I have sad news to report-I had to put down my 15 yr old cat Crouton on May 16th. She was dying of kidney failure, a much to common affliction of older cats. If a cat older than 11 doesn’t die of old age, then cancer or kidney failure will get them in the end. No one seems to know why cats suffer from this more than dogs do.

But suffer they do. There has been much speculation over protein levels, types of proteins, raw (as in mice and such) vs. commercials diets, but there is no conclusive evidence.
I can say this from a personal viewpoint based on the last 28 yrs of experience- my pets live much longer than the average pets do and I feed them all exclusively Hill’s brand products. My dog eats prescription diet W/D which is used for dogs with colitis (which she doesn’t have) and general weight control. My dog is a lean 51 lbs- two lbs more than she weighed at one year old. That is the ideal weight. She is 11 but runs and acts like she is 6. Today, however, she is very depressed as I am. She picked up on my sorrow at 7 am this morning and hasn’t been the same all day. But she will be fine. (that was written on May 16th).

My other cat Floyd, lived to be 19 yrs and one month and he lived on K/D which is a prescription kidney diet that I started him on at 10 yrs old to stave off any kidney failure. While ultimately his kidneys did stop functioning, at 19 it’s hard to argue with the fact the food had to have helped him live a long life. Crouton was 15 and healthy until one week ago. Cameo, my beloved dog that I lost in 2005, lived to be almost 16 and she was a fairly large dog. She also came to me at 5 yrs of age loaded with heartworms and had never had a vaccination. Even after two rounds of brutal treatment to kill the heartworms, she still outlived her breed norm.

That leaves me with Zinnia, or Zinny as we call her, my daughter’s 7 yr old cat. She eats Active Longevity food by Science Diet. So did Crouton. It was so close in composition to K/D that I opted for the lesser in cost bag.

On another note…

I took my dog in a week ago to be looked at because I found her UNDER my daughters bed and she is WAY to big to get under a bed. Watching her claw her way out from under the bed just floored me that she was under there at all. The vet thought she had some back pain but she had gotten that from crawling under and out from the bed.

Now when a dog or cat hides under a bed I immediately think that something is wrong. Turned out she was freaking out over a lightening and thunder storm that was many miles from me but she could still hear it. As soon as the weather cleared up (that night) she was fine.

So I will close with this reminder to keep an eye on your dogs during these storms. I have known of German Shepherds going straight through plate glass windows during a storm because they were so stressed over the noise and thunder. If you have a pet that is really anxious during these times, it is much safer for the pet to sedate them at home and keep them in a quiet bedroom, then it is to keep them ‘drug free’ and have them injure themselves over this.
Talk to you vet beforehand about getting and keeping some sedatives on had at home for this very situation.

Until we meet again, have a great now! Please feel free to ask any questions and leave comments.

Rest in peace my beautiful Crouton