Wyoming – Recently, a Wyoming dog rescue agency fell in love with an elderly, ailing cat who showed up outside their door, seemingly searching for help. The staff at Black Dog Animal Rescue named the scraggly 18-year-old cat Eddie and shared his short, poignant story with their supporters.
In a July 12 news release, the animal welfare agency recounted their first encounter with Eddie, explaining how the elderly cat did not run when they went out to see him:
I knelt down, put out my hands and this sweet creature walked right up to me asking to be held. I picked him up and brought him inside. We all fawned over him, gave him as much food as he wanted (which was a lot!) and marveled at the fact that he showed up seemingly out of nowhere begging to be rescued.
Eddie ate until his belly was full, and enjoyed the deep, sound sleep that comes with knowing you are safe. But sometimes being safe and loved is not enough to prevent the inevitable.
Blood work run on Eddie revealed that he was in the end-stages of FIV, (feline immunodeficiency virus) which is common in stray cats. Given his age and his poor state of health, the difficult decision was made to humanely end Eddie’s suffering.
Though the group knew Eddie for just a short time, he made an impact and his death left a mark on their hearts:
I cried over Eddie. It took me a couple days to reconcile his death even. A stray cat I knew for barely a moment. I finally decided he came to us because he knew we would help him and Eddie needed us to help him not live anymore. He knew that we would do what was best for him. We still have no idea where he came from or where he’d been and, like nearly every animal we help, we wish we would have known him sooner.
Eddie did not deteriorate and suffer for the days or weeks left in his life. He received love, care, and a peaceful release from his failed body.
Find the rescuers on Facebook at this link.
Continue reading: Don’t Let His Story End Here – Dog Named Tyson Has Languished At Shelter For Over A Year
did this cat come to be rescued or die. big difference in my book. on their story page they wrote about eddie they were not going to waste their limited resources on an 18yr old stray cat that may have survived with a blood transfusion. did anyone think he came there to be saved? really saved and not killed. anyone who owns and loves animals knows there is a point of no return and that tough decision has to be made but wasn’t this cats life worth that chance? i sure think it was and weather he lived another week or another 2 years it was a life worth living. he was not in any pain or distress he just wanted to be with people he thought he could trust. i think he knocked on the wrong door !
I agree they didn’t help they just killed him even when he asked for help himself so sad
Genau richtig,das selbe denke ich auch.Die Katze wollte sicher nicht sterben. Mal wieder wurde scheinbar der bequemste Weg gegangen, statt Bluttransfusion lieber einschläfern. Ist ja auch günstiger und einfacher, da die Katze sonst andere hätte anstecken können. Auch dafür hätte es Lösungen gegeben, wenn ihr tatsächlich so sehr an dem lieben Tier gehangen habt.
Einfach nur traurig, daß sie kam um Hilfe zu bekommen, und ihr sie habt töten lassen.
Übrigens auch eine Fiv Katze kann 21 Jahre
FIV is NOT “highly contagious”! It’s usually transmitted through a bite. An elderly cat will be biting no one. FWIW, we took in a 4 y/o male who had FIV and he lived happily with our other 4 cats for 18 more years. Yes, he dies at 22.
NOT ONE of his housemates EVER tested positive for FIV and we DID test them regularly.
We knew Ali had FIV but, due to the advice of an INTELLIGENT Veterinarian, we took him in and gave him the life he deserved.
If Eddie could eat as well as he did, the “rescue” he wrongly trusted murdered him far too soon.
Truly! He may have been geriatric and FIV+, but it says he was eating a lot. If an animal is eating and drinking, that says the animal definitely wants to keep living, not to die just yet.
Beyond heartbreaking.
If I had been there, I would have given Eddie the blood transfusion. It might have bought him some time (which is golden) to enjoy his life.
A good medical foster who can care for him properly might have extended his life. His life had value and it seems to me that he was wrongly written off to die.
