She'd gone down hill and could not control her bladder or bowels any longer.
I made the decision which I absolutely hate doing. I don't like to play god.
Lucy showed up in a live trap over two years ago when I was trying to solve the Mountain Shadows trailer park problem in Sweet Home. She was dreadfully thin.
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| This was Lucy just after I trapped her |
I took out four old kitties--Pepper, Joplin, Clementine and Lucy.
Joplin lasted about 8 months with a friend who adopted him before he died.
Pepper, who was terribly matted, lasted only a few months as she had off the charts hyperthyroid that had damaged her heart by the time treatment began.
Clementine survived about a year, with another friend, before she died.
Lucy lasted the longest of the four. They all had right ear tips and no one had gotten cats fixed at that park with ear tips for over a decade, probably much longer.
Lucy and Clemmie were eating food garbage one tenant dumped out behind their trailer when I first saw them. I was horrified to see that.
She was so thin, I took her to Heartland Humane and Courtney examined her and said "give her a chance" and gave her a droncit injection to rid her of tapeworms. Over time, she gained weight and became happy here. She'd want hugged and to climb up onto my shoulder.
After Miss Daisy died last October, Lucy took over sleeping next to me nights, needing the warmth of my body to keep her old body warm.
Rest in peace my dear girl. I was honored to provide you a last respite and happiness in your final years.
So sorry! She turned into a beautiful cat with your love and attention.
ReplyDeleteShe was very beautiful, Kathy, in spirit also. I loved her.
DeleteI'm so sorry. What a wonderful two years you gave her at the end of her life.
ReplyDeleteWell she gave me a great deal too. When Miss Daisy died and I was so devastated, Lucy would hug me and be right there.
DeleteThat final decision is always dreadfully hard. And how I hope some on can/will make it for me.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for giving Lucy a couple of wonderful years.
Yes its such a hard thing to say "its your time to go". I don't like it. I just don't.
Delete"That final decision is always dreadfully hard. And how I hope some on can/will make it for me."
DeleteI hope that someone will be so brave. I hope it for me too, but I have no one but Peggy, and if the choice were between her being arrested and me suffering, I would surely vote to suffer. If the roles were reversed, I know that I would prefer that I be arrested, that is if I survived her by more than a few minutes. The fact that there would be a purpose in me being arrested for doing what I had to do might even be sufficient to inspire me to go on living. That purpose would be that if enough people paid the legal consequences for relieving their loved one's suffering, it would eventually bring about humane laws, something that we would probably have already if no for opposition from religious people.
It's ridiculous humans are made to suffer through to the end in awful nursing homes, laying there moaning, alone. It's horrible we do this to our own species.
DeleteThat is a nice tribute to a dear departed mate.
ReplyDeleteShe was a good friend, Andrew.
DeleteIt is always difficult to make that decision but as my vet always reminds me, it is a kindness we do for our much loved animals.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry for the loss of your lovely Lucy. :(
Yes, you are right, she was having a terrible time of it. She loved life, like Miss Daisy, no complaining out of her ever. She liked to curl next to me with her back to my stomach in bed.
DeleteMy goodness, Daisy has been dead nearly a year!
ReplyDeleteBrewsky has been sick with a couple of problems lately that made it necessary to put drops in his eye, pills down his throat, and an Elizabethean collar around his neck. All this made me wonder how you manage, not just the bills but the physical care of so many "special needs" cats.... Brewsky's food alone costs $80 for a 15-pound bag, but if he didn't have that food, he would die, so what do YOU do when you run into something like that?
I haven't so far, thank goodness, although Gretal has IBS and is feral, so she can't have daily meds for it, so I net her once a month and give her fluids and a steroid shot. Otherwise, sick bay is either the bathroom or cages, so I can get at them easier and don't have to chase them down. Most of the cats here are wild.
DeleteI was remiss in not offering my condolences upon the death of Lucy. I have had three much loved dogs euthanized, so I surely understand how you must feel. And to think that Lucy had taken over some of the role that your beloved Daisy played! When I got up just now, I stood looking out the same kitchen window that my father looked out, and how I missed him. When he lay dying, the hospice nurse gave me a bottle of liquid morphine, and told me not to worry about overdosing him. I didn't. I sometimes wonder if I might not have killed him. I doubt it because so much liquid from his lungs was coming out his mouth that it probably washed the morphine out with it, but if I did kill my father, I'm only glad that he didn't have to suffer (he appeared unconscious). He had even said, "Don't let me suffer," and I had promised him that I wouldn't. All this is to say that I understand how dreadful for you to have given the order to kill the object of your love. I'm ever touched and inspired by your bravery.
DeleteIt is very hard on me to say to my friend "now you die" because I cannot bear to see you suffer. She can't make the decision so it must be me. I don't like that. If you killed your father Snow, sounds like it was beyond his time, with what you describe and nobody wants to live through that.
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