If you are not an animal lover or never have had to deal with the death of a pet, then you will not understand the hurt which comes with making the decision to put one to sleep too soon due to disease. This is what happened today to my little friend, K.C. You can read about her in a post I wrote dated January 22, 2009 titled "My Little Shadow".
K.C. was diagnosed with Feline Leukemia in May 2008 after we had adopted her in August 2007. We never knew she had this disease until long after she had lived with us and our other cat, Harley. It is possible that she has passed it on to Harley, but at this time, I do not want to know. Harley seems healthy. K.C. had her good and bad days - sometimes she would sleep all day and then be fine the next 5 or 6. Toward the end, it became harder to get her to eat as she couldn't smell food that well which meant she didn't want to eat. But she maintained her petite weight of 6 pounds for a long time.
I could tell she was having more bad days than good, but she still kept going until the last 3 weeks. I took her to the vet on 07/01/09 (she had not been since 08/08) and she was running fever and had 3 injections and IV fluids. She perked up and it bought us another good week, but I could tell she was not going to come out of it this time. After watching her yesterday and last night, I knew it was time. I had hoped she would pass on her own, but I did have to make that decision this morning and now her pain and suffering are over.
So if you have never experienced this type of loss of a family pet, it is hard to imagine the pain I feel today. Her 2 years of love was worth every bit of the hurt I have right now. Wish she could had lived a long time.
