Work is a safe haven
Our cat has been peeing on everything. He especially likes the our bed sheets and my younger son's shirts.
Finally we took the cat to the vet and it turns out he had crystals in his bladder. I'm not going into the chemistry lesson of acid and base and crystals. Mostly because I couldn't follow the vet's explanation, but the bottom line was that we had to do medicine for three days and then special food.
For a while, the cat was well enough to follow Melissa around the house and cuddle in between the curl of her legs whenever she lay down.
The problem is we feed twenty barn cats. And two house cats. Three house cats if you count the outside cat that we can't keep outside. And four if you count the dog, who wont' stop eating the cat food.
So all the animals were eating the very expensive medical cat food, and before I could figure out what to do, the cat was peeing on everything again.
It turns out the cat cannot have any other food. So we would have to have only very expensive cat food, for all the cats, and every time the sick cat got table scraps, we'd have to get the crystal medicine again.
So we had to decide: Do we kill the cat because we don't want to buy expensive cat food?
No. That felt very bad.
So we waited a few days to try to figure things out.
Then the cat was in huge pain because he couldn't pee.
Now I felt I could put him to sleep for being in pain. A more clear cut decision.
The vet said if the cat can't pee he needs an operation. We watched him try to pee. He couldn't.
We sat the kids down and told them it was time for the cat to die.
We said goodbye to the cat. Who, by now, smelled a lot like I'd imagine something smells before death.
Melissa and I went to the vet while the kids and the Farmer dug a hole in our pet cemetery. (Does every family have one of these?)
The vet squashed the cat's belly and said, “We were able to clear the urinary tract and expel urine. So you just need to treat him with medicine and keep him on the special food.”
I looked at the cat. He was purring in the vet's arms.
I looked at Melissa. She was crying. “He's such a good cat,” she said.
It's true, he's a good cat. But we can't keep him on the special food. And we live in a part of the world where people shoot extra cats for fun — they don't adopt old cats with expensive dietary needs.
I asked the vet if she thought it was immoral.
The vet said, “I don't pass judgment.”
I put the cat to sleep.
Was it okay to put the cat to sleep? I don't know. But I'll tell you. It's why I like work so much better than real life.
In work things are clear cut. There is a goal, and you can measure which action gets you to the goal fastest. There are laws to tell you what you can do and what you can't do.
Here's a site that advertises online MBAs programs. They offered to pay me to link to them. Melissa said, “I don't know if you want to. You hate business school.”
It's true, I do think business school is lame. But so what? This is not an ethical issue. They are paying me.
Also, it's a great site. They have such a good marketing strategy: They create a great infographic that gives people a reason to link to them, and then they rank high on Google for the words Women in Business, and then they get referral money for getting women to pay for MBA programs.
I love this business. (And, based on how creative it is, I'm nearly certain that the person who thought of it does not have an MBA.)
Sometimes I think I want to be a stay-at-home mom. I want to just be with my kids. It's so nice to be with my kids. But kids and families are filled with difficult questions like, When can you kill your cat? It's so comforting to be able to wake up in the morning and answer the question: Who should I link to today?
Just when the vet got the crystal to pass and the cat was purring, I thought, oh great! They’ll save the cat. But then, you put your cat to death to save some money. You could have researched cheaper food, you could have contacted your SPCA to adopt him out, you could have isolated him in your garage or crate while you fed him, you could use the power of the blog to raise money or adopt him out, or used the money from the MBA ads to pay for the Science Diet, or something else. I feel bad for Melissa. Maybe it could have been Melissa’s project to find him a new home.
I have an idea! Put Melissa to ‘sleep.’ She’s really contributing very little.
Good lord people. Expand your view to include something that is not your vision of the world and what ought or not happen in that utopia. I had a female cat with crystals. We paid and paid and fed her special med and food for a year and she was still ill and thin and diminishing. We live, we die. The unfortunate thing about pets is sometimes we decide when they die. If that makes you uncomfortable, don’t own pets. It is a responsibility. Penelope made a decision, it is not imperative you agree with it. Cut and dried work is waaaaay easier than ‘real life.’ I appreciate the blunt honestly of this post. Thanks, P.
Blunt honesty would be great if it weren’t tinged with the need to post controversial stories to increase traffic to your blog.
Sarah,
Less time commenting on blogs and more time pounding sand.
Thank you.
I think deciding without any research that nobody will adopt the cat (my friend adopted out a non-hunting cat from his farm to the neighbors, who wanted a mostly indoors pet cat) and not exploring the surgery option was a bit lame.
