Thor Passed Away

Originally Posted on Cohost: 11/17/22
Originally posted on here: 4/1/25

My Cat Died

A horribly sad post to make so soon into creating this account, but I feel the need to vent and feel like social media is a great place to just yell into the void. Going to go into this a bit more, so if you don't want to read about a pets death now is your chance to turn away. But this is my story with Thor, start to finish.

How I came to know Thor

I originally adopted Thor from a local shelter. They guessed he was about 4 years old. I had been trying to adopt a cat for a while at this point, largely to help with my mental health. I had to give up a cat a couple of months prior (Named Simon), due to Simon and my roommates cats constantly fighting. Simon was too rambunctious to leave alone in any one room, and both he and my roommates cats would initiate fights with each other. Before Simon, I had tried other cats that just weren't good fits.
So, going in to meet Thor, I didn't have my hopes up. I thought to myself "Well, I'll go in and check out this 'Thor', but I'll probably leave with another cat'". This was during the pandemic where you really needed an appointment before seeing any animal. But, upon meeting Thor, I realized he seemed like the perfect cat for me. A little on the chunky side, and I eventually found out he loved just lounging around. He would play sure, but his favorite things were just hanging out. He didn't get into any wires, and he liked being around people.

Where I originally lived, with a roommate who had three cats of her own, I could leave Thor in my room and he was fine. He honestly preferred being the only animal, and just wanted to lay about. We tried to introduce my roommates cat and him to each other, but he usually had no interest. Eventually, I finished up college about 5 or 6 months after getting Thor. I got a full time job in a neighboring state, and so off we went to our next adventure.

Vermont

It was adorable how quickly Thor picked up my habits, and learned my routines. He knew that when I came home, I'd go to the bedroom, take off my work clothes, come out to the living room and lay down. As soon as I walked through the door, Thor would follow me to the bedroom, get up on the bed so I could pet him, and then he'd follow me to the living room so he'd get to lay on my chest. Most days we ended up taking a nap together for a couple of hours.

Shortly after moving to Vermont, me and my fiance broke up. This was understandably very hard on me, but Thor was at least there to fall asleep on my chest, and make me feel better. It also gave me someone else to care for, which helped motivated me on the days where I didn't have much.

Michelle

Eventually, I met someone else and we started to date. She had never been around cats before, and had a hard time understanding them, but Thor would try to hang out with her still. After dating for a couple of months, we decided to move in together. This would help us save money, and I was at her house practically every day anyways. This presented a bit of a problem though. She had a dog. And while her dog (Cooper) had been around cats before, and was fine around them, we were uncertain of Thor's history with dogs. We kept them separated at first, and eventually had them meet and exist around each other. Thor was... not a fan... however, he quickly asserted himself as the alpha (surprising everyone), and Thor slowly learned to tolerate Cooper.

Thor's Final Days

Everything was going pretty well. The pets were getting along, and everything seemed fine. But, one morning, I noticed Thor didn't immediately come to eat his food. He usually was either waking me up or immediately following me as soon as I got out of bed in the morning to eat. But he wasn't there this time. This was weird, but had happened before so I thought maybe he was just preoccupied with something. As the morning went on, I saw that Thor was licking his groin area a lot, as well as not fully sitting down anywhere. Sort of in the position of sitting, but his butt was hovering off of the ground. I also noticed some spots near his litter box (I assumed pee), so thought maybe I just hadn't cleaned the litterbox well enough and he had to go to the bathroom. I cleaned it and went to work. I came home that night and Thor was still leaking pee, and hadn't touched his food. I called the local vet, and they said they didn't feel he had to come in immediately, but made an appointment for the next day.
The next day, Thor still wasn't really eating or using the bathroom. We kept his litterbox within a bigger dog crate, so that our dog couldn't get to his litter box. Thor was now staying inside that cage with food and water as we couldn't have him leaking pee everywhere. He largely chose to stay in his (clean) litterbox. When I came home from work, he hadn't moved much and still hadn't eaten. I brought him into the vet, and their initial assessment was that he had a blockage of some sort. Sometimes we can get lucky and it'll fix itself with some meds. We took him home that night with some meds to give him, and was told if he doesn't go pee that night, to bring him back the following day. One cute story from this day, is when in the exam room with the vet, they let Thor out of his cage and his immediate reaction was to come cuddle with me.
The next morning, he still hadn't gone to the bathroom, and still wasn't eating. We brought him back in with the vets, and they went into more detail about what was wrong. He had a stone (I assume Kidney stone, but they kept referencing it as a stone). He also had a build up of pee. The plan was they'd put a catheter in him to relieve the pee, and then try and figure out what to do about the blockage. I was also informed that this was going to be a lifelong illness for him. Once male cats block, it's only a matter of time before they block again. He was only about 6 years old. With this knowledge, I headed to work and Thor stayed at the vet for the day. They were able to get the catheter in him, but he had tried to pass the kidney stone the night before. It was now stuck in his urethra. They could try to push it back into his bladder, but they doubted that would work, as they did something similar when putting the catheter in. Even if they managed to do that, they'd then have to operate on his bladder to remove the stone. The only other option would be to operate on the urethra itself, which posed many risks given how small of a tube it is.
Going into work I had many thoughts. How will I be able to afford a chronically ill cat? Is this worth it for Thor? Every time this happens to him, even if I can afford it, it's extremely painful and then traumatic to go to the vet. Am I going to have to put him down? One major cause of blockage is stress, and Thor did not like being around really any other animals. So if I can't provide him the best life (between money and living situation), will I have to give him up?
I reached out to a local humane society, to speak to them about what the process of surrendering an animal would be. I explained the whole situation, and they said they more than likely would not take him. With this reoccurring issue causing so much pain for the cat, and so much financial stress for the owners, they'd be hard pressed to find someone willing to adopt a cat like that. And, on top of that, a shelter would stress him out more given he's around a bunch of other animals.
Upon arriving at the vets after work, and talking with the vet again, I ended up deciding the best choice would be to put Thor down. I could not provide him a stress free life, and I did not want him to suffer constantly. I didn't want to live with the fact of "My cat might have this happen again randomly and die", and just be waiting for the end. And, as horrible as it feels, I didn't want to go into financial ruin to make him continually go through surgeries. The two days he had already spent in the hospital was going to take me months to repay, and god forbid he blocked again before I paid off the first amount, it would be a recipe for disaster. And, for Thor, I'd be able to be there as he goes, rather than around strangers or another family.
We got to hang out with Thor for a bit before we put him down. His immediate reaction when we let him out of the cage was to snuggle up with my coat I had taken off.

He was the best cat I could've ever hoped for. It feels so unfair this happened to him so young. The worst part of it, to me, is of course he had no clue what was happening to him. His last days were him feeling like he couldn't pee, and then a lot of people poking and prodding him. He seemed completely healthy, and got so bad in only about three days. It's.. hard going about normal routines without him there. I know one day it won't feel so bad, but for now it's horrible. I'm glad I was able to be there in his final moments.
Thank you, if you made it this far. It's not a great story, but I wanted to get it out somewhere. Here's a photo album with more photos of Thor, if you're interested.