Today is a really sad day

[Lynda]

I'm so sorry for your loss Missdoh.  My mom recently had to put down her 10 year old cat (who we got when I was in high school) for similar reasons.  He lived a very happy life up (albeit he always had health problems) up until the very end.   I hope you can take comfort in the fact that you gave Doudoune the best life she could have possibly had.

I have an 11 year old cat myself and although she doesn't have any major health problems yet, I'm not holding out hope that she'll live for more than another few years.  The hardest part of being the caretaker for a pet with a typically short lifespan is knowing you only have a limited amount of time with them before you have to say good-bye.

[MissDoh]

HUGS.

My 12 year old cat, Tigger, was put to sleep this time last year.  I still miss him, even though I have two other cats (like you, one cat is older and the other is much younger). 

I always thought the oldest cat would be the one to go first, for the last few years we've been saying 'this will probably be her last spring' ... but she keeps on keeping on.  It kinda took me by surprise when the second oldest cat was the one that needed to be put to sleep.

Tigger was in so much pain at the end and I was very upset to see him in that much pain.  I'm comforted by the knowledge that his pain is over. 

Some relatives of mine (who don't have pets) couldn't understand why my adult kids and I were so upset - those relatives tried to tell me he was only an animal, but I knew better.  Tigger was a four-legged furry family member.

This is exactly how I felt, actually we wanted a 3rd cat because I did not wanted my Doudoune to be alone when my oldest (Ti-Mine) would go away though he is still in great shape right now, I know now that he can get in bad shape really fast.  We only had 1 week to do something about Doudoune, that was really fast.  I stayed with Doudoune 'til the end and don't regret what I decided though I am sad, the vet reconfirmed to me yesterday it was the best decision to take.

When I came back home, I make my 2 other cats smell my hands, they look at me with a troubled face but they seem to understand what happened.  An hour later they both came to me and rub my legs and purr, it was so cute they were trying to comfort me.  My youngest (Ti-Pou)  spend the night in our bed close to my legs in a little furry ball, that was all I needed to have a good night sleep.

I feel better this morning thanks to all of you for listening to me and understanding the pain I am going through and sharing your experience, you're giving me the courage and strength to go through this, I still feel your energy this morning.

I was happily surprise to see how many pet lovers we have on this board.

Now let's turn the page and talk about something that is a little more happy shall we