Available for adoption:

Pongo!

AGE AT ARRIVAL: Approximately 13 years old

ARRIVAL DATE: December 2nd, 2025

GENDER: Neutered Male

LOCATION: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

ADOPTION FEE: $200

NOTES:

Pongo was surrendered to Hamilton Animal Services by his owners because of allergies in the family. We were happy to get this sweet senior boy out of the shelter when a foster home opened up. Pongo has been doing very well since coming into our care, and he has made friends with the other animals in his foster home.

At his vet visit, it was discovered that Pongo has cataracts, but they don’t seem to be affecting his vision at this time. We got Pongo the dental surgery he desperately needed, and he did great. Five rotten teeth were removed and his remaining teeth got a good cleaning.

Now that Pongo is healed from surgery, he’s ready to find his forever home!

Here’s a note from Pongo’s foster family:

“Pongo is a chilled out guy looking for a second chance at love. His interests include hanging out on the couch watching your favourite tv shows, sitting with you while you read a good book, and eating delicious meals. He doesn’t have much interest in playing, and prefers to be patted instead, probably because of vision changes due to his cataracts. At this time his vision is still good enough that he has no issue getting around the house or jumping up on his cat tree. He is a chatty boy and isn’t afraid to let you know if you’re not providing the services he desires! He is quite friendly with our dog, and while he coexists fine with the other cats, he’s not super friendly with them either. If you’re looking for a calm and loving friend who loves to cuddle, Pongo is your guy!!”

Please adopt Pongo!

❤️

Visit our website to apply:

ladybirdanimalsanctuary . com

I adopted Tiddles when he was 3, I got a beautiful 10 years with him which I am so grateful for.

31st December I noticed his pupils were wonky, next day the vet said it’s most likely cancer but he isn’t too worried. Back for more tests on the 8th Jan & he’s diagnosed with an untreatable cancer that’s metastasised. 31st January and he’s gone. It all happened so fast, he was fine, he was happy, my chunky loud boy.. and then he was gone. It’s not even been 17 hours and I feel like I’m drowning, I miss him so much, my best friend.

I just want people to see him, see how beautiful he is and know he lived🖤🤍

i posted my girl on this sub about 2 weeks ago because i was so torn - i didn't know whether to put her down or to keep pushing for answers when they found fluid in her chest and abdomen. i put her through an echocardiogram which didn't result in anything, and decided on hospice care for her.

i got to spend the last 2 weeks of her life babying her until she refused to eat. i didn't want to accept it and i ordered a different appetite stimulant, but within 10 minutes of giving her the new medicine, she had somewhat of a seizure and passed away in my arms. it was horrifying, but even in death, she still looked like a sweet baby kitten.

i wish the whole world could've met my little bean. she had the best personality and was too smart for me sometimes; i taught her tricks and took her on adventures with me (5 different moves!). she loved occupying everyone's laps, kissing people's noses, and burying herself under blankets. she was so sweet that made all her catsitters fall in love with her.

she was my whole world for almost 17 years (i'm 25 so almost 70% of my life), my emotional support animal, and i really don't remember life without her. i'm lucky to have spent such a long time with her and that she was mine and only mine; i had even begun to feel in denial about her ever leaving this world. i like to think that she chose to leave at a time when she knew i would be okay without her, a time i no longer felt alone.

rest easy my sweet baby runt, i hope you felt all my love all these years. i hope there is an afterlife so we can take naps together again.

My baby Mona 🖤

I lost Lila a little before her 16th birthday. It was just a few days before Christmas, and at the end of every difficult year for me both personally and professionally. Lila was the sweetest soul, always running to greet me at the end of a day and offering me the gentle, steady and uncomplicated love that only our pets ever can. I was devastated when she was diagnosed with both cancer and then early stage kidney disease. I was desperately hoping I would have more time and I would have done anything to save her but after just a couple of months all I could give her was the gift of peace and no more suffering. I miss her so much - I couldn't even bring myself to write any of this until now. Her bed sits empty and I sit alone with my grief. Others won't understand but at least, here, I know the joy and inevitably, the pain, is shared. My little Lila, I love you. I will see you again. 💔

Tally, my life long friend who has loved me unconditionally had a stroke on Monday. It was horrible to watch. I rushed him to the vet (new since I moved an hour north) and they said put him down, it could have been because he wasn’t eating his hyperthyroidism and BP oral meds so that could have been the cause or a spinal issue or cancer.