Most cat fosters and rescues do not take in FIV cats because they can infect other cats. FIV is highly contagious, like parvo in dogs. Immunizations does not always protect against FIV especially is the infected cat bites a healthy cat.
Untrue.
You spread dangerous falsehoods
False information. It is nothing like parvo and rescues often take in cats that are FIV+
He was 18 and very sick. Loving on him and nit letting him suffer was kinder. Medical procedures are not always kind and loving. You were not there. Quit judging. These folks are a rescue.
They act more like a kill shelter than a rescue.
Cats typically do not live to be 18 years old unless they are in a good home, and 18 years is a nice long life for a cat. Both of my cats died at 18 and 19 years old and they had lived with me almost all of their lives, getting the best food and being allowed to sleep on my bed. They got constant attention and cuddling since I work from home. But I knew when it was time for each one to go, I took them to my vet and let them pass on comfortably.
So this was a bit of a miracle, considering the cat was a stray. And, as one reader noted several times, FIV is VERY contagious.
And thank you, Tamara Beinlich, for pointing out the realities of FIV!!!!
How sweet of you to ‘allow’ your cats to sleep on the bed. You aren’t a true cat person. And I hate when people say a animal ‘had a nice long life’ like that justifies putting them to sleep when they are older and inconvenience for someone to care for anymore. People put their pets down once they are suddenly going to cost them money for treatment or when they get a new pet like a dog or kitten and the older adult pet doesn’t accept them. Out with the old and in with the new right? What a horrible way to look at life. Would you put your human child down because they require cancer treatment and you don’t have health insurance on them? When we adopt a animal its for life….not the life span we decide on.
Did you not read that it is NOT contagious! So your reply is rubbish!
Adorable Eddie seems to have been abandoned at his most vulnerable time of life, and then he was so sick to top it all off. I think the rescue made the right decision in giving him love and comfort for his final days and then humanely ending his long life. Affection and companionship were so very vital to that little guy. Surely Heaven is gazillions of times better than this purgatory we’re all living in.
And think about this:
A cat who walked up to humans seeking help/food was somebody’s recently lost pet. No feral cat would have done this. They had no idea of his age but no feral cat would have lived 18 years. Average is ~ 3–5 years at most. Eddie was not feral, he was not loved. They killed someone’s pet through a dog rescue ignorance.
In my much younger days my 1st cat contracted FIV while very young. He went downhill fast, stopped responding to medications the vet gave him. He became weak, stopped eating and developed what I can only describe as thick, black “elephant skin’ growing on his face and head. His vet said his immune system had crashed. She sent him home so I could say goodby. A friend practicing “New Age” health ideas suggested I give him Vitamin C as a last ditch attempt. What his body didn’t use would excrete in the urine. I opened my bottle of vit C, dissolved a pill in a small bit of water & mixed it into a drained can of tuna. I started him w/250 milligrams of Vit C 2x daily. A few days later, he became more alert & began eating. A week later he was up walking around. I called his vet and explained what I was giving him & what I was seeing for results. She pooh-poohed it & said that as long as he was eating, drinking & walking, not to bring him in yet to be put down. For a few months I watched as the elephant skin slowly receded, replaced by new healthy skin/fur. I slowly increased the C until he was being given 500 mg daily. Then, at 4 years old, he had a heart attack & died while at the veterinarian for a different matter. I know that nothing works for every cat but when all hope is gone & death is the only option left, this could be worth trying. For me, there was nothing left to lose.
That is so sad Marilyn, sorry for your loss. I have a cat (1 of 4) who is 16 and a half year old has early stage kidney disease. She’s had all her jabs and is healthy but I wouldn’t have her put to sleep unless it was the only choice left. She eats the kidney food but doesn’t really like it so we mix it with other food. She’s has and always will be an indoor cat (she goes outside now and again to eat grass and get sun). She sleeps on my bed most nights. We lost a cat who was 14 and had hyperthyroidism, she had to be put to sleep because she had a massive growth in her stomach (cancer) that prevented her from keeping down even water.