 20 years together and losing her tore a hole in both my heart and soul. And yet I wouldn’t give up a single day I had with her if it would lessen the pain I have felt over the last 7 months since losing her.
I adopted a sweet new kitten about 3 months in and I am so glad I did. She’s wonderful and I think there’s a chance I got lucky and will have two soul pets in my life. But the joy of meeting her and getting to build a new relationship only makes me think less frequently of the pain of my loss, not feel it any less.
Hello fellow Ruby-haver! Here is a picture of my Ruby. I have a toddler bed that her predecessor kitty slept on, but she hasn’t been interested in it. Instead, she sleeps on this cardboard couch on top of the bed.
I tell everyone that it’s both, “I had her for TWENTY years!” with excitement and joy for how long I had her in my life, and how lucky I was to have her such a long time. AND, “I had her for twenty years,” so I don’t even remember who I was before her; she was so much of my life and it is so much harder to live without her now.
I’m sorry you’re also dealing with this kind of pain. It sucks. <3
I lost my 20-year-old best girl in October and still feel the hole in my heart so strongly, even though I adopted a sweet new kitty two months ago.
As someone else here on Lemmy said to me: may his sunspot never move and may he rest in play. <3
I got my cat while I was in high school. She was by my side when I was diagnosed with chronic illnesses and was there with me nonstop as I healed from a couple surgeries over the years. She lived in every home I’ve lived in and has seen me through nearly every heartbreak and other challenge I’ve had in my life. I had to put her down at 20 years old on October 5th.
I told people for years that I didn’t know what I’d do when I’d lose her, except that I’d be a mess. And that’s true. Just reading the comments in this thread has me crying again, and I’m not sure if I’ve had a day without tears since Oct 5. But I’m alive. Losing her has left a hole in my heart and soul, but I’m starting to feel like I can breathe normally again most of the time.
It’s gonna suck, and there’s no way around that. But the love and joy you share now will be worth every moment of the grief you will feel. After all, grief is just love without a place to go.
I recommend taking lots of pictures, videos, and even sound recordings (I have many recordings of her purring). I get so much comfort from watching and listening to those. It’s not the same and it’s not enough, but it still helps.
I wish you all the best, in your health and his. I was so lucky to share twenty years of my life with my girl, and I hope you get as much time with your boy.
Thank you <3
She was the best! My soul pet. I had her for over half my life since she was 4 months old. We had a great life together and I’m so grateful for that, even though losing her leaves a gaping hole in my heart.
Thank you. I’m sorry you’re also caring for an aging pet. It’s hard but they are so, so worth it! Love her and her howls. Try to get pictures and videos of her! And give her an extra head kiss or scritch or whatever she likes best from me, please!
My 20-year-old baby girl insisted I face her as well. She would paw at the back of my head until I rolled over or moved her in front of me. She only started doing that over the past two years or so, but for about five years she would paw at me to lift the covers so she could snuggle under them or to hold her in my arms.
I had to put her to sleep just over two weeks ago on October 5. I miss her waking me up all the time for snuggles. I would trade every night of solid sleep in the world to have her with me still.
Clover reminds me so much of my childhood cat, Boots! This picture of him is from 2005 and he was put down 3/1/07 when he was about 15-16 years old. He was a good boy.
Not the point of the graphic at all, but this is the second time recently I saw the spelling “Turkiye” and was wondering the context behind that change, wondering if it was anything like the change in the spelling of Kyiv (which has now been so engrained in my head that I had to go look up the Russian spelling “Kiev”).
I looked it up and it appears Türkiye has been their own spelling for over 100 years, and they just petitioned the UN to update the spelling of the country’s name in 2021.
Cool, so Türkiye it is! (Plus my phone automatically adds the umlaut, so that’s handy!)
Also in Türkiye they don’t own cats, the cats own them.
I see my cat doing the same! At 16, she started pawing me incessantly while I was sleeping. Over 3 weeks I lost a lot of sleep and tried many ways to appease her. Finally I was so fed up I grabbed and held her so close she couldn’t paw me any more. She instantly relaxed and purred. The whole time the pawing was a request for me to cuddle her in my arms.
Three years later, the pawing has continued and expanded. She uses it to make me lift the blanket for her or reposition myself in ways more comfortable for her. In the past year, she’s decided I must face her while I sleep, so if I ever roll over on my side she will paw the back of my head until I face her again. She is so needy and getting worse all the time, but at 19 years old, I’ll give her whatever she wants for whatever time we have left together.
Awwww, my childhood family cat, Boots, did this.