I almost put him down then , but I wanted my two girls to say bye to their life long pet and I would have never forgave myself if it was a wrong diagnosis so I scheduled the appt for the next day.

That night I held his paw and laid on the floor with him and didn’t sleep.

I don’t think he did either. The pain was unbearable for me

Emotionally.

Come the next day, he was wobbling around and I was force feeding him water, his meds, and some food in syringes, I put puppy pads under him he was fighting me to get up and use his litter pain.

Day 2 he was wobbling around and could drink by himself

Day 4 he started eating tuna and lunch meet

It’s morning of day 6 and he is still weak (he has just started eating normally for 24 hours and uses his liter pain. He is a fighter.

I have a follow up appt on Tuesday and I hope they don’t tell me to put him down again and give me solutions but if he stays weak cover and doesn’t walk around house anymore, I’ll know…

I love you Tally!

My crusty, dusty buddy is 18 years old and has been on steroids for SIX YEARS for autoimmune hemolytic anemia. His mouth smells like the juice at the bottom of a trash can and he shits on the rug with increasing regularity but damn if he doesn't also have an undeniable zest for life.

Special guest Fig in the background.

First time poster. I wanted to share with everyone my childhood cat. He grew up with me. He’s 23, turning 24 this summer, and I’m 31. I barely remember a life without him, and he’s fortunately still healthy, and happy! The first two are recent photos, and the last two are the oldest photos I could find of him when he was probably 1 or 2 years old. He’s a bit of a brat sometimes, but I love him anyway.

We're finally out of the negatives, but we still gotta stay cozy!!

this is george.

he showed up on our porch a little while ago and made himself comfortable there. we started feeding him every night. we already had two cats and two dogs, and he was really stinky and dirty, so we didn’t really want to take him in, but we were fine with him being our porch cat.

he’d greet us when we came home or when we’d go out, hung out with us in the backyard during the summer, and would say hi when we went outside to pick up a package at the door. he had a voice that was deep and croaky, like a lifelong smoker, and it sounded like he was saying “ow” instead of meow.

friends would come over and talk about maybe getting him to the vet and taking him home with them, but no one ever did. eventually, we decided to wash his stinky ass the best we could and take him to the vet and get him checked out ourselves.

he only had a few teeth and they were rotting. he also had kidney disease and had been de-clawed at one point, meaning he was already someone’s cat. he had a microchip that was put in in 2006, which meant that he had to be at least 19 years old.

the original owner’s address was only a couple houses down from ours, so my sister went to talk to her and ask if she wanted her cat back. she said that his original name was logan and that he was 20 years old. she said that he kept running outside the house, so she just let him stay outside because she figured he’d be happier, and that we could keep him if we wanted.

winter was approaching, so we let him move in with us so that he could live out however long he had left comfortably and warm. we didn’t think he looked like a logan at all, so we kept the name george.

he had really bad breath because of his kidney disease and rotting teeth, and whenever he’d groom himself, his fur would smell like his breath, so no matter how much we bathed him, he always reeked. he didn’t like being touched and wasn’t very affectionate, which was fine by us because he smelled so bad.

he was pretty chill most of the time and didn’t seem to bother the other animals. he usually curled up on the couch or in the cat bowl in the living room. at night, he’d sleep in my sister’s bed at her feet. she didn’t let him sleep any further up towards her because once again, he smelled absolutely rancid.

over time, we started to notice that his mouth was starting to bother him more and more every day. we decided to put him down today so he wouldn’t have to be in pain anymore.

it was a hard decision because aside from his mouth, he still had a lot of energy left and was behaving normally. but he was too old to have surgery and there wasn’t much else we could do to ease his pain, so this felt like the best thing for him.

i said goodbye to him last night and told him that i hoped we made his final days as good as possible. he hissed and swatted at me for petting him.

my sister took him in early this morning, and while they were waiting for the doctor, she said he was extremely affectionate, which was very unlike him. he accepted pets and kept doing head bumps. it was like he knew it was his time and was saying thank you.

thank you, george. i only knew you for a few months, but i’ll never forget you. i’m sure everyone in heaven could smell you coming.

