[quote author=SeanAndHis80 link=board=2;threadid=11823;start=msg109505#msg109505 date=1077633512]
B and others -
I read this post and cried. I avoided it for a couple of days and then read it again and could not hold back the tears.
I thought about this for a while and realized that my pets experience is part of my tears. If you don't mind I'll tell you his story if I can fight back the tears long enough...
Simon was an Abyssinian cat. Pure bred, but I didn't pay $800 or whatever the going cost was. Simon was, well, an unsucessful breeder. The cold catery that he came from had no use for him - all this at the age of two. My wife and I adopted him and found him a little friend, Taffy, at the local shelter. Taffy adored Simon. It took Simon months to get used to the freedoms of being a beloved house pet. He was very affectionate to me and I treated him like my son.
Then one day Simon stopped eating. I'll never forget the drive to the vet. They had moved across town and I couldn't find them at first - all with my poor boy miserable in the cage next to me. With tears in my eyes I eventually found the vet and sat holding my breath while he was examined. After the blood work came back it was found that the cause of his problems was cronic renal (kidney) failure. He was on his way out. I was given a short list of unbelievably difficult choices. Dialysis, wait, or put him down. Dialysis would only delay the inevitable ...and Simon, like you describe Gocko, hated to be handled - so treatment was not for him. We decided to wait, hoping that a miracle would happen.
I put my life on hold for the next couple of weeks using vacation time I had accrued to be with him. We mostly layed around and did little. While this was happening my in-laws had planned to come up. I didn't want them there because they are not animal lovers ...my mother-in-law does not like them at all. Even though I protested to them they insisted on coming up. As Simon was in his last breaths, I was upstairs crying, and I could heay my wife's parents chatting away about absolutely nothing downstairs. I told them to leave, and have never forgiven them to this day - although I'm OK with at face value with them.
Simon was gone at the young age of 4 1/2. Every time we looked at Taffy we cried. As I buried him one amazing thing happened. A piliated woodpecker landed on the tree next me no more than ten feet away. It had to be 20" long from head to tail and just beautiful. I had never seen one so close up. Somehow I think he knew my pain...
Sorry for the long story, I don't know if it was theraputic as I have tears running down my face as I am posting this. I miss my buddy, and I have a good idea how you feel.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Pitbull, I can't imagine how that feels. That is such a sad story. Peace.
[/quote]
Sean -- there are so many truisms in what you say from my own experiences -- thank you so much for writing this, and I am in definite agreement with your actions on your in-laws --
eric
B and others -
I read this post and cried. I avoided it for a couple of days and then read it again and could not hold back the tears.
I thought about this for a while and realized that my pets experience is part of my tears. If you don't mind I'll tell you his story if I can fight back the tears long enough...
Simon was an Abyssinian cat. Pure bred, but I didn't pay $800 or whatever the going cost was. Simon was, well, an unsucessful breeder. The cold catery that he came from had no use for him - all this at the age of two. My wife and I adopted him and found him a little friend, Taffy, at the local shelter. Taffy adored Simon. It took Simon months to get used to the freedoms of being a beloved house pet. He was very affectionate to me and I treated him like my son.
Then one day Simon stopped eating. I'll never forget the drive to the vet. They had moved across town and I couldn't find them at first - all with my poor boy miserable in the cage next to me. With tears in my eyes I eventually found the vet and sat holding my breath while he was examined. After the blood work came back it was found that the cause of his problems was cronic renal (kidney) failure. He was on his way out. I was given a short list of unbelievably difficult choices. Dialysis, wait, or put him down. Dialysis would only delay the inevitable ...and Simon, like you describe Gocko, hated to be handled - so treatment was not for him. We decided to wait, hoping that a miracle would happen.
I put my life on hold for the next couple of weeks using vacation time I had accrued to be with him. We mostly layed around and did little. While this was happening my in-laws had planned to come up. I didn't want them there because they are not animal lovers ...my mother-in-law does not like them at all. Even though I protested to them they insisted on coming up. As Simon was in his last breaths, I was upstairs crying, and I could heay my wife's parents chatting away about absolutely nothing downstairs. I told them to leave, and have never forgiven them to this day - although I'm OK with at face value with them.
Simon was gone at the young age of 4 1/2. Every time we looked at Taffy we cried. As I buried him one amazing thing happened. A piliated woodpecker landed on the tree next me no more than ten feet away. It had to be 20" long from head to tail and just beautiful. I had never seen one so close up. Somehow I think he knew my pain...
Sorry for the long story, I don't know if it was theraputic as I have tears running down my face as I am posting this. I miss my buddy, and I have a good idea how you feel.
I am very sorry for your loss.
Pitbull, I can't imagine how that feels. That is such a sad story. Peace.
[/quote]
Sean -- there are so many truisms in what you say from my own experiences -- thank you so much for writing this, and I am in definite agreement with your actions on your in-laws --
eric
