I think we've lost a cat [View all]

We haven’t seen our feral cat Boo in a few days. I suspect she went off to die.

Boo and her son Lolli were gray and white cats who came with the house we bought seven years ago. They had been fixed, but lived outside where they were fed and provided with a shelter, but were only minimally socialized. When the sellers asked us to take on the pair with the house, we had no problem agreeing. We’re cat people, of course we’ll feed the cats.

We lured them in by installing a cat door, propping it open, and feeding them just inside the door. We eventually reached an agreement wherein they lived here and we fed them and agreed not to touch. They never did learn about litter boxes and came and went by the cat door. It took two years to socialize them enough to round them up for a trip to the vet.

Boo, who we figure was at least 13 years old, started not looking good this winter—inactive and kind of ruffled looking. We took her to the vet who uncovered nothing except she had lost weight. So, an antibiotic and prednisone and home again with our traumatized cat. She kept not looking good, so back for more antibiotics and prednisone. She spent her time huddled under our kitchen table and hissed at her son. Then she disappeared. We haven’t seen her in days now and can only assume she’s died.