But even lamer from a career advise blogging perspective was the claim that at work, ethics or feelings don’t exist or matter, and there is a goal and that’s all.
“There is” a goal? Where did it come from? God created it? It has nothing to do with values and ethics and feelings?
And all that matters is getting to that goal with the least effort?
That’s so deeply, deeply lame. It’s enough to make Seth Godin weep. It reads like it was written by a very young person who has never had a job of any kind.
If the goal of this blog post was to get traffic and fill in space, with the least intellectual effort possible, it succeeded.
But what kind of a goal is that?
“This is not an ethical issue”
Every issue is an ethical issue, whether it is choosing to let your pet go out of convenience or choosing to accept money to promote something you fundamentally don’t agree with. However, your ethics are your own and you are the one the lives with your choices and decisions. Just don’t think that you can separate yourself and compartmentalize yourself so much that ethics and morality don’t play a role in every decision you make.
Interestingly, more people now know about the life and death of this cat than most cats and many humans. The cat’s memory lives on.
This website is found to be in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Your site is now currently being manually checked for the sale of text links ads and will be penalized accordingly.
I’m not going to talk about the cat. It’s just sad.
But on the subject of selling text links – it’s a dangerous strategy and not as clear cut as you think. I have lots of companies wanting to buy links on my site (even though it’s teeny tiny compared with yours) and I see no ethical dilemma if I disclose it to my readers. The problem is that if Google finds out that you are selling text links, they will punish you by nixing your site in search traffic. I know people who have had this happen to them.
“Hayatta iki Åeye güveniyorum. Biri aynaya baktıÄımda gördüÄüme, diÄeri yukarı baktıÄımda göremediÄime..”
“Hayatta iki Åeye güveniyorum. Biri aynaya baktıÄımda gördüÄüme, diÄeri yukarı baktıÄımda göremediÄime..””Hayatta iki Åeye güveniyorum. Biri aynaya baktıÄımda gördüÄüme, diÄeri yukarı baktıÄımda göremediÄime..”
Penelope defended herself once. She asked if the negative response authors had gotten the main idea. The main idea was not the death of a cat. The main idea was work as a safe haven, removed from tough decisions. (In her original post, she gave 2 examples of tough decisions–cat and link to MBA pgm)
But the preponderance of responses have been about the death of the cat. This may be a message to Penelope that she can gain readership if she finds a really controversial idea. Responses to death of a cat vastly out-number responses to sex writer, written only a few days before . . . Highly instructive. Perhaps surprising? She may or may not choose to capitalize on this info. It is her call.
Next item. Personal attacks. Feeding frenzy. Sharks responses to blood in the water. Willingness to vilify and pass judgment. Using the label “ethics” is not a free pass to attack. IMO.
Next. You cannot draw any conclusions about Penelope’s character based on this post. You are not there. You have only the info that Penelope has chosen to give you. You do not know the context. You cannot know what kind of mate, mother, friend, businesswoman she is. All of the remarks that disparage Penelope’s integrity are speculation fueled by the willingness to engage in personal attack.
Further, you cannot define “humane” vaguely and assert that Penelope is NOT humane. “Humane,” its definition, is a moving target–or call it a gray area, as some responders have done.
In fact, ethics is only worthy of debate BECAUSE there are so many gray areas. “Humane” has many definitions, each of which is put forth by (more or less) sincere debaters.
I don’t disagree with free speech at all. Responders are free to respond. I am standing up against personal attack, though.
I am objecting to the false conclusions and false generalizations I saw in some of the responses–flaws in logical thinking and flaws in open-mindedness, to my way of thinking.
It seems to me that Penelope is trying to make applications between daily life events and work-related events and skills.
That is legit.
“Penelope defended herself once. She asked if the negative response authors had gotten the main idea. The main idea was not the death of a cat. The main idea was work as a safe haven, removed from tough decisions. (In her original post, she gave 2 examples of tough decisions – cat and link to MBA pgm)”
Well the problem is that these weren’t theoretical examples to support her main point. These were real-world examples where in my opinion Penelope made bad decisions…really bad decisions.
Work may be a safe haven if you don’t have the skills to make decent decisions in your personal life. But in my experience there are hard decisions to make at work too. In fact I consider home my safe haven.
I do agree with your comment about personal attacks. As much as I disagree with what Penelope did in both of these situations, I think some are crossing a line with their responses. The cat situation in particular struck a chord with me and it was hard to try to respond in a civil way.
