@duglop My Nebelung, Dart, weighed 22 lbs at one point but wasn't fat...he was just big and very athletic. I miss him every day and he's been gone since 9/2018, lung cancer (and we never smoked in the house after we got him so had to have been a genetic predisposition).

@Embers LOVE the colors! Every cat/dog and rabbit we've had over the years has been HUGE - my 3/4 wolf weighed 180 lbs - he's the reason I became a wolf advocate....our rabbit even weighed almost 20 lbs lol
had a cat mom thought was a female named Lucy - well Lucy became Lucifer and ballooned over 20 lbs... and was fat! Shuri (my cat now) is so fluffy - long haired torti - she looks bigger than she is

@duglop Our medium furred tortie, Minxie, passed away 3 days after Dart. Multiple organ failure completely out of the blue. I think she hid being sick because she knew Dart was very ill and we got them as kittens one month apart. They were both just 11 years old. She was a daddy's girl and would wait by the door for him to arrive home from a tour.

@Embers Awe, such a heartbreak - so sorry... our cat Smokey died out of the blue many years ago when I was married - my ex found him and freaked out, he was my buddy - always rode on my shoulder

@Embers how old was he when he passed? such an awesome color - greyish? or brownish? our grey cat had purple paw pads lol

@duglop He was Grey with silver tipped fur ...his breed name means "of the mist" due to the silver tipped fur. He was just 11 years old. We got about 7 months with him after diagnosis by doing chemo but the chemo ended up taking out his kidneys.

@Embers wait, you mean you didn't have him as a kitten? Awe, that's even harder when you are still becoming bonded...

@duglop Yes. We had both Dart and Minx from about 8 weeks old and they grew up playing together until Dart got so big that his play style was too rough for her..but they were still very close. We adopted them from Tony LaRussa's ARF shelter about a month apart.

@Embers ok I am confused - you just said you only had him 7 months, you said he was 11 years old now you just said you had both as 8 week old kittens....

@duglop Oh I probably worded it oddly...meant that we got about 7 months with him that we probably wouldn't have had if we didn't do chemo.

@Embers oh ok - I was like you got all 9 lives accounted for lol - so sorry you went through losing 2 cats so close to each other - a friend lost about 6 cats in a house fire - and lost her house... my heart was so broken for her

@duglop OMG how horrible 🥺 We had a fire in the easement behind our house at 3 am last autumn. Fortunately I have horrible sleep patterns and was actually out in our backyard smoking when I smelled and then saw it. Called 911, ran around with 3 hoses putting out flames & huge brands and yelling FIRE!! None of my neighbors heard me and two of their houses were red tagged, one couple got out but their dogs didn't 😥 Hubby was on duty as a FF/medic 115 miles away so I was alone but saved our house.

@duglop No way I could have gotten all of our cats out by myself. I still have nightmares about trying to save them.

@Embers wow, I was a volunteer firefighter back home, so I know the adrenalin flow-but your post kind of confused me again - not sure what you are referring to - "red tagged" and "brands" - and didn't see anything about getting your cats - only saw you say about nightmares... sorry just trying to understand the situation better :) cuz it sounds intense as hell!!!

@duglop Ohhh "red tagged" means not livable and brands are big chunks of burning wood that float through the air igniting everything they touch..like embers only much much bigger..in this case they were from burning palm trees. Some landed on me as I was running back and forth with the hoses putting out what they landed on. There were about 5 fire engines accessing the easement from my side and a bunch more on the street opposite my yard. Got a "well done" from a firefighter.

@duglop I couldn't have gotten all of our cats out if the fire caught the house..we have too many and some are feral. Glad I didn't have to!!

@Embers ok confused a 3rd time, thought the fire was your home?

@duglop No. We have a flood control channel and PG&E easement behind our house that gets rather thick with brush and some homeless person started a fire which quickly caught the brush, trees, fences, the house across the easement and the one next door to me on fire. If I hadn't been awake and actively putting water on the fire before, and even while, firefighters arrived my house would have gone up too.

@Embers just glad you got through it all - can only imagine!!!!

@Embers Ahhh, i see you love metal.... check out some Nightwish with Floor Jansen!!!

@duglop Thanks! Will do! I really enjoy many types of music...most actually with the notable exceptions of country western and gangsta rap. Favorites are rock and metal though.

@Embers wow!!