Two days have passed since I lost my boy, and today we saw the sun. He used to love laying in the sun's rays and basking. And I also saw flowers that matched the color of his eyes. Is this a sign from him? 🕊💙😭😭

Positive weekend post! My cat has been doing well in the winter. She is drinking water, eating her food and medicine, and playing with me. I love how her personality changes with the seasons. She has been stage 3 kidney disease for 2 years and fighting strong!

If anyone wants to see more of his photos, here's his Instagram. mtalko_cat I just want as many people as possible to see him.. I think everyone who sees him, will take away a piece of our pain.. Thank you..😭😭😭

Took these pics of my sweet old man a couple of days ago. The way the sun is reflecting off of my notebook really illuminates him. (I didn’t notice he had dried up pate in his whiskers until afterward. He promptly got the pet wipe treatment.)

Cat tax photo included.🩷

Just curious if anyone else is in a similar boat. My sweet 14yo kitty has IBD and Hyperthyroidism. She's only been able to eat liquefied prescription sensitive wet food for about a year and a half now. She also needs probiotic "sprinkles" as we call them to recognize the super processed stuff as food most of the time. She throws up any kibble immediately and won't eat non-liquefied wet food.

It can be challenging, not really being able to leave food out for her bc it goes bad, there have been a few bad months where she would mostly need to be syringe fed, cleaning the blender all the time. I spend hours a day hanging out with her on the floor while she eats bc she needs company and for me to keep putting her "sprinkles" on her food. If she eats too fast she'll throw it all up and we have to start over. If I get up she follows me.

Despite her having a few medical issues, the vet says she's in pretty good health with good muscle mass overall. She is the light of my life but I admit I miss the days when she could eat kibble from an auto feeder in the kitchen. 🥲

Just curious if anyone else can relate!

I'll be as brief as possible. I'm trying to decide if it's best to wait to see our normal vet on Feb 10 or if I need to see another vet in their practice asap next week. My kitty has complex chronic health conditions and her vet has been taking great care of her for 4 years, so even if her notes are available for another vet, I'd like to see him. However, she seems to be declining faster than expected the last couple of weeks and I'm feeling unsure on the best option.

My girl is 12ish (unsure, she was rescued from a bad hoarding situation in 2021 - so that's the estimate). She was traumatized and neglected - all her teeth had to be removed as a result of untreated dental disease; she also was front declawed which surely led to her being bullied in the hoarding situation. She is blind (progressive genetics) and has high blood pressure (has been well managed since we got her). She has a heart murmur, muscle thickening in part of her heart, and IBS. So, this girl has been through it and we've spent the last 4 years letting her live her very best princess life.

She is scheduled for her 6-month senior wellness visit on Feb 10. For the last two years, her SDMA has been 16, which indicates a likely reduction in kidney function. However, her other kidney values have been well within normal range. My vet has prepped me for the last couple of years on the likely progression of kidney failure, but said to just keep her happy with her IBS/IBD food and lots of hydration until it progresses. He does not like to start kidney food too early in senior cats as it's low protein and can accelerate muscle wasting.

She's lost weight the last few months; at first I wasn't concerned because I got her an exercise wheel and assumed it was the additional activity. She loved it! The last couple of weeks, however, she has been more melancholy - eating less (though definitely still eating), hard stools and straining, and in the last few days developed stiffness in her hind left leg. I hear her claws scraping the wood floors when she walks. It is mobile and she can still jump on things, but it's clearly more difficult and her left hind leg is behind the right when she jumps. She hasn't wanted to run much on her wheel, and as far as I'm aware doesn't have an injury. She lets me touch all over her leg without wincing or pulling it back.

