Comment on Rehoming a pet: How to cope with the grief by Kitty.
Thank you for posting this. I am in the possible process of rehoming my beloved 2 year old cat. I’ve tried rehoming him in the past, but I always change my mind last minute and give him one more chance…he’s had about 7 “one more chances”. He has had behavioral issues for 9 months now. I’ve taken him to vets, spent thousands and they all say there is nothing medically wrong with him. I’ve worked with behaviorists. I’ve tried calming collars, Feliway, calming chews, adding more litter boxes, adding in more play time. I’m not being dramatic when I say this cat has turned my family’s life upside down these past 9 months. He has sprayed and peed on everything possible. Our beds, pillows, blankets, counter tops, my husband’s nightstand, our fridge, our toaster…I think the worst was when I smelled something weird and realized he had sprayed against an outlet in our closet. Or it could have been the day I came home late after being away for the day and went to get into bed and my side of the bed was completely peed on…I slept on the couch that night and just cried. And as bad as he’s been, I still love the little guy and it’s breaking my heart to think of getting rid of him. But my family and I are constantly arguing and cleaning… we don’t even spend time as a family anymore because our days are typically spent cleaning pee and spray. I feel horrible thinking of rehoming him, but I also know my family needs relief from this cat. Thank you for this article and thank you to anyone who read my comment and heard my story. It’s been hard.
Kitty Also Commented
Rehoming a pet: How to cope with the grief
This is an update to my comment from a few days ago. I decided it was in my family’s best interest to rehome the cat I talked about in my original comment. I am heartbroken and cannot stop crying. It’s so much harder to rehome than for a pet to pass away, in my opinion. When a pet passes away, it’s something that was out of your hands, but with rehoming a pet, you live with the guilt of “did I do the right thing?”, “am I a bad person for not trying hard enough to keep this pet?” And “could I have done more to keep the pet?”. The whole thing has left me feeling like a really bad person, like I never deserve to have a pet ever again. Even though we tried everything with this cat and his spraying was becoming dangerous (like when he sprayed an electric outlet), I still wonder if I could have tried more or did something else…. was there something I was missing to try? I worry that my other cats will miss him, but it was becoming a problem to keep him. Our lives revolved around cleaning up spray and we were constantly arguing. We spent thousands on specialists and products, not to mention thousands to replace things that were destroyed. After 9 months, I honestly didn’t know what else to do, so rehoming was the only feasible option for us. Anyone going through this, just know you’re not alone and it’s hard!