Sudden Decision To Euthanize Cat Today Options

[NeverForgotten22]

Last Friday night I was visiting my parent's house and noticed one of our family pets, a 10 year old cat, seemed very lethargic. While I was at work the next morning, my dad took him to the vet and found out he had Feline AIDS, Leukemia and kidney failure. He spent the next four days at the animal hospital being treated. Today the vet called and said there had been no signs of improvement after running the tests. My dad told the vet to go ahead and put him to sleep.

I never had a chance to say goodbye and am now feeling extreme guilt that his life was ended too soon. The past few days I have been doing a lot of research online and I know the diseases were fatal, but I had read about many cases where the health could be managed to where the cat still had a good quality of life.

I also feel extremely guilty that no one was there with him or to say goodbye to him. I feel like he was probably confused at why he was taken there Saturday and then never saw another familiar face before he passed. If I had known they planned to put him to sleep, I would have gone to see him before it was time.

I just feel like this all came about so suddenly and I can't help but thinking a hasty decision was made. I know my dad would have taken the advice of the vet, but I still can't believe he made this decision and did not tell me until it was too late to see him. If I had known of the decision earlier, I would have fought to bring him home and at least try some of the methods I had learned from the success stories online.

My family has always cared for our pets until we knew it was time for them to go. I just feel like he wasn't given as much of a chance.

How do I get over the feeling of guilt that we didn't try enough options to help him? How do I cope with feelings of guilt about never telling him how much we loved him and not being able to tell him goodbye and be there with him before he passed? I can't help but feeling that he passed without knowing how much we still truly loved him.

[NeverForgotten22]

Gretta's Mom,

Thank you so much for checking in. I have been much better the last couple of days. I think it helps that I haven't been to my parent's house since Gruff has been gone. He was our family cat but continued to live with my parent's when all of us kids eventually went off to school.

I still wish I could hug and kiss him just one more time, but I'm beginning to make peace with the fact that he is gone (physically at least). Everyone on this sight has been so sweet and kind and it really has made such a difference. I read some of the other stories on here and realize how lucky I was to have him in my life for 10 years.

I am kind of dreading the first time I go to my parent's house and it really hits me that he's not there. But his feline brother Spike is still there and I miss seeing him and know he must be missing his brother terribly right now. My parents are going out of town in a couple of weeks and I'm going to bring Spike to my house to stay with me and my kitties here. I can't stand the thought of him being in the house all by himself. When Gruffy was still with us they would leave the two home alone and I would go everyday to clean their litter box, feed them and just hang out. But as I said, I can't stand the thought of leaving Spike all alone now. I hope he is able to adjust to being at my house. If he seems to be enjoying the company of my kitties I might consider keeping him here with us. He has just always had a feline friend around and I'm worried that now he might be lonely.

I framed a picture of Gruffy as a kitten and placed is somewhere I see it every day. At first I couldn't walk past it without sobbing. Now I am able to look at it and smile a bit remembering how sweet he was. Still got a little teary eyed tonight when I was looking at it, but I know that eventually the pain will go away and I will just smile remembering how much I loved him and how special he is.