So, our appointment is tomorrow. It may sound strange but I am going to ask that I be allowed to push the plunger in myself. Although it is the right choice, this was my choice, and I want to take full responsibility for this profound act. I will bury her with some clippings of my hair rubbed into her fur, so that at least in some sense, we will be together forever.

I am currently facing the loss of my 16 yr old cat. He is under the care of a very good vet, a specialist, and we are fortunate to have her in our lives. As much as I grieve his impending death, I know that she will make it as gentle as possible for both of us. She had to euthanize another of my cats last year, and did it in the most reasonable, humane way I’ve ever seen, and I want to share this with others who are in similar situations.

The specialist treating my cat sees animals only by referral and runs an extremely well managed practice. In all the time I have gone there (5 years?) I only encountered another patient just one time. Every other time I was the only person in the waiting room and though they always have a lot of animals in the back undergoing chemo or whatever, it is always quiet there. I don’t know how they do it, but it is such a relief and I appreciate it so much, as does my cat. He is extremely hard to handle, near feral in fact, but this vet can manage him very well. I think it is because he feels safe in that quiet environment.

This vet does not make house calls, so I did have to take the cat to the office for euthanasia, but it is so quiet and calm there that it wasn’t too traumatic for the cat or for me. The vet took the cat to the back and inserted a port in her back leg and then returned her to me in a private room and told me to take as much time as I needed to say goodbye. The cat was comfortable and all was quiet and respectful. I took the time to center myself, calm down and spend her last time on earth in loving communion with her, and when I felt ready I asked the vet to come back and administer the medicine through the port. I think what she did next may be somewhat unusual, but it made it easier for both the cat and me. She first gave a dose of anesthesia, the same drug that Michael Jackson overdosed on. Once my cat was fully anesthetized, the vet stopped for a minute to reassure me and let my feelings “catch up,” then she gave the euthanasia drug. She explained that the euthanasia medicine can be somewhat uncomfortable going in and that some cats become upset and resist it. By anesthetizing the cat first, we avoided all that and her death was peaceful and loving. The vet and the tech spent a few minutes afterward in the room with me and then left me alone with my cat for as long as I needed. When I was ready to leave, the tech came back in and wrapped my cat in a towel and we placed her back in her carrier. The cost of this tender, respectful experience was a whopping $26.00. Yes, I said twenty-six dollars. I returned home with my cat and let the other cats see her, and spent some more time with her. Then I took her to another vet’s office where they allowed me to use their cold storage until the crematorium could accept her. They charged me nothng for the 4 days of storage, which surprised me and somehow helped me with the pain I was feeling. Because they allowed me to use their cooler even though my cat was not a patient there, I was able to schedule a private cremation for my cat instead of having to accept the group cremation services most vets offer.

I wish all pets and their people could have this same careful, considerate treatment when it is their time. The key things for me were the peaceful and professional atmosphere and the care and respect given for my cat’s feelings and for mine. At no point were we rushed. At no point was there any noise or commotion. No barking dogs, no screeching birds, no kids whining. Nothing like the typical vet’s office.

This vet is a an internist, and does not do routine vet care, so her office is understandably more quiet. But the typical vet’s office today is needlessly noisy, overlit, and chaotic. I’ve tried nearly every vet in town and they are pretty much all the same. This suggests that they are either being trained to run their practices this way, or just not being taught to be sensitive to animals’ feelings. Maybe both. I HATE going to the vet and avoid it more and more. I hope some of the people reading this are vets and will take to heart what I say next.

First, stop triple or quadruple booking. An hour’s wait in a waiting room crowded with people and animals, with my a terrified cat huddled in the back of her carrier, is ridiculous. Then, when we finally are taken into an exam room we should be seen within 5 to 10 minutes, not another hour. In the exam room, have available the option of dimming the lights. Why? Because it calms the animals and makes them feel better while they are waiting for the vet, and that makes the owners feel better.

Next, eliminate echoes in the exam rooms and speak softly every time you talk, unless the animal’s owner is hard of hearing. Tell the techs to lower their voices or better yet, shut up! There is no need for the incessant, high pitched chatter about boyfriends, weddings, car wrecks and other personal issues going on in the back rooms at such a loud volume that it stresses me and my animals in our closed door “private” exam room. And tell them that cats are not babies and that cootchie-cooing them, and talking loudly in an exaggerated, high pitched, baby-talk voice only aggitates them, it doesn’t reassure them like it might a human baby. And for heaven’s sake, no getting down in their faces and staring into their eyes while chucking them under the chin, or whatever.

My cats hate vet techs and I understand why. The techs do not seem to get the fact that they are strangers to these animals, and that in fact, cats react differently to the above described behaviors than do human babies and maybe some dogs.

