When it's time to take the cat to the clinic.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A little over ten years ago my mom brought home a cross-eyed black kitten that the local pet store hadn’t been able to sell for a few weeks. My father took one look at it and said that he’d throw it in the lake if we kept it. The rest of us named him Murphy Black, after Murphy Brown, Mom’s favorite show. Since then he’s been gracing the house with his presence and we’ve loved him for it.

He’s been diabetic for about the past year. Mom started giving him twice a day shots and medicine, and he’s been doing pretty well. Not quite right, but not in pain or unhappy either, so we’ve been keeping a close eye on him and letting him enjoy the summer.

Today something gave. He couldn’t walk, wouldn’t eat, and just wasn’t there in any sense of the word. We’d been debating about putting him down all summer, and it was clearly time.

My dad becomes a blustery asshole when he’s upset. “I’ll take care of it” was his comment. He regretted it the minute he said it- I know that he just wasn’t up to snapping Murphy’s neck. This comment sent mom into hysterics. “You’re not going to kill the pet we’ve had for ten years like that.” She was right.

So I made phone calls. Our vet- all of the local vets- were closed. Finally we got the number for an emergency clinic an hour away. It felt so fucking genteel- “Hi, can you kill my cat?”

When I put him in the carrier he fought a little bit. I felt an irrational surge of pride- Murphy was still there, a little bit.

I went alone. Mom was in no shape; I didn’t want to drive with her crying her eyes out for two hours and Dad, for all his bluster, didn’t want to go either.

I petted him the whole way. He flicked his ears every now and then.

When I got to the vets I wondered how many times a day they do this sort of thing. Fifty bucks to kill your cat. It’s kind of depressing.

I didn’t know it was so quick. They shave a patch, push in a needle. He licked his mouth and was just… gone. I was holding him when he died. It wasn’t even so much slipping away as it was like flicking off a lightswitch.

I brought him back home and buried him in the backyard. It seemed right.

Murphy was a damn good cat. I’m glad he got to live through summer- it was his favorite season.

Just not the way I expected to spend my day, you know?

2

[sniff sniff]

I’m so sorry, andygirl. What a tough day.

I know that you already know you did the right thing. I’m glad he got to see the summer too. I’ll be thinking of you and your parents.

{{hugs}}
karol

3

Sad. :frowning: So sorry. Tranq says to send his sympathy too.

4

Sorry to hear it, andygirl.

5

{{{andygirl}}}

It was very noble of you to be with Murphy at the end. At the risk of sounding smarmy, I will say it’s one of the greatest acts of love we can do for our pets. And dammit, it’s a hard thing to do. You have my sympathies.

6

Thanks, gang. Been a long day.

It’s just that I don’t feel like I had the right. I took him there to be killed, not even to be examined. There’s a little part of my brain that is saying “You know, he could have lived a little bit longer.” But the truth is that his kidneys had probably failed, so… I keep on telling myself that it had to be done. Give me another few hours and I’ll believe it.

7

i’m sorry.

8

I had to do this with one of our cats several years ago. He had cancer and was in a lot of pain. We had been told that we could have tried to treat it, but it likely wouldn’t have done any good. Sometimes the best thing to do is also the hardest.

Yesterday afternoon I took our seventeen-year-old cat to the vet; she had been losing weight and seemed to be losing control of her hind legs. All the way there I kept trying not to think about the possibility that she might not be coming home. (She did, although the vet did say we might want to have some more tests done later - for possible diabeties or kidney function.)

9

Andygirl: My deepest condolences on your loss. Knowing we have spared them needless pain and suffering is still seldom enough to comfort our own pain and hurt over losing a loved one. My thoughts are with you.

10

I am so sorry Andygirl, and you did do the right thing for your pet. I am sitting here bottle feeding an itty-bitty kitten the momma has rejected because he is a sickly runt. My 8 year old son begged me to save the kitten, so I went out and bought a little bottle & kitten formula from Petsmart and am doing my best. I now dedicate my efforts to you and your little crossed-eyed pet. Am I doing the right thing? My wife thinks I’m nuts, but then she does not agree with anything I do lately.

11

:frowning:

12

Andygirl,

I lost a cat a few years ago to diabetes in much the same way. I lost another to cancer a few months ago. Both were beloved family pets,

I feel for you and I’m sorry for your loss.

Take care.

13

**andygirl, ** many of us have been where you are, and it sure feels awful. Even when we know it was right to do as we did, and as you did with Murphy, it still is the hardest thing to get through. I will be thinking of you today, and hoping you get to feeling better.

14

I can’t tell you how sorry I am. :frowning: I’ve lost one to diabetes, one to breast cancer, and one to hyperthyroidism. My only consolation was that I gave them good lives when they were living.

It’s harder when pets are ill because they’re so dependent on us.

15

fireman 44, you are doing the right thing. you are giving the kitten a chance. it is amazing to watch the really wee ones grow minute by minute and day to day.

i hope all goes well.

16

andy - my sympathies. Maybe we don’t have the right, but for better or worse, we’re in the position of having to make this decision for them, and it’s always hard to know whether it’s too soon, or whether you’re hanging onto them too long, or what.

My wife and I have had to go through this with three of our cats in the past 5 years. With two of them, it was pretty clear when the time came, but with my beloved Fuzzer, I’m still not sure what the right thing to do was. So my heart goes out to you. It’s never easy.

17

It’s not a right, it’s a duty that we owe to them. We aren’t perfect, and don’t always make the perfect decision, but (and IANAV) it sounds like Murphy had some kind of attack, and it would have been cruel to put him through all sorts of medical procedures. Maybe he could have breathed for a bit longer, but I’m not sure that he would have been really living.

You did the kindest thing.

The price of their love is the pain of their leaving.

18

I’m so sorry. :frowning:

19

Our cat had diabetes when I was a kid. One day she just crawled behind the fridge, refusing to eat. A few days after that, we took her to the vet, expecting (rightly) the worst.

On the vet’s advice, we tearfully had her ‘put to sleep’, me and my dad. He said upon leaving, ‘That was a shit detail’ though he was not generally prone to using profanity in front of me.

He had been in the Air Force, and explained that in the service, a ‘shit detail’ was an assignment that was exceptionally onerous or troubling.

That expressed the feeling perfectly.