But I think maybe the more constructive thing that will hopefully come out of this is that Penelope understands why these two issues have generated such an impassioned response. And that she thinks more clearly in the future about her decisions.
I’m ready for a new topic.
I would give you my opinion of you and what you are teaching your kids, how you don’t deserve to even have children if you can’t accept the responsibility of animal ownership, but it seems that a lot of people have already told you what a low life you are. Alex, our first cat, had the exact crystals in his bladder. Most male cats will get it. The “expensive” cat food is Science Diet lite which is available almost everywhere. After we got our other two cats they were all eating it and it was not that much more that a good quality cat food anyway. After Alex’s diagnosis, he lived 15 more years. Was it the right decision? Apparently for you it was. And I pray to God that you will never have another animal for you to kill again.
Wow. I am more than disappointed that I finally made the time to read this post. I am in utter disbelief that you couldn’t problem solve your way out of murdering your cat. The cat only had the crystals because of the shit you fed it. A lot of times dairy is to blame. You couldn’t lock the cat in the bathroom for a half hour with its food so the other animals didn’t eat it? I agree with everyone who called you lazy. You should not own pets.
I just recently started reading your blog and now you’ve helped me to make my own “clear cut” decision. To never read your blog again. People like you shouldn’t have pets.
DISGUSTING! I hope that people really are opened up to the type of person you are and they look at your reasons for doing all of this.
I am amazed that you were so ready and willing to put a PET down just because you couldn’t figure out a way to feed a cat behind closed doors? People with a lot less than you with less help and less money are able to care for special needs pets, and your pet was hardly special needs..
Lady – homeless people who have pets take better care of their pets. People without homes and without food choose to feed their pet over themselves because they understand the value of companionship and the responsibility of this life that you CHOSE to take in to your home.
You should feel like a complete and total idiot after reading the hardships these people endured while still loving and looking out for the well being of their PETS!
http://www.valleydogs.org/VetsAndTheirPets/vetsandtheirpets.html
http://news.change.org/stories/free-vet-clinic-helps-the-homeless-help-their-pets
http://www.petsofthehomeless.org/what-we-do/success-stories.html
You are a disgusting person who clearly has $$ in your eyes. I can only hope that you get smacked in the face by reality.
Oh guess what – People in my neighborhood drown their kids in cars in a lake. Can I babysit?
I once knew a woman who lived in a fancy-schmancy house in one of the tonier neighborhoods in Cincinnati with two young boys and a SheepDog.
They got the dog as a puppy.
Small yard, expensive furniture – you get the picture.
The dog got big.
Too big.
The dog was relegated to the basement.
One day, the woman drove her two young boys with the Sheepdog between the boys in the backseat to the vet’s.
They stopped at McDonald’s for lunch on the way.
They dog had a cheeseburger.
At the vet’s she had the dog destroyed.
It happens.
THINK before you get an animal.
Wow I am really surprised and then not so surprised at all the heat your last blog post is generating. I feel compelled to write to you. I can't pin point why. For starters I hope you and Melissa and the whole family are doing ok with the loss of the cat and all the negative comments. Part of me hopes you are just fine and once the choice was made that sense of relief washed over all of you.
As for the negative Nancy's just know that animal people are weird at least from my experience with them. Well, you've seen it in the traffic. It's as if they mean well but they’re lost in a world that I struggle to relate to at times. My background is that of a farm girl who went to NY for college. Somewhere along the line I ended up in DC and then 9-11 happened. I moved to KS at that point. It was nuts. I then became very interested in veterinary medicine after a vet visit to our local teaching hospital. I was fascinated by the options and then the moral dilemma it all created.
Whenever, I find myself fascinated I immerse myself in whatever it is. I did this with Vet Med and leaned so much. I've now worked at a zoo, small animal clinic, humane society, a couple of non-profits that focus on animal welfare and I went back to college to get all my vet school pre-requisites. Along the way I've meet some crazy people and some that value pets to the ends of the earth. Hey its fine if they want to what I have a problem with is when they expect the rest of us to-do that. It's not fair.
All of that to say I get it and it's nobody's choice but yours. I like your vet for her/his comment. The other aspect I like is the fact that you made a decision.
I bristle when I see the comments about take it to the shelter, call the SPCA, ask one of your readers to take the cat. Options sure but to me they are just passing the buck. The reality is the cat has a problem and it's a lifelong problem. A decision needed to be made.
I also think it was extremely compassionate of you. There are so many that value life over quality of life. There is a HUGE difference.