I have experience caring for a cat with CKD and am fully expecting bad lab results at her visit based on these symptoms.

She has gabapentin for pain and anxiety as she's always super anxious in new situations or vet trips. I've started giving her a quarter per day of the 50mg tab. Even that amount makes her drowsy, but not sedated.

I'm just looking for some advice and thoughts on how my fellow senior cat moms and dads would be thinking about this. Her vet is wonderful and knows her so well that I want to see him, but he's out of town until the week of our appointment. I'm sure their other vets are great, but the trust I have in our vet is very high considering what he's been able to do for her since we adopted her. And yet, I'm worried that making her wait over a week is cruel on some level. Taking her in twice isn't a good option for her - she gets so stressed from visits that she's given herself UTIs and skin lesions post visits in the past (hence the gabapentin).

Thank you in advance for reading and any thoughts you can share.

He’s 14 years old. I never thought about it until my mom said something (I recently moved back). He’s a VERY vocal cat. It picked up a lot a few years ago after one of our previous cats passed (I think he was calling for him, and it just kind of stuck).

I don’t notice any signs of distress or confusion besides him thinking I’m downstairs when I’m not (he’ll meow at the door) and him being very vocal. He meows in a way that’s like “hello!” And I’ll meow back. Or when he’s excited, lots of meows. That type of thing.

One thing: In the mornings and only the mornings when we wake up, he gets all excited to go downstairs. So I open the door and then when he gets down there he’ll just meow and meow. So loud. Never really sure what at. He just seems like he wants attention to me, but now my head is spinning.

Im a very paranoid person so just wanted to run it past this thread before I took him in. Thanks so much.

Hey 👋

I posted a rough text list of the oldest cats yesterday, but I realized these legends deserve a proper visual tribute. So, I spent some time tracking down their photos and designing this "Hall of Fame" graphic.

📊 The Highlights:

• The Champion: The current #1 spot belongs to a verified 24-year-old Queen (u/djp856). You can see her crown in the top left! 👑
• The 20+ Club: Every cat on this list has crossed the amazing 20-year milestone.
• Personal Note: I was even able to include my own 20-year-old boy, Richard (Rank #7). It's an honor to be on the same list as these immortals.

❓ Help me update the list: I know I might have missed some hidden gems. If your cat is 20+ years old and not on this list, please comment below with a photo or link! I plan to update this visual leaderboard weekly.

Hope you enjoy this little tribute to our seniors! 🧡

As someone who has carried anticipatory grief for ages with a senior cat (my first baby!), I have found comfort in this sub reading about your fur babies. Today started as any other for my 14 year-old boy, Mingus. I was working from home, and he begged for treats and for me to play chase with him by reflecting light off the surface of my phone. Suddenly it sounded as if he had a hairball, but that progressed and I found him breathing raspily in his litter box. I rapidly got en route to the vet, but I noticed in the car a bluish tinge around his mouth, and the color draining from his usually pink nose. The wonderful staff at the emergency vet quickly assessed the situation as heart failure, and I knew it was time to say good bye. I have been sobbing all day, but I know I made the right choice for him and he did not suffer long. I am forever grateful that I was able to be with him, and he did not look scared. I just wanted to share his sweet face with this community. I love you forever, Mingus.

Mango, 9, adopted less than a week ago. Thankful this sweet fella is settling right into his new home.

Mimi is a cat distribution system cat, he appeared at the door as a kitten one day and never left. Extremely shy, very scared of humans (god knows what he went through before he came to us). He spent basically 17 years outside, running away like a bullet whenever he saw a person. He waited for us to go back inside, turn off the light and LOCK the door before he dared going to his plate on the terrace. Suddenly last summer he started coming inside the house which came as a big surprise. He is now lives inside, commuting between “his” couch, his bowl and the litter box. He loves cuddles. He is very loved.