I assume your relatives are humans.
I’m not sure why people are still advising the OP to pay the bills, despite her saying she can’t.
Seems like there is a little bit of misunderstanding here and there.
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Turns out, when my hunny got home and showed me, that the post-$190 blood test teeth estimate is actually $278-$650, they won’t know until they get down in there to see what’s what.
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Her teeth are nasty, but not infected currently, may never be. I had imagined them broken off and black and falling out. Not the case. Just severely grody.
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She is neither ugly or mean. She is very pretty in come people’s eyes (The scabby skin is invisible, but it makes her gross to pet), and she is, despite years of my telling her to get the fuck away from me, quite affectionate. The problem is that she is, to my eyes, evil-looking. 8 out of ten people comment upon the evil look in her eyes and how creepy it is. Coupled with her evil appearance is a very destructive, demanding, completely untamable nature. She will walk on the counters, steal food, shred carpet, blinds, curtains and furniture and always manages to find the most intricate wiring or exposed electronics to hack her hairballs onto. When she muscled her way into my household 13 years ago, she promptly gave every other animal and person in the house a case of ringworm. If she is on something you don’t want her to be, you have to throw her off it almost violently in order to give her the message, otherwise she will come back to that spot 10 times in a row (if you gently remove her). She’s a pain in the ass and she always has been, and she simply never appealed to me. I’m not a cat person to begin with, although I’ve loved some (I had another cat that I adored who, of course, died before she did, making me dislike her even more. She’ll probably live forever jsut to taunt me.), and she is the embodiment, times ten, of everything I dislike about cats in general.
I appreciate everyone weighing in. It looks like the majority opinion is pretty much what I’d decided on already: ease suffering, but no obligation to mortgage the house to keep her going. She’s doing ok right now, and knowing her, she’ll keep going for years yet with no help from me.
To those who advocate doing anything and everything rather than put her down: nah. I am a devoted lover of animals (hence my putting up with this annoying beast), but I recognize their limitations, one of which is the understanding of their own death. If Willy (that’s her name, don’t ask me why, it just popped outta my mouth) becomes enough of a burden, I will have no problem having her put to sleep. She’ll never have the slightest understanding, pain, fear or sadness about it.
Hell, I’d do it tomorrow except that I do have a * tiny * bit of affection for her after 13 years together, and she’s a little less annoying than she used to be cuz she’s older.
I can pay the bills, but that depends on your definition. I can go into more debt to pay the bills, no sweat. Lots of credit available. But that’s not really “able to pay” by my definition, and I prefer to go into debt for things I really care about, like my dogs.
Obligations? Sorry, nobody ever has an obligation to put themselves in financial straits over a pet. As a pet owner, I have a responsibility to make sure my girls have adequate food, shelter, and water, basic preventive vet care, and to make sure they’re not suffering. Sometimes that means treating illnesses and injuries, but when treatment means I can’t meet my other obligations, it means euthanasia. There’s nothing irresponsible or unethical about putting an animal down when you can’t afford treatment–it’s far more responsible than letting your human family go without to treat the cat and far kinder and more ethical than taking the animal home to die a slow, lingering death.
I’m as crazy about the critters in our family as anybody ever was, but I’m not going into debt (at least not debt that I can’t easily pay off in 2-3 months) for any of them. I have too many responsibilities to myself, my husband, and our other pets to do that. Being realistic about your limitations and responsibilities does NOT make you a bad person.
*A Doper named Stoid had troubles of her own
She had a scabby cat which wouldn’t leave her home;
For thirteen years she wished the cat would go away,
She gave it to a man goin’ far, far away.
But the cat came back the very next day,
The cat came back, we thought he was a goner
But the cat came back; it just couldn’t stay away…*