This is absolutely not true. I'm shocked at how some people here think animals (or just cats especially??) don't care or don't have emotions. What a ridiculous thought. They have emotions just like us (and certainly like dogs too!!), they just show them differently. Why would every being on earth show their emotions exactly like humans do??! Makes no sense. Besides, cats are shown to have mourned both their owners and other animals they were close to.
Cats are also some of the most psychic animals around. There's a reason they were/are revered and worshipped in ancient Egypt and other places.
You weren't being naive, you were in tune with YOUR cat. You know her best! Don't let people on the internet tell you what you cat thinks or feels. You are the closest to who would "know"/sense this.
I'm so disappointed at how callously some people think here.
you should never consider your cat a "drain on you". Also she 100% loves you. Cats get very attached to their people. Again, they show it differently. Every animal is unique in how they show their emotions and needs.
Either way OP I sincerely hope that you can wait until she passes. And that you are doing better yourself.
Do not believe cats have no feelings for their "family". I have been blessed to inherit a cat (Twizzler) who was suddenly "orphaned" a couple of months ago when her owner was removed to hospice for liver cancer, and his dog had to be euthanized because of age and stomach tumors. Their other cat passed away last summer very suddenly; the vet didn't know what was wrong but Cutie died within the week.
We were all housemates so I was well known to Twizzler, but I was not her "family". I am a life-long cat owner and cat lover, and I give her all the love and attention I possibly could, but she cannot adjust.
Fred playing outside with their pets Sparkle (first dog on the right), Cutie, and Twizzler. The dog on the left was a neighborhood friend who came to play with the "gang". It was like something out of a Disney movie!
First the neighborhood dog moved away. Then Cutie died. Fred began to fail so that left only Sparkle and Twizzler. They still went outside, but mostly just to lie in the grass. They had all been together as a family before moving here, so they had a bond I was never really a part of. Besides I had my own eight cats. Fred's pets liked me, but I was not Fred.
Only two weeks after Fred left for hospice, never to return, he asked me to have Sparkle put to sleep. She was sick and in pain but he couldn't bring himself to do it, so he made me the villain. Sparkle really did like me and I loved her, so I never will forget the look in her eyes as the vet took her away!
And now everyone was gone and Twizzler was alone. Of course she had me, but I was not her family! Her heart was broken and there was nothing I could do but give her all the love I could. But it wasn't enough.
She would sit for hours staring at the chairs whose owners used to sit and hold her, unable to understand they would never return.
For awhile she still wanted to go outside, but all she did was lie in the grass -- Alone!
Worse, the anxiety took a terrible toll on her and her fur began coming out in clumps and she became nothing but skin and bones. She looked awful, and I didn't see how she could live much longer. I tried to make up for her loss by giving her all the love and attention and her favorite foods, but nothing I do can erase her grief. So do not tell me animals -- cats -- do not love and grieve!
Many years ago I brought home two Siamese kittens; sisters. One died about a year later and for the next three years the remaining sister constantly looked for her. She demanded we open doors and closets and boxes over and over again, always hoping to find her sister. Pets grieve.
PENNSYLVANIA'S LEGAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING ! ! ! BEWARE ! ! !
A few months ago my wife went to a supposed rehab center in York, Pennsylvania for a simple treatment of a broken ankle. It was actually part of a Pennsylvania endorsed human trafficking operation. For months I did everything I could to free her, but no one would help. The so-called nursing homes delay treatment until the victim's insurance runs out. Then they attach their social security income, which means the victim loses their house or apartment, and is trapped in the home until they die!
I would never have believed it if we hadn't lived through it. And the police and the courts are their corrupt enforcers. I am 73 and will be homeless in a few weeks. I have no choice but to CTB since my wife was my only friend and companion. (I have written about this in my other blog.) Diane was Twizzler's other "lost" (KIDNAPPED) family member.
Twizzler is old, probably 14 or so, and she can't take another loss. It destroys me to have to do it, but I will take Twizzler with me when I CTB. I must leave my wife to slowly rot away in one of Pennsylvania's human trafficking prisons. I cannot bear to watch her being tortured that way! I must leave her until we meet again in the next world, but I don't want to leave ANYTHING else in this accursed state.
STAY OUT OF PENNSYLVANIA! (You have been warned.) That something like that can happen in America is beyond belief. If there is anything good about CTB it is not having to watch my wife being held prisoner for life for her social security money -- AND I WON'T BE IN PENNSYLVANIA!
