Some of you may remember this little chap. He stole our hearts twelve years ago and came back to the UK with us.
Yesterday, I had to take him for that final trip to the vet as lymphoma had finally won the battle. I started noticing that things weren’t right back in October. We finally got to the bottom of it in March when I made the decision to end it. The vet persuaded me to try chemo. I was at the time outside the surgery filling in the consent form. In such an emotionally vulnerable state, I went along with it. For a few weeks it looked as if it was working, then it came back with a vengeance. Would I do it again? No. It was merely false hope. The last couple of weeks were a difficult time where I tried to decide when the best time was to call it. Not least because this cat was always a favorite. A reminder of happier times with Mrs L in France and his caddish character always made me smile. By yesterday, life was no fun for him, so I did the only thing I could and brought it to an end.
In the past eighteen months, I’ve lost Berenike in November 2019 – again, I suspect cancer although it took a £1000 vet bill to try and get a diagnosis to no avail. She was bleeding internally but the scans showed nothing, so I suspect a tumour in the esophagus or upper stomach. Either way, acute anaemia made the decision.
In January this year, while still dealing with Louis’ declining health, I noticed Thutmose wasn’t his usual self. I suspected that he needed a dental. Unfortunately, he had a tumour in his abdomen, so he was euthanized a few days later.
I’ve just paid a £1,600 credit card bill and all I have to show for it is another little grave in the garden.
God, those little things mean so much, don’t they? Our current cat was a stray who decided to wander in one warm night and never left. We kept trying to spay her and as we went to the vet to operate were told she was pregnant. Twice. Finally managed after the second litter and we kept a son. He was the most joyous cat I’ve ever known and was run over when he was just over one. We still miss him. My condolences.
Sorry to hear that…
They become so close to us, it is heart breaking when we lose them – worse when you have to make the decision.
Very sorry to hear about Louis, LR. I’ve had a few cats in the past and it always hurts when you lose one.
I’ve never had a cat but I had to have my dog put down. Drove the twenty miles home, sobbing. I feel guilty to this day because I didn’t insist in going into the room with him. I imagine that losing a beloved cat is no easier.
My vet will allow me to be with the animal. They have a back car park where it’s quiet and private. They take the animal in to put in a cannula, then bring it out to the car. I put Louis on my lap and held him as the anesthetic was administered and he slipped away in my arms. I would have kicked up if they hadn’t allowed me to be with him.
Horrible vet there Jay
When Truls (Working Black lab, 15) had to go I sat on floor stroking him while vet did the IV injection.
Sat on bench outside sobbing for 10 minutes before I could drive
@LR Go for hi-speed blast on MC for an adrenaline rush
It’s always a shit to have to do this. Our last cat went a few weeks back. Pushed, obviously. She’d lasted 16 years, the cancer just became too much 2 years after it started. The final downhill couple of days and it’s time.
And yes Mark, you’re right, be with them. However hard it is on us. The joys they bring for those years mean it is our duty to ease that path.
You were there with him at the end, even though it breaks your heart it’s the best way for both of you.
I smile inwardly at some of the youth and toughy types who don’t get emotional about such things, my answer to them is ‘life hasn’t kicked you in the bollocks enough yet, when it has you’ll learn how to cry’.
My deepest sympathies are with you Mr LR but glad yoy got to be with him at the end.
I had both my cats put down last year. The first managed to last through NZ’s first lockdown which meant I could be there, a few days beforehand and I would have had to leave him in his travel box on the footpath outside the vets and retreated 2m to allow the vet nurse to come get him and take him anyway due to the restrictions in place at the time.
The second one was not so fortunate as I had to make the call to euthanize by zoom call from my room in an incarceration/managed isolation facility having returned from an 8 week sojourn in the UK so didn’t get to see him for his last 10 weeks in total. Not that I’m resentful you understand.
I can only offer sincere condolences: we had to lose our 14 year old Pippin due to an inoperable tumour two years ago, My daughter still grieves for him and, at the time, I shed more tears over him than I have for any human.
Sorry to hear this LR, he was a very cute cat. Glad you were able to be with him at the end.
Hi, I have been reading your blog for many years but have never commented.
My wife and I have 2 cats and absolutely dote on them.
It’s very sad and I offer my best wishes and condolences. We do love the pesky things that own us don’t we?
Regards
JonT
As a cat person who’s had to say goodbye to more than one of my little friends this year, I feel for you. No-one can ever take from you the memories of Louis, though. I just wish their lifespan was not such a small fraction of ours.
I know. How quickly his life slipped by.
I deeply sympathise, apart from one in an accident all my cats lived to be a good old age. It’s a heartbreaking decision but I think you know when it’s time to let them go. It was very hard with Emma as she was my last link with my late husband. I have always paid for the vet to come to the house so they are in their own home and I my arms. I still have two but when they go I will be too old to have more. I miss every one of them still, Suzy we brought from Iran and Cherie from Germany.
Likewise. Louis was a part of my life with the late Mrs L.
Well shit. That sucks
So sorry to hear this. It’s never an easy decision to have to make.