Hard News: Kittens and puppies for happiness
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We're in this twilit zone that is the end of a beloved animal friend's life, and though I'm sad, I'm also incredibly grateful to my Cleo.
Jackie, I'm so sorry to hear about Cleo's decline - and thanks for the joyful clips of finer days. I hope she rallies again, one more time (they do in their twilight days - you no sooner think they're nearly gone, then they have 3 more weeks of energy).
The hardest part is trying to figure out if your pet's quality of life outweighs their discomfort and justifies keeping them alive - but if you're vet's good, they'll give you some idea when the scales tip from quality of life to too much discomfort. A house-call euthanasia is much less stressful than making that terrible trip to the vet. I tried to use that Buddhist ritual of trying to convert all my own grief into a calm demeanor - the Buddhists believe being distraught near someone dying is distressing for them - (animal or person) so they suggest you try to transform all the loss you feel into best, most comforting wishes for the one dying. It doesn't sound like it would make much difference, but it did help to keep turing my attention off my own feelings and on to whatever I could do to make it a bit easier for my elderly cat. Of course it's not possible without some crying - when our ancient (19 year old) cat finally had to be euthanised, the vet was weeping as well as Paul & me - very quietly, but all of us were going through mountains of kleenex.
The house call was well worth it, as we didn't have to put her in a carry-case and distress her - she could just stay there on her bed - and again we tried put the Buddhist philosophy to work , focussing less on the loss or our cat's pain, and more about how everyone and everything dies eventually, and how lucky anyone - animal or person - is to have someone love them while they're alive and care for them while they die. It's about the best you can have, if you think about it. Best wishes from both Paul & me.
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Well, that made me bawl. Thanks for that beautiful post, Dyan.
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nzlemming, in reply to
+1 on the housecall option. The only mistake we made was not showing the body to the other cat. She wandered the house for a couple of weeks crying out for her buddy. So we got her a Burmese kitten for company.
She was so grateful she stopped eating and drinking for a week. #soootemperamental
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Jacqui Dunn, in reply to
So sorry, Jackie. I shed a little tear too, for all the wee friends I've had and said goodbye to in my life, and for your loving and beloved dog.
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Jacqui Dunn, in reply to
What a lovely post, Dyan. Thank you for that.
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