I also noticed that a number of readers are making some twisted connection to the Humane Goat Cheese venture. Give me a break! I sure hope the farmer is a good sounding board for you because these two issues from my perspective don't intersect. The agriculture community needs advancements and Humane Goat Cheese would be a great one. I hope he sees that as well and can bring that component to your start-up.
I don’t understand why you couldn’t feed all the cats the diet. It’s a common problem and the food isn’t that expensive.
But my point is every author should know you can’t kill a cat or dog in narrative and expect to get away with in the U S of A. You can kill a kid, torture folk, do whatever, anything but kill a pet.
Fer shame.
We can only hope that someone will put you to sleep once you become too inconvenient and unpleasant to deal with. Which apparently has already happened.
What an ugly, loathsome, cowardly excuse for a human being you are. Your children should be taken away from your “care.” You are a really lousy mother, teaching children to throw away living creatures when you are too cheap and stupid to help them.
Karma is a bitch, and so are you. And that is an insult to bitches everywhere.
I agree with Monica. Animal life and death is a hot-button issue. It’s been that way on this blog, and it’s that way in life. Very polarizing, and seems to bring out the categorically UGLY in people. I’m not weighing in, therefore, on the cat’s euthanasia. For my own part I have a diabetic pet for whom I’ve been caring for 3 years now – and I’m (an MBA) between jobs. Takin’ it day by day.
This whole flap does NOT prompt me to unsubscribe. Heard it, seen it, will see it all AGAIN. Can’t speak for anyone else, but whenever I read this kinda thing I check myself to see if anything new was/can be learned.
I’m just going to echo your ‘annoying’ commenters by saying you could have rehoused the cat.
I’m fairly certain with your readership base, one of them would have taken it had they known the only other option was that you’d kill it even when it was healthy.
I have to say it seemed from the top of the post that you wanted a reason to get rid of the cat.
It’s pretty callous.
The post is a just one long guilt trip and then the comment responses read like denial.
I’m disappointed.
Wow, this post earned a lot of scathing commentary from your readers, Penelope. I feel like every opinion from here to eternity has been stated and echoed, so I’ll spare mine on the hot issues (cat and MBA) and continue to chuckle about the title, “Work is a Safe Haven.” Just seems ironic given the lambasting comments I’ve been perusing here. I wish work were a safe haven – it just runs tangent to life, which gets messy and bleeds into work – I hear you on clear cut work-work decisions. Unfortunately, no job is immune from work-life situations. Maybe write a post "My Blog is a Safe Haven" – oh, wait, nope – .it's not.
If you have one cat, you can do the special food and medicine route. In your situation, you caused less pain this way. Sympathies: it’s never easy.
These posts are very entertaining.
I challenge anyone who has never lived on a working form to try it for a year. Pen is giving us the vicarious experience of just such a shift and what happens to you.
My 19 year old cat and I have already had a conversation. I told her to please just die in her sleep one night and spare me the agony of having her put down, because if she loves me why would she not want to make it easy for me as I have made it easy for her all these years?
Yeah, right. Trust me, fimiona. She won’t (spare you).
Easy to pass judgement from here. Hard to live with the reality. Are there strategies that would have kept some of the other critters out of the special food? Probably. To me the bigger question is would that really have been any easier or better for the cat? Probably not.
It’s hard. I had two cats put down within 6 months of each other. One was 17 and one was 18. They weren’t well and it was the right thing to do. Not easy, but right.
Work is indeed a safe haven when things are difficult at home!!
this post has proven to me that everyone involved is a complete and utter loon and dimwitted too boot. How these people manage to keep themselves alive on a day to day basis is beyond me – the human body is truly resilent. This would all be entertaining if not for the children.
this post saddens me… I can’t judge you for doing what you thought was right. But you write about it with a strange callousness. Maybe that’s just schtick… idk
You come across as a casual cat owner, someone that just thinks: “its just a cat”. I know those types of people and again, I don’t judge them. I see them as ignorant and have not had the experience of a mutual loving friendship with an animal.
A post like this is going to offend many people, because for some (like me), cats (and dogs) are like part of the family. And we’d do anything for them.. and because of that, we’d never have animals that we couldn’t afford to take care of or physically handle.
So much focus on the cat. Penelope made an ethical choice somewhere on the grey-scale real-life continuum. We all calibrate our definitions of what’s ethical differently. I don’t care about the cat. What’s important is this; in real life we have to make complex ethical choices all the time to which there is no right or wrong answer. At work, most of the time, there is a clearly defined “right” choice and “wrong” choice predetermined by our employer. It might not be explicitly stated, but it’s there. If it matches up with our personal ethical code, then we’re in the right place. If it doesn’t, it’s time to move on.
