I lost my 12-year-old indoor cat, Spike, today. He'd been less active/lethargic the past few days and yesterday wouldn't even come to see me. He wasn't eating or drinking and got dehydrated. I took him to the Vet yesterday and they hydrated him and sent him home with special food. When I looked at him today he was not moving at all. Back to the Vet, who said he was on the verge of death and was in pain, so I had him euthanized. I held him and talked to him all through the process. He will be cremated and honored in a cobalt glass vase in my curio cabinnet, alongside his older brother Rusty, who died in 2014.
This is the first pet that I've held while he died, and I'm a little broken up about it right now. I've got to recover, though, because Spike has 2 littermate sisters and 3 unrelated cats in my house and they need me. (Also 1 outdoor cat.)
I cried like a baby when my cat was put down while I was holding him.
The family has somewhat of a pet cemetery where the good ones have been going for the past 40+ years. Under a nice big oak in a pasture. Another hard day to dig that hole.
-.---.----.. -.---.----.. -.---.----.. It seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can't be enforced weakens all other laws.
Posts: 4359 | Location: Tampa | Registered: August 19, 2007
They don’t last long enough. I held my cat at the end as well. They gave her a shot so she wouldn’t fight the final shot. She was pain free I could tell and slipped away. Poor little thing. Sorry for your loss as you can tell lots here that can relate, not that it makes it any easier.
Posts: 1258 | Location: Duvall WA, USA | Registered: February 08, 2004
"Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it." L.Tolstoy "A government is just a body of people, usually, notably, ungoverned." Shepherd Book
Posts: 13215 | Location: In the gilded cage | Registered: December 09, 2007
Flashguy sorry about losing Spike. We had to put down our Orange Tabby 3 weeks ago. We came home from dinner to find him in congestive heart failure. Rushed him to the vet and had to make the same decision that you did. He was only 11 and was showing no sign prior to us finding him. Of our 3 cats, he was the coolest cat I have ever had. He was more like a dog than cat and extremely bonded to my wife. His brother is still around and a little off even after 3 weeks. I did the same as you held him talking to him making him comfortable in his last moments. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the first pet I did that with, but it was no easier this time around. It is the hardest part of living with pets.
I am very sorry for your loss.
_________________________ "An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile - hoping it will eat him last” - Winston Churchil
Posts: 3054 | Location: Middle-TN | Registered: November 05, 2003
Sorry to hear about Spike. Definitely looks like you gave him a very comfortable life. It's amazing how much of your heart they take with you when they go.
Posts: 3568 | Location: SE Michigan | Registered: February 25, 2007
DSC_0810.jpg by David Casteel, on Flickr 
