Samson the German Shepard has passed

[neurosis]

a wonderful Maine coon kitty who amazingly made it to the ripe old age of 23

Wow.. That's a long life for a Maine Coon cat. 

I have one now and he's already starting to show his age at 8 years old.

[TSmcam]

Damn Tom, I just saw this.

I am really sorry for your loss. I remember well, the time Samson came into your lives, and he sure sounded like a great dog.

They sure do become part of our lives and families.

Give a Pat a hug from us as well.

[gcode]

Samson, Buster, Lady, Toby and Barney's butt (bottom left corner)


Samson in 2019, about a year after we found him
At this point, he was flea and tick free and civilized enough that he got to come into the house
in the evenings. It took another 6 months for him to settle down enough to be in the house unsupervised.
Then he got to sleep in the house, on a leash with me on the other end. 2 years in he was finally civilized  enough to be an  unmonitored house dog

[svnmlkdmf]

sorry g..

[Brian]

Thanks for the great pics! So he just showed up one day? How cool is that?!?

We've got a number of cats, most of whom have adopted us (not the other way around)! One of them is a very friendly and social Siamese who is known by many folks in the neighborhood; people will actually come by to see if she's around!

This was quite a nice respite from all of the CV19 crap these last couple of years-we enjoyed meeting folks after being introduced by our kitty!

[Rstewart]

Just saw this,

Sorry for your loss, I know it's like losing a family member because they are part of your family.

[gcode]

So he just showed up one day?

With the exception of Toby the 16 year old blind Shitzu all 6 5 of our dogs just showed up.

Toby the Shitzu came from a rescue place. He had spent three years living in a back yard with 3 black labs
and he was as mean as a rattle snake. I've got the scars on my nose to prove it    I figured we were just bringing him to a peaceful place to die but we've had him 8 years now and he's still going strong...and has regained the pleasant demeanor you'd expect from a Shitzu

The Pug and Poddle are the newest. They showed up right at the start of Covid. I found them running down my street
one Saturday morning. Both were healthy and looked like they came fresh from the groomer
They would be very expensive dogs with proper paperwork.
We didn't need Dog #5 and 6 and tried to find their owners. I must have knocked on 200 doors looking for their people
We looked for three months before we neutered and licensed them.
After 3 months they were family and we were relieved our search had failed.

Little Guy the chihuahua  rat dog was a pup who lived in a house down the street
The house was foreclosed and the people just moved off and left him
We didn't know it, but he was living in our back yard with Buddy, our previous German Shepard.
One Sunday morning Buddy and Little Guy came walking in the back door and Buddy informed me that
Little Guy was staying.

Barney.. the butt in the lower left was dumped in our neighborhood.
We spent a year trying to catch him and failed. One Sunday morning we spotted him on the sidewalk
too weak to run. We've had him 8 years and he's just started to socialize. He still behaves like a hunted animal.
He waits till everyone is asleep before he goes to the water bowl, because in his world watering spots are
where the coyotes wait for dinner. When he goes out the dog door into the back yard he sticks his head out
and checks things out for 3 or 4 minutes before he commits and steps all the way out.
I really don't know how he survived a year out there in coyote country, but he did.

[pmartin]

You're a good man Tom.
But we knew that.

+10000000000000

Chokes me up a little. My condolences.

[crazy^millman]

Tom sorry for the loss.

[TSmcam]

You're a good man Tom.
But we knew that.

Well said. 

[jwillard@Kauffman]

So sorry to hear this.  Such a loss definitely leaves a void!

[Brian]

Wow.. That's a long life for a Maine Coon cat.

We're not 100% certain that he was 23; it's possible he was *only* 21! He was really our neighbor's cat, at least initially. They had another kitty (who Taz disliked) as well as a son, so there was much more commotion at their house. Taz would come over during the day, and then we'd send him back home at night-it was a fine arrangement. Over a period of about a year he slowly adopted us-LOL. We did share the cost of vet visits for that first year or so, but he kinda voted with his feet and sorta became "ours." (Anybody who thinks they "own" a cat is misinformed-it's really the other way around).

He was about 15 when we first met him, and we realized how old that is for a cat....but he just kept going, and going, and going. We had a get together with our neighbors when he died-he was missed!

Does your kitty have anything particular health issues, or is he just showing his age? Is he indoor-outdoor, or just indoor?

[neurosis]

Does your kitty have anything particular health issues, or is he just showing his age? Is he indoor-outdoor, or just indoor?

When he was about a year old he developed a struvite stone that caused a urinary blockage. It took a few days to figure out that there was a problem and by the time I got him to the vet he had almost died. When I got him back from the vet it took a LONG time to get him to use the litter box again. He associated that box with pain so I kept him indoor/outdoor for about a year while he was working out his issues with the box.   Once he'd had a taste of outdoors, in his mind, the indoor/outdoor became permanent.

Other than that he's had a couple of mysterious illnesses I assume from getting in to something that he shouldn't have outside. The age thing I kinda figure out because I live on the second floor. He always managed to get up on my balcony by making about a 6' jump from the neighbors fence to the roof by my balcony.  He's not able to make that leap anymore. He's about 8 years old now.

I think the life expectancy of a Maine Coon is only about 14 years? I figured that just due to his size alone he would have issues as he got older. He weighs about 15 pounds in the Summer but gets up to about 18 in the winter when he's not outside as much.

When I picked him up as a kitten I'd purchased a regular sized cat box having no idea what I was in for. He was a tiny kitten but looked like he was walking on stilts with baseball mitts for feet. After I'd had him for about 8 months I noticed that he kept crapping on the floor and I couldn't figure out why until I saw him trying to fit in to the cat box.. lol  He had three legs on the edges of the box and one leg in the dirt. That was when I realized how big he was. 

[Brian]

Wow-18 lbs....he's a big guy! Taz was about 15 lbs when he was in his prime, but lost some weight as he aged.

It's so funny to watch them grow up-sometimes they appear to have features that they haven't grown into yet. (Paws especially). Big furry mitts with lots of fur between the digits.

I hope he has a happy life no matter how old he gets!

[Tony35]

My condolences G
They leave a big empty space when they are gone
We had to put our dog down in 2021 and it still hurts
They sure leave paw prints on the heart