I read an article today about someone who had to euthanize her pet because it was suffering from a serious disease and there was nothing more that could be done for it. She is feeling terribly guilty for having to put her beloved cat down. Her cat was about 18 years old and could no longer breath. There was no pet medication that could have helped and the cat would not have lived much longer.

This is one of the hardest decisions that anyone can make but most of us owning pets will have to do it at some point.  The lady in the article said that she made a decision to kill a sweet animal that did nothing but love her for 15 years. This is indeed very sad but the vet said that the disease would have caused the cat a horrible natural death. Trying to extend a pets life at this point becomes an act of personal selfishness. I know, I went through it with one of my pets. I did everything to keep my pet rabbit alive even though she was really suffering. At this point, we are only doing this for ourselves.

We love our pets and never want to let them go.  Those of us who love our pet companions have to love them all the way and that means we have to be responsible stewards all the way to the end of their lives.  If we’ve done everything we could and we are assured that there is no hope, it’s better not to let them suffer and let them go peacefully.