re: What to do about mother's cat.

When I lived in Southwest Georgia I had a friend who had an old indoor cat. He had been fixed and declawed. He was nervous and his skin was a mess, you could feel all kinds of bumps on him. He wasn't mean. He liked to interact and be petted but he was too nervous to do it for long. He had one claw that had grown back and it would extend when he got nervous, but he was never trying to claw you.

Long story short. I moved away. Five years later I moved back. My friend had a farm by then. That cat was still alive and living outside. He was happy. When you went outside he came running up. There were feral cats and domestic cats and he was the leader of them all, they all got along. If we walked out to the corral or the barn, that cat would go running out in front of us.

I don't know how old he was, but I thought he was at death's door when I lived there the first time.

I say give him a chance to decide if he wants to live outside before you put him down. He might not survive long out there, but maybe he will enjoy it.