Archive: Opinions

Last weekend my family and I faced the loss of our beloved pet of 18 years. He very suddenly developed  renal failure caused by a tumor is his stomach the size of a lemon.  It came on suddenly and with no warning. He had a thorough exam just seven months earlier with no indication of a mass in his stomach. My husband, daughter of seven and I had the heartbreaking conversation of deciding the fate of our 'Sprez' (Espresso), a pet which between the three of us had brought us combined ,38 years of unconditional  love, comfort ,laughter , joy, and most definitely a better quality of life.

Ultimately the decision of how to let him go was mine.  He wandered into my basement  as a tiny kitten 18 years ago when I had (as an adult) severe chicken pox.   The ironic thing was that I had told my Mother a day  before finding him,  that I had a dream that I found a small tiger kitten.  A day later, when I heard his small voice crying out, I thought I was hallucinating.  He was a black cat, not a tiger.  Needless to say, when I called my Mother to tell her what I found, she was astonished.  She also told me 'if you feed him, he won't leave' so... I fed him.  And... he stayed.  I truly believe that those next few weeks were crucial to my recovery, and that "Sprez" was the reason I pulled through.  He took the attention off of me, and it made me feel good to take care of someone besides myself. He healed me.

As I sat in our Veterinarian's office,  speaking with our  Veterinarian, listening to his prognosis,  his whole life and what he meant to me flashed before my eyes.

Sprez was amazing.  We have two dogs and another cat.  When we took walks with the dogs, both cats would join in...what a sight it was to walk down the street with two dogs on leashes, and two cats tagging along behind.  When my daughter cried, Sprez would run immediately to her side, kneading his paws on her lap, rubbing his face against hers, and licking her hands.  When our cars pulled into the driveway he would run like lighting to greet us, rubbing our legs, and nudging us gently with his head. I can't tell you how that made me smile. 

Let me just say the renal failure is something that is disturbing and heartbreaking to watch. 

Our options came down to taking him home and waiting for him to die, or euthanizing him.  I asked myself  'What is  the right thing to do?'  I thought of my seven year old daughter.  I could not imagine her witnessing a painful death of her favorite pet.  How long would it take for him to die?  If we took him home,  Would he ultimately die in a cold box  in the middle of the night...alone?  Would he be so drugged that he wouldn't really know what was happening?  My husband, who is a physician, has a very different view of euthanasia.  He had never seen a human euthanized, much less a pet. 

My decision came down to three things.  Respect, honor and quality of life. I wanted to respect him by not letting him suffer. I wanted to honor him by treating him with the same level or respect and dignity that  he gave me. Most of all, I wanted him to know, that I would be there for him until the end.  He knew I was there.  My husband and daughter said their tearful goodbyes and  reluctantly left the room .  Saying goodbye can never take too long. I held him, petted him, kissed him and told him what a wonderful presence he was in my life and the life of my family.  He made a difference.  He was gone in seconds.

In this last week, my family and I have missed him terribly.  Pets have the capacity to love unconditionally with no strings attached.  Their needs are few: love, food and trust, yet they give infinitely more back.  The emptiness and void they leave behind are as real as the emptiness and void that humans leave behind when they die. How someone could hurt an animal is beyond my understanding.  Little do those people know, that the unconditional  love of a pet is exactly what they need to heal the pain that makes them hurt the animal in the first place.

My hope is to shed light on a decision every pet owner may someday have to  face.  I may never know if what I did was right or wrong, but the sadness I feel now acknowledges  to me that what I did must have been for  nothing more than love, and that the saying " it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" applies not only to the human race.

Rest in peace our beloved 'Sprez'
-anonymous-

P.S.  If you need unconditional  love, and can give unconditional love, please visit the S.P.C.A  and adopt a loving animal that desperately needs to love you.  There is a lot of love there.

Marion Ferrer
Lansing

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