Finally, when the visit is over, don’t make us wait another 45 minutes while you take the time to enter every detail of the services into the computer! If you can’t prepare the bill in 5 minutes something is wrong! Checkout was at least 4 times faster when bills were still being written out by hand! Standing there with my exhausted cat in a carrier while the clerk answers two or three different phones, types into the computer a seemingly endless list of services and prices, answers questions that other personnel are popping in and asking, updates the inventory or whatever, while the bird is screeching and the aggitated dogs are prancing and barking, rattling their leashes and tags, sometimes growling at each other, kids are whining and pulling at their parents to leave, etc., is my idea of hell. The TV doesn’t help either so get rid of it. While you’re at it, get rid of the rock music which has been proven to amp up not only animals, but people also. If you must have music, keep it low and make it classical, which has been proven to be calming.

So, when I have to take a cat in to the routine vet (not the specialist that I like so much) I wait 10 minutes to check out and no more. If they aren’t ready to take my money at that point, I tell them to send me a bill and then I leave. As I am driving home, wrestling with feelings of guilt that I have subjected my cat to such chaos, I always swear that I will never go back to that vet. The problem is, with the exception of the specialist, all the vet offices in my town are the same. Loud, crowded, overbooked and running late, and overpriced.

Interestingly, the specialist charges less for her services, even lab services, than any other vet I have visited. And she’s always on time. From the time the exam is over to the time I drive away is at most 5 minutes. I leave with not only my receipt, but a copy of the vet’s notes about the vist, in case I have questions later. This vet cares about her patients and runs her practice in a way that is considerate of their feelings and comfort. The rest of the vets in town could do the same if they cared to.

Vets are getting a well-deserved reputation for greed and lack of consideration both for animals and their owners. They are insanely overpriced, (e.g. recent charge of $8.00 per cat-sized pill of Droncet, a drug that has been off patent for what, 20 years or more?) inconsiderate of my cat and me, and NEVER available in emergencies. I DREAD having to take my cats in for routine care primarily for the reasons described above, and so I take them in less and less. Amazingly, they are doing very well without all those supposedly necessary visits! So far, all of them have lived well past 16 years and have died eventually from old age illnesses, and this really makes me wonder about the agenda that most vets are pushing.

This is the only professional service I access where I never get out the door without having spent half a day of my time and at least $300, and actually need “recovery” time to get over the after effects of the stress. I would not put up with this from my accountant, my lawyer, my dentist, not even my own doctor! Everyone assumes that people avoid the vet because they don’t want to spend the money. Well, no one wants to spend money the way most vets charge, but I think the real reason most people resist taking their animals in is because of what I described above. For me, when my remaining cats are gone I will not get another pet because I just can’t imagine dealing with vets when I am old.

Toby had been losing weight over the past 2 weeks, and we thought she would pass any day, being old and frail (the poor dear was no more than 3 pounds). Anyway, at 3 am Saturday, we found her in the hallway, crying and trying to crawl around: she somehow not only dislocated her arm, but also broke her shoulder blade!

We realized she somehow had to be put down. We called an emergency vet. office here in Albuquerque, and were told that it would be over $100 to do it, IF they decided she couldn’t be saved! Even if it had been half that, we still couldn’t have done it. (No disrespect intended to anyone: I have the greatest respect for practitioners of the healing arts. But if you REALLY know your beloved pet, YOU can look into its eyes and know that its Time is here.)

We didn’t have any tubing or a cardboard box to rig-up something to the car, so we were frantically trying to think of the quickest, most humane way of doing this. Trust me, if we COULD have brought her to the vet., we WOULD have.

So, we did the best thing we could think of: I filled up the kitchen sink with warm water. We quickly and tenderly said our goodbyes, I put her little body into a pillowcase, and brought her to the sink where I drowned her. I somehow went on autopilot, realizing for her sake that there can be NO hesitation on my part. I MUST detach emotionally (momentarily), and be quick and decisive. THANK GOODNESS, there was no fight left in her: she took 2 rough gasps, and it was over in 15 seconds. I continued to hold her under for another 5 full minutes, and was certain that she had passed.

4 hours later, we drove out to the forest and buried her, taking careful note of the gravesite.

Some folks might think this was monstrous, but it was an act of mercy, a sacred act. The taking of a life is (and always should be) a big deal. To be there when that life passes is also a privilege. And I am going to ensure that I NEVER have to do anything like this EVER again…

My dear cat and best friend “Sammy,” who was a female Himilayan (sp?)only 11 years old, was one of the 1st victims of the over the counter food poisioning. I had a brand new clinic close to where I lived in San Clemente Ca. When Sammy stopped eating and I noticed her lethargy – I took her to the vet near my house. 2000.00 dollars later they still had no answers for me and she was getting really sick. Each trip to the vet was an hour wait, and much stress for her. When she lay dieing at my house – I did not want to take her back to the vet, and just wrapped her up and held and rocked her, until she started spasming in pain – I then called the vet and asked if I could come in but please no waiting for she was suffering. When I got there they took her from me into the back room (I could still see her from the examination room). She sat there for 35 minutes alone on a steel table- until I demanded they bring her back to me. They then euthinized her, I think she was already gone myself. But they charged me $240.00 for the euthinization. I was so upset – I never paid. It was one of the most painful experiences I have ever been through. What is your feeling about this? I love your e-mails and feel you are a great gift to the animal world. Thank you, Laura