Have you made personal sacrifices when looking after your cat(s)?

Have you made personal sacrifices when looking after your cat? Even if you love cats dearly and enjoy caring for your cat or cats, there may come a time when because of various reasons, normally financial constraints, a person has to make personal sacrifices to do what is best for their cat. By sacrifices I mean forgoing something that a person would like to enjoy or possess in order to make sure she looks after her cat properly.

Personally sacrifices when looking after a cat

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

For many, or most, cat lovers it won’t feel like a sacrifice because they automatically do what’s best for their cat before seeing to their own requirements. The decision is made naturally without thought for balancing the demands of person versus cat.

However, a cat lover may have a conflict about how to do certain things. It is a conflict that comes about because a cat requires different things to a person.

What about buying a home? If there is a choice to be made, a home for a cat should have fairly easy access to a safe place the outside to enrich their environment. If a person wants a third floor flat in a location where there is a lot of traffic she should forgo that desire and choose somewhere quieter and on the ground floor. That is the kind of sacrifice I am referring to.

The usual sacrifices are financial. What if a person is an old lady and has trouble paying her heating bill. Her cat falls ill and a vet wants to charge £700 for treatment. This is potentially a competition that concerns the health and wellbeing of a cat and the cat’s caretaker.

Cat food is another example. A lot of ailurophiles have modest incomes, some are very low. They want to buy the best cat food but that would mean buying poorer quality food for themselves. Do they make that sacrifice? Yes, even true cat lovers sometimes have to make sacrifices but will accept them uncomplainingly.

I have more or less given up on holidays because I don’t want to put Charlie in a boarding cattery or hire a cat sitter. I bought a ground floor flat for him when buying any flat would have given me a much wider choice. These are sacrifices that I make automatically.

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32 thoughts on “Have you made personal sacrifices when looking after your cat(s)?”

  1. When you love someone be it animal or human it isn’t really a sacrifice though is it? You never think of yourself as “sacrificing” a holiday, you just don’t want to go on one, and you just buy the best food you can and care for your cat as well as you would any other family member.

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      • Exactly, if you’re moaning on about can’t do this or that or buy the other then really you’re resenting the fact that you can’t do it because of the cat (for example), in fact to go further I don’t think having a cat (or dog if that is your fancy) IS sacrificing anything, like Ruth says it’s a choice. Can’t speak about having kids as never had any but there again it’s a choice so that shouldn’t be “sacrifice” either.

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  2. This could be in the realm of TMI (too much information!) but what I meant was, Bigfoot actually fetches me when he has made a poo. Daytime, he ventures all the way downstairs and meows loudly to get my attention. I go to him and he jogs upstairs and sits in front of the room where his litter tray is. Once he sees I’m tending to it, he goes back to bed! In the middle of the night too! Rascal.

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    • God, he has you well trained. Mind you he is so sweet. I’d be exactly the same. For geriatric cats we sacrifice more I think. We have to. They need us more.

      Sorry my comment was a bit TMIish! I am very practical.

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  3. Both Ruth and Michael’s comments reminded me of the biggest sacrifice. Similar I’m sure to a new mum (never did that myself), which is never getting a full nights sleep without interruption! Again, my choice of course. Sadly, I only get to sleep with Bigfoot. But like clockwork, around midnight, again at 2:30 and he wakes me fully again after 4:00 to remind me it is time to feed the others. Then he sleeps until noon! Being an old cat, I’m willing to sacrifice my nights sleep to be sure all is well.

    Does anyone else’s cat let you know when they have done ” big” business in the potty? That is Bigfoot. All those toes cannot be digging around soiled litter!

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    • I think he nighttime activity maybe age related. I don’t know. Charlie sleeps solidly next to me all night.

      As to “potty noise”, yes, Charlie does get up early sometimes for a poo and he does make a lot of noise and smell. It can wake me up for a while. I tend to ignore it and deal with it when I get up. I suppose allowing myself to be woken is a sacrifice and allowing him to fill the flat with the sweat scent of his poo is also a sacrifice. If I have guests I make sure it is dealt with well before they arrive. I don’t have many guests though. I wonder why…

      I have a dehumidifier which desiccates the poo and sucks the life out of it 😉 I did not buy it for that purposes but it seems to reduce the odor.

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  4. I wouldn’t call it sacrifice for cats, I’d call it a lifestyle choice. They don’t ask us to adopt them, we have a choice whether to have cats in our homes or not and if we choose to have them then we owe it to them to give them the best life we can.
    We never go on holiday since Barbara lost her John, they used to have a few days away while I cared for all our cats and I had a few days away knowing they were caring for them. I stayed at three different retreats, in beautiful peaceful places and all had resident cats, but I could hardly wait to get back, I missed our cats so much.
    We don’t go out much or buy new clothes, we drive an ancient car lol but it’s our choice so that we can keep our boyz in the best way and help local sanctuaries a bit as well.
    We don’t have to do it, we choose to do it and it makes us happier than if we were selfish and did nothing, even though some people think we are crazy lol

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  5. My Sealy takes a lot of my time. For the past year he’s been convinced he belongs in my lap every minute. Its difficult to write because my best writing is done at a desk in Lauras room. He refuses to allow me to make him a bed. I’m like a mother with a newborn. The only good time I have to write is when my child is napping in a box or in his cage eating. I think he’s quite spoiled now.

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    • lol he deserves spoiling Elisa. Jozef lets me know when he wants me off the computer, I feel his eyes boring into me. Walter climbs on Barbara’s keyboard lol

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      • Ha ha I was just reading this and he came onto my keyboard via the table, talk about timing! He’s just had half a packet of Kit e Kat (that I trailed downstairs to get for him) and instead of getting back into the computer chair he’s made me get off the kitchen chair that I’d moved onto to let him have the computer chair ;ioooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo << now he's written that comment and shifted me from the computer chair again.

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    • I think that is a sacrifice because you allow him to disrupt (albeit in a nice way) what you would prefer or need to be doing. Good on you.

      Cats do actually impinge on our lives more than we probably realise.

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      • Ah but he knows I prefer to be spending time with him rather than doing anything else 😉 he is my Lord and Master lol

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