Regrets of a Multi-Cat Household

Ever since Merly died, there's been a disturbance in the force -- the cats are behaving differently. For instance, Arbee, who had lived with Merly the entire time she's been with us, seems liberated all of a sudden. She's no longer hidden somewhere in the house. She's often out in plain view, even making contact with the other cats.

Did Merly intimidate her for a decade and I didn't know?

Merly's death has given me a lot to think about regarding the disadvantages of having too many cats. We were slow to notice her weight loss. Although I suspected the foul smelling stools, sometimes flecked with blood, belonged to her, I could never be sure. I did take her to the vet because of them four years ago, but there were no other indications of a problem then. The one time I noticed she had some anal leakage, I didn't do anything about it because it didn't recur. I wonder now if Merly had been my only cat, if I would have acted sooner on that.

The problem, is testing animals to find out if something is amiss is very upsetting to them. They don't understand and you cannot explain what is happening to them or why, that if you leave them with the vet, you're coming back. Because I give my cats feelings and thoughts which they probably don't actually have, this prevented me from seeking medical help sooner.

Also, I could not monitor her stools, her vomiting, or even if she was eating normally because with seven other cats, you don't know who is doing what unless they do it in front of you.

So we let her lose almost half her body weight before we took her to a doctor. The other problem was because she had always been obese, at half her body weight, she looked like a normal cat. I should have known something was profoundly wrong when I felt the lumps of her spine on her back -- that meant she was losing muscle mass as well. I let things get too advanced.