We had two scares with Sammie in the past; each time he pulled through. This time, we couldn’t do anything more for him. With a heart issue, and a colon issue, it was just time; we got him in before he suffered. http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/692/samsmall2.jpg
Sam has been a wonderful cat; with his broken, hoarse meow (that he was never afraid to use) to him pawing at your leg when he was happy, to his kneading the air and his chainsaw-like purr when he was REALLY happy. He was always there on the stairs to greet us when we came home, and always a butt to our other cat (Lady, see below). After a rough 24 hours, where we gave him all the love we could, we had to let him go this morning. He was only 7-8 years old (he was a rescue, we’re not exactly sure how old).
Thank you You did make me lose it a little bit at dinner tonight, but thank you. I’m such an anxious person, I can’t help but feel guilty / I let him down somehow.
I’ve seen sympathy cards for the loss of a pet. One specifically was for when you’d had the pet put to sleep, and it called it “the last good thing you could do for them” plus some other words of comfort.
I’m sorry for your loss. It’s such a hard thing to do.
I’m sorry too. I understand the part about feeling guilty like you let him down. I just went through that myself this past April with my cat. I made a simple mistake that may have hastened her demise and even though I gave her a good life of 18 years with great medical care and everything a cat could ever want, it took awhile to shake that feeling.
Sammie was lucky to have found you. You rescued him from what probably would have been a very short, hard life. From your post it sounds like he really loved you as much as you loved him.
I’m so sorry for your loss. He was a gorgeous boy! You did not let him down! You did the best thing you could for him, getting him in before he suffered.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I’m stuck at work now, moping this morning, as he won’t greet me at the door tonight. I need to break myself out of the cycle of second-guessing this; everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) who heard what was going on with him agrees it was for the best.