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My sweet Snowshoe cat died last night, December-3-2025. She came to me as a stray cat in September of 2013. She was already an adult when she came to my house. She could have been 1 or 2 or 3 etc. years old I do not know. She had been spotted in my street months before. She came to my house, just walked in and looked around, and stayed with me. She had a good life because she could go in and outside as she pleased, and I live in the middle of nature. 

Around November, december of 2020 she suddenly stopped eating.  I had no idea what it could be and finally I went to a vet. That was a big problem at first because I could not get her in a carrier. Later I solved this by using a carrier with an opening at the top. It turned out her gums were inflamed due to dental calculus and dental plaque. After having cleaned her teeth, she recovered but never really was that young cat again. Her eating was sometimes good and often bad. In June of 2024 I had her teeth cleaned again. Both times a blood test was taken, and it showed no problems (according to the vet). On October 21, 2025 I went to the vet again, expecting to get her teeth cleaned again. She wanted to give antibiotics first and then come back in a couple of weeks. Her weight was 4.4 kilos. On November 9, 2025 she stopped eating completely again and went to the vet on November 11, 2025. The vet noticed a yellow color of her gums and said that the dental calculus problem was not so severe as to cause her problems. Her weight had also dropped to 3.5 kilos (from 4.4 kilos 3 weeks before). We took a blood test, and that showed  multiple problems, especially with her liver.

Because her weight had dropped so much, anesthesia and an eventual operation were out of the question. If I had wanted to test for the cause, I would have had to go to another vet to take an echo, and God knows what else they can test. She really hates being put in a carrier, and because of her age (between 13.5 and 17 years old, I think) and the fact that not much could be done, I decided not to take action. I regret that now. I regret it because I expected her to die within days, but it took all the way to last night. So from November 11 to December 3 she basically did not eat. She drank water but refused to eat. I read that cats with these problems would die quickly. But this was not the case. It was a real struggle. In the end I tried feeding her with a syringe, but that failed. I saw her die, and it was a struggle. The myth that they die within days is not true. In the end she made a noise, and her legs started kicking, and then she was gone. In hindsight I feel bad about how I handled things. She was my little baby. I also dreaded the open ended costs. You hear that a lot in this stage of a cat's life, that owners will do everything to save a cat. They spend thousands of euros on a lost cause. Also, for the cat it is very stressful. I guess I just have to accept her time was up. The young cat was gone after she first got dental gum problems in November 2020. 

Other things I feel sorry about are that I allowed other cats in her territory. One male cat was always her great rival. I wanted to help him, but he was a really scared and unfriendly cat. I should have been much more decisive. I should have caught him and gotten him neutered. Then in September of 2023, 2 more stray cats were staying in my garage. I caught them and neutered them and let them live here. My Snowshoe cat never really accepted this. Also, my Snowshoe was much older than these 2 cats who are family. These 2 are very close. They are very nice and sweet cats, but still ..... Even worse, I took in another male stray cat, which I only recently had neutered.

In hindsight, even though I love these 3 strays that now live here very much, and they are very, very nice cats, all three of them, I should have made clearer decisions and just taken 1 cat and cared for her and not tried to save all cats.

I will miss my baby Snowshoe dearly. 

Below is a photo of my Snowshoe from November 13, 2018, when she had been with me for about 5 years. I am sorry, baby, that you had to go this soon. I am sorry for all the mistakes I made.

When my Snowshoe cat  had just arrived, she looked like the photo shown below. That was October 27, 2013. You can't see it in the photo, and I did not know it at the time, but she had a hernia of the stomach. Only when I had her neutered  was it discovered by the vet. At the time I thought she was 2 years old, but as you can see, she might be 3 or 4; it's hard to tell. I am just in disbelief that she has already died, and I am trying to justify it by trying to put her date of birth further in the past.

In the photo below, also made on October 27, 2013, you can see the hernia on her stomach. I feel guilty she already died, but she might have been born in 2010, and then she would be about 16 years old, which is a pretty good age for a cat. Her hernia was fixed together with her being neutered in 2013. She had some character, that little female cat. She chased all the cats that came inside the garden. Her black tail would get all the way swollen. Her fur would swell. Too bad I have no pictures of that. She was a beautiful cat. Not easy to approach without getting scratched, but for many years she came to lie next to me in bed, close to my head and chest, and she started purring, and I could feel the vibration in my body. She was a real sweet cat but not a cat you could hold in your arms. The cats I have currently are also stray cats, but they are more easygoing than this Snowshoe cat. But she was a character, and I loved her a lot and will always do. Rest in peace my sweety.  

This little fellow is a male tabby cat. In this photo he had not yet been neutered. People do not understand why I hesitated to get him neutered. Well, their little balls are part of them. You change them if you neuter them.  I like their male cat behavior. It is his natural state. He was a proud male cat. The hormones shape their body and their character.

But I also have a female cat that is neutered and another male cat that is neutered. They are 2 black cats that are related to each other in some form or another. They were staying together in my garage, and I assumed it was a mother and daughter. So I caught them and had them neutered because I was afraid to get even more cats if I didn't. But the larger cat turned out to be a male cat.  

With the tabby cat not being neutered, gave me a lot of problems. The tabby cat chased the black female cat up in trees and was fighting with the black male cat. So I had this little fellow neutered on November 25, 2025. Sorry, little fellow, I did not have a choice. Since then he has been doing well. I feel the other cats are more relaxed now. And it is only December 3, 2025. The tabby cat is fine but probably not fully recovered yet. 

The tabby cat was first spotted in my garden around 2020. I have a video of him from 2021, and he was still young then. So he is maybe around 7 or 8 years old. I hope you still have some years to go, little fellow, before you get sick like my Snowshoe cat that died today.   

Below are some photos of me trying to rescue the female black cat who was chased up high in trees 4 times in the spring of 2025. 4 times!!! And I think the tabby cat chased her. Because she is very afraid of him, and I have seen him chasing her (he was a real bully before castration). It took me days to get her out each time. She could not get down by herself. I had to put a carrier as close as possible next to her. In some cases she was up the tree really high. I was desperate, but I somehow succeeded in getting the carrier close enough that she would go inside, and I could get her down safely.