I'm only 20 years old and I've only really had one cat in my life. We had another cat before her, but I was still basically a baby when he passed away. Our current cat, Tabby, has been with us for about 12 years, and I found out that our care has been subpar maybe 4 years ago. At first, I didn't think anything was wrong since my mom grew up owning several cats over the years. I trusted her knowledge and judgment But as the years went by, our cat kept getting fatter no matter how much we played with her. She's still pretty active, but she's never liked using cat trees and the only toys she likes are strings attached to sticks and feathers. But after watching her choke on a fake feather when we first got her, I try to avoid giving her toys she can tear apart and eat. She really just likes sitting in your lap for pets and kisses. A lot of it is because of my dad. He claims to be allergic, but its nothing that a couple allergy shots couldn't fix. He really just doesn't like animals, which sucks because he ended up with a huge animal lover for a daughter. I actually decided to hold off on getting a dog this summer, because I'm too afraid he might mistreat the dog, too. But after nagging for almost 3 years straight that something has to be done for the greater good of this cat, I've finally convinced my mom to set up an appointment with a vet to do a complete checkup. We're also going to be changing up her diet and everything. I'm excited that this change will hopefully open my parents eyes a little. I am that type of person that wants to own all kinds of animals, though not all at once. So it's important to me that they know why animals need to be treated with dignity and respect. I just feel really bad for not being Tabby's voice, especially back when her issues weren't as severe as they are now. She's the only reason why I'm a cat-person in the first place. I don't think I'll ever have another cat that will have a bond with me like I do with her. My dad is definitely going to be mad when he finds out we're taking her to the vet. I try reasoning with him about how important an animal's health is, but he's very set in his ways about everything. I don't care though. Soon enough, she'll be happy and healthy, and I'll take her with me when I move in with friends so he won't have to be annoyed by her anymore. Definitely feel free to leave any criticism below. Honestly, after mistreating our poor cat and being so blind to it all these years, it's much deserved at this point.
Tl;dr Finally convinced mom we've been mistreating our cat. Hopefully this is the silver lining we needed in order to improve our care for her.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/ai3ed0/im_finally_doing_right_by_my_family_cat/
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