I grew up with a lot of cats in my life, and while I was defintiely closer to some of them than others, I cared for them all a lot. The past several years, I've been losing my childhood friends one by one, because they're all around the same age, and now we only have one left of our original six
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I'm so sorry to hear that. :( I would ask which one is left, but I'm afraid to know which ones are gone...
You're probably right that there isn't a "better" answer, since it's such a difficult decision and pets can't express their opinion. I guess my biggest hangup is that when a human family member is dying, you don't decide that they're probably unhappy so you might as well end it... so why is it different for a pet? Granted, if I were dying in a hospital bed and never going to get out of it I would probably opt to depart, but in between that and full health is a large gray zone, in which I currently find myself.
So far he's listless (more so than usual, I mean) but not in pain, and seems to be feeling okay, so it's an easy choice to keep going. When that changes, well, we'll deal with that when we get there. If we do the best we can do for him, I will take solace in that.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, and again I'm sorry to hear about your losses.
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You're probably right that there isn't a "better" answer, since it's such a difficult decision and pets can't express their opinion. I guess my biggest hangup is that when a human family member is dying, you don't decide that they're probably unhappy so you might as well end it... so why is it different for a pet? Granted, if I were dying in a hospital bed and never going to get out of it I would probably opt to depart, but in between that and full health is a large gray zone, in which I currently find myself.
So far he's listless (more so than usual, I mean) but not in pain, and seems to be feeling okay, so it's an easy choice to keep going. When that changes, well, we'll deal with that when we get there. If we do the best we can do for him, I will take solace in that.
Thank you for your thoughtful response, and again I'm sorry to hear about your losses.
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