Wow. It’s not an ethical issue. It’s a stupidity issue. You are an incredibly stupid person. Can’t figure out how to separate a cat from the rest of your household for a few days to feed him specialized food? I’ve not read you blog before (a “friend” of mine posted it on facebook – needless to say she is not my facebook “friend” anymore” but it feels like you killed him to write a post about it. That is, by the way, very, very unethical.
I made it to the point in this post where you killed the cat and I suddenly felt a little sick. For what it’s worth, this complete stranger thinks you have too many cats. I think, actually, that even one pet of any kind is too much responsibility for someone like you. I’m not even a liberal tree hugger hippie peta kind of person, but I think your decision was selfish and set a pretty bad example. I’m unsubscribing from your feed.
A good and short post on everyday living with household animals. I have the same situation with an older tom. Except he’s sanitary, and feeding is manageable.
You do have to be able to shoot your own dog — Robert Heinlein.
I just found this blog through an old post from 2007, interestedly clicked on the home page to read more updated links and came across this post. I was excited to find out more about your theories and advice, but it just seems you are a terrible, selfish person. It seems many of your longtime readers agree with me. I won’t be returning to this blog, or click on any of your links to give you one penny.
And I’m done with this blog. You put an an animal to death because it inconvenienced you. A living creature that depended on you.
You don’t deserve my time.
When it comes to whether or not to put down an animal, I think I’d turn to “farmer” and ask him. This is not your area of expertise. I get UTIs all the time (I’m broken and the doctors can’t fix me) so it’s possible that I’m just reacting too strongly to your post. BTW, I’ve been meaning to tell you that having the kids make their own lunches works surprisingly well. I know people who started this practice as early as kindergarten. We tried it out and I _love_ it.
I had to make a similar tough decision over a pet cat who grew an enlarged heart due to hyperthyroidism. It was hell trying to keep her well and she just wasn’t the same cat.
I suffer from hypothyroidism and had mixed feeling about talking to my son about putting down his cat, since we shared a common disease.
He understood and agreed that she was miserable. He was only 12 at the time. Now the vet? The vet gave me a hard time about wanting to put her down — even though she weighed no more than a doughnut and couldn’t breathe.
We buried her in her favorite place to sleep int he back yard and I felt it was an important decision my son made. I don’t want to be kept alive by machines and lay in a bed not able to experience life.
If I don’t want to be “kept alive” why should a cat under my care suffer because it’s a difficult decision.
My son talked me into a new cat a few years later. She kills all kinds of things: rats, birds, moths, flies, mice, moles and gophers. It’s like she thinks she is earning her keep.
I like her. She’s feisty.
But I still like men, sex and healthy relationships. Just to let you know … ;-)
Catherine
After we had to put our cat down after 16 years due to total kidney failure, our vet sent us a beautiful sympathy card with the poem Rainbow Bridge. I’m not usually into sentimental stuff, but this went right through my heart. Here it is:
Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….
Author unknown…
:)
The Rainbow Bridge legend is entirely touching. I can’t read it without tearing up. That said…Penelope may be narcissistic but cruelty sometimes goes not far behind loving an animal. We had to put down our dog in 2009–a beautiful shepherd/rottie mix. He woke up unable to move, peed on the kitchen flood, and could not eat. I sat with him all afternoon and gave him a form of permission to go if he had to. Amazingly, he got up and we took him to the vet. He had splenic hemangiosarcoms, a form a cancer that was bleeding into his ruptured spleen. The vet told surgery would be unaffordable: between $6,000 and $7,500. And to purchase the shell of the dog we loved. At most he would last about 60 days more. We made a terrible decision, to let him go. He kissed my companion goodbye by licking her face. I think he was grateful. Was it “easy” to let him go? Was it “convenient” for us? No, and it was a gift of love, not of narcissism. We could not bear to let him suffer to gratify our need to have him around, dying a day at a time. Was THAT narcissistic? If you think that, you are more to be pitied than condemned–and and you ARE to be condemned as well.
