Missing My Baby, Princess Options

[Princess'sMom]

On Friday November 8 I had to say good bye to my beautiful 14 yr old kitty Princess and I don't even have the words to describe the pain and emptyness that I have been feeling. I know that all of you are experiencing the same thing and my heart goes out to you for the loss of your beautiful baby's.
Princess's decline came so quickly....a few weeks from the time I noticed she started walking with a limp on her left hind leg has lost weight as she was always a big kitty, followed by faster labourered breathing. My daughter and I took her to the vet and they checked her over and she had a hard mass on her mammory gland which explained her limp, I had thought that maybe she just hurt it from jumping down from somewhere. They also did complete bloodwork on her which mostly came back within normal ranges except the kidney readings were slightly elevated.
She was quite concerned about her laboured breathing so she wanted to do x-rays which revealed she had a number of issues going on.....her lungs didn't look normal, her liver and kidneys didn't look normal either, the vet felt that she had cancer that had spread to other organs from the mammory tumor and it happened very quickly that it would of been difficult to notice at an early stage as she seemed like her regular self.
She spoke to us about possibly start thinking about making the decision about putting her to sleep as she felt there wasn't much that could be done for her at this point. She gave her a shot of fluids under her skin for some hydration and sent us home with pain meds for her to give every 8 hrs.
We took her home and 2 days later my daughter came to visit to see how she was (my daughter is 26) when she saw Princess, she said she looked worse and her breathing got even faster and more laboured since she last saw her....I hadn't noticed that it had changed that much because I was with her all the time. I knew logically what needed to be done but my heart didn't want to let her go. Finally my daughter said that we can't let her go on like this, that she looked miserable and she may not even make it another day, she didn't want me to have to witness her death as she gasped for air and suffering and I agreed I couldn't of handled that either so she called the vet and made the dreaded appointment. I had begun my grieving process since the vet visit as I cryed every time I looked at her knowing that we didn't have much longer together, my son (he's 19) had been taking it quite hard as well as he still lives at home going to college. We had all been spending quality time with her, loving her so much.
So the 3 of us took her to the last vet appointment, my daughter drove so that I could hold her on my my lap wrapped in a warm blanket.
We said our goodbyes to her giving her so many kisses and hugs telling her how much we loved her and that she was such a good girl. She got a sedative first and about 5 mintes later she got her other shot and within seconds my baby was gone, I felt her body go limp as I held her and we were kissing her saying we loved her. The second she went limp we all lost it, I haven't cried so hard in a long time and it was hard for me to see my kids so devastated but they wanted to be there with her until the end.
We chose private cremation for her and we will get her ashes and they will do a nice ceramic pawprint with her name on it.
I couldn't bear to go back home afterwards not seeing her there. I spent the weekend at my daughter's. I couldn't do anything but cry almost all weekend, if my daughter din't make anything to eat and drink I wouldn't have had anything, I'm so heartbroken.
Now I can't help second guessing myself if we did the right thing, even with her issues she still went to the litterbox and she still ate a little bit at a time, we got some medi-cal special canned food from the vets that she seemed to like that I would give her mixed with water and sometimes she even groomed herself afterwards, I came home today and as soon as I stepped in the door I lost it. The house feels so empty and nothing feels the same anymore. She was my baby and I miss her more than words can say.

[Scarlett's M...]

Hi Princess's Mom -

I am so sorry for your loss. I am touched that you would be able to write such supportive words to me while you are deeply grieving your Princess. Today marks our Scarlett's four month Angel-versary and the only thing that I can say from our experience is that time indeed continues to tick by but the grief remains. Many people have expressed that the deep searing grief will lessen - I hold on to that belief. The only thing we can do is try to take each day as it comes. Sometimes all we can handle is moment by moment.

I echo Moonbeam's sentiments - all of us on this site understand what you are going through and are here for you.

Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

- Scarlett's Mom