When your pet knows
Sometimes an old or very sick animal will tell you that it's time to let go
The little cat lies on the examination table at the clinic while the vet tries to feed her, slowly squeezing a syringe full of food into her mouth.
Even to my untrained eye, the lady is very ill. Her once beautiful black fur with its splashes of orange and white is dull and dry. Her body has no muscle, her eyes are sunken, and she looks very, very tired.
“She’s 18 years old,” the vet explains, “and her kidneys are not very good.”
When the cat was first diagnosed with kidney failure around two years ago, I’d see the owner and the cat at the clinic regularly. The cat needed saline solution, just to support those failing kidneys, first twice a week, then four times, and now every day.
When the cat stopped eating, the owner asked my vet to help feed her. The owner herself can’t do it. She’s also elderly and frail, and now she suffers from Alzheimer’s.
The family has hired a girl to help the owner carry the cat and to make sure that they both arrive home safely. The owner herself can’t remember where she lives, but she always remembers the cat, who, for those 18 years, has been the owner’s constant companion.
How do you know when your pet has reached the end of its life? Age is only one consideration. Quality of life is another. Sometimes, your pet will tell you.
Even so, you may not be sure. A friend is facing this dilemma right now. An elderly soi dog she rescued is unable to use her back legs. The vet has discovered that the dog’s spine has several slipped discs. Other places on the spine are severely calcified.
Nothing can be done to help the dog. She lies helplessly on the floor, unable to walk. She also cries constantly. She’s not crying in pain, though, according to the vet.
She's simply calling to my friend to sit ÿwith her, to talk to her, to provide companionship.
At first my friend thought that the dog should be put down, but there’s no pain.
Besides, the dog can still pull herself to her food bowl, and her appetite is very good.
“Tell me what you want,” my friend says to the dog. “Are you too tired to live?” The dog’s eyes brighten when she sees her rescuer. Her life may be terrible by any standard, but she seems to be happy to live as she is, in a gentle, loving home. She’s not ready to die, for now at least.
The little cat is different. At the vet’s she starts refusing to swallow the food. Finally she pulls slowly away and rests her head on the table.
“Enough,” I think she says. “Enough.”
The next day, the owner doesn't bring the cat in.