This is SO a case of horses for courses. My mate spent so much on his dog recently, he had to delete a room from the plans for his first home! Check out this story:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/rave-the-dog-licks-death-sentence/story-e6frf7kx-1225936213314
I forked out $3K to keep my doggie alive two years ago. My dad said ‘help it to heaven’, but if you can’t have kids, one tends to take a longer view. The extra two years have been worth every cent, and it looks like there’s plenty of life left in the old girl yet. :)
Jeez, all these people who think they know how to live your life better than you do. I’ve had to put a cat down for similar reasons. I had the cat for 13 years, but things happen. Cats are not children and each person must find that point at which it taking care of the cat becomes too much.
You did the right thing. Keep it simple and move on.
I’ve always had cats. Love them beyond reason. I mighta done more, but I live in the city w/no children and some dough for the vet.
You’re fine. Appreciate your horse sense.
Someone I know had two dogs, had to put one down because of sickness. Now his wife wants to buy a cat to keep the remaining dog company.
In other words she wants her pet to have a pet.
This is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard.
Please, please don’t buy a horse, like you said you were going to a while back. Horses live thirty years plus these days and have complex health/injury issues, but need knowledge and money (foot care, teeth care) to keep them healthy in the first place. In the light of how far you were prepared to go and how much you were prepared to spend on one cat, you must. not. consider getting a horse. It’s a much, much bigger commitment.
I’m not going to pass judgement on what you did. It’s done. It’s over. However, might I suggest that there may have been a family out there more than willing to take your kitty with his bladder issues and loved him and allowed him to live a full life? I think that is an option you and your vet never considered.
I also live on a farm. We have a lot of animals. We have one cat, Hal, who is our $2,000 cat. He had to have surgery, yes, bladder surgery, but likely different from what your kitty had. And we spent the money for his surgery, because when we take an animal in, even a stray, like our kitty was, we take that critter in for better or for worse, or we don’t take it in at all.
So, the cat food that our vet recommended was pricey. I bought a bag of it and looked at the ingredients. In this particular case, the amount of fiber was of most importance. I looked and looked and found a different, much lower priced cat food that had close to the same fiber ratio. And yes, all 9 of our cats get this food – it is more expensive than Purina, but much less expensive than the prescription food.
And for us, it is worth it. Because, when we bring another animal into our lives, onto our farm, we agree that we are going to care for that animal properly and do all we can to allow it to live out its natural life – even it it does cost some extra money.
So, my suggestions are thus:
1. Think about options. Get second opinions. Use your brain, which is obviously a good brain, and see if you can figure out a way to allow a good critter to live without it breaking your bank. I don’t think you ever considered options, and I’m sad for you that you had to go through the tears of putting your cat to sleep because you were not open to other possibilities.
2. Think about other people. There are a lot of people out there who would help you keep that kitty alive.
Its rather ridiculous. Though I think I understand how Penelope felt. We would punch our cat very hard for stealing food (she would steal food even if we are watching her) but we can never kill one. Though we can throw the cat away but I would never approve of the killing.
I love the pic!
True. Maybe the cat would get healed if you have been patient.
Tough decision. I’ve been there many times and am currently going through a similar situation with my 14 year-old cat. But now I have only two cats . . . at one time I had 14.
Nearly 30 years ago I had a male cat, ‘Winter’ with the FUTD. At the time he was almost 2 years-old. The operation to clear up the FUTD cost $2,000 and was so new my vet had another vet come in to assist and guide him through the procedure. $2,000 was a lot of money back then (still is) but that cat lived 20 years and was the healthiest bugger I’ve had so far! FUTD can be cured and cats can do well without expensive food. I did supplement my cats diet with ascorbic acid just in case but it wasn’t a big deal. I don’t know what the surgery cost nowadays but cost is a factor in these decisions. Pet insurance is also an option but you must make sure things like FUTD are covered. Just so others know, there are alternatives to euthanasia with FUTD.
At some point we all need to make these difficult decisions with our companion animals. I appreciate that you’ve taken in cats and are caring for them when others have abandoned them.
You’re a good soul. No judgement here.
“Self help is the best help”, they say. True that is. No one can improve you better than you yourself can. No one can help you better than you yourself can. To be happy, feel lucky and enjoy life, you need to be able to love yourself. You need to help yourself make the most of every moment; you need to help yourself make the fullest use of everything you have within. You need to keep improving yourself, constantly. Yes, continuous improvement of the self, is the key.
I am a dog person and my dog was having serious health issues. It turns out that most dry dog food is over 90 days old when it hits the shelves of pet shops. After 90 days the ingredients are seriously degraded. If it wasn’t for this site, http://whatisthebestdogfood.org I never would have figured out what was causing his health problems. Now I order food that is made and then delivered